Directed By Joanna Hogg

Starring – Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, James Spencer Ashworth

The Plot – In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship, Julie (Byrne) begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.

Rated R for some strong sexuality and adult language

the souvenir 2 trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Justified Existence. This is surprisingly the first and only A24 sequel in the existence of their incredible library of films, and while Hogg’s sequel is full of recollection on the aspects of its previous film, this is very much a film that is creatively diverse in nearly every way imaginable. As to where the first film depicted love in all of its humbling humility, the sequel is very much a dissection through Julie’s mounting grief, especially considering this film picks up directly after where the previous film departed. This takes the film on a diversely creative path of originality with respects to tone and direction that blazes its own path to prominence, instead of following the ones blazed by the previous film, which attained its own passionate fanbase because of such. What we’re left with essentially are two films that compliment each other for entirely different results, crafting two soulfully absorbing sits that leave behind redundancy for a duo of experiences that swing off of nearly every branch of emotional resonance on the way down from its freefall.

– Noted improvements. In my previous review for “The Souvenir”, I touched on the improper choices of music within the soundtrack that not only took away from the focus of the narrative, but also supplanted a campy compromising that worked forcefully against the depths of the gut-wrenching narrative at the forefront of its story. Thankfully, that isn’t the case here, as in addition to the mixing of the sound being toned down from the ear-piercing decibels displayed in the moody atmosphere of its predecessor, this one instead prescribes tranquility with a collection of British New Wave favorites that channel appropriate energy without the breaking of concentration from familiarity. It plays cohesively into the creativity of its independent influence, but also articulates an unmistakably geographic personality that revels in the authenticity that most of the dialogue and character engagements feel enriched in.

– Genius editing. Almost immediately in my initial experiences with this film, I interpreted an uneasiness with the cutting, and overall lack of continuity with the visuals that I knew fed into a deeper sense of purpose in its aesthetics. I believe I figured out that purpose about halfway through, as Hogg detracts from supplanting a conventional narrative in visual storytelling, all in favor of a collection of spontaneous scenes and sequences that feel like overlapping sifted through memories of a protagonist whose attention to focus is average at best. This invokes a cerebral sense to the interpretation of interactions, because it continuously evokes a deeper sense of psychology to the art imitating life structure that Hogg wholeheartedly immerses the story in, endearing us to not only follow Julie throughout a laundry list of traumatic experiences between two films, but also see and interpret matters from her psychological disposition. Truly masterful.

– Connective layers. In addition to this being an art-imitating-life captivity seen through the autobiographical approach that Hogg takes to fleshing out her own experiences, the performances continue that approach with a duo of Swinton’s, who not only play mother and daughter in the film, but also in real life. For my money, everyone is a step up here, but none more evidential than Honor Swinton Byrne, whose suppressed secluded nature during the first film did conjure up a performance that was gripping and endearing for her first leading role, but here evokes a greater sense of nuance and spontaneity to the tenderness that constantly engulfs her character in a variety of meaningful interactions along the way. As for the mother, Tilda is once again a revelation, but here her dependency is called upon more increasingly than the previous film, taking her from the alienating authoritarian, to the nurturing best friend that Julie so desperately requires, all the while fleshing out a chemistry between them that is so rich with naturalism that it transpires beautifully and believably to the screen.

– Newfound eyes. One of the beneficial aspects of an autobiographical framing, is the perk of the learning party, in this case Julie, being able to see matters from a different perspective, once she’s outside of the poisonous fog that killed her from the inside. This offers plenty of insightful aspects that Julie gains along the way, but none that I found more conveying than the pivotal details of a historical event now depicted for cinematic rendering, which she blurs without realizing. This proves that her mind was engulfed in the devastation of her situation, so much so that she literally couldn’t interpret if it was day or night outside. In addition to this, it’s the way others remember matters in contradiction to the way she does, particularly her mother, who was afforded the time and clarity to define a man in a way her daughter simply never could. Because of such, it makes “The Souvenir Part II” one of those unabashedly realistic takes on the condition of a toxic environment, and one its audience can relate to in one shape or form within the context of a universal language.

– Endearing personality. Both the film’s tonal capacity and the emotional ranges of the characters pertain to a far lighter engagement for this secondary chapter, which could work for audiences who felt suffocated by the intensity of the previous effort. This leads to more light-hearted humor and experimental deviation than I was honestly expecting, but the material itself is patiently crafted, bringing with it a bartering for self-deprecation and humility that goes a long way with the magnitude of technicians that Julie works with while crafting her very first film. It’s effective enough for the kind of levity it disposes to an engagement centering around hefty themes like grief and post-traumatic longing, all the while materializing with an improvisational quality in subtlety that succeeds without feeling obvious or detected in execution.

NEGATIVES

– Inescapably pretentious. I can understand the intention, and even appreciate what Hogg was going for in stitching together her own experiences to a film that is undoubtedly a thematic deconstruction into the grieving and creative process, as conveyed by Julie’s own career as a director, but its usage often oversteps the boundaries on the entertainment factor for the film, and turns this sequel into a personal commentary, instead of the inspiring rebirth of a woman nearly destroyed by love. To be fair, the resolution of the movie does take us through the much-desired triumph, but it comes after several endless-feeling sequences through the creative process behind the lens, which are so long-winded and prolonged that you kind of forget that this woman is grieving in the middle of this cinematic documentary that has overtaken the film. A scene here or there would equally establish the heavy-handed emphasis that Hogg so bluntly desired, but instead we’re left with behind-the-scenes concepts and inner business lingo that loses any semblance of the finely crafted humanity that served as a comfort blanket to a world I know far too well.

– Continued hinderances. As to where nearly everything about this film feels improved on the problematic instances of its predecessor, the sluggish pacing that periodically bored me throughout that first film feels all the more strained here. This is remarkable considering this sequel is almost a half hour shorter, and yet full of twice the amount of painfully dry moments that test patience and leave in scenes that easily could’ve been deleted DVD extras, all for the sake of reaching a designated run time. I can appreciate that nuances in dialogue and conversation between characters that pertain to none of the film’s themes are left in to convey naturalism in their patter, but too much of a good thing often soils the intention, and in this case plods “The Souvenir Part II” with more of the single biggest problem that I had with its first chapter.

– Faulty characterization. Part of what hindered my investment to the film, and one I feel will equally burden audiences who don’t remember or never saw the original effort, is the lazily written characterization, which offers nothing compelling or evidential in the form of Julie’s evolutionary arc. Considering the first film was littered with these scenes of conflict that completely overtook her life, and made her a victim in her own apartment, the sequel persists without such necessities, cementing little to no dramatic intensity in a mostly dry experience. With more moments of self-reflection or vulnerability, I feel like it could’ve shaped Julie with a detailed depiction of her emotional growth, but when the film ends we essentially only see her triumph on an artistic level, and not an emotional one, making this feel like too ambiguous of a sequel resolution, whether intentional or not.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-