Naran Ja (2012)
After being invited by Benjamin Millepied to a rehearsal for the L.A Dance Project's premiere performance, Oscar-nominated director Alejandro G. Iñárritu was inspired to make a video-exercise that documents movement and dance in an experimental way, with a stream of consciousness narrative. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten who seems to be on an eternal search... for herself.
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Fresh and Exciting
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Blistering performances.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
"Naran Ja" is an American 12.5-minute live action short film from 2012, so it has its 5th anniversary this year. Choreography is by Benjamin Millepied from Black Swan and the director is Alejandro González Iñárritu. Yep that's right it is from the man who won back-to-back directing Oscars recently and honestly nothing about this work would let you think of that. Early on I wondered what genre this may be, but I settled quickly for mystery. The flying orange fits in nicely with that assumption too. Wait what? Why is there a flying orange??? I guess we will never find out. It cannot be just for the title. Anyway, the longer this went, the more it really turned into a dance movie. The woman who seems to be the protagonist early on just turns into one of many and it becomes an ensemble performance, more about dancing than about acting. The most memorable thing here is probably the strong contrast between the colorful dresses and the bleak prairie where the entire thing takes place. The good thing about this one is that aspiring filmmakers can take a lesson here that you can do stuff like that and follow-up on it with Birdman and The Revenant. I have zero doubts that if any not so big-name filmmaker would have come up with it (and yes they could have), it never would have gotten any attention at all and instead been forgotten quickly. I give it a thumbs-down and suggest you skip it unless you are an AGI completionist. Watch something else instead.
This is a short dance film which clearly has some form of message behind it but its too unclear to give answers one way or another. Of course I've read other peoples theories such as this being a metaphor for therapy but non of which seem completely believable. On the other hand, you could argue the same faults over the end of Birdman- one of my favorite movies- although it was given such mainstream attention, more believable explanations are available This puzzle is a fun mystery for fans of Iñárritu which will continue to interest me for years. Mainly, what is the point of the floating oranges that the piece is named after? On top of this, the short contains some beautiful dancing and cinematography but as much as i hate to say it, this can only be enjoyed by fans of his other work.