Thou Wast Mild and Lovely

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely
Directed by Josephine Decker
Produced by Laura Heberton
Laura Klein
Interests Lavalette
Russell Sheaffer
Written by Josephine Decker
Starring Joe Swanberg
Sophie Traub
Robert Longstreet
Music by Molly Herron
Jeff Young
Cinematography Ashley Connor
Edited by David Barker
Josephine Decker
Steven Schardt
Distributed by Cinelicious
Release dates
  • April 11, 2014 (United States)
Running time
 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely is a 2014 experimental thriller film written and directed by Josephine Decker.

Cast

Production

To raise money for the film's post-production,[1] Decker ran a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter with a goal of $15,500. The campaign closed on August 22, 2013, having successfully raised $18,517.[2] Decker has cited John Steinbeck's novel East of Eden as inspiration for elements of the film, though David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter has compared the visuals of the film to the works of Terrence Malick.[3]

Release

Media

In September 2014, Thou Wast Mild and Lovely was picked up for theatrical and VOD distribution by Cinelicious Pics along with Decker's 2013 film Butter on the Latch with a release set for November 2014.[4][5]

Reception

Critical response

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely received a moderately positive response from critics. I currently holds a 67% positive rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[6]

In his review of the film, Eric Kohn of Indiewire gave the film a B+ rating and commented, "Its labyrinthine characteristics suggest the unholy marriage of Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch" and "Decker concocts a wholly enveloping vision of isolation told with a grimly poetic style that wanders all over the place but never stops playing by its own eerie rulebook."[7] Jenni Miller of The A.V. Club moderately praised the film and described Sophie Traub's Sarah as "fascinating", despite noting "There are a few too many experimental flourishes to effectively build the sort of tension that’s necessary to really make the ending pay off."[8] Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times gave the film a more mixed review, noting "The setup’s clichés grow harder to ignore, despite a welcome mischievous streak and some bucolic imagery."[9] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter stated, "It’s not uninteresting but too self-consciously arty to rank Decker as a mature filmmaking voice."[3] In a piece on Decker, however, film commentator Richard Brody of The New Yorker highly praised the film, saying "Normally it would be an insult to say that a movie that runs a mere hour and a quarter feels as if it were much longer, but here it’s both accurate and high praise: vast realms of emotional experience are condensed into the movie’s brief span."[10] In a subsequent New Yorker piece, Brody named Thou Wast Mild and Lovely the second best film of 2014, just behind Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.[11] Decker's other 2014 film, Butter on the Latch, also made the Brody's top ten, clocking in at tenth place.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Barraclough, Leo (January 24, 2014). "New Europe Picks Up Berlinale Film ‘Thou Wast Mild and Lovely’". Variety. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely". Kickstarter. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rooney, David (February 6, 2014). "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely: Berlin Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  4. ↑ Cipriani, Casey (September 5, 2014). "Cinelicious Pics Acquires Two Raunchy Josephine Decker Films". Indiewire. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ Horst, Carole (September 5, 2014). "Josephine Decker’s ‘Butter’ and ‘Lovely’ Bought by Cinelicious". Variety. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Thou Wast Mild and Lovely". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kohn, Eric (February 6, 2014). "Berlin Review: Sexual Depravity Takes On Nightmarish Proportions In Josephine Decker's 'Thou Wast Mild and Lovely,' Starring Joe Swanberg". Indiewire. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ Miller, Jenni (November 13, 2014). "Butter On The Latch and Thou Wast Mild And Lovely make an eerie double feature". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  9. ↑ Rapold, Nicolas (November 13, 2014). "‘Butter on the Latch’ and ‘Thou Wast Mild & Lovely’ Open". The New York Times. Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  10. ↑ Brody, Richard (February 13, 2014). "Pay Attention to Josephine Decker". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Brody, Richard (December 11, 2014). "The Best Movies of 2014". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 11, 2014.

External links