Blue is the Warmest Color - Movie Review

This week is kind of historical for me when it comes to movies: This week I have watched my first NC-17 rated film. For those unfamiliar with the term, NC-17 is basically a rating above "R," that only people over 18 are allowed to watch and that would be inappropriate for individuals under 17 years old. Now that doesn't mean pornographic levels of sexuality, which I'm sure most people's minds would jump to, but most NC-17 films do have lots of sexuality to them. This includes this week's film, Blue is the Warmest Color, a French romance film that blew people away with its subjects.

The film centers around Adèle, a high school student who goes through a lot of normal high school things, from crushes to being pressured into getting into relationships. One day though she sees a girl with blue hair and becomes instantly attracted to them, awakening a love for women. Soon afterwards she meets this mysterious girl, Emma, and the two begin to form a romantic relationship. As their bond begins to grow and get tested, Adèle discovers more about herself and what she wants to be in life.

Now you might be wondering, "Hey man, this is an LGTBQ related film. Why didn't you review it during Pride Month?" Well here's the deal: Yes, I could have done it then, but I planned to do out of Pride Month because of my own beliefs. I might be a straight man, but I strongly support people who aren't straight because one day I want to see our society become one that people don't have to be afraid or looked at as different if they aren't straight. Do you know there is still "Conversion Therapy" going on right now? Where teens and even little kids who think they might not be straight are literally harassed and tortured into becoming straight? Now that Pride Month is over every company and some people who put up their rainbow banners will throw them away until next year and not openly support such ideals. We should always support these people, no matter who they are or what month it is. That's why I'm talking right now about this film.

So I'm going to get the sexual stuff right out the bat. They were... they were crazy. There is no gentle, sexy music playing in the background while characters slowly disrobe themselves and just as slowly peck their lips to each other. This is straight up fucking, almost at times animalistic. Not just female on female, but also some male on female stuff. It's very graphic and it blew me away. There isn't actually that much of it though when you look at the film's very long runtime, but those moments have power to them and will shock you, even if you think you're ready. Not just that, but I did feel some scenes like at a few gay bars were just a hint too sexual in that everyone was often eyeing others around them like, "Mmmmm, that person's hot~" and I was sitting there thinking, "... You know you can just sit about and talk and not have a thirsty look on your face."

The sex though wasn't really that powerful compared to the acting in the film. Now I did have to have English subtitles on because it was all in French, but even with the language barrier I was very impressed with how all the characters interacted with one another. Not just through dialogue, but through expressions, hand motions, and their postures/ poses. The main two actors especially who played Adèle and Emma were giving it 100% with their performances. Everything just felt extremely realistic as I watched the movie and I became more and more invested as the story went on. Now I'm sure there are some French people who might say the acting could have been better and I can understand that because I wouldn't, especially since this my second French film, the first being A Monster in Paris.

The relationship between Adèle and Emma really worked for me because it felt like they were any other type of couple. True, Adèle has to hide her sexuality away from her conservative family, but they way these two characters bonded and interacted with one another felt very real to me. These weren't perfect people, they had positives and negatives to me. They smoke, drank a bit while underage, and a few other flaws while also being very kind, open-minded, and having developed interests such as reading and fine arts. Things happen and the characters have problems and solutions, along again with incredible expressions and dialogue to make them feel like real people. Now there is a moment in the movie where things start to seriously change between them and it didn't connect too well or be very clear to the audience. Still, I very much enjoyed these two on screen.

Beyond these two characters what I felt most from this movie is how it portrayed non-straight people like they were normal. Now there wasn't an even balance between these people and straight people, there felt like a lot more gay people prominent in the film. Even so the characters weren't exaggerated like Hollywood sometimes does with gay people. The characters were often conversing about normal matters like food, art, movies, life in general, and more. There was also the predictable, yet totally needed scenes of other people confused or hostile towards non-straight people, but for this type of story was necessary and well-executed. Maybe that's why this film caught peoples' attention to easily, because it felt so normal, yet also so unique in how it was portrayed. I mean just because a person isn't straight doesn't mean they're going act very weird. They're just people, just like you and I

Now this next part is something can be viewed in both a positive and negative way: The story doesn't clearly tell you the passage of time. This can be viewed in a positive way because as I watched the film I could see changes with character appearance, mannerisms, and locations telling me years have gone by. However this might be confusing to some viewers as there's no clear numbers on how much time has passed. Additionally, and this I can agree on, there are sometimes "gaps" in the story. There's a big period where we see Adèle and Emma not as close as they used to be and it's never explained or shown clearly. I like how the director, Abdellatif Kechiche, was trusting the audience and not treating them like they're idiots, but I could have used more explaining at certain points.

However, this would extend this already very long film even more. I mentioned already, but the film is very long, almost three hours long with credits. The director often made the scenes and character reactions hold for a while and that can be a good thing to make a moment impactful. I don't know how I feel about this though because when it's used too much the effect it is trying to create diminishes in effectiveness on the audience. Some moments could have been shortened or removed in my opinion. Additionally there were characters that appeared earlier in the film that never came back, like this random LGBTQ parade that has no impact on the movie what-so-ever. I sound like I'm not liking the pacing at all, but I did find that drawing out a lot of the scenes made them feel stronger to me. It just didn't have to be so many of them.

The fact though that I wasn't bored while watching this film, despite its long length, is something to applaud. It didn't need to use background music or special effects to keep me interested in what was going on, which is something that happens a lot in romance, especially the music. When I realized near the end of the film that there had been no background music used to enhance the romance I was amazed and impressed. They film-making style, like I said before, inspires trust in the audience to understand what is happening on screen without the director having to tell us what's happening. It's a very bold choice to make and one that could fail badly if done wrong. And in my opinion it mostly works.

Blue is the Warmest Color was... very interesting to watch. Without the sex stuff being shown in graphic detail this could have been a rated PG or PG-13. Even without the sex scenes there's a great story to this movie and it definitely humanized non-straight people very well. There are some pacing problems, but the characters were very relatable and likable and the style of film-making was very bold and interesting. It was a great film to watch and I definitely recommend this film to people. Just be ready for a few scenes of hardcore fucking.

Tentative Score: 8/10

Definitive Score: 7.75/10

This film definitely shows that not being straight doesn't make you a weirdo and shouldn't make you an outcast. We're all human, no matter what our sexuality, which means we all deserve to be respected equally and fairly. Except pedophiles, those people need to get their heads on straight or they'll get a huge punch to the face.