Max

Before explaining why I liked this movie, I'd like to point out that the main idea of the movie is NOT that you need find your purpose to have a happy life. It's the exact opposite! I'm not saying this just to be a professor, but because it's really important and that's why I loved the film so much. You don't need to be fixated about something to find a meaning in your life. You need to savour it and learn to enjoy the little moments instead of waiting for something big to happen to reach happiness. It's so profound and refreshing. A movie just about a guy waiting for his big moment and feeling fulfilled after having reached it would have been dull, boring, trite and most of all wrong, like pretty much all "self-help" advices.
Instead the opposite idea is presented and if you just pay attention to the dialogues -and the story, really- you'll understand what I mean and most importantly what you might apply to make your everyday life better.
But back to the movie I've got to say I almost cried as the end was approaching as much as I was going to turn off the tv when the movie started. The whole initial setting reminded me too much of Inside Out, a film I quite disliked, so I was worried it was a copy of it (it kind of is in the beginning). But luckily the second half steered away from it and developed in one of the most moving film I've seen in a long time. Undoubtedly one of Pixar's best.

This episode takes one of the harshest turns in tone from the moment that Nate's bereavement support group meeting is temporarily halted by the false fire alarm. What follows next is an acid trip of sorts, the sort of nightmare midnight experience like the ones in the films Blue Velvet and Eyes Wide Shut to name just a couple. It's not always easy, it's in fact frequently unpleasant and infuriating but that's by design. Never has an episode of Six Feet Under felt so difficult to digest as this and yet it's an episode that I feel is done in good taste. It's surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) controversial, some seem to love it and others loathe it as the episode that ruined the show but I for one loved it.

There's such a tension to the second half of the episode since it practically does not leave David once after he lands himself in a sticky situation. The editing is merciless in that it never cuts away from this unpleasant storyline and the scenes themselves appropriately linger. There's that one moment where David seems to have gained the upper hand over Jake but runs away, not retrieving the gun from Jake, which falls as an oft-used cliche in film and television. And yet, since the episode maintains such an intense rhythm and it very much gets at David and the manifestation of all his fears put together, I feel it could be overlooked.

I LOVED IT!