At Eternity's Gate (2018)
It's a Van Gogh 'biopic' about the painter's final years. Movie is directed by Julian Schnabel who identifies as painter first and director second, without much moviemaking experience. We're talking about a movie that has added layers of personalty and individuality to it because the 'source material' meant a lot to the creator while maybe some technical aspects remain in a lovable way unpolished. So we are looking maybe at some passages here and there that are stretched out or left out, which aren't typical for the genre but this is how he sees and tells the story, similar to how his protagonist views and paints nature. Expect a quiet, slow-paced movie with orgasmic photography (remember Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate ) and little plot besides the painter's internal struggle and deliberations about art, debates that Willem Dafoe playing Van Gogh masterfully portrays in scenes with Oscar Isaac who plays Gauguin, Mads Mikkelsen playing a cocky priest and others. The viewing experience culminates in a certain feeling of regret about having spent hundreds of hours watching illiterate imbeciles kick a ball instead of sitting in nature, looking at the same tree and being excited that this particular sunray crosses the branches just a little differently than yesterday and you are gifted a view you have never seen before. And I never even particularly loved Van Gogh.