Past Lives Review: An Impressively Fresh Story About Love
Love triangles are a dime a dozen in movies. It is rare to get a mature and nuanced story that somehow manages to till new soil instead of going over material that is already well-worn. Writer/director Celine Song’s debut film Past Lives somehow manages this, feeling like a fresh perspective on love, longing, the past, paths chosen, and regrets. The film opens in a bar with two people off camera commenting about three people sitting at the other end of the bar, two men and one woman. The woman is deep in conversation with one of them while the other man looks more and more like a third wheel with each passing minute. The woman is Nora (Greta Lee), the one man she is in deep conversation with is Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), a childhood friend she has a strong connection with, and the apparent third wheel is Nora’s husband Arthur (John Magaro). The film then cuts to 24 years earlier ...