Yanni Ko

Remember how, back in school or college, you join a literature class and you’re made to read a book that is hard to digest, had disturbing themes, felt like it took forever, and it made you regret taking that class because you got assigned a boring book, and yet when you finally finished the book, you come out the other side a slightly different person? More curious about the topic presented in the book? And now that you need to write an essay/term report, you don’t even know where to begin? “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is that book. In fact I googled and find that it actually *was* a book before they cast Tilda Swinton and the glorious Ezra Miller in the movie adaptation. This is not your escapist entertainment. It is not an easy movie watching process to enjoy. Every scene - done in back and forth timeline - slowly reveal facts. You dread it, but you also want to understand it. You are watching Eva (Tilda S) trying to understand it. You are Eva, trying to understand your son. Tilda was nominated for Oscars in this film, and you can see why. She didn’t have a lot of lines in the film, but her eyes and body language made you understand. Ezra was excellent, though I somewhat feel the character was too impossible. But here is where it gets interesting: is the character impossible? Ah, my point is, if you can stick through it, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.