YNOT at the Movies

The writer-director Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical "The Souvenir" (UK/USA 2019) became an art-house favorite a couple of years ago. It's a collection of personal memories of an aspiring film-school student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) having a love fair with a mysterious man, Anthony (Tom Burke). In its follow-up, "The Souvenir: Part II" (UK 2021 | 106 min.), Julie overcomes her grief and scrambles to find her own voice as an artist and finishes her graduation film.

After her lover Anthony suddenly died from a drug overdose, Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is devastated by the loss. She comes to her parents' tranquil country home to seek comfort from her observant mom Rosalind (Tilda Swinton, who is actually the mother of Honor Swinton Byrne in real life) and her loving dad William (James Spencer Ashworth). She doesn't stay long, even though she is still grief-stricken. She has to go back to her life in her Apartment L in Knightsbridge and to finish her graduation film with her fellow film school students.

Despite the help from her therapist (quite a good one actually) and her supportive parents, Julie often feels her mind drifting around and struggles with her loneliness. She tries to fill the unfulfillable void Anthony created in her heart and her apartment. She struggles to find a substitute for the "mysterious control" that Anthony had on her mind, and hooks up with an actor to meet her need for intimacy.

But gradually, Julie reemerges from her grief as an artist with her own artistic vision and imagination to complete her graduation film, with the portrait of a young Anthony hanging in her apartment shadowing her new image.

While still immensely personal and honest, this second chapter portrays a young woman that is much stronger and more in control, especially when it comes to her art, than the vulnerable student in the first chapter. Even though Julie is still a student in this sequel and often unsure about her decisions on the movie set, which understandably irritates her DP, she is gaining confidence as the film progresses and as she allows her imagination to take the center stage.

When Julie finally finishes her graduation film, the film floats in and out of her dreams and blurs the line between reality and her imagination. Julie's distinct style takes a foothold, regardless of whether it's high art or cheap imitation. The film delicately and genuinely chronicles the growth and becoming of an artist.

Will you like Julie's graduation film? Probably not. It's how and what she thinks about her film that counts. Following the process of how she overcomes her grief and completes the project is what the movie is more interested in presenting.

"The Souvenir: Part II" opens on Friday, November 5, 2021.