Matt and Mara (2024)
Review of Matt and Mara, directed by Kazik Radwanski
If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.
For three years I worked professionally as a film critic, and while going to all of the film festivals and interviewing directors and actors was cool for a while, but I wanted to reclaim my time and watch movies I wanted to watch. Sometimes watching all of the new releases is great, and behind ahead of the curve, but I feel like I was falling so behind on movies I was genuinely excited about.
I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.
Because my budget was so limited during this time, as I had very few income sources, I was thinking a lot about what I spent my money on. I don’t like spending money on streaming services to begin with me when I have a very good library branch near me, as well as the fact I know what I like. Netflix is more useful for the blog when I want to make some more money in a month, as those kinds of posts get the most views, but I’m not chasing views.
I do like a Criterion subscription here and there, but I never like paying for it for an entire year. It’s a bit expensive, and so is MUBI, which is another platform I like. So while I was unemployed, I was watching for the deals, like three months of MUBI for $1 or Criterion for $6.99 a month. I did both when I had these deals, and loaded up on all of the movies I wanted to watch.
Today’s blog post is for a movie I watched on MUBI when I had the three months for $1 deal. I find MUBI pretty expensive normally, so I was loading up on all of the movies I wanted to watch, as well as some extras that I found along the way. Matt and Mara was one of the last movies that I watched before I ran out of time on my subscription.
I was drawn into this one by the description. I think that I’m drawn to movies and books about creative types, especially as someone who is a creative myself. I also love reading biographies about creative women, so when I saw the main characters in this movie were writers, I wanted to watch it.
Let’s get into the review before I ramble too much!
Two former best friends have the chance to reconnect with each other.
Our main characters in this movie are Matt and Mara, who are the titular characters. Mara is still living where she started out, in Toronto, except now as an adult she works as a writing professor at a university here in Toronto, but an old friend is back in town: Matt. He used to be her best friend, but they’ve fallen out through the years when it comes to communication.
Matt now lives in New York City and lives the high and exciting life as a writer there. He has a novel that’s done pretty well, but he’s come back into town because his father is sick and he wants to take care of him. This is a stark contrast to Mara, though, who had dreams of being a successful writer but now just teaches.
She actually hasn’t produced anything in a while, but she has a happy marriage and a decent work life balance despite the fact she’s not following her young adult dreams. Mara agrees to hang out with Matt during his time in the city, regardless of the connotations of what a married woman hanging another man might look like.
A lot of what they do together is mundane: they go to cafes and take a lot of walks through the city they had once traversed through together in the past. They continue chatting with everything they do, slowly bonding over conversation and the time we spent together. It’s with Matt that Mara begins thinking about writing and art again, as well as how he challenges her as a creative person.
Mara then has to go to a conference at Niagara Falls, and she asks Matt to be the one to drive her. They end up kissing when they make it there, but that leads to a lot of inner conflict for Mara. She can’t handle the thought of having an affair, which leads the two of them to continue fighting all the way back to Toronto, effectively ending whatever they had brewed during this time.
Matt’s father passes not long after that and he calls Mara about it. She steps up and helps him with the funeral plans. When Matt leaves to go home to the States, Mara listens to her husband’s song but returns to Matt’s book at the same time. He left her a note, but after she reads it, she returns the book to the shelf instead. The movie ends there.
Overall Thoughts
This was quite the interesting movie to watch, as I see Mara as the actual main character. She’s someone who has moved on from her past life in many different ways, but when Matt arrives back into Toronto, it forces her to confront everything that she has left behind.
Matt is also successful at their shared craft in a way she probably expected to be once upon a time, but now she’s successful in a different way. Regardless, when they come back together for a brief period, the spark that was there between them reignites, but only temporarily.
I liked this film a lot because of the writing. It feels like a scenario that would happen in real life. It’s a simple, but effective movie at the end of the day, which makes it a great watch. The cinematography isn’t anything too special, but it works for the story that’s being told.
So go see it if you have the chance and haven’t already! Movies are truly meant to be seen, not read about.
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