Let Me Hear It Barefoot (2021)

"I feel like there is an invisible barrier around me."

Gentle and sensitive LGBTQ+ drama that explores themes such as emotional repression conducted by society, family conflicts and the struggle of finding your own path in life.

Probably the strongest point of this film are the two main characters and the performances of the cast. Naomi and Maki are played in such a nuanced and likable way, you quickly feel invested in their story. I was happy when these two were happy, and I was devastated when these two were. It's an emotionally charged story that lives through its silent moments between Naomi and Maki and the immaculate performances of these two actors. I genuinely enjoyed the movies subtle approach to storytelling, since it avoids spelling things out and instead trusts the viewers enough to let them figure out the context themselves. You may not have the complete backstory of each character, but you know exactly what is going on and the emotions are loud and clear.

Given the audiovisual context of the story, it's probably no surprise the score and sound design was exceptionally well-done. Some of the most entertaining parts of the story were Naomi's and Maki's unconventional approach to sound-engineering. Watching them figure out how to recreate specific sounds was delightful. Apart from the sound, I have to mention the beautiful cinematography that seemed to almost intuitively capture the protagonist's feelings and thoughts.

Considering I've only praised this movie so far, one might think it's perfect, so I have to mention two aspects that might raise criticism. The first one is the somewhat repetitive nature of the storytelling. This wasn't something that bothered me in particular. At some point, the movie gets into this rhythm, repeating certain activities over and over. I can see why this might bother some viewers, however I thought this intensified the underlying feelings of the leads, and it felt different enough to see the progress of the story.

The second aspect is something that bothered me personally, so not everyone might have this issue with the story. Without giving anything away, I disagreed with a few narrative choices that were made in the later half of the movie, since they weren't in line with the behavior of the characters in the first half, at least it felt like that to a certain extent. This evoked strong emotions in me, which honestly just showed how invested I was in the story and how connected I felt to these characters. So, while I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, even having thought about it for a day, I realized that while I might be conflicted about certain parts of the story, this movie managed to touch me deeply, and it has stayed with me.

Let Me Hear It Barefoot is a poignant movie with wonderful quiet moments, genuinely likable characters, and a story that lingers with you after you have finished watching it.

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starts amazing, the last third is debatable

The beginning was everything I could ever want. The characters were amazing as well as the story. It started a little slow which worked out perfectly as the relationship between the main characters evolved. At that point I was sure that I would give this film 10/10 stars would I ever write a review.
Sadly the story made a big turn after around 2/3 of the film. To avoid spoilers I will not go into it, but personally, I don't think this turn off events did anything good for the film.
I still think it is an amazing film, but the last 1/3 confused me a lot and seemed unnatural and unfitting.
still worth watching.

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