by Eden
This was based on a Japanese novel, All You Need is Kill, but that title was scrapped because of the word “kill.” It was released in theaters with the generic title of Edge of Tomorrow. But for the home market, it was retitled as Live Die Repeat mostly because not enough went to see it with the previous title. Or something. Are we confused yet? So yes, this is the movie where Tom Cruise dies a lot. Let’s just call it that.
The image of Lola (Franka Potente) running through the streets of Berlin with her flame-red hair is so iconic that everything else about the movie feels almost irrelevant. It’s just fun to watch her.
In the first episode of Russian Doll, Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) gets drunk, smokes a joint laced with cocaine, and ditches the 36th birthday party thrown in her honor by her friend Maxine (Greta Lee) to go have sex with a man she just met. Typically in most time loop narratives, these would all be examples of Nadia’s self-destructive tendencies that she’ll unlearn on the path to becoming a better person. But Russian Doll is smarter than that. Nadia is already pretty good to begin with. It is, as the title alludes to, about removing the layers of personality to find one’s hidden vulnerabilities.
I don’t really understand who this movie is for. We’re supposed to be on Stillman’s side as he revisits the bad moments during his year-long relationship with Debbie and attempts to fix them. There’s a sinister undercurrent of manipulative selfishness in Stillman. He never seems to care about what Debbie wants, just what he wants — which is only to stop her from breaking up with him.
To get it out of the way, this is maybe marginal in terms of being an actual time-loop movie but I’ve decided to count it. Tim is in control of where and when he goes, and while he chooses to repeat a couple of things, he’s not going back to the same day over and over again.