i've been yearning for films which have the same 21st century docu-drama touristic malaise that i found in clint eastwood's 15:17 to paris, and i've somehow found it in the cinema of joanna hogg. unrelated's unhurried depiction of a woman reflecting on her past while vacationing with friends in italy is from the posh english -> continental perspective instead of the middle american -> continental one of 15:17, but there is a similar idea of using the vastness of european locales as a contrast to the awkward and petty social dynamics of a group of people who we catch narrow glances of from the edges and corners of this space, the ebb and flow of individual desires clashing with collective emotions, and like anna we are in the shoes of an unrelated outsider, wanting to lose ourselves in this world but unable to assume a proper role, trying to vicariously live out a past that we've never had.

hogg's style here is an informal mixture of rohmer, antonioni, akerman and ozu, the narrative adjacent to something like a room with a view without being novelistic in a certain british tradition, just enough formal restraint to be lightly elliptical and humorous but not enough to where the film feels heavy and schematic -- i liked her recent souvenir duology well enough, but unrelated is more to my taste, it relies less on nostalgia and cinephilic subjectivity and speaks more to a tangible feeling of age and regret, how a vacation's suspension of regular reality can give you the necessary time to grieve and grow into the next stage of your life; i find it to be a very wise film.