Moss & Freud (2025)

The friendship between super model Kate Moss and painter Lucien Freud.

I am in awe of this film in a lot of ways. This is a film that hit me like a ton of bricks on a purely emotional level. the depiction of creation and of friendship on visceral level got under my skin and moved me in ways few works of cinema ever have. There is, somewhere beyond the words, a greater truth about the act of creation and of connecting to those we love that really hit home. In is one of the best explorations about why we create that I've seen.

Ellie Bamber is excellent as Moss. There is a wonderful sense of the world weariness that she must have felt. You can completely understand how she became close to Freud since he saw her as something more than window dressing. He saw her as herself and she reacted to that.

Derke Jacobi as Freud is wonderful, as always. Every action speaks volumes. We get a sense of Freud and his life not just from his words but by his inflections and gestures. When Freud yells at Moss for being late you can feel the emotion of an addict needing his fix of creation boiling up and out. In Jacobi's hands its more than just an angry moment but a declaration of self. It's a moment that hits home.

This is a brilliantly crafted film.  The editing of the various sequeces, the photo shoots and hectic life of Moss are driving and emotional. The sequences say much more about Moss' life than what they visually depict. At the same time they beautifully contrast with the quieter sequences with Freud. These sequences nicely show that there is another side to life.

To be honest I don't know what I think of this film intellectually. This is not a snide comment, more that my thoughts on the film are more emotional. I am lost in how the movie played me in my gut and not so much as to what I thought. Like any great work of art MOSS & FREUD made me feel something genuine, which is all I need, and which results in words simply getting in the way.

See this film.