I mean, it's more of a wistful song about lost love, coming of age, and gaining experience through suffering. In what ways specifically does it relate to Toni Collette's character in the film? I suppose it's meant to be ironic in that Collette doesn't learn from experience. Any thoughts?
shareThis also mystified me. I've always thought "Both Sides Now" was about life in general and whether or not you're jaded after experiencing its ups and downs. What we saw in the movie (and heard about when listening to Annie talk about her life) was just bleak. The closest connection was hearing Annie talk so bluntly about her mother at times (like the end of the song). But if I were trying to pick a song to either match the mood of the film, or be a counterpoint to it, I wouldn't have picked this one.
shareI actually loved the use of Both Sides Now in the closing credits, I thought the airy wistfulness of the song contrasts so starkly to everything that comes before it that it's like the musical equivalent of taking a sigh of relief that all that bleak darkness is over! And if you want to look at it literally, I guess you could argue that Annie at the end of the film has experienced "both sides" of her life; the surface life where family secrets are suppressed under a veil of normalcy, and the true horror of the demons (or demon!) that plague and ultimately destroy them. Also, I'm not sure if Annie needs to learn from the experience, as she is the only character who in any way tries to battle the demon. She learns too late, but it's more about survival than growing as a person.
shareYeah, I see it in a similar way. I think the first verse and chorus are very telling as to why they picked this song:
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
In all of those years growing up, she always thought that all of the family suffered from mental issues and depression, assuming it was hereditary. To me, that's how the song applies. She thought she knew what was causing the "clouds" in her life, but in the end, she really didn't know "clouds" at all.
good point.
shareSPOILERS!
The other answers above seem valid, but here's how it struck me:
"Both sides now" seems to be both sides of the line between life and death, or good and evil. I think it applies to that "Paiman," who had been in Hell up to now, but would now experience life, ruling his subjects on Earth. His is the face we see for most of the duration of the song.
It could also apply to Paiman having inhabited Charlie's body, then that being "corrected" and he's now in a "proper" male body. So, both sides of the gender line.
That last thought explains for me the "click" sound Charlie made was really the demon's sound, which Peter's body inherited. It also could be why Charlie had a boy's name. Paiman was supposed to have inhabited a boy's body.
I suspect Annie's soul was long gone due to her trying to kill Peter in the womb. By that time, too, the demons involved would've known they'd need that body later.
Honestly, I don't like thinking about this stuff too much. It's probably analogous to fooling with a Ouija board. If that dark side exists, I want to keep it distant.
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