This film is many things. It evokes memories of other films, and books. This film is Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby were those films to be directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. That may sound great but here, it isn't. It reminds me so much of Nightmare Alley from the holiday season last year. A beautiful, and yet bloated, overly long period piece directed by a highly reputable director with fantastic star wattage. It also reminds me of this year's Amsterdam, and again for those exact same reasons.
But above all of those other films, or possibly below, what this film surprisingly, if not shockingly has in abundance in comparison to any of those others, or even the director's previously beloved works of Whiplash and La La Land, what this film has is beaucoup, and I do mean beaucoup, scenes of grotesque vulgarity and unbelievable amounts of foul language.
None of these things bother me in movies, if it serves a purpose or is to be expected given the subject or scene. The gross, nastiness. The bodily fluids. The constant bad words in the dialogue, especially in the first half hour, it seems as though the filmmaker was purposely trying to stun his audience and this seems his only purpose.
I rarely clutch the pearls with movies. My movie date looked at me fifteen minutes into this horrendously long movie and said, "What have you brought me to?" It's a long sit the rest of the way.
I'm sure people around the world have simply walked out of the theater having been drawn in my the actors on the marquee and then quickly repelled by the filmmakers choices and lack of self-control when it came to editing or trimming down the run time.
Sadly, amazing cinematography alone, does not make a movie.
Margot Robbie, gorgeous as she always is, doesn't fit the time period.
She's way too athletically sculpted and her hair doesn't fit the era, at all.
Things like that will drive me crazy for a whole movie.
Brad Pitt is always great. Here, he looks and plays his part to perfection.
He's a more extreme and certainly more tragic version of Peter O' Toole in "My Favorite Year".
The lone, true bright light of this film, is its ultimate protagonist, Manny Torres played by Diego Calva. He is incredible and captivating in every scene.
This is a tale of debauchery, degeneracy. And destruction.
You must ask yourself before purchasing a ticket.
Can your eyes and ears handle these scenes?
And can your butt and bladder handle the 3 plus hours of run time?
But above all of those other films, or possibly below, what this film surprisingly, if not shockingly has in abundance in comparison to any of those others, or even the director's previously beloved works of Whiplash and La La Land, what this film has is beaucoup, and I do mean beaucoup, scenes of grotesque vulgarity and unbelievable amounts of foul language.
None of these things bother me in movies, if it serves a purpose or is to be expected given the subject or scene. The gross, nastiness. The bodily fluids. The constant bad words in the dialogue, especially in the first half hour, it seems as though the filmmaker was purposely trying to stun his audience and this seems his only purpose.
I rarely clutch the pearls with movies. My movie date looked at me fifteen minutes into this horrendously long movie and said, "What have you brought me to?" It's a long sit the rest of the way.
I'm sure people around the world have simply walked out of the theater having been drawn in my the actors on the marquee and then quickly repelled by the filmmakers choices and lack of self-control when it came to editing or trimming down the run time.
Sadly, amazing cinematography alone, does not make a movie.
Margot Robbie, gorgeous as she always is, doesn't fit the time period.
She's way too athletically sculpted and her hair doesn't fit the era, at all.
Things like that will drive me crazy for a whole movie.
Brad Pitt is always great. Here, he looks and plays his part to perfection.
He's a more extreme and certainly more tragic version of Peter O' Toole in "My Favorite Year".
The lone, true bright light of this film, is its ultimate protagonist, Manny Torres played by Diego Calva. He is incredible and captivating in every scene.
This is a tale of debauchery, degeneracy. And destruction.
You must ask yourself before purchasing a ticket.
Can your eyes and ears handle these scenes?
And can your butt and bladder handle the 3 plus hours of run time?