I admire this film for trying to tackle relatively stigmatized issues like LGBT and depression in Japan, but I feel like the director didn't really have a clear vision in mind when making this movie. Scenes are overly long and the movie very much does not follow the typical buildup-conflict-resolution structure that most movies have. It feels like they just put all the raw footage together and released it, without trying to edit/shorten any of the scenes. Even with all of that, our two characters barely get any background other than a few school flashbacks. There are just sooo many scenes that go on for wayyy too long and/or add nothing to the main narrative. If the director really wanted to try and flesh out so many different characters and motivations he should have pitched this as a short series rather than a movie. Those sort of long, hanging shots would be far more acceptable in a series than a movie. I suppose it might also be because this was based on a manga, and trying to cram in years worth of manga story into a movie, even a 2.5 hour one, doesn't really work unless you focus on a specific story beat. It's a shame, really, I think it's got a good premise just executed really poorly.
Review of Ride or Die
