- Tue Dec 11, 2018 9:33 pm
#112624
Okay... I'm going to address the stinky elephant in the room.
Some of you probably know that, after A24 have had it sat on the shelf for about a year, this got leaked 2 months before it's US theatrical release because it came out on French blu ray.
So being really excited for the It Follows team's latest, I (urm) watched it.
Oh boy, it hurts like heck to say it, but... this film is absolute garbage. It took every ounce of my goodwill to stick through it. I'll admit, it reaaally didn't help that I was done with Garfield exactly 5mins after his great role as Eduardo in The Social Network, and since then find him fucking insufferable. But he can't be completely blamed for this nonsense.
There does appear to be a pattern with tyro-male directors in the US. Especially guys that hit big with a beautifully-formed early feature, then feel compelled to follow with a large-scale, sprawling, often-satirical or genre-riffing, often wildly more expensive, big show-off movie? Think Richard Kelly's follow up to Donnie Darko (Southland Tales, painful), Damien Chazelle dropping the teeth-grindingly cute LaLaLand, even Ryan Johnson following Brick with Brothers Bloom (it ticks all the above boxes, and it's waaay too cute for it's own good, but I do kinda like it) and even Wes Anderson finally striking out with Darjeeling Express (though again I forgive it the many flaws to a point...)
In a way, it feels like they're following in the footsteps of the previous gen's precocious auteurs, Scorsese (NY, NY) and Coppola (One From The Heart) etc, many of whom lost the plot with gigantic passion projects.
The most depressing thing about Under The Silver Lake, though, is it's chosen subject/theme... L.A. and pop culture. If you listen carefully you'll hear ScoJo exhaling so deeply, his whole being sighing with 'who gives a shit??' despondence.
So no spoilers, but yeah- I hated this full-of-itself streak of pointless shit. Couldn't be more disappointed here.
(Btw, Disasterpiece/Vreeland's faux-noir orchestral score is just fine, as far as pastiche goes. Definitely have no particular desire to hear standalone)
Some of you probably know that, after A24 have had it sat on the shelf for about a year, this got leaked 2 months before it's US theatrical release because it came out on French blu ray.
So being really excited for the It Follows team's latest, I (urm) watched it.
Oh boy, it hurts like heck to say it, but... this film is absolute garbage. It took every ounce of my goodwill to stick through it. I'll admit, it reaaally didn't help that I was done with Garfield exactly 5mins after his great role as Eduardo in The Social Network, and since then find him fucking insufferable. But he can't be completely blamed for this nonsense.
There does appear to be a pattern with tyro-male directors in the US. Especially guys that hit big with a beautifully-formed early feature, then feel compelled to follow with a large-scale, sprawling, often-satirical or genre-riffing, often wildly more expensive, big show-off movie? Think Richard Kelly's follow up to Donnie Darko (Southland Tales, painful), Damien Chazelle dropping the teeth-grindingly cute LaLaLand, even Ryan Johnson following Brick with Brothers Bloom (it ticks all the above boxes, and it's waaay too cute for it's own good, but I do kinda like it) and even Wes Anderson finally striking out with Darjeeling Express (though again I forgive it the many flaws to a point...)
In a way, it feels like they're following in the footsteps of the previous gen's precocious auteurs, Scorsese (NY, NY) and Coppola (One From The Heart) etc, many of whom lost the plot with gigantic passion projects.
The most depressing thing about Under The Silver Lake, though, is it's chosen subject/theme... L.A. and pop culture. If you listen carefully you'll hear ScoJo exhaling so deeply, his whole being sighing with 'who gives a shit??' despondence.
So no spoilers, but yeah- I hated this full-of-itself streak of pointless shit. Couldn't be more disappointed here.
(Btw, Disasterpiece/Vreeland's faux-noir orchestral score is just fine, as far as pastiche goes. Definitely have no particular desire to hear standalone)