eeblunt

I'm a fan of many of the actors in this movie and liked the idea of a small town heist, especially since I've never been a big city person myself. So, I decided to see this at the theater. But this movie, especially in the second half, doesn't come together. This is a feature debut, though by an older director (Tony Tost), and it feels out of touch. I read an interview with Tost where he discusses wanting to reconnect with a primal version of himself, after being distracted by being in an MFA and PhD program. Unfortunately, this feels like the product of someone who spent too long in academia and was able to 1) watch Coen brothers, Tarantino, and Western movies and 2) map out the elements of neo-noir and heist flicks, but just couldn't put them together in the way that the best artists can. There isn't nearly enough primal or talent on display here.

In the end, this one feels derivative, too generic, and quickly forgettable. Even though I saw it, I can see why it was a massive box office bomb (Wikipedia says this was a 9 million dollar budget, sold to Lionsgate for 3 million, and made 500k at the box office to date: even with eventual streaming that is a huge failure). I don't think that collapse had much to do with the Sydney Sweeney "controversy" which has actually helped her popularity with many audiences. This is just a pretty weak (and poorly marketed) movie. Only worth seeing if you need a Sydney Sweeney, Paul Hauser, or Zahn McClarnon fix but there are better ways to get those.

Academic filmmaking, not in a good way. I wanted to like it and am the right audience, so am more disappointed. The best thing about it is getting trans actors on screen (Gil-Peterson is great on screen, wish there was way more Angelica, less of the director who shows up in almost every scene for some reason). But there are better ways to do that. The storytelling is confusing. The editing is all over the place. This could have been a very good movie. But what we get is pretentious and rushed. Lotsa jargon. Lotsa postmodern meta stuff that would have made more sense, and been more original, 10-20 years ago. This content could have been interesting but it's mishandled. Not sure anyone outside of the festival crowd and certain kinds of critics will find things to like here if they're being honest. Maybe if the core story was clearer and more thought was put into putting it together, the "experimental" departures would be more meaningful, and this could actually reach beyond elite insiders.

I'm not saying this doc will blow your mind if you know anything about LGBTQ+ issues. But it's well directed and produced. And it's doing better work than many of the artsy docs I've seen in this space in the last few years which are (mostly) not reaching far outside of elite in-group viewers who are already on board with the issues they take up. Worth seeing.