nehpetstephen

This is one of the rare movies that I saw without any prior context. Not only had I never seen the trailer, but I'd never even heard of the movie before deciding to stream it based solely on its title and cover. I was pleasantly surprised! This was released around the same time as Spielberg's THE FABLEMANS, another period dramedy about a Jewish high school film buff struggling to fit in at school and not be mean to his mother. That movie by its much more famous director got all attention and awards buzz, but I'd sincerely argue that this little gem is a much more meaningful and effective film.

So many coming-of-age movies star handsome kids pretending to be awkward misfits. The screenplay tells us that they don't fit in, but it's hard to see how that would be the case. The appearance and poise that contribute to the actor getting the role are in direct contradiction to the reality of the character. And generally it's always quite easy to sympathize with them; perhaps at the height of Act II they might do something really cruel to their best friend in a moment of spite, but these scenes are generally just isolated learning experiences.

So, with no offense to Isaiah Lehtinen, it's very refreshing to see a normal looking, chubby nerd playing the role that was written for him and doing it with such appalling yet realistic levels of cringe, self-absorption, and @s$holery. This type of person is very real--I know because I strongly recognized my own 14-year-old self in his callousness and unfounded superciliousness and vulnerability and desire to be liked despite behaving so unlikeably. Lawrence reads as autistic, but his obsession with movies is never given the romanticized gloss that some other enamored filmmaker might give it; there's no monologue about the beauty of cinema and he never says anything insightful about any of the movies he's referencing--his obsession might as well just be with Pokemon cards, despite him thinking that his exhaustive knowledge of movies gives him more cultural cache than his peers.

The film is indeed sympathetic to its protagonist, but it does so without denying the authenticity of showing his sometimes ugly and ignorant ways--which, in the end, is an even more loving portrayal of someone coming of age, because it really sees that person for all he is and yet still chooses to root for him becoming his best self.

This movie seems so real that I assumed I was watching the autobiographical tale of the filmmaker's childhood. I was shocked and pleased to discover that the writer and director was the woman Chandler Levack, whose life does not appear to have resembled Lawrence's at all. The fact that this movie's many scenes of authenticity do not appear to simply be personal memories makes me very excited to see more of her work. She has an understanding of character, detail, and raw emotion that is mesmerizing.

Romina D'Ugo as Larry's video store boss, Alana, often steals the show with more embodied realism, and she deftly balances humor, strong emotion, and just being a regular entry level supervisor. Krista Bridges rounds out the cast as Lawrence's long-suffering but never tragic mom.

This was a very strong movie and a must-see in the genre of coming-of-age movies.

This is Paul Thomas Anderson's second movie based on a book by Thomas Pynchon, and I wish he'd stop. INHERENT VICE was my least favorite of all his movies, and it looks like this is going to rank as my second least favorite. Anderson is one of my favorite directors, and his exquisite craftsmanship means that this movie still merits an 8/10, but I'm not sure why there's so much hype surrounding this picture of his when it lacks the character development that is one of his greatest assets.

On the positive side, the sumptuous cinematography of Michael Bauman marries beautifully with the jazzy power trio score of Jonny Greenwood and the editing of Andy Jurgensen. Anderson's camera is always alive, rollicking through sets and crowds and breathtaking action. There's something operatic about most Anderson films, and there's great pleasure to be found just from gazing at the screen and taking in the sound of it all.

Unfortunately, the screenplay is his worst. There are certain scenes that go on way too long; Bob's interminable phone call with a stubborn receptionist has the blatantness and tediousness of certain overlong SNL sketches. The plot itself is really quite basic, always frantic but never exactly gripping, in part because the characters always seem a little too goofy and overwrought. In all his other movies, the characters inevitably expose their souls, and I'm always guaranteed to get goosebumps from some emotional revelation that builds throughout the whole movie but comes, when it comes, like a lightning bolt from the sky. There's none of that here. With so much plot, comedy, and action, there's little breathing room for meaningful emotional depth.

Sean Penn is wonderful as a cartoonish bad guy who's motivated solely by his desire to get his dick wet. One would expect him to be an emblem of fascist ideology, but sometimes the perpetrators of evil are motivated by much simpler things. Benicio Del Toro is likewise wonderful as a Zenlike karate sensei. James Raterman gives a chilling performance as a military interrogator, and his exchanges with three quietly subversive high schoolers are one of the highlights of the film.

I certainly enjoyed watching the film, but I wish it had been more. Ultimately, the plot is just a little too superficial and silly to have had a real impact on me. It's interesting but not surprising that Anderson will probably (finally) win his first Oscar for this; as with Sean Baker's ANORA the year prior, the Academy almost always misses the boat on the real works of genius and instead rewards the mediocrity a little too late.

Well, at least Tyriq Withers is in his underwear in almost every scene. If not for the fact that he is gorgeous, I probably would have walked out halfway through.

The first 10 minutes or so, where we get insight into Cam's family life and aspirations, are pretty compelling. There's surreal imagery and hints of the otherworldly and darkly comic from the very beginning--something like a Boots Riley movie--but there's also enough of a recognizable reality conveyed by his interactions with his mom, his girlfriend, and his brother to keep things grounded. In a movie such as this, you need a realistic anchor point to keep things interesting. There can't just be nightmarish imagery and allegorical commentary without something to ground it; people are interested in people, not symbols.

Unfortunately, once Cam arrives at the desert "compound" owned by legendary quarterback Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), the movie quickly abandons all foothold in reality. White (as played by Wayans, at least) has zero recognizable humanity, and neither do any of the other many characters at the compound. Their motivations are indiscernible. The cause and effect between their actions is nonexistent. Everything they do and say is always painfully striving to be "interesting," but it always comes across as being ultimately pretty meaningless.

Yes, I get the parable. One would have to have an active concussion to miss the blatant good vs. Evil symbolism and religious references here. So there is "meaning" in the sense that X = Y and A = B, Jesus and the NFL and racism in Amurrica and all that. But that's not "meaningful" if it's just a checklist of sloppily stitched together ideas.

Withers's acting is strong enough that the glimpse into reality that we get at the beginning of the film is able to linger on for a while, but when there's no character development and no chemistry between the actors and not even any clear plot in the sense of "I'm trying to do A so that I can get to Z," it gets really hard to care about anything that's happening. The movie never evokes any clear sense of what Cam really wants, what he thinks about White, how he feels about the rapidly increasing horror and madness at the compound, what he's holding onto as his core. Eventually, the over-the-top ending is somehow simultaneously very predictable and yet it feels as though it came out of nowhere, and then the movie, thank God, ends, somehow feeling much longer than its 90 minutes.

I sympathize with the movie's message, and I respect some of the creepy imagery, but mostly this was a juvenile waste of time, neither funny, thrilling, scary, nor meaningful.