joris_w

This movie starts out okay as a drama with a solid main cast. The main character is portrayed well and goes through a setup of interesting personal traumas and conflicts.

Then it quickly goes downhill. A trip to a strange place exposes the group of main characters to all kinds of gory and pointless shock that has no plot value of any kind.

I was kind of afraid of this as soon as I saw the A24 logo come on. We're in an era where we're grasping at straws to impress audiences. Unfortunately some studios/distributors don't understand that you'll always need an actual story to call a film a film.

This movie starts out with an interesting premise - printable humans who come back after they die. Naturally there's a few enjoyable plot lines that come out of this which are presented in a comical way.

The setting - a sci fi set about 30 years into the future, is well done in terms of sets and effects and is reminiscent of 2003 Battlestar Galactica.

With this the movie is able to entertain reasonably for about an hour.

Then it all falls apart. Dreadfully long scenes that seem to expect an emotion that simply isn't evoked by the story. The usual shock value animal cruelty as seen in Okya. And the characters are just one caricature after another.

The final hour was painfully to sit through and left me wondering why the actors participated in this stinker of a production. A feeling I've had with other movies by this director.

Avoid this movie.

The film's main point is made very early, which is that freedom of press (not speech) should outweigh matters of morality.

This being the popular stance, doesn't mean this was a well made movie, much less justifies the dragging hours of awkward and shallowly executed scenes that follow. The acting and dialog are wooden, the scenes very unnatural and the characters generally not very believable.

Save for Ed Norton, who delivers both a credible and sympathetic character.

In the end, with The People vs Larry Flynt, Forman delivers a B movie with a popular message.

For an A movie with a popular message, suggest Network or The Shawshank Redemption.