Victor_Fallon

PTA has made several 10/10 movies but this one is an absolute slog. It has good cinematography and that's the end of the positives.

The cast is great on paper, but the performances are universally dreadful. The dialogue is sub-amateur, the story is scattershot, the score is boring (sorry Jonny) and often completely antithetical to what's on screen. The editing is bad in so many ways I'd need to write a thesis explaining it, but long story short, it needs about an hour cut from the runtime and some reshoots to add at least one character that isn't turbo-cringe.

I'll watch your next film, PTA, but you're on thin ice for making me sit through this bowel movement.

Cregger is trying to make original movies and I respect it, but he needs to learn how to write. Zach, please google 'what is a narrative theme?' and then fire your cinematographer.

The redeeming feature is the structure, explored via several characters in chapters. By the end, you'll know what happened but you won't know why any of it happened.

Narrative threads are abandoned, characters just stop being in the movie and you won't know why they were there in the first place and any questions you have will be completely ignored.

It's a terrible story - juvenile nonsense with no substance. It attempts to borrow from folklore but contains no morals, no lessons, nor any exploration of humanity's dark side. Stuff just happens and that's that. That works for B-movie schlock, but not a mystery.

It can be quietly funny in places, intentionally, but - why? It's not trying to scare you or give you the giggles. It's just off. The first hour is a slog, a boring stroll through a town filled with people you know nothing about, then it turns into a silly pantomime while logic takes a lunch break.

It's also underlit to the point of ridiculousness. Most scenes are fuzzy silhouettes on a solid black background. It's so dark you can't even call it ugly. Incompetent will do.

I really wanted this to be better. It is great at ramping up mystery and tension, but it has absolutely nothing up its sleeve. Very frustrating.

A bunch of actors do their best to pretend like they're in a gripping, moody thriller, only to discover they're in a boring procedural drama that goes nowhere.

Jude Law is in a completely different movie, behaving like a grizzled cowboy from an old Western who is doggedly trying to catch a bandit via the power of overacting. Hoult as a cult leader performs well, but his character is a pencil sketch with no personality.

The 'based on true events' narrative is very boring, told through lazy and lengthy scenes full of 'character development', which boils down to actors mumbling over a thousand-yard stare.

The production design is good, evoking a grimy early-80s environment pretty convincingly. A couple of the robbery scenes are well shot and almost threaten you with a good time, but there's not enough story to keep things interesting.

As many reviewers have already pointed out, the filmmakers try to make themselves relevant by tacking on some text at the end, comparing a murderous gang of bank robbers to the 'insurrection on Jan 6'. I'm not American, so for me Jan 6 is nothing more than foreign political theatre of zero interest. What it has to do with this movie, I have no idea.

This is the product of current-year brain-rot politics from Hollywood activists who have forgotten that movies need to entertain audiences beyond their own friends and family.