This movie has too much and not enough.
Too much length, too many plot threads, too many characters, too many wanna-be-argute references, too many unresolved nodes. Sadly, not enough meaning.
As other reviewers noted, it tries hard to be Mulholland Drive and Donnie Darko, but it falls short of expectations, especially in the uncompelling ending.
My son (who liked it) tried to convince me to see some deeper metaphorical level, i.e. One which would be delivering some harsh criticism of Hollywood's alleged many sins. Sorry, I don't buy it: if such was the intent, then arguably the implementation defeated the purpose, ending up guilty of these very same sins.
It's not all bad: the acting is OK, as well as the photography and the cinematography. Spotting the many references is fun at first, to quickly lose interest.
To me, the real problem is the erratic, self-indulgent direction, seemingly unable to convey a meaningful consistency to the movie, a compelling raison d'être that would and should have made this movie memorable rather than a disappointing sequence of fragments. Lots of dots, unconvincingly connected. All in all, a lost opportunity.
Sorry, even though I wanted to like this movie (or possibly _because_ of that) I just cannot recommend it.
Too much length, too many plot threads, too many characters, too many wanna-be-argute references, too many unresolved nodes. Sadly, not enough meaning.
As other reviewers noted, it tries hard to be Mulholland Drive and Donnie Darko, but it falls short of expectations, especially in the uncompelling ending.
My son (who liked it) tried to convince me to see some deeper metaphorical level, i.e. One which would be delivering some harsh criticism of Hollywood's alleged many sins. Sorry, I don't buy it: if such was the intent, then arguably the implementation defeated the purpose, ending up guilty of these very same sins.
It's not all bad: the acting is OK, as well as the photography and the cinematography. Spotting the many references is fun at first, to quickly lose interest.
To me, the real problem is the erratic, self-indulgent direction, seemingly unable to convey a meaningful consistency to the movie, a compelling raison d'être that would and should have made this movie memorable rather than a disappointing sequence of fragments. Lots of dots, unconvincingly connected. All in all, a lost opportunity.
Sorry, even though I wanted to like this movie (or possibly _because_ of that) I just cannot recommend it.