GIJoel6

This show depicts the current social media-centered generation of random self-promoters exactly as the real ones appear on livestreaming channels. Their characters are endlessly irritating, as are the situations they get into. The differences between this show and the real people and situations is these players are remarkably talented, and other production values are off the charts for subject matter this trashy; and thankfully, the women are as bodacious and uninhibited as the characters are annoying. As an adult of the post boomer generation, I'm first inclined to hate the show and the characters, yet I can't take my eyes off them.

I probably saw "Henry Fool" at some point, but I don't remember it, it did not make an impression on me. "Fay Grim" is enough better that I might remember it for a few years, not because it is very good, but because some of the dialog was witty and the women are all lovely. OTOH, Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry is an ugly, sloppy, chain-smoking, mean-spirited ne'er-do-well and I cannot figure out how he ever got into gorgeous Parker Posey's pants in the original, or why she cared that he is still alive in the sequel. Literally every other man or boy of any age in this film is more attractive than Ryan. That's what makes the whole story so implausible from the start. Then the plot just gets ridiculously convoluted, which is part of the comedic intent, so that's fine. A lot of the dialog is delivered in what sounds more like a narrator's voice than the voice of characters living through the story -- it's a stylization that somehow reminds me of what Wes Anderson used in a group of films he directed starting with "Grand Budapest Hotel." It's only moderately interesting and slightly unsettling, and does not improve anything. Hartley should have rethought that gimmick. I was curious to see where the plot would end up, so I watched the whole thing, but the resolution was as pointless as the start and backstory, and it wrapped up all the threads too easily. It's not terrible, definitely entertaining for significant parts, but overall, I could take or leave it.

I love Mary Elizabeth Winstead, but she looked confused and uncomfortable in this role. Annabella Sciorra was far more convincing in the original. And Maika Monroe has very little of the flaming menace of Rebecca DeMornay in the original. The updated storyline offers nothing that improves on the original either. And Raul Castillo simply is too dull in both looks and personality to be believable as a man sexy enough for a hot woman, successful in business, to want to create three children with; in short, he's no Matt McCoy. The original was simply much better in every respect, to the degree that it did not need to be redone for any reason.