| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Will be a Cult Classic
by Holierthenthou (movies profile)
Nov 17, 2007
11
of
16 people found this review helpful
I did see the film at the Cinerama Dome last night. It was very enthralling--brief as it is at 1 hour 40 minutes.
No real spoilers here, but don't read this if you want to be a purist.
The script is excellent, the acting is superb--Keanu is really good--by far his best acting job. Gone is the old Keanu--not a moment of lumbering dumbness in his voice--unless he is intending to sound lumbering and dumb, which he does alot in this film. Winona Ryder (really the best) and Robert Downey Jr (very funny) are standout fantastic. Woody Harrelson and
Rory Cochrane are also really good and very funny. Direction is excellent.
Every moment of the film is important and kept my attention.....(now the bad)
BUT--what I don't really care for, is the conversion to animation throughout. Linklater should have used the Oliver Stone approach in Natural Born Killers, where animation appears only in key sequences, or at least have a 50-50 split, between non-animated and animated.
It also bothered me that the film ended so quickly, had it been longer and more drawn out, it could have been far more satisfying and never been a bore.
It really annoyed me that in the entire film we only get to see the real Winona for an instant. She is so damn nice to look at. The painted frames, removes the detail.
Ultimately the painted frames of the film--as artsy and cool as it is---is a big, self indulgent, distraction, which made me feel I was seeing the film through filters. There is just no reason for it, other then to be Linklater's style. Still it's the best thing on the screen at the moment and it will become a culty classic. I can't wait to see it again.
Although not as hysterically funny, the humor and drug pathos reminded me a bit of Gilliams "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." It's also a bit reminiscent of the style of Natural Born Killers and there was moment of dialogue delivery that struck me as very Kubrick.
Fascinating film. Despite my personal annoyances an A+ |
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