As Jarmusch once said about making movies: there are no rules, it is an open form. But maybe I do tend to have one stupid little rule for myself: please let me care about something, anything really.
Inherent Vice didn't bother me at all, it has good vibes, funny moments, great music and it was quite pleasant to watch. But at the same time, while the movie goes on, you start to forget what just happened, and you lose complete…
Loved the cinematic and brooding atmosphere and it had some superb acting, but in the end something is missing. Thematically Leviathan was a much more interesting stab at human ambition than this JC Chandor script.
Too self-centered and ambitious for its own good. Its cleverness and 'insightfullness in the empty artist world' is in the end not really much to behold. Good performances, nice camerawork and an effective New York vibe are the biggest plusses.
A very odd structured film, not entirely sure who the main character was, and there were quite a few moments where I started to feel bored. But then always something would spring up. Another pace, a character-switch, a new story-beat or just a deeply moving scene (the scene where John Du Pont tries to 'impress' his mother with wrestling advice stands out).
Maybe a better way to compare the rhythm of the film to is Arvo Pärt's Für Alina. Repetitive, slow, subdued, and very often, gut-wrenching. Overall great performances by Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo. Props to Bennett Miller.
