Wants so badly to be American Graffiti...and mostly succeeds due to the great acting all the way around.
The fact that I fell asleep sometime towards the middle probably means it fails to capture your attention the same way Lucas's masterpiece does. Or it means I was just a little too hungover to function. Or maybe both.
Goes from objectification to introspection as quickly and wonderfully as any film I can think of...
I can understand why this is every film critic's darling of 2015. It's got everything they want: dark, deadpan humor that feels uncomfortable to laugh at, outrageous social and sexual parody of modern culture very much in the vein of Being John Malkovich, an unsettling musical score which mixes well with a very bizarre script, random and shocking violence and nice slow-motion shots of people running.
It is also one of the least enjoyable films I have ever watched, downgraded tremendously by the constant reminder of just how hard Lanthimos is trying here...
Not sure if it was Thorton's direction or a complete butchering in the editing room later on, but there isn't a single scene in this film that is allowed to flow naturally.
Instead, we get two hours of manipulation and mediocrity that frustrates the hell out of the viewer because we can sense that there is real beauty underneath.
A great disappointment.
