Kinda mediocre in all regards. It's a bit funny, a bit sad, mildly interesting. Doesn't do anything that hasn't been done many times before and much better. Paul Giamatti is great as ever. The other performances are mixed. The young guy in the co-lead role isn't convincing as a student. I was left feeling like I'd wasted my time with this. But it's inoffensive and passes the time well enough.
Pretty fun and tense at times. If felt like it was trying to be great super smart and not quite getting there. Qualley's performance kinda epitomises this in the sense that she seemed to be going for the unhinged greatness of Mia Goth, but I think she just falls short of that level (still very very good though!). I thought the ending was weird. It was fine enough but I would have gone for perhaps a more ambiguous tone that was more fitting with the rest of the movie, and I'd definitely have made a different musical choice (too on the nose for me). I won't say more about it to avoid spoilers. The more I think about it, the more I think the right ending could have really elevated this film. Shame. I appreciate that the film aimed high, so I have some affection for it.
I was expecting to like this movie a bit more than I did. I was a little worried about finding the preachiness annoying, but in fact it was just boring by the end. Had the politics of the film been interesting, that may have been better, but it's just everyday milquetoast feminism. This problem is compounded by an occasional streak of sentimentality. I guess I wanted more of an edge, but of course the film has to be kid-friendly as well so it's understandable. I don't know if the film is aware that the "real" patriarchal world is just as artificial as the barbie world, and that this kinda defeats the point of the movie. Or maybe the artifice is part of the point? I couldn't tell. On a comedic level, it's brilliant. Ryan Gosling was as good as everyone says, but many characters also have their moments. Margot Robbie is practically perfect. Music plays a big role in the film. I hate musicals, but I didn't mind most of the songs here so count that as a positive. I could have done without the whole mother-daughter thing. I get that it's needed to move the plot (which is itself almost superfluous) along. I just didn't find the daughter character remotely interesting and the actress wasn't great.3
It's a beautiful, very human and compassionate film. While the plot at first glance looks very specific to an immigrant experience, the universal question of "what if?" is the real heart of this film. I was less emotionally captured by the film than I was expecting to be, which is the only reason it's not a ten. I still feel a certain melancholy or ****, but not on the level of e.g. Aftersun. I would expect many people to find this film fairly devastating in a quiet sort of way.
A strange experience to watch. The films looks and sounds like it should be an intense emotional journey, but I couldn't connect with it on the level that I wanted to. Perhaps the performances were lacking, I honestly can't tell. There isn't anything wrong with the film, yet I was left underwhelmed. I would recommend it to fans of "The Quiet Girl", although that is a much better film.
Way too sentimental for me. Flashbacks are a pet peeve of mine, and this film feels like 40% flashback. I feel like there's a much darker, grittier version of this film that could be made that I might like more. I wish I'd read the book instead.
Kinda fine overall. Enjoyed the score, the cinematography. I'll be honest, I came for Mia Goth and I got what I wanted. I could take or leave everything else. Minimal emotional impact, but some enjoyable scenes interspersed with overdone hallucinatory sequences (please stop doing this all the time, everyone!) I enjoyed the bus ride and airport scene at the end. It's kind of an obvious choice in retrospect, but it worked for me as a kind of joke.
Basically Shoplifters but not quite as good. I thought that, at times, the movie was a bit too saccharine, too feel-good considering the subject matter. It all ends a touch too neatly. The film kept threatening to emotionally destroy me, but never quite did, and I'm not sure why. The score was sometimes great, but sometimes heavy-handed. Acting ranged from good to outstanding, if perhaps a little too reserved occasionally. It may seem like I'm being a bit too critical for an 8/10, but understand that the film is quite close to being a masterpiece, but there's just a few missteps in tone and pacing that are glaring in the light of that. PS: Does Song Kang-ho ever miss?
It basically amounts to a male recluse's fantasy, but manages to treat its two leads with more humanity than one might expect from that. It has an interesting premise, and pushes it as far as realism allows. The leads' performances were good. The film left me with somewhat positive feelings for the characters, but exacerbated my feelings of loneliness moderately (CW for lonely people) .
To paraphrase a line from the movie, it's an intellectual exercise made without love. It's decent fun but I failed to care about anything that was happening. The subtext (made explicit) of class conflict has already been done to death and writers should have something more interesting to say than "eat the rich". A braver film would have made us care more about the upper class characters and introduced more moral ambiguity. That feels like a missed opportunity.
Very good, but not truly great. I didn't really deliver the emotional gut punch that I think it was going for. I think that's because the film was too busy, too frenetic, to let me sink into that feeling. It's a film that seems to want to do everything, and the result is that it doesn't excel at any one thing and is probably a bit too long. Don't let any of these quibbles put you off watching it though. It's still a good time overall and does a lot of interesting things. I found Tang Wei to be quite an enchanting presence.
Just a really beautiful film. Had to fight back tears at the end there. If you liked Petite Maman or Aftersun, you'll probably like this to a similar degree. Although it is not as innovative as either of those, it is just as tender and well written with a similar tone. The child lead is wonderfully subtle and acts without ego. I almost gave the film a nine because it lacks the ambition I usually reserve for tens, but when I look to the way this film made me feel, I think it perfectly achieves its aim.
Was expecting more. It's a bit fun and inoffensive. I honestly wanted less of the self-aware satire and more of a sharp comedic mystery. The pay-off of the murderer reveal left me cold. It wasn't so much that I didn't see it coming, but rather that I considered it and dismissed it as being too boring, which it was. Directorial style was, as noted by others, discount Wes Anderson, even down to actors like Brody and Ronan. Overall, a bit of a waste of talent, but not a terrible way to spend 90 minutes or so.
First half is a 10, second half is like an 8. Some great humor, especially in the first half. Beautiful shot choices, perfect performances and writing. There's a deeply melancholic streak to the film, more pronounced tha In Bruges, but the film feels more mature and weightier for that. I found the pacing of the second half a little slow, and the darkness was relatively unleavened by humor. I thought it might not stick the landing, but ultimately the ending was well-judged.
Very inoffensive. Sometimes funny, sometimes unfunny. Couldn't care less about anything that was happening. Mildly entertaining if you've got nothing better to do, but you probably do.
Very fun movie. I don't think many people would hate this. It's the sort of thing I'd recommend to anyone who's stuck for something to watch. What stops it getting a higher score is a slight lack of originality and inventiveness with the cinematography and so on. Compare it to something like Knives Out where the fun isn't only in the plot and dialogue but also the editing and camerawork and overall polish. It also lacks a little warmth and humanity, I couldn't really connect with any characters on a deep level. This could be intentional, to allow the audience to feel as disconnected as the protagonist, but I didn't especially connect with him either. Despite this, it does succeed in making the audience feel as confused and self-doubting as the main character, and works as a kind of absurd metaphor for social anxiety. I thought the ultimate posh guy was an interesting and revealing character, he is clearly the one suffering the most, and yet our protagonist is too busy worrying about what others think of him to really notice. It made for a nice little statement on how the narcissistic element of anxiety can harm people other than the patient. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, so will only say that I wasn't completely buying the ending and hope people understand why. I did experience weapons-grade nuclear cringe though, so that was interesting.
It's perfectly acted and incredibly naturalistic. I'm only giving it an 8 because its scope and originality is a little lacking, but what it attempts to do, it succeeds in almost completely. Every actor was basically perfect but major props to the lead male who just exudes this kinda restless self-hatred - or is it extreme loneliness? - so convincingly that no exposition/explanation is required; and is somehow boisterous and a bit scary and vulnerable all at once. Great job. The only thing I didn't really like was the Finnish dude. I know we aren't meant to like him, but even so, I found that too much time was spent on that episode for little value. Very similar vibes to Lost in Translation, but it is still very much it's own thing. Also thankfully I didn't fall in love with the main character like I do every goddamn time with Scarlett Johannson. Haista vittu.
This felt like an interesting short mood-piece (there is essentially no plot beyond what the blurb tells you) stretched way too long.
The film seems to want to employ a lot of symbolism and such while also being naturalistic, but it doesn't really do either very well. It's full of "meaningful" looks that wouldn't be out of place on an episode of Neighbours.
Indeed, I got the sense that the film makers thought they were making something kinda deep, but it just felt pretentious and like a first project out of film school. I think I only got to the end because it looks like the kind of film I would like and find deeper meaning in, but I got there and found nothing.
The central performance was good, I found the actress to be a fairly compelling screen presence, but this may only be because of her mesmerising eyes, I look forward to seeing her again in something to find out. The other performances were also decent. However, because I cared so little about all of the characters, and the context of these performances is only suggested at most, the good work of the actors barely touched me emotionally or intellectually.
Overall it was a very disappointing experience. Critics seem to like it a lot; it's the kind of film I like. It was boring and empty and a waste of my time, and the more I think about it the more annoying it gets. Sorry.
I watched this film a couple months ago. I probably couldn't tell you the plot other than some scenes and images and a rough outline. What I can tell you is that the film leaves has a weight and presence that lingers a long time after it ends. There are only a handful of films that I think have a truly unique feel and tone and communicate an emotion that words alone never could (Lost in Translation comes to mind), this film is such a one. If I had to try, I would say that Elephant is a distillation of depression, with a few things added. One such thing is a an element of disgust, I'm not sure with what, perhaps the state, or perhaps the soulless grey urbanisation that is almost a character in itself. While watching the film I felt as though the director were trying to show me something (I didn't know he'd died at this point), perhaps his own vision of life in general, or perhaps a vision of certain areas of China, perhaps both. If it were a simple thing he was trying to say he would have said it; if you want to understand, you must watch the film.
