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DokBrowne [ 9.5 ]
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In a way I was predisposed to loving this movie because of its "pedigree" - directed by Adam Goldberg, starring Giovanni Ribisi (one of my favorite actors), Joshua Jackson (another), Christina Ricci (and another), Judy Greer (yup), Vince Vaughn (wow), Marisa Coughlan (pretty good), Franka Potente (eh, not bad), and a slew of minor cameos from Goldberg's Hollywood cadre (all that's missing is Barry Pepper and Vin Diesel), and a meta-tastic plot, which I always like. Yet it could have sucked; lord knows there are plenty of promise-filled movies out there that just turned out badly, no matter how perfect their elements seem to be (for a close example, there's "Cursed", which has many of the same actors and many more that I like, in a comical werewolf horror premise! How could it fail?...). So the 9.5 is, for once, a (mostly) genuine reflection of the film's quality rather than a pitying act of denial. The movie is just haunting...in addition to the magnetic, nuanced, tour de force acting by Ribisi (and strong performances from the rest of the cast, too, particularly Joshua Jackson, who could really shine in more mature projects like this), the directing is dense in a way that actors often make it when premiering as directors (kinda like Clooney's "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"). full of visual/aural trickery but not defined by it a la the typical music-video hack. The script is smart, observant, funny, heartbreaking...being the worst writer of all time, I can't do it justice, so let it merely be known that I've been deeply bothered by the movie ever since I saw it. Some have criticized it for being one of those "boo hoo celebrity sucks" projects, but I didn't see it that way. Everyone is entitled to their discontent, no matter their profession or fortune. Others called it confusing, but it really isn't. If even I, the guy who couldn't keep up with "Syriana", "Primer", and even "The Fugitive" (back when I was 12), had no trouble following it, then I won't accept the same argument from the rest of the far more intelligent universe.
Anyway, fantastic, disturbing movie, far more than the sum of its many neat parts.
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| Weighted Rating | : 7.4 |
| No. Ratings | : 3 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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