>all the footage of traffic and crowds with techno blasting
>throughout seemed... obvious.

Obvious? If anything, when they started the movie off, they really surprised. Like, I didn't get how they fit the story at all. The song choice was shit, but when the crowd montages come back in the end it finally dawned on me why they were there in the first place: people need people. Maybe that was an obvious theme to others from the jump, but as we see more and more how Aron's choices on this excursion and throughout his life have left him more and more alone and detached from others (and the danger therein), having him rescued by two sets of complete strangers and then having those montages brought back clicked to me in way (narratively and emotionally) I wasn't expecting.

>franco was absolutely brilliant in it.

Absolutely. I remember scoffing at the casting choice when it was first announced, but he was perfect for it.