|
Robbie's terrific. Genuine movie star shit here. Exudes power and charisma. Easily the best part of the movie.
Adepo's really good too, even though his role feels like it could've easily been cut? Pitt does the Pitt thing for the majority of it, but he gets a couple big moments and does good work for those. Diego Calva... I honestly thought was a total dud. Not really fair that he has to share the screen with Pitt and Robbie, but he just can't remotely hang.
A few audacious moments made me smile (especially the last 5-7 minutes or so), but man, for the most part, the movie just goes beat for beat through Boogie Nights, Wolf of Wall Street, Singin' in the Rain, Goodfellas, and a bunch of other better movies that will make you think, "I wish I was watching those better movies." The Tobey Maguire in particular is such an obvious Boogie Nights rip that I was kind of shocked. Like, if you're gonna make this movie, it's gotta be a movie where you stamp Your Directorial Style on it-- not just rip of Scorsese and PTA ad nauseam.
Props to him for trying to do a lot, and some of it works, but yeah, the pacing is subpar, the stories lose track about halfway through, and I just don't know that the thing works as anything other than a star vehicle for Robbie. Vastly preferred Whiplash and First Man to this. My movies: http://russellhainline.com My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/ My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide
|