Don't quite understand the very high ratings for this -- I picture friends of the producer, or interns at the distributor working away to find new ways to praise with faint damns. I saw it at BAM in Brooklyn, and the mostly hipster audience sat in stunned silence throughout - with occasional relieved chuckles at the few flashes of stupidity that came off as funny. Loud, violent, all closeups and menacing pretentious music unrelated to the action.
Pattinson indeed breaks his pretty boy mold, and works very hard - but a lot of "fucks" and running very fast down urban streets does not constitute a breakout performance. JL Leigh does her usual sterling job as a frighteningly dumb victim -- but she was on screen for maybe 4 minutes. The only performance that worked was the 16yo girl Crystal -- Taliah Webster seemed to inherently get the power of underplaying, and she did it brilliantly. Of course, she disappears as the whole mess grinds down, ceding the screen to the boys.
The coda at the end was indeed touching - but not in the way the director(s) may have intended. Actual (?) mentally disabled clients in treatment were shown in a therapy group as the credits rolled -- they were sweet and fascinating, but they were being used - hard - in a commercial film, as a career move by a millionaire actor.
Also, for a story trading so freely in the Queens, NY milieu - the sudden emergence of a large haunted house fun park, setting for a pointlessly violent beating of one of the few interesting characters, followed by giving him a huge dose of LSD -- was ridiculous. Not gritty, just cruel & pointless.
I debated a few seconds between a 2 or 3 rating -- but honesty won out. It's a 2.
Pattinson indeed breaks his pretty boy mold, and works very hard - but a lot of "fucks" and running very fast down urban streets does not constitute a breakout performance. JL Leigh does her usual sterling job as a frighteningly dumb victim -- but she was on screen for maybe 4 minutes. The only performance that worked was the 16yo girl Crystal -- Taliah Webster seemed to inherently get the power of underplaying, and she did it brilliantly. Of course, she disappears as the whole mess grinds down, ceding the screen to the boys.
The coda at the end was indeed touching - but not in the way the director(s) may have intended. Actual (?) mentally disabled clients in treatment were shown in a therapy group as the credits rolled -- they were sweet and fascinating, but they were being used - hard - in a commercial film, as a career move by a millionaire actor.
Also, for a story trading so freely in the Queens, NY milieu - the sudden emergence of a large haunted house fun park, setting for a pointlessly violent beating of one of the few interesting characters, followed by giving him a huge dose of LSD -- was ridiculous. Not gritty, just cruel & pointless.
I debated a few seconds between a 2 or 3 rating -- but honesty won out. It's a 2.