This is the first Nicolas Cage movie that I've managed to watch till the end. The beard really helps.
Early on the film brings up the theme of plagiarism, which is very appropriate as the basic plot is borrowed from the short film «Sequence» (Carles Torrens, 2013), without ever mentioning it, of course. In other words, the main asset of the film - the striking originality of the plot - does not really belong to it.
As usual when turning a short into a feature-length film, the latter turned out to be more naturalistic, stylistically diluted - and in a way less interesting, but the sheer volume allowed to elaborate on the plot and saturate it with details, deepen the characters and motivations. The way that the authors chose was to (somewhat satirically) show the effect that the unexpected fame has on a person, and then how the cancel culture works. These themes are not new and are explored without brilliance - which is the main weakness of the film. It just doesn't deliver much.
The editing choices are sometimes interesting, sometimes sloppy, otherwise the film was shot and acted out at an average level at best. Cage has created an expressive and memorable character, but he speaks in an unpleasant artificial tone, he and other actors constantly shake their heads like pigeons, repeat words - a prime example of bad naturalism in acting.
The ending, which reveals the mechanisms and explores the social implications of what happened, in my opinion, adds a lot, but it cannot turn this very average film into something more.
Early on the film brings up the theme of plagiarism, which is very appropriate as the basic plot is borrowed from the short film «Sequence» (Carles Torrens, 2013), without ever mentioning it, of course. In other words, the main asset of the film - the striking originality of the plot - does not really belong to it.
As usual when turning a short into a feature-length film, the latter turned out to be more naturalistic, stylistically diluted - and in a way less interesting, but the sheer volume allowed to elaborate on the plot and saturate it with details, deepen the characters and motivations. The way that the authors chose was to (somewhat satirically) show the effect that the unexpected fame has on a person, and then how the cancel culture works. These themes are not new and are explored without brilliance - which is the main weakness of the film. It just doesn't deliver much.
The editing choices are sometimes interesting, sometimes sloppy, otherwise the film was shot and acted out at an average level at best. Cage has created an expressive and memorable character, but he speaks in an unpleasant artificial tone, he and other actors constantly shake their heads like pigeons, repeat words - a prime example of bad naturalism in acting.
The ending, which reveals the mechanisms and explores the social implications of what happened, in my opinion, adds a lot, but it cannot turn this very average film into something more.
Tell Your Friends