i agree. i thought its style was imitating Haneke's (and other filmmaker who use long takes...) almost out of default. like they just thought it was cool. didnt bring me into the story or the focus of the film, just made it so i couldnt see what was going on with the chararcters. is that what you mean by "the form"?
Ezra Miller was good, as a pre-cursor to Kevin sociopath, and Campos shows some competency as a filmmaker, but it was fairly derivative of a great many films, and overall it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed. Enough in it for me to retain some interest in Campos second film out this year.
Brilliant. Rarely seen private high school life portrayed so accurately -- a beautiful nod to Michael Haneke's 'Caché' while maintaining a specificity to the disillusionment of the young American information age.
A second-rate version of Elephant. Ezra Miller was very good, though. As good as he could have been, I think, considering the flaws in the writing.
This guy looks like a kid, and this kid looks like a psycho. The future of traumatic teenager-kids is filmed.
I remember hearing about this when it first came out, and I wanted to see it. I eventually forgot about the film completely, and found it again sometime later. In short: I was VERY disappointed. It was certainly not what I thought it would be. As someone aforementioned below, the lingering nature of the cinematography and the story itself is reminiscent to Gerry; the slowness of the films are only good in theory...
The problem with this film is that it takes itself entirely too serious and suffers from interesting but over stylized cinematography and uninspired performances. I don't think much of Elephant or Gerry, though I can see how the austerity of those films might be in line with a review of this film. Interesting idea, oldblackdawning, Dumont and Haneke. Hmmm. Anyone like Funny Games? I thought it was atrocious.
The memorial video Rob makes of the girls makes this film worth watching, even if everything else was horrible, which is not. Amazing and beautifully photographed.
A disturbing yet highly inventive film. I can't wait to see what Anonio Campos does next. He is like an american fusion of Dumont and Haneke.
Great film. It was well disturbing for me for some reason. It took me on a twisted journey where I saw a tragedy and its consequences. It feels so real, almost personal. I can strongly relate to the characters as the film shows the current lifestyle of young people: all those laptops, usage of the Internet, sexuality, misconceptions, doubts and questions never asked. I recommend it to you! 5/5 stars.
