Out of all the anthology films I've seen, I've never really seen one that I can recall at the moment where I enjoyed the connecting story more than any of the individual segments. That was the case here, where Eliza Swenson's Penny Dreadful really stole the show, with her two fun friends and magnificent theatre.
These three truly make the viewer want to get through it just to see more of them and their antics. They're legitimately charismatic and likable, legitimately fun, and I cannot applaud them and their performances enough; they're superb.
Unfortunately, all of the segments are varying degrees of disappointing, and all in pretty much inexcusable ways. The first is barely existent, and it's disappointing even then. The second has an appealing aesthetic, but it has no reason to adopt such a look, and it ultimately doesn't add anything to the story. The third is just painful and a real chore to get through.
It's a real shame that none of the segments were any good, despite acting that was at least acceptable, interesting direction and aesthetic composition, and solid cinematography. Honestly, the only acceptable part of this film was the connecting story, which is usually nothing but a perfunctory excuse for the segments in almost any other anthology film.
The second segment was the closest it got to being good, but even it really fell apart and took far too long to go nowhere. The aesthetic was breathtaking and the performances good, but ultimately it wasn't enjoyable.
Really, the film itself just wasn't enjoyable overall. Penny and her friends are worth watching, but I'd advise you to just skip through the film and watch them instead of the segments. Especially that last one. Whew.
It would also have been nice to have the segments take a similar amount of time, rather than one barely a few minutes long, a significantly longer second one, and then a third that felt as long as Berlin Alexanderplatz.
I can't really recommend this to anyone unfortunately, but I do hope that we see Penny and her friends again. If she manages to get some better segments to host, that would be a real joy. I wanted very much to like this movie, but the plain truth of the matter is that, well...I didn't.
These three truly make the viewer want to get through it just to see more of them and their antics. They're legitimately charismatic and likable, legitimately fun, and I cannot applaud them and their performances enough; they're superb.
Unfortunately, all of the segments are varying degrees of disappointing, and all in pretty much inexcusable ways. The first is barely existent, and it's disappointing even then. The second has an appealing aesthetic, but it has no reason to adopt such a look, and it ultimately doesn't add anything to the story. The third is just painful and a real chore to get through.
It's a real shame that none of the segments were any good, despite acting that was at least acceptable, interesting direction and aesthetic composition, and solid cinematography. Honestly, the only acceptable part of this film was the connecting story, which is usually nothing but a perfunctory excuse for the segments in almost any other anthology film.
The second segment was the closest it got to being good, but even it really fell apart and took far too long to go nowhere. The aesthetic was breathtaking and the performances good, but ultimately it wasn't enjoyable.
Really, the film itself just wasn't enjoyable overall. Penny and her friends are worth watching, but I'd advise you to just skip through the film and watch them instead of the segments. Especially that last one. Whew.
It would also have been nice to have the segments take a similar amount of time, rather than one barely a few minutes long, a significantly longer second one, and then a third that felt as long as Berlin Alexanderplatz.
I can't really recommend this to anyone unfortunately, but I do hope that we see Penny and her friends again. If she manages to get some better segments to host, that would be a real joy. I wanted very much to like this movie, but the plain truth of the matter is that, well...I didn't.