Reviews

There is a trend in American movies of late to try to make the audience feel superior to the people on the screen, or to just make them feel superior to everyone in society in general. It's a Nietzsche thing, and you're either on the bus or not.

The brilliance of this film (and I do mean brilliant), is that it dares to ridicule the very people that should be its core audience. Unsuspecting viewers who think they are oh-so-cool because they're watching the Anarchist Cookbook (oooh...scary...hide it from the parents), must be aghast to find out that the film is an indictment of their childish mischief.

Fight Club was all about making the viewer feel cool. This film deconstructs that feeling of cool. And it paid the price for it (judging by the ratings it has received.) This is a movie for thinking people. Not people who just think they're cool. In fact, that's what the movie is about: the difference between wanting to be cool and wanting to think for oneself. Brilliant.

I would not call myself a fan of Russel. While he clearly has talent, his misanthropy is always on display in his movies. This was no exception.

It tries to be ingenious and inventive. And indeed, how many films even try to tackle different forms of existentialism (American vs. French)? But unfortunately, this film never quites take off and ends up playing as entertainment for the filmmaker. Perhaps in more skilled hands, it could have been something.

There is no fundamental through-line to this. It's more about ideas than telling an interesting story. Schwartzman hams it up and is exceptionally bad.

But Hoffman, Tomlin and Wahlberg are top notch and go a long way to redeeming the entire project.