This is disappointing coming on the heels of Edgar Wright’s wonderful documentary The Sparks Brothers, which outlines the Maels’ longstanding desire to make a movie. The concept by the Mael brothers, at least in this treatment, fails to answer the fundamental question of a musical - why is this story being told in song? The insubstantial narrative can’t support the bold, operatic strokes of the storytelling. But Driver often seems to be acting in a vacuum, not satisfyingly integrated with the other players or the story that’s unfolding. ![]() The dynamic force at the middle of it all is Driver, a tornado of physical intensity and tortured self-loathing as Henry McHenry, a kind of 21st century Lenny Bruce dubbed “The Ape of God.” His dyspeptic stage persona and punchy performance mode - he literally prepares for each show like a boxer warming up, bounding out in a bathrobe and swinging his mic cord like a weapon - make the character’s fall from grace a powerful arc. The different sensibilities involved rarely mesh together and the songs - mostly thin and unmemorable, more often talky than melodic, with obsessively repetitive lyrics - seldom ignite much feeling. Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)Ĭast: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell, Russell Mael, Ron Maelīut coming almost a decade after his last feature Holy Motors, the dazzling kaleidoscopic reflection on cinema that ingeniously doubled as a Carax career retrospective, the stubbornly flat new film is a strange and discordant creation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |