I was definitely unconvinced about this movie in the beginning and, honestly, up until about halfway through. The constant anger spouted by Jodie, the protagonist (although she's kind of also the antagonist), is definitely exhausting. Everyone knows or has known someone like her, someone who has so much anger inside of them that it comes out in every word they say, no matter what they're talking about, and in her you are bound to see your own person and feel the exhaustion you've felt around them. In the first half of the movie, it definitely starts to feel like this is all this character has to offer, like the writer forgot to give her dimension or even just a setting below "full blast". This, coupled with the borderline offensively stereotypical "LA gays" and the way that they're portrayed as little more than a Greek Chorus doesn't make for a particularly stimulating or even pleasant watch. However, the further into the movie we get, we start to see more of the real pain Jodie is in, and it does absolute wonders for the way a viewer can connect to her. The emotional range of Anna Schlegel becomes so much more apparent in these moments, and it's the first time you get the feeling that any of the filmmakers really understood how to utilize her talent.
This is not a comfortable movie to watch and it might even feel somewhat pointless when all is said and done, but the fact of the matter is, not every movie needs to have a moral or even a sense of closure. While this movie has neither, it does provide a character study that I think isn't seen very often, a truly unglamorous and relentless look at the ugliest places we go in our own heads when we feel unloved.
