Mainstream

"Are you prepared to let the world see the real you?"

In this cautionary tale by Gia Coppola, a young woman finds a path to internet stardom when she starts making videos with a charismatic stranger. While bathing in their success, they struggle to preserve their identities as they form an eccentric love triangle within the fast-moving internet age. Undoubtedly, Mainstream has so much potential. When exploring the internet and how culture reacts to it these days, so much can be said and create meaningful messages. And that's what the movie tries to do. Unfortunately, that's where it loses potential. It would be fine if there was something greater to be said, but all that is said has been known for years now and we get nothing new out of the story. With its introduction, the movie isn't bad. Most of the beginning is just built on a promising setup. Our three main characters are all interesting and could lead somewhere. Andrew Garfield is electric in his overly obnoxious role. Honestly, it might be one of his best performances. Sometimes he goes a little too off the rails, but that is the point. Maya Hawke is good and so is Nat Wolff. I will say Nat Wolff is incredibly underutilized. He is one of the better characters and has a powerful voice in the story. Of course, the focus is more on Garfield.

Gia Coppola has a visual voice rather than story. The movie is shot incredibly well and has some very good visuals. That might be the best part of the movie. And the score is good as well. Other technicals fall flat. The editing has some really bad moments. On film Twitter, a clip of the movie was going around of an atrocious mistake left in the movie where the audio and video doesn't lineup and it randomly restarts. Other times, the editing just doesn't serve it well. But mainly, the story is just disappointing. You can watch it and be entertained, but it takes a certain person. Plot lines are dropped when they should be important. The whole third act just doesn't work well at all because of this. It wants to say how sometimes people can get extreme and it affects the lives of others detrimentally. That mainly falls with a short cameo from Alexa Demie. But the end says something a little different about it from Garfield's point of view and I'm not sure it was supposed to be taken seriously. Like, what happens is serious but the movie doesn't take it seriously like it should. Mainstream just falls short with each chance it has. I can see this gaining a cult following in the future. There is a good chunk of people who did really like it, and it's a battle between them and those who just hate it. I'm more in the middle. I don't exactly hate it and I did find myself entertained, but it's just not that great. Gia Coppola has yet to find her voice, but there is potential with upcoming work.

This is not a good movie. But, it is so bad, that it's almost good again. That said, Andrew Garfield is acting his heart out and he deserves all the praise he gets. Sadly on the other hand, Miss Hawke is a bit of a plank of wood who often disappears behind the otherwise stellar cast. It does seem at times that Andrew is in a better movie, a movie I'd rather be watching. It has enough crazy energy and manic scenes to make it a future Cult Classic. But alas, for now it's just an unfocused, pretentious mess of morality tale, that is way too in love with itself.

It's honestly impressive how a movie can be so weird, yet very predictable. It all started of so simple and honestly pretty interesting. Garfield plays an outsider who is just so fascinating and entertaining to look and listen to. He is by far the best thing to come out of this as he gives more than 110%. He shows the light and fun side, but also the dark places that an internet star can go to. On the other hand, the rest of this movie is just not on his level at all. I know Maya Hawke is a very good actress, but this just wasn't it for her. Her chemistry with Garfield just wasn't there and in general her character was just very of to me. But the main problem with this movie is definitely the story. I like the message that it's trying to tell us that we should all just put our phones down and be ourselves, but it's just the execution of that message that is so wrong. The exaggeration and unrealistic moments are so bad in this movie. This is not how the internet works, and we all know that. It's kinda like are writer went on YouTube for the first time, clicked on a couple of channels, and made a movie about it. It's just too much for me. It kept me entertained enough all the way through, but it's just not that good.

So first I'll start with the cast,, Andrew Garfield acting was great, and the last scene was just wicked good .. Maya Hawke role was okay ,, Nat Wolff. Just got his everyday role, loving the girl - doesn't get the girl-then he gets the girl .. but it was a good casting overall.

The bad thing now is the storyline, as some has mentioned it does have a lot of clichés ,, Like the fist 10 minutes I was like things are going this way .. very expected ... It tries to draw you back but again it just felt predictable.

I do get it tries to send a message ,, a purposeful one I must say. But you also want to watch a movie with good writing /directing in which Gia Coppola was not successful.

Is the movie watchable ? Yes it is .. Is it enjoyable ? I'd say 5/10 .. now is it recommendable ? 6/10 for the message an all.

This movie caught my attention because of Andrew Garfield, who pour his everything in this somewhat of a mediocre movie. Though it had an interesting premise, the execution was just...bad. If you have one and a half hours to kill, you could check it out, but you'll surely get frustrated by the end of it.