Lost Transmissions

The movie throws you into characters and their dynamics without ever establishing them in a way that...I don't know...makes sense. To the story. In the movie. Which generally appears to not know what it wants. Except maybe have the protagonist be stupid as hell in their dealing with Theo.

Which...it was hard to gage whether or not that was on purpose. Because no writer/director can be that oblivious. And Juno Temple did play her very much a like an idiotic LA type.

But then again the movie also played everything pretty straight. Except maybe for Daddario's character, who the movie sort of made fun of as a representation of the current LA music scene. All the while having the protagonist and their circle be equally as pretentious.

I don't know. I wanted to catch up on what Simon Pegg had been up to, and it had a 5 point average on here, and that one is pretty accurate. Pegg and Temple weren't bad technically, their characters were just written terribly. Or just integrated into the story very badly. Unfortunately that can make really good acting look really stupid.

I really liked the stylistic vision of the movie, though. Even though the sound editing could have used some more work.

But the general style, even if not groundbreaking or amazing or anything, was the movie's saving grace.

Lost Transmissions is a drama that follow Hannah (portrayed by Juno Temple), a shy songwriter who realizes her friend/producer Theo Ross (portrayed by Simon Pegg) is not taking his medication and suffering from schizophrenia. Along the way, Hannah is also trying to chase her own dreams as she is hired by musician Dana Lee (portrayed by Alexandra Daddario) to help write music for her next album.

The film portrays Simon Pegg is one of his best performances. I have not seen all of his films, but this is by far the best emotional performance I have seen from him.

Unfortunately, the film is very boring. It follows Theo as he goes around LA dealing with episodes of hallucination and having Hannah trying to save him. I found myself continuously going on my phone or failing to actually stay tuned in because I just was not into the story. So while I thought the film was acted well, I probably wouldn't recommend it - 5/10.

Hats off to Katharine for her directorial debut. She did a great job portraying someone with mental illness. The truth is heart breaking and painful to watch. It's moving and upsetting. Great film to raise awareness about mental illness, something that should become a casual topic yet there still is stigma about it. It was nice to see Simon Pegg in a modest and serious role. He was authentic and accurate. Juno Temple was captivating. Her vulnerability and internal life are beautiful to watch.

Mostly real performances from Simon Pegg (acting as a scatter-brain with grand creativity). Juno Temple is the most realistic performer but slows the films pace to a crawl. Other actors range essentially play pirates.

If you're a happy, smart person in general you'd find it very hard to associate or connect with the film in any way.

This is a heartbreaking story about how schizophrenia destroys a man's life. I find the story very engaging, and very real. It is great to see Simon Pegg in a serious role, and he's convincing in it too.