aculprit

O, those inscrutable Japanese! Must be the reason for the good reviews on this one. In fact, it's just pretentious. I AM a fan of slow cinema, but those loooong slow pans require good cinematography. And either good music, or no music. This is Hamaguchi's weak spot--the music in his films is so bad, and so distracting, to detract from the films--in this case, it was overbearing.

If Hamaguchi's films have one redeeming feature, it's the story--unfortunately this one is short-changed by the ridiculous ending. It's as if he couldn't finish the story, so he just tacked on the stupidest, most pretentious (ooh, let's make it inscrutable!) ending he could.

The acting was good--impressive that they were non professionals, but since the characters were so flimsy it probably made it easier.

The community meeting with the corporate lackeys was the best scene in the film. Should've made a short with just that.

Really well done program, the acting was terrific. While i agree that dubbing the real artists' singing would have been preferable (maybe they couldn't get the rights?) the actors did a serviceable job. Michael Shannon especially, turned out to be a surprisingly good singer. Of course he's no George Jones; if he was he'd be a country music star instead of an actor. Or maybe not these days...he'd have to be autotuned and work with hiphop producers to top the so-called country charts of today. But I digress....

Sure the story was fictionalized, what biopic isn't? No one but George & Tammy know the details of their sex life, and neither is talking. What happens in private is only between those who were present, so is by neccesity embellished for dramatic effect (this IS television, after all). Even if a story is told by one who witnessed it, is that truth? Ever seen Rashomon?

The bone that needs picking (in this and far too many period films of the 50s through the 80s) is that the costume designer decided what they thought was "cool" and sorta 70s-ish. Glaringly inaccurate fashions were very distracting--OK maybe not if you're 30 but to anyone who lived through that era. With the budget they obviously had, couldn't they hire a professional costume designer who KNOWS the era? (or at least could do the research?)

And O My Dog, how about the makeup?? Women weren't wearing glittery earth-toned eye shadows in the 60s, not even if they were Tammy Wynette!

Really, just awful. None of the women can act, and the two male leads chew the scenery so hard that Heard can barely stumble through the cardboard mess. Better to spend the two hours watching paint dry.