slowdriver

Oh Godd Grief ! Can't everyone just acknowledge this is Neeson's best film in a loooong time ? It is a fine piece of work and a moving film. Neeson is marvelous in this, the overall period look and feel is genuinely great on what is probably a very low budget, the dramatics are compelling, and Liam is at the top of his game here... he can be so ggod an actor when he gets into what he is playing, one of the best really. A small film perhaps, but beautifully executed and flawless IMHO. I love this actor but really, this was the perfect vehicle for him and a real pleasure. Bravo to everyone involved in this beautiful, splendid piece of work. It sure got me hooked. Thanks to the team.

A true gem, if a bit flawed by overwhelming dramatics in a few scenes. A marvelous picture fom Amazon, for once. Amazing recreation of the 1950s by master director Michael Mann who is still going exceptionally strong at this stage in his carreer. The man is a treasure for film lovers, and has been for 40 plus years now, oh so classy ! Lively vivid stunning atmosphere. Beautiful photography, really awesome at times, amazing jaw-dropping racing scenes. An incredible visual treat for people who understand what classical Hollywood cinema, and Italian 1950s/60s aesthetics, were. Cruz is a bit on the heavy side, but Adam Driver quickly made me forget he wasn't Enzo Ferrari. Good work ! I interviewed Michael Mann in 1981 when I was in my early years as a journalist just after he directed Thief with James Caan and I am still in awe of his incredible talent 40 years later. Michael is one of the greatest directors ever. Period.

Rarely have I experienced such a horrible way to waste 3 hours and 10 minutes. This supposed homage to Hollywood at the time of its transition from silent film to talkies is in reality director Chazelle's embarassingly stupid vanity project. Whiplash was excellent, La-La Land was hit-and-miss, but this is all a downhill-crashing debacle. We get everything but the kitchen sink thrown in at us in a heap, and in a particularly offensive way, especially to any true film lover with any knowledge of Hollywood in the 1920s to the 1950s. Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, Fellini clowns, Tod Browning circus freaks, Orson Welles camera angles, a grotesque final montage that preposterously attempts to sum up over a century of cinema in 3 minutes, from Méliès to Avatar... There is no end to the ridicule here.

The director's gross fascination with body fluids is another embarrassment -- and as repulsive as can be, as we are treated to a non-stop avalanche of feces, urine, fake semen, vomit, spit, blood, sweat and (justifiably) tears. It is a sorry affair indeed, when a director shows his inner world to be so repulsive.

The three main characters are totally one-dimensional and don't evolve in any discernible way throughout the narrative. Brad Pitt as a Douglas Fairbanks / John Gilbert analogon is his old reliable self and does the job, with no particular intensity though. Margot Robbie is pretty good, in a hysterical sort of way. Tobey Maguire's performance seems so out-of-control one wonders how he managed to get away with this. The other performers are all very much bland and no secondary characters stand out or even seem to have any depth, thanks to dull, superficial writing.

The lengthy clips borrowed from Singing in the Rain at the end only help nail the film's coffin, so good it is to see a real piece of moviemaking after suffering through this. Many scenes are lifted from other, better films without any remorse and there is no script in sight.

This is the absolute anti-Fabelmans. It even makes Once upon a time in Hollywood look good. Good Lord !