Really effective review Eric! While I disagree that the film’s sentimental moments are an unnecessary indulgence of Garland’s, I think that its sense of eclecticism does work to the detriment of the film overall.
You identified the post modern sensibility to construct a film around the preconceived image of others very powerfully in the contrast between Boyle’s iconoclasm and Garland’s nostalgia-fuelled characters of the ‘Jimmy gang’. This film does feel conflicted as to whether it wants to be a cultural touchstone mirroring earlier entries or something which purposefully subverts them altogether and that to me is its greatest pitfall.
Thank you so much! Totally agree about the modular strangeness of the film. I haven’t seen the other entries in this series yet, but I’m definitely more curious now
Really effective review Eric! While I disagree that the film’s sentimental moments are an unnecessary indulgence of Garland’s, I think that its sense of eclecticism does work to the detriment of the film overall.
You identified the post modern sensibility to construct a film around the preconceived image of others very powerfully in the contrast between Boyle’s iconoclasm and Garland’s nostalgia-fuelled characters of the ‘Jimmy gang’. This film does feel conflicted as to whether it wants to be a cultural touchstone mirroring earlier entries or something which purposefully subverts them altogether and that to me is its greatest pitfall.
Thank you so much! Totally agree about the modular strangeness of the film. I haven’t seen the other entries in this series yet, but I’m definitely more curious now