This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I rented this movie with very high hopes, being a huge fan of another Richard Linklater film called "Before Sunrise", and I don't remember ever being as disappointed with a movie as I was with this one. I knew before watching the movie that it would be heavy on dialog and have more conversations between people than action, but I didn't think that meant it would be so boring.
After all, "Before Sunrise" is just one conversation spanning from the start to finish of the movie, and yet it was enjoyable the whole way through. This movie, however, was excruciating to watch. The movie focuses on one character speaking to another (or several others) and then finds a new character and repeats the process. I wouldn't mind this pattern if the ideas of the characters interested me at all, but they did not. The people in this movie are the kinds of people I try to avoid being stuck in a conversation with. They are obsessed with their ideas, to the point where they're rude, inconsiderate, and oppressively force their thoughts on others, instead of engaging them in two-way conversation.
I thought it was irritatingly unrealistic how this film suggested that a person walking down the street would be willing to listen to a complete stranger rambling on and on about some subject he is fascinated with (i.e. conspiracy theories) without just cutting them off mid-sentence and telling them to go away. Some of the characters do eventually say, "I have to go" politely, but I always hoped it would have happened much sooner that it did.
Richard Linklater's appearance in this film was the most disappointing scene for me. After admiring "Before Sunrise" so much and knowing that he wrote much of it, I was interested in learning about what he might be like as a person. I figured he must be a very likable and eloquent man. Maybe he is, but he certainly didn't seem that way in this film. As he gave a cab driver a lecture on some very hackneyed philosophical ideas with the conviction of someone who believes he's really on to something, my heart sank a little.
He came across the same way many characters in this film did - like a pretentious student who thinks he's a genius with brilliant and intriguing thoughts when what he's saying really isn't very deep or meaningful at all. He is undoubtedly a talented and intelligent director, but as an on screen performer in this movie, he comes across as a tool. I don't know how close this "character" he played is to his real personality, but I don't really care. You don't have to like a director's personality to enjoy their work. If his screen presence has to be as annoying as it was here, he should stay behind the camera instead of getting in front of it. Fortunately, that's what he seems intent on doing, as he hasn't appeared in his other movies.
One of the only scenes I liked was one in which a girl bluntly and amusingly criticized one of the rambling characters by telling him that he's an idiot because all he does is regurgitate ideas he reads in books and other sources. She puts him down him for thinking that doing so makes him seem cultured and intelligent, when all it really does is make him look like a know-it-all who has no original ideas of his own. What was so funny and ironic about this exchange was that it perfectly conveyed my feelings about almost every character in the movie.
With its endless parade of shallow, deluded, and grating characters, this movie is a really torturous experience. The constant barrage of philosophy is exhausting and it doesn't pay off by providing viewers with any memorable or thought-provoking insights or information. It's a bit like "Waking Life", except without monologues that are actually interesting sometimes or remarkable animation to keep your eyes intrigued even when your ears are not.
After all, "Before Sunrise" is just one conversation spanning from the start to finish of the movie, and yet it was enjoyable the whole way through. This movie, however, was excruciating to watch. The movie focuses on one character speaking to another (or several others) and then finds a new character and repeats the process. I wouldn't mind this pattern if the ideas of the characters interested me at all, but they did not. The people in this movie are the kinds of people I try to avoid being stuck in a conversation with. They are obsessed with their ideas, to the point where they're rude, inconsiderate, and oppressively force their thoughts on others, instead of engaging them in two-way conversation.
I thought it was irritatingly unrealistic how this film suggested that a person walking down the street would be willing to listen to a complete stranger rambling on and on about some subject he is fascinated with (i.e. conspiracy theories) without just cutting them off mid-sentence and telling them to go away. Some of the characters do eventually say, "I have to go" politely, but I always hoped it would have happened much sooner that it did.
Richard Linklater's appearance in this film was the most disappointing scene for me. After admiring "Before Sunrise" so much and knowing that he wrote much of it, I was interested in learning about what he might be like as a person. I figured he must be a very likable and eloquent man. Maybe he is, but he certainly didn't seem that way in this film. As he gave a cab driver a lecture on some very hackneyed philosophical ideas with the conviction of someone who believes he's really on to something, my heart sank a little.
He came across the same way many characters in this film did - like a pretentious student who thinks he's a genius with brilliant and intriguing thoughts when what he's saying really isn't very deep or meaningful at all. He is undoubtedly a talented and intelligent director, but as an on screen performer in this movie, he comes across as a tool. I don't know how close this "character" he played is to his real personality, but I don't really care. You don't have to like a director's personality to enjoy their work. If his screen presence has to be as annoying as it was here, he should stay behind the camera instead of getting in front of it. Fortunately, that's what he seems intent on doing, as he hasn't appeared in his other movies.
One of the only scenes I liked was one in which a girl bluntly and amusingly criticized one of the rambling characters by telling him that he's an idiot because all he does is regurgitate ideas he reads in books and other sources. She puts him down him for thinking that doing so makes him seem cultured and intelligent, when all it really does is make him look like a know-it-all who has no original ideas of his own. What was so funny and ironic about this exchange was that it perfectly conveyed my feelings about almost every character in the movie.
With its endless parade of shallow, deluded, and grating characters, this movie is a really torturous experience. The constant barrage of philosophy is exhausting and it doesn't pay off by providing viewers with any memorable or thought-provoking insights or information. It's a bit like "Waking Life", except without monologues that are actually interesting sometimes or remarkable animation to keep your eyes intrigued even when your ears are not.