brilliant film-making....

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2016)

Wow....all the negative reviews suggests this falls in the "love it or hate it" category...any time people react so negatively (or sometimes positively) to something, one should watch it again 2 years, or 5 years later...I suspect some of the reviewers would reverse their opinions completely! I generally avoid 95% of Hollywood films, and picked this up off the shelf at the library...
I watched it twice, first by myself, and then a day or two later with my mother...all the hype, for once, IS justified...it's brilliant! Start with the music: lush romantic classic orchestral for his fantasies, and on-stage, then solo jazz drumming for the harsh reality of here and now, the anxiety-filled present (and since it's set in NY, what music better represents NY than jazz?). Great drum score composed by Antonio Sanchez, but played by Brian Blade? (two shots of the drummer in the film, on the sidewalk and in the theatre lunchroom).
The camera movement and the way shots are blended and seamless is fantastic! The acting is great, as one would expect, and the action-hero theme is nicely complemented by some symbolism and allegory, like the shot of Icarus burning up in the atmosphere....or two shots of squid or something washed up on a beach, (which I can make no sense of)....
Yes, its a Hollywood film, but written and directed by a Mexican, it has an immediacy that draws you in...and rewards multiple viewings!