Interesting

Rating: 10/10 (28 September 2015)

I was going over when I was watching this film whether I should give it ten out of ten or a score slightly below that. So I sat down and thought about it for a while. And decided on the former. This type of movie deserves to be seen through the lenses of retrospect, so when faced with it immediately (or even about a year after release), we must scramble to put together our thoughts together before the leaves fall from the trees of time. This is another reason why I kind of fear becoming an actual critic, which is still a possibility; I'm still young. But I digress.
Honestly, this is a film that should be analyzed rather than reviewed. I think I'd make better heads or tails of it if it was released ten years ago. Nonetheless, there are a few things of which I am absolutely certain. First and foremost: I can see why this film won best picture at the Oscars. It is everything Hollywood likes, everything Hollywood likes to think it is, not yet ready to accept its fate as a hollow, money-making machine that occasionally produces something worth thinking about. Yes, it takes place on Broadway, but it involves a former film actor (a thinly veiled Michael Keaton, who I imagine took at least some of his personal feelings and through them into this performance). And even if it didn't, it is in the same ballpark. The emotions, temptations, yearning, and desire are not only Hollywood through and through, they seem to come from the very heart of Hollywood, if one could say that it even has a heart.
This makes it different from other Hollywood movies about Hollywood. This is one of the times when it's good that Hollywood people are so vain and make movies about themselves; it gives real perspective. It's exaggerated for cinematic purposes, of course, but you can feel that every emotion expressed in this film is an emotion that runs through the core of actors and Hollywood in general. It's cathartic. And that makes it pulse in resonance. It's like that rich kid who has so much but when he talks about the whirlwind of life he's in, you believe that he's telling the truth. If you still have no sympathy for that rich kid and are never a fan of pretentious films, you can skip this easily. But you probably would not have much interest in watching it anyways. For me, it stitches everything together and makes it pulse with electricity.
Two: the screenplay is one of the ten best I've ever seen. You heard me. Not good; not great; not outstanding: one of the best I've ever seen. It is primarily the reason this film I gave the film five stars. I could not, in good conscious, give this film anything less than a perfect score when it has a script better than even some of the best Woody Allen movies.
It contemplates on the dark nature of life, but saves the getting lost in it for the film, rather than unnecessarily making everything twisted, as is my problem with Kaufman scripts. It comments on the nature of society, both as it stands presently and will always stand. It does not shy away from delivering monologues but also does not drag the film down with them. In ways, it is like reading a book by one of the great authors (David Foster Wallace comes to mind) in that there is always something around every corner to be chewed on. It knows how to use humor; the movie is hilarious, but it does not stop for one-liners, as does something like The Avengers. In fact, the script, and perhaps, this movie as a whole, is oftentimes the diametric opposite of the Avengers, but that's a topic for another day.
Everything moves fast, but not too fast. It knows how to pace itself. But many movies can do that. This one knows how to use that space, filling it by extrapolating and connoting, while knowing how much to leave symbolic. A sign of a good, interesting, is that it depicts what you never think about but somehow know about, particularly the little things. This movie has that in spades.
Three: perhaps the first thing you will notice is the film's artistic style. It gives off the feeling that everything was done in one take, which, though it robs the film of some of the paused, cinematic scenes that would have made it better, is used for interesting effect, giving us scenes that we have never seen. But it is being used to best effect when the would-be revival play of the washed up superhero actor that is our main is acted. The lines between real and play blue, but not in a gimmicky way. It seems seamless; for that, I say it is a net positive decision and one I am glad they made.
There are not enough calm scenes and the climactic scenes are not as grand as they would like to be. But one can almost excuse that as part of the film's theme; of a man chasing the acceptance of others even to his demise. It may not capture me entirely, as my top 50 films are wont to do, but even in its faults, it is glorious.
And be sure to stick around to the end. It's interesting.