Extremely Worthwhile View

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2013)

Unfortunately, this movie's reputation has been enormously vandalized.
Simply put, there is absolutely no way you could watch this movie and give it anything less than four stars, and I'm being somewhat generous. People who give it a single star are simply contrarians who likely heard how "life changing and awesome" this movie was with the preconceived notion that they would be the prophet to prove everyone wrong and then watched the movie searching for any reason to be disappointed.
While it's true this movie probably doesn't deserve ten stars, and the opposite can be equally extreme, for some people this movie can definitely "hit home" for them.
I greatly value movies that either provoke ideas and thinking, are spiritually "cleansing", or simply revolutionize an archetype. The mainstream movies with pointless twenty minute action scenes or incredibly try-hard drama just doesn't do a thing for me. Even if you don't like this movie, it doesn't belong with Magic Mike.
I also have a pretty strong bias for movies that investigate systems of oppression, which is ultimately what this movie explores through each storyline, and chiefly why I gave it a nice score. It kind of makes an attempt to maybe philosophically address this "mistake" that we seem to keep repeating, but it's not very direct and might not actually even be there. It has sufficient room for some interpretation.
TL;DR -- Not the best movie I've ever watched, but definitely one of my favorites. It explores human conditions of suffering and captivity of varying degrees and situations. Even if you're not into analyzing ideas and themes, the storyline stands on its own merits. It's also kind of fun trying to figure out who is which character in each storyline--sometimes they change gender even.
I'm not saying to watch this movie ASAP, just put it on your list and watch it when you're alone one weekend searching for something to do. You might genuinely be surprised to find you also have a new favorite movie.