Tries to combine two very different types of films without much success

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2017)

The biggest problem with this movie is it can't decide whether it wants to be some Lynchian sci- fi mind bender or a high school black comedy/suburban satire along the lines of Heathers or American Beauty. There are individual scenes that might work well in each, but as a whole it comes off as jumbled and tonally inconsistent. Richard Kelly seems to think there's significant thematic crossover here, but it's unclear what he thinks these themes even are. The famous ending is actually pretty easy to figure out, but the movie insists on throwing in some poorly defined and meaningless rules to appear more complex than it actually is, and then ruining this effect by literally spelling them out on the screen. It clarifies nothing, just demonstrates that the filmmakers are terrified of people not getting that there's supposed to be symbolism and time travel elements. The use of pop music to force the mood at times is distracting and dates the movie.
This movie is a sort of half-hearted attempt at Maze cinema (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Mulholland Drive, or Last Year at Marienbad for example) that tries to awkwardly marry certain elements of these quite challenging films with aesthetics and archetypes we're more used to. If it was a little more straightforward it would make a good dark comedy about a mentally ill teen. If it were a lot less conventional in its choices it might make a good art film. Instead the result is entertaining and a bit fun to ponder but ends up feeling a little pretentious. A teen movie, a political satire, and a pseudo-philosophical time travel enigma are all rolled up into this promising, puzzling, but ultimately uncertain movie.