Worthwhile, Cranston is marvelous

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2017)

I had pretty low expectations for this going into it. The premise just did not sound very interesting. To my surprise, the film turned out to be much better. I think what makes it work is that, at its core, it is a dialogue-driven Richard Linklater film. The intimate and one-on-one conversations throughout the film make it pop and are incredibly entertaining. The problem is that the premise and the plot structure around which those conversations are built are incredibly flawed, sometimes seeming inconsequential and incredibly contrived. If Linklater had found a better way to structure the main conversations and main trio around a better plot, it would have been an undeniably great film. As it is, it's a good, sometimes very good, one. Both Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston give some strong work here, especially the latter. After several films where he has given broad, over-the-top, cartoonish performances that lack any real authenticity (e.g., Trumbo, All The Way) I was beginning to think Cranston had forgotten the art of nuance. Here, he's able to bring nuance and real, heartfelt authenticity to the role while still bringing the showiness as it calls for it. Finally my faith in him as an actor has been restored, after having disappointed again and again since Breaking Bad. This is the performance he should be in awards consideration for. On the flipside, this is yet again another dramatic performance from Steve Carell that feels forced and unnatural. Even with great roles like the one in Foxcatcher he fails to be entirely convincing. Here he's not entirely bad, but he sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to Fishburne and Cranston.