Flawed, but fantastic acting

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2017)

I don't know how to feel about this. There's so much to admire, the biggest being its cast. It's some great work by an incredibly talented cast, with Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund being the best in show. They both deliver some truly fantastic work. The biggest shame is that the film is quite messy. It tries to juggle so much, or maybe in theory it could have worked, but it's brought down so many times by some really questionable directorial choices. The film's music is sometimes overused, the editing jumpy and sometimes prevents you from getting too invested, and the cinematography quite messy. Technically, the film is incredibly flawed. It seems to lack a real sense of rhythm and consistent pacing the more it goes on, even if weirdly the character story lines also become a lot more investing. The main plot summary or premise of the film, or what all sites had it as being, doesn't really kick into gear until the second half, which makes the thing even more confusing. However, the different perspectives through which the film is shown was a great artistic choice (definitely gotten from the novel, and sometimes it does feel very rushed as well). Overall, I'm going to have to sit a bit on this one. I want to like it a lot, but as it is it's a big ol' mess. The final scenes also seem to come out of nowhere, as if the film was in a hurry to end.