This was...alright. Feels like a movie someone like Gaspar Noe, Lynne Ramsey, Denis Villeneuve, or Jonathan Glazer would've done exponentially better tbh. Might be TES's worst movie in his filmography honestly. Cinematography's great, but the general vibe I felt from the movie was more style over substance with a number of shots and scenes in this. Acting ranges from ok/serviceable to hilariously bad at points (which is definitely a fault of the writing, which as much as I love the man, The Weeknd/Abel needs to either work on his screenwriting efforts more or just let someone else take over the reigns completely). I still enjoyed seeing it, but I don't see myself watching it again. 5.5/10

I’m glad it wasn’t total trash but definitely had some issues. Same issues other Trey films have had but more amplified

Any homages to lynch?

Got some wine and brisket sliders, let's see what's up

Yes…

Silent Hill as well

The homages I caught were Kubrick, Bergman, and Mary Harron. Didn't catch any Lynch references, but the entire film itself could be considered "lynchian".

Someone needs to tell Trey that the spinning camera thing doesn't look cool

This sort of exposes Trey as a bad director, which sucks cause I f***ed with Krisha a lot. He's doing all his tricks, but none of them are good. I think he's in a state of arrested development.

No idea what people see in Jenna Ortega
She just looks like a 16 year old latina chick that's part of her High School's AV Club

Hate to say it but this was tough watch (luckily not because of Abel’s acting). Some of the worst writing I’ve seen in a while. 2/5

This wishes it was The Idol

Think after a few hours sitting with it I dropped it down some, feeling more like a 5.5-6/10

Jenna Ortega needs an intervention

as soon as he starts to lose his voice (singing Wake Me Up) on stage that’s when he sees Jenna in the crowd for the first time and she stays with him until he starts to finds his voice again (singing the final track HUT) in the bed at the end of the movie. maybe she’s supposed to represent his mental block that stopped him from singing

i feel like some of this was incredibly shallow/abstract for the sake of being abstract and some of it had some depth to it, plus the ambiguity of what Jenna Ortega's character represents (imo Abel literally trying to kill The Weeknd as a character because of how different it is from him and resentful of his popularity because it feels inauthentic--to him, i'm guessing)

i feel the same way of the film references some felt kinda nice like In The Mood for Love in the car scene or King of Comedy with the whole crazed fan of a celebrity performing for a captive audience consisting of that celebrity

but at the same time Trey Edward Shultz' use of aspect ratios here + the spinning camera inside the car felt really rehashed from Waves, but way less purposeful

idk I wanna sit with it a little more

also a couple sat right next to me in my Dolby theater and proceeded to text each other and their friends on their bright ass phones the entire time and judged me mad hard for asking them to move down the row if they're gonna be on their phones

Seeing this tonight

which songs from the album are in the movie?

Wake Me Up, Cry For Me, Sao Paolo, Open Hearts, Timeless, Drive, Red Terror, Without a Warning, Hurry Up Tomorrow

I believe that's all of them (not counting interludes)

his acting has gotten a lot better! which i love to see def has improved since the idol

sitting on it more, I dropped my score by half a point

I’m waiting for the review embargo to end tn at 6…gonna be fun