LOL

True but she started out as an actor

Been a minute since someone who had a solidified music career first successfully transition into a successful film career.

Been a XOTWOD fan since 2011 man

Should I even pay money to see this s*** in theaters or just wait for it to hit streaming

Lmk chat

if you liked the new album yeah

Lol this was not bad at all

A lil messy, a lil raw, but defo not bad

Yep

I did like the album

Don't bs man. I couldn't even finish the idol?

The Idol was ass

This was weird but in a profoundly positive way, my only issue is the lack of a clear plot - but thats mainly cos everything is down to your own interpretation here

This movie is the album in video form I’m ngl

This^ people just overreacting / bandwagon joking per usual

Once it becomes cool to hate, people lose their freewill

A common theme these days unfortunately

This was so very bad unfortunately even Barry and Jenna were horrific

Ok let's rock

yeah I've never seen Barry give a bad performance before but he was pretty unconvincing here

Halsey looks sorta good in this off the trailer

I forgot about that lmfao

her 5 mins in MaXXXine were nice tbh

Brooo

Wanted to sit with my thoughts for a little before sharing them.

I’ll start by saying this: this is NOT a great film by any means, but if The Weeknd didn’t exist at all and this was an entirely original film by Trey Edward Shults, it wouldn’t be getting anywhere near the bad critic reception that it’s getting. I go to the theaters sometimes 3 times a week, and I see basically every new release that comes out as long as I have the time to, and I can easily rattle off 10 films from this decade that are much worse than this here. Again, it’s not great, but at worst it’s a pretentious avant-garde film that’s trying too hard to be artsy and thought-provoking but ultimately fails to miss the mark due to a lack of strong writing and storytelling.

My positives are the music (obviously) and the cinematography (everything besides the rotating shot that was spammed fourteen hundred times). This film looks and sounds great. It’s very engaging visually, and tonally it feels like a Trey Edward Shults film. I think where Abel had the most creative control was with the broad story, but in terms of scope and direction, it doesn’t feel like Trey was overstepped at all here. With the story not being all the captivating, they should’ve went all out with the avant garde s*** and just made it as trippy and sensory-blitzing as possible, and I think the film would’ve fared better overall if that was the case, but unfortunately they tried to tell a meaningful story as well and that brings me to the negatives.

Número uno: the writing. There is absolutely nothing going on narratively in this film whatsoever. It is 105 minutes of literal emptiness. The central conflict driving the plot forward is… his girlfriend not answering his texts. If that’s the piece of your screenplay that sets the story in motion, you need a new screenplay. It’s not really a matter of not understanding what’s happening in the story, since I see some criticizing it for that, it’s more of a problem that there’s just nothing going on. The film could essentially be boiled down as a very bad day in the life of The Weeknd. The climax is also horrendous and drawn out. The pacing of the entire film was a little off, there are multiple scenes that should’ve ended earlier, but the climax especially was the biggest offender of it.

Next negative: the characters & the acting. There are 3 on-screen characters with a speaking role in this film, and by the end of the film, you learn nothing interesting or noteworthy about a single one of them. They’re all extremely one dimensional, vapid, and don’t feel like real people that exist. Abel’s acting is not egregiously bad, but I think it’s definitely not good enough to be the leading man of a theatrical film. He has a good on-screen presence, and his line delivery is believable most of the time, but acting is more than just delivering lines on screen. He lacks any subtlety whatsoever, and doesn’t really convey any emotion other than sadness.

Which brings me to the tears. I don’t know who told this nigga that crying equals good acting, but whoever it was he needs to cut them off for life. This nigga was in tears literally every other scene. I’ve never been so emotionally exhausted by the end of a film while simultaneously not feeling any emotions at all. Michael Caine had a great quote about characters crying, he said:

”Men will do anything but cry. When you cry, you must fight the tears, and if you fight the tears, the audience will cry for you.”

Actors shouldn’t be crying at will every time something emotional happens, their character should be resisting the urge to cry, and therefore that leads to the audience experiencing the emotion for them. It seems like Abel had tears rolling down his cheek every time he was on screen. With more practice, he has the potential to play a supporting role in a film, but he has a very long way to go if he wants to be a leading man in Hollywood at any point in the future.

All in all, the film is a big, ambitious creative swing, but it ultimately strikes out. It is drastically better than The Idol, and I think most of the “worst of the decade” criticisms being flung at this film are much more appropriately directed at that horrible TV show. I definitely think there are some people online that are just joining in on the fun by bashing it unfairly, but I think most of the lashings this film is getting are sadly deserved.

If Abel really wants to pivot into the Film & TV world, he needs to take a serious step back and understand that it’s okay to just play a part in someone else’s story. We don’t need a vanity project every go-around, especially if they’re gonna be at the level of quality of this film. I do think I enjoyed this more than the average person since I am a huge Weeknd fan, but I still don’t think it’s a great film by any stretch. Still, I respect the ambition and I think it’s cool that my favorite artist got a major motion picture made and released in theaters.

Overall, I would give this a 5/10. Not the worst thing in the world, extremely far from the best, and maybe a little too tailored for people that are already fans of The Weeknd rather than trying to tell a story that anyone can experience and enjoy.

Ariana Grande was just nominated for an Oscar

If were considering Weeknd to be part of our generation than Gaga should be too, and she has been extremely successful in film and also nominated for an Oscar

Kid Cudi has quietly been building a resume of supporting roles in film & TV, and he has an original feature he’s directing and starring in coming soon

Frank Ocean has the A24 film he’s directing

Kendrick has the film with the South Park creators coming out next year, but I think that may just be a producing role

Janelle Monae has done some good roles

That’s just off the top of my head

on your point about their being nothing going on narratively what about the whole plot point of Jenna not actually being a real person and instead Abel’s anima, to me that’s the key plot of the movie, the transformation of his inner self