Misfit

1y

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

TheFader

1y

Yeah I get that, there was still absolutely nothing driving the plot forward though. The voicemail happens, he leaves the concert, then he meets Ani

TheFader

1y

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.

TheFader

1y

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

joii

1y

Well written review. I’m not going to try and argue or make you change your mind but I do need to point out that the central conflict is not his girlfriend ghosting him. It’s kicks off when he loses his voice, that’s really the inception of the entire project anyways. I also do fundamentally disagree with “there is absolutely nothing going on narratively in this film whatsoever.”, there is a clear narrative and plot. Jenna’s character finding The Weeknd at his most vulnerable moment and helping him reach his truth = represented by the climax of the movie (him singing the title track). If your complaint is that the plot is boring, 100% valid criticism. But to say that there’s no narrative whatsoever is a complete misreading or lack of attention to the story. Again, this is an allegorical Jungian film. You also mention that Barry & Jenna’s characters were “one dimensional” and “didn’t feel like people who actually existed” — because they don’t. Lee, Ani, and Abel are the same characters. Which is why Ani’s entire characterization is based off her obsession with The Weeknd. She even explains how she is literally Abel in the dialogue when she describes her upbringing being identical to Abel (absent father, poor, etc.). The house she burns in the opening credits of the film was Abel’s symbolic childhood home— baby pictures of him and his mother, Ethiopian decor. It’s expressed very early on in subtle ways how Ani is a manifestation of Abel. Again, the entire film is narratively structured around Carl Jung’s archetypal theories of the Anima (Jenna), Persona (The Weeknd), Ego (Barry, at least I think so), and the Self (Abel). So yeah, there is a structured narrative written into the film and IMO it’s some of the best writing I’ve seen from Shults thus far. It’s a screenplay with layers of subtext that has the ability to be dissected with multiple viewings.

Jalen Brunson Fan

1y

Do you think the reception to this would be as bad if The Idol never happened?

TheFader

1y

I mentioned that when I said I don’t agree with people saying they don’t understand what’s going on. I fully got the subtext and who Anima was and what the house burning down represented. My problem was that it written in a way that felt narratively meandering. The part about the girlfriend voicemail driving the plot forward is that we never learn why the Abel character is so broken or having these issues sleeping or what exactly is causing him all of this mental stress at the beginning other than the fact that his girlfriend is not communicating with him.

Which brings me back to the point I made about the characters not being written in an interesting way whatsoever. There should’ve been more at the beginning before he lost his voice peeling back the layers as to why he’s in the state that he’s in at the start of the film

JeffersonSteelflex

1y

He should do comedies cause he is naturally funny I feel

Jalen Brunson Fan

1y

Do you think the reception to this would be as bad if The Idol never happened?

PALESTINE DATTEN

1y

Brooo

Jalen Brunson Fan

1y

Do you think the reception to this would be as bad if The Idol never happened?

Gameboi

1y

Abel should just do a full on comedy for his next acting endeavor.
He got comedic potential not even trolling or nothing

That Shut the F*** up scene that been going viral got me

relapsed bisexual

1y

did this movie really need 3 360 car shots

pussy bacon

1y

@Q3D HWTE

Gameboi

1y

Abel should just do a full on comedy for his next acting endeavor.
He got comedic potential not even trolling or nothing

That Shut the F*** up scene that been going viral got me

relapsed bisexual

1y

did this movie really need 3 360 car shots

SWAN

1y

It’s nowhere near as bad as Idols

mfs just exaggerating

Gameboi

1y

Abel should just do a full on comedy for his next acting endeavor.
He got comedic potential not even trolling or nothing

That Shut the F*** up scene that been going viral got me

relapsed bisexual

1y

shut the f*** up scene had me trying not to start howling in the theatre