Seeing who was part of this project showed a lot of promise. With Trey Edward Shults at the helm who made the hidden gem Krisha and the very divisive It Comes At Night, I was hoping for another ideas driven feature.
But when I noticed Lucas Hedges was in the cast list, cries of 'Oscar bait' started to fill my head. Don't get me wrong, Hedges is a great actor that anyone would be proud to have him in their cast list. It's just that everything I see him in is the type of film you expect to fill the formula of a typical Oscar film. Plus, when he is part of one that is a genuine contender, it ends with little or no success.
After seeing the film, his appearance was quickly forgotten as there was much more to talk about.
This seemed to be a film of two halves. The first half was very effective. It covered interesting subjects such as America's push for perfection within its kids and the consequences of that. If moved along nicely, all the characters felt integral and I was caring a lot for what was happening. Especially when done parts felt like I could relate to them.
Then the film seemed to almost turn the opposite way in its tone and ideas. While I was fine with the subjects of grieving being the focus of the second half, the execution and paths it took was strange. It just ended up feeling like two totally different films by the end of it.
All the acting were of the biggest quality. There was a lot of passion in their performances and I think that will transcend well with audiences.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. continues to be a huge talent and his contribution to this film was very memorable. I was fascinated by the chemistry Sterling K. Brown's character, who also did a good job.
Taylor Russell's character showed great talent in her role and I hope to see her in more projects.
As for Hedges' contribution, it was fine. It was nothing exceptional. But it did the job and he hadxsome nice comical moments with Russell.
In terms of the craft, I noticed certain tropes in the cinematography that reminded me of the directors feature debut Krisha. With many 360 tracking shots, it was great to see this unique style back again. While I don't think it was as effective compared to Krisha, it was still nice to see.
As mentioned before, I could be cruel and call it pure 'Oscar bait' due to the subjects it's covering and that it has Lucas Hedges as part of its cast. But there was plenty of effective sequences that contained a lot ideas that can be discussed at length long after seeing this.
But I still the way the second half, it just seemed to slow the momentum down or take a tonal shift that just did not fully work for me. But I admire the ambitious structure vto the story and I still think people should check this out.
Rating: 7/10
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