I just recently watched this movie as part of my tour through Amber Heard's filmography (I started watching her movies and now I can't stop myself because of how good she is in every single one that I've watched so far). I was very skeptical about it and very critical while watching it because of all the negative reviews I'd seen of it. It turns out that I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
Frankly, I think that much of the criticism of the movie revolves around a misunderstanding of what it was intended to be. Many (including myself for a while) seem to look at its loose and open plot as a weakness and thus as evidence of poor screenwriting. But it seems to me that this is part of the movie's nihilistic and open-ended exposition of life and of morality. Indeed, the movie seems to have been designed to show that 'life just happens' and that with no ultimate objective authority on what is good and what is bad and on how, if ever, the complications arising from our actions ought to be resolved, the task of determining what is good and what is right, as opposed to determining what is merely convenient, is a daunting and perhaps futile one. In other words, that there are no references to look to in life and that there seldom are answers or resolutions to many of the events that incoherently litter the uncertain paths that each of our lives as humans take. While I don't personally subscribe to this outlook on life, I appreciate the how the movie was designed to convey it. That said, I can see how the movie's open and loose plot could, on grounds of pure entertainment, repulse many a viewer who is used to tighter plots with satisfactory resolutions.
More than its plot however, I enjoyed the amazing performances of Amber Heard (as Christie), Brad Renfro (as Jack), and Mel Raido (as Bryan Metro). I do think however that Gregor Jordan (director) made the same mistake that most directors in the earlier years of Heard's career made: he under-utilized her talent by excessively emphasizing her sexual appeal by sexually objectifying her rather than putting her talent to good use by centering her in the plot in a more autonomous and agentic capacity. Despite this, Heard's sexual appeal is undeniable and, in the scenes where she has significant presence, she manages to captivate in a way that none of the other women in the movie (excepting perhaps Cameron Goodman) succeeds to. Needless to say, I imagine that it must have been particularly difficult for Heard to shoot this movie given the number of frontal nude scenes that she was required to shoot. Indeed, she had never hitherto shot in any movie or TV show scenes that were as revealing as the ones in this movie. As such, I hope that she was handsomely compensated for this and I hope that as she gains greater prominence in her acting career, greater appreciation for this movie leads to her gaining more benefits from it.
Still on Amber Heard, I noticed an important element in her character Christie's narrative arch that I'm certain many viewers of the movie missed. This is that Christie complains about feeling tired and sick throughout the movie and, to the viewer as well as the other characters around her, it seems like she's just being lazy and entitled. Yet, in the end, we come to discover that she indeed has been sick (you won't guess with what illness) and that if anybody truly cared about her, they would have believed her and offered her help before the sickness had progressed to the level that it had progressed to in that end. Combined with Heard's magnificent performance, Gregor Jordan and Bret Easton Ellis manage, through this, to convey just how callous, uncaring, and exploitative the people in the world that Christie is living in are.
That said, things that were off-putting to me in the movie include: the inclusion of Mickey Rourke in it and his performance; its insensitivity to how it approaches child sexual assault, exploitation, and trafficking and; its extremely poor racial and gender representations.
In all then, I'd have rated this movie with a 6 because of its negatives as expressed precedingly and as weighted against the creative exposition of its main themes as earlier discussed but Amber Heard's presence and performance raise this to an 8. I would recommend the movie to the more philosophically-inclined and critical-minded viewer as well as to those looking for a depressing look into the vacuousness of hedonistic lives. I'd also recommend it to Amber Heard fans and to those interested in her movies and, although not as strongly, I'd lastly recommend it to almost anyone for at least one viewing.
Frankly, I think that much of the criticism of the movie revolves around a misunderstanding of what it was intended to be. Many (including myself for a while) seem to look at its loose and open plot as a weakness and thus as evidence of poor screenwriting. But it seems to me that this is part of the movie's nihilistic and open-ended exposition of life and of morality. Indeed, the movie seems to have been designed to show that 'life just happens' and that with no ultimate objective authority on what is good and what is bad and on how, if ever, the complications arising from our actions ought to be resolved, the task of determining what is good and what is right, as opposed to determining what is merely convenient, is a daunting and perhaps futile one. In other words, that there are no references to look to in life and that there seldom are answers or resolutions to many of the events that incoherently litter the uncertain paths that each of our lives as humans take. While I don't personally subscribe to this outlook on life, I appreciate the how the movie was designed to convey it. That said, I can see how the movie's open and loose plot could, on grounds of pure entertainment, repulse many a viewer who is used to tighter plots with satisfactory resolutions.
More than its plot however, I enjoyed the amazing performances of Amber Heard (as Christie), Brad Renfro (as Jack), and Mel Raido (as Bryan Metro). I do think however that Gregor Jordan (director) made the same mistake that most directors in the earlier years of Heard's career made: he under-utilized her talent by excessively emphasizing her sexual appeal by sexually objectifying her rather than putting her talent to good use by centering her in the plot in a more autonomous and agentic capacity. Despite this, Heard's sexual appeal is undeniable and, in the scenes where she has significant presence, she manages to captivate in a way that none of the other women in the movie (excepting perhaps Cameron Goodman) succeeds to. Needless to say, I imagine that it must have been particularly difficult for Heard to shoot this movie given the number of frontal nude scenes that she was required to shoot. Indeed, she had never hitherto shot in any movie or TV show scenes that were as revealing as the ones in this movie. As such, I hope that she was handsomely compensated for this and I hope that as she gains greater prominence in her acting career, greater appreciation for this movie leads to her gaining more benefits from it.
Still on Amber Heard, I noticed an important element in her character Christie's narrative arch that I'm certain many viewers of the movie missed. This is that Christie complains about feeling tired and sick throughout the movie and, to the viewer as well as the other characters around her, it seems like she's just being lazy and entitled. Yet, in the end, we come to discover that she indeed has been sick (you won't guess with what illness) and that if anybody truly cared about her, they would have believed her and offered her help before the sickness had progressed to the level that it had progressed to in that end. Combined with Heard's magnificent performance, Gregor Jordan and Bret Easton Ellis manage, through this, to convey just how callous, uncaring, and exploitative the people in the world that Christie is living in are.
That said, things that were off-putting to me in the movie include: the inclusion of Mickey Rourke in it and his performance; its insensitivity to how it approaches child sexual assault, exploitation, and trafficking and; its extremely poor racial and gender representations.
In all then, I'd have rated this movie with a 6 because of its negatives as expressed precedingly and as weighted against the creative exposition of its main themes as earlier discussed but Amber Heard's presence and performance raise this to an 8. I would recommend the movie to the more philosophically-inclined and critical-minded viewer as well as to those looking for a depressing look into the vacuousness of hedonistic lives. I'd also recommend it to Amber Heard fans and to those interested in her movies and, although not as strongly, I'd lastly recommend it to almost anyone for at least one viewing.