Spoilers herein.
Yes, this movie is a disaster. Yes, it has clumsy cinematography and direction. It has uninspired acting from the women who are at the center of things.
So do most movies. What this lacks is a success where it takes its big risk, and that big risk is worth noting.
A game these days for writers is to play with shifting narrative. You can do the time folding thing, or folding the narrator (by shifting among different perspectives), or folding the story (by having several parallel threads) or folding the genre (for instance comedy into horror, here "women's film into con game). You can additionally, if you are very clever (as in "Donnie Darko" and "Ghost World" and even "Boondock Saints") fold irony.
These guys try all of them. No genre is more flexible for this sort of thing than the con movie, unless it is a mockumentary about performance. And they follow in the footsteps of "Bound," which works some of this territory successfully.
They fail, I think, because the director just doesn't have the vocabulary to manipulate and fold that space between the story and our mind. But they get extra credit in my mind for trying to go beyond "Go."
Along the way, we get the rule of doubling: two of everything, and reflections of every relationship and event. That's why you have the shifting POVs, the dual lesbian stuff, the two pairs of thugs, the "extra" girl (Sophie) and the apparently useless heroin segment.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
Yes, this movie is a disaster. Yes, it has clumsy cinematography and direction. It has uninspired acting from the women who are at the center of things.
So do most movies. What this lacks is a success where it takes its big risk, and that big risk is worth noting.
A game these days for writers is to play with shifting narrative. You can do the time folding thing, or folding the narrator (by shifting among different perspectives), or folding the story (by having several parallel threads) or folding the genre (for instance comedy into horror, here "women's film into con game). You can additionally, if you are very clever (as in "Donnie Darko" and "Ghost World" and even "Boondock Saints") fold irony.
These guys try all of them. No genre is more flexible for this sort of thing than the con movie, unless it is a mockumentary about performance. And they follow in the footsteps of "Bound," which works some of this territory successfully.
They fail, I think, because the director just doesn't have the vocabulary to manipulate and fold that space between the story and our mind. But they get extra credit in my mind for trying to go beyond "Go."
Along the way, we get the rule of doubling: two of everything, and reflections of every relationship and event. That's why you have the shifting POVs, the dual lesbian stuff, the two pairs of thugs, the "extra" girl (Sophie) and the apparently useless heroin segment.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.