They say you can't polish a turd, well now they have tried dousing it in neon lights and kubrickian imagery, but unfortunately it's still s**t.
An ultra-violent revenge film that just fails due to being bloated with pretension and just plain boring. The neon infused aesthetic in the only thing the film has going for it, with a convoluted story, empty characters, slow pacing, lack of tension being just the tip of the iceberg.
The film fails for me just due to the lack of any intelligent design. For me long cuts that attempt build tension in films work because they are often juxtaposed by normal or fast editing, giving the scene more focus and time. Here on the other hand they are a constant feature that just doesn't build tension and just creates a sense of boredom.
And that's the films major problem, its a mess of ideas on concepts that haven't been constructed to work together. Therefore it means that none of them work and overall the film feels pretentious.
My other main issue is Ryan Gosling who gives another minimalist performance and the film suffers for it. With much of the time spent with the character being obtuse and difficult to comprehend being combined with this minimalist performance, it just creates a character who is just an enigma with no presence or personality.
Similarly the story also falls apart due to it being presented in the most convoluted and un-engaging way.
Overall the film just wreaks of desperation and in total is just a cacophony of concepts that fail to work on any level.
Rating: 3/10
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