douggordy

What a waste of a great cast (Frieda Pinto literally has two lines!) - this has got to be the most boring and pretentious move ever made - apparently much of it was improvised - and it shows. Although the cinematography is often excellent and a few of the shots are astonishing beautiful, the narrative drive is non-existent, and the move just plods on and on and on. The dialogue is series of cliches, and one is never invested in ANY of the characters enough to care what happens to them - NOT that anything does. Disturbingly, Malick also has way too many scenes involving nude women, in which he rarely even does them the courtesy of showing their faces - they are apparently just there just to flash their assets.

I am not sure why there's such a virulent backlash against this film, especially as most of the negative reviews here are from people who have obviously not even see the film, but are jumping on some bandwagon. It's written by a lesbian, directed by a trans man and ALL the trans characters are played by trans actors (including MJ Rodriquez of POSE fame and first-timer Leo Sheng, who is a real find). The trans characters are treated with respect and sensitivity - no, they are not flawless, but that would make for a very dull film. As a cis gendered gay man, I came away with much more understanding and appreciation of the struggles in the trans community. It's not a perfect film, but I think it's heart is in the right place - and I enjoyed it.

How could something starring Keaton and Irons be so miserably awful, nah, cringe-worthy. They should both be horribly embarrassed, esp. Keaton, who is offensive in her portrayal of a blind woman (and the tokenism of having a dwarf character and then making fun of him is also reprehensible). The other story lines are almost equally abhorrent - only Maggie Grace manages not to be a total waste of time. There is a reason this only has a 4% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Avoid it like the plague it is.