oh no 😬

Films about making films or being a cinephile are love or hate for me, done right and they can be among my favorites of all-time, done wrong and it becomes a tough sit.

Don't get me wrong, I was really rooting for this movie but I came away utterly confused by the critical praise, the awards buzz and what Spielberg was trying to do. Nothing seemed to fit in its place, coming off more schmaltzy and phony than he usually is at his worst.

Its disjointedness is best demonstrated by the film's finest scene when Judd Hirsch arrives and makes a hamfisted metaphor work. His scene is magic and it showed what the rest of the film was missing. David Lynch's cameo is fun too in a similar way, but comes much too late.

It's a big shame because I was saving this for my birthday and to be my first film to see with my Dad in six years, especially due to the parallels of my parent's divorce and my love of film, but he ended up skipping it. That was a good call, he would have hated it. We'll save the trip for something else.

Damn, I really don't like it when I dislike an Oscar frontrunner because it makes awards season more difficult. I prefer to be on varying degrees of like or love. I suppose it goes to show how imperative it is for Everything Everywhere All at Once (edit: or Women Talking) to hopefully take the lead in the end.