"I'm being serious" -Jon,

-2021 Ranked: boxd.it/aL2Ys

For me this is a big yikes!

Turns out maybe I just hate theater kids and for that I'm sorry. This was one of the more painful movie watching experiences of the year for me and I only watched the whole thing so that I could give it a low score without having to deal with people telling me to watch the ending. I almost gave up around Sunday Morning Brunch but then I stuck around anyways as my wife and I started openly exploring what it was we hated so much about the project. It's not that it's a musical because I like a lot of musicals I just hate this music and story. I went into this with an open heart and within minutes that open heart was filled with angst.

No offense but if you identify with this lead character (in the movie, no idea what the real guy was like) you are probably an asshole, at least at this moment in your life. I mean look I'm an asshole but I know that but you are also probably an asshole. This guy is an asshole and his arc is so fucking weak and he screams everything that people hate about entitled assholes. It's just that there are so many fucking stories to tell and we need yet another one about a pretty talented white fucker who learns to be slightly better through interactions with his diverse set of ancillary friends that have their own problems but also have to deal with this self-centered prick? Andrew Garfield is actually pretty amazing in the role so no shade there but god damn how do people make it through this caring about this dude.

So in the end I thought the music sucked (for the most part, that final song was kind of a banger), I hated the main character (in the movie, no idea about him in real life), and I found the overall story to be one not as interesting to tell as others in the universe of the film. I'm clearly in the minority as this film has a 4.0 on letterboxd and will likely be talked about at the Oscars (that's how you know it's good) but to me it's just a bunch of manipulative emotional jumpscares and shit we've already seen narratively hundreds of times. And yeah, I didn't really like Rent that much either so any story where the creation of Rent is the triumphant ending probably just won't do much for me.

Glad you liked it but I'll say no.