I loved "The Squid and the Whale". And I loved "Greenberg".
"Margot at the Wedding" is simply one of the most atrocious films I have ever seen, and one of the most disappointing products of such a great cast and director.
There is not a single likable, redeemable character, nor is there a storyline that pays off. Imagine 90 minutes of watching a group of repugnant, shallow, neurotic people interacting and arguing about a wedding that we never get to see.
Did I also mention the craft? The film is so amateurishly shot and cut together that you'll find yourself distracted by the lingering shots of an underexposed, awkwardly composed image. Or you might not understand the jarring shift in tone or pacing from an unmotivated scene change. I simply cannot wrap my head around what they were trying to achieve.
And what makes it all even worse is what could have been. Noah Baumbach has proved himself to be a compelling director and storyteller in the past, even with unlikable characters such as Ben Stiller's Greenberg. Nicole Kidman often makes fascinating, adventurous choices in the roles she portrays. What we are left with is a sloppy, nihilistic mess of a film about a miserable family without any intuition of how decent humans should behave, thus robbing the audience of any sort of fulfillment or engagement that one would hope for in watching a film.
If the film had ended with the tree falling on their house and killing them all, I might have seen a redeeming quality in the poetic justice of the situation. Instead I'm left with a bitter aftertaste of a meandering, boring, dreadful film about people with whom nobody could relate, and therefor engaging in their conflicts was in no way possible. It isn't easy to sympathize with such miserable souls such as those in this film... what a shame.
"Margot at the Wedding" is simply one of the most atrocious films I have ever seen, and one of the most disappointing products of such a great cast and director.
There is not a single likable, redeemable character, nor is there a storyline that pays off. Imagine 90 minutes of watching a group of repugnant, shallow, neurotic people interacting and arguing about a wedding that we never get to see.
Did I also mention the craft? The film is so amateurishly shot and cut together that you'll find yourself distracted by the lingering shots of an underexposed, awkwardly composed image. Or you might not understand the jarring shift in tone or pacing from an unmotivated scene change. I simply cannot wrap my head around what they were trying to achieve.
And what makes it all even worse is what could have been. Noah Baumbach has proved himself to be a compelling director and storyteller in the past, even with unlikable characters such as Ben Stiller's Greenberg. Nicole Kidman often makes fascinating, adventurous choices in the roles she portrays. What we are left with is a sloppy, nihilistic mess of a film about a miserable family without any intuition of how decent humans should behave, thus robbing the audience of any sort of fulfillment or engagement that one would hope for in watching a film.
If the film had ended with the tree falling on their house and killing them all, I might have seen a redeeming quality in the poetic justice of the situation. Instead I'm left with a bitter aftertaste of a meandering, boring, dreadful film about people with whom nobody could relate, and therefor engaging in their conflicts was in no way possible. It isn't easy to sympathize with such miserable souls such as those in this film... what a shame.