Truly Dreadful Film

How sad is this?

Am I Missing Something?

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

James Franco must have had a good time doing this film, or this comes through for me at least. Some fine sense of space, film-making here and there.But too much music, too much good music, but the kind of use one attributes to enthusiastic film-makers, young mostly, but now with a keen sense of music, to Franco's credit.It is just nagging the way music tells you what to feel, in general. The problem here being that take off the soundtrack, you don't know what to feel without the music either. Another reviewer said this read like an extended comic experience or something, and that would be good, that would be sufficient, properly handled, but too much precious, if you will, composition of each frame and sequence, weighed the whole thing murkily. If it was for "genius babble is an excuse for bad social adaptation," it was something met half-way: too much real-time consuming of the film's time depicting sniffing and other drugs-related activities.Franco in a triple, simultaneous endeavor - what can I say? It's the kind of thing that titillates me, but here the glasses gave him a too perfect air of an intellectual at odds with his character, but perfectly matching his face's bone-structure, and paired with a white t-shirt unfavorably reminded one of his superior Dean portrait.Bro becoming an addict was too soon off the wall, too.The rabbit vision and the vampire baby on the milk especially was terse and tense, and showed that with real concentration James Franco is a good, good film-maker.

You gather the plot: Two brothers, one studious decent and hardworking, the smarter one being a rebel etc etc. From the various movies throughout the decades this Cain & Abel-ish by-play has been done over and over again. (James Dean, Brad Pitt are two actors that spring to mind). This movie has none of the complexity or character development of East of Eden or A River Runs Through It or Legends of the Fall and it is infinitely more forgettable.I see the various points the movie is trying to make and yes, it does make you stop and think about how pointless life can be and the merits of hard work and the merits and disadvantages of various drugs, but ultimately why bother ?The movie is a teensy bit poignant, somewhat artsy, the character acting is good and the movie manages to convey a seedy, life through a Handycam feel. I was vaguely bored throughout with this character study, wondering if anything would happen and after a fashion maybe it did maybe it didn't (I wouldn't want to add a spoiler!), but really - who cares ?There are far better movies around in hundreds of different genres, I feel like I wasted the evening. If I were to use a single word to review this movie, I would choose the word 'dull'.You may like it, but I found it rather boring from start to finish.

This movie can be interpreted on many different levels. Don't listen to the other comments bashing the movie and saying that it is a played again story or w/e and that it is just about drugs. It has very overt superficial metaphors about drugs; however, the rest of the movie (and why I think it was personally made) is really not about that at all. It is really mocking psychology and the conditioning of society. It shows, for a split second, that the main character's brother is watching those sick videos online. Why? My interpretation is that it is to demonstrate that all of this gruesomeness that we are exposed to makes it easier for us to be mechanical in our professions instead of seeing people as people. As far as the scene about logic, it is also reaching out to the people who were in the federally mandated 1% smart classes who are confused and frustrated because life isn't as predictable and mathematical and logical as it seems on a macroscopic level. You have to apply Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (along with all the other laws and principles of uncertainty) not just to physics but to life and leave room to change your plans and adjust along the way. One of the best movies I have ever seen. It just might go way above your head; it isn't for you it is for those people who are are having trouble coping with life not working out like a math problem. When you are critically analyzing a movie or writing your critical review's try not reading the back cover first (written by marketers and parapsychologists)

Really the tale of two cocky brothers and their respective falls from grace (via drug addiction) and later redemption. One brother, a self-proclaimed genius played by James Franco is your typical sensitive but intelligent man-child. The other brother is a hard-working future doctor who becomes less judgmental as he himself falls prey to addiction while dealing with the stress of living up to his family's expectations for both children. Not too heavy handed as drug fables are want to be, and all in all a pretty realistic sketch of the family dynamics that drug problems bring about. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in such character studies and commend James Franco for his efforts in what was obviously a labor of love.