This is a typical indie hipster movie: too cool for school druggies, nonchalant cigarette smokers, and characters with over-sized black frame glasses. This is basically all the movie is, with a twist: a mystery to be solved by high school student Brendan(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to figure out who killed his high school crush.
The plot of this movie is absolutely absurd. It is confusing, boring, and slow paced. I tried so hard to get through the whole two hours, but could only withstand 103 minutes until I finally had enough. The movie paints a highly unrealistic picture of high school kids acting like adults: making drug deals and solving murders, with their parents right upstairs fixing them a snack. I find it hard to believe that high school students have Halloween parties in mansions, delicately sipping on wine and putting on shows wearing togas. The movie was hard to follow and completely pointless; you could never figure out what the characters were doing or why Brendan was doing what he was doing. The characters were so boring that it made me want to cry. Brendan showed no emotion throughout the entire film, not even when he discovers Emily dead. His character had no depth at all; we never got inside his head to see what he was thinking or feeling. The movie basically consists of him walking around the town talking to hipster characters who sit against walls smoking a cigarette trying to look cool and artistic. I find it almost impossible to enjoy or understand this movie, and most anyone who says they got anything out of the movie is surely lying, pretending to like it because it is "ARTSY".
There is one redeeming quality to the film though: the cinematography. Director Rian Johnson makes amazing use of long shots to convey main character Brendan's isolation. Another wonderful series of shots takes place when Brendan is seen talking to his principal. A medium low angle shot is used to show the principal talking to Brendan, and then it switches to a view of Brendan, a high angle medium shot. This was a very good angle choice to use, because it shows that Brendan has no option but to do what the principal wants him to do, and it shows the power of the principal, in contrast to Brendan's powerlessness.
Overall, this was not a very good movie. It had some potential, just very poorly executed. Perhaps if Johnson would have taken a different approach, and not tried so hard to make a hip film, but one that actually makes sense. The entire movie has a "hipper than thou", pretentious attitude, almost to the point where it is nauseating. If you want a movie to watch so that you can be portrayed as a artful deep thinker, rent this movie. If you want actual entertainment, this movie is not for you.
1.5 stars.
I'm sorry to say that this movie has taken a part of my love for indie movies and thrown it in the garbage.
