It's great to see Anderson in this role and one can imagine it was cathartic and vindicating for her in some ways, the end result however is inconsistent. Some scenes she is locked in(pretty much any time she shares the screen with Jamie Lee Curtis who plays her friend Annette) but other times she really struggles with the clunky, exposition heavy, tell-don't-show dialogue and the overly contrived conflict heavy plotting. Not her fault but she doesn't have the kind of experience to translate the wonky script and inexpert direction into the kind of powerful performance this has the potential to be. This is highlighted, unfortunately, by how good Curtis is. Who absolutely has the kind of chops to turn the mediocre script into something with some meaning. There's clearly ambition behind the film but the only time it's really actualized is in one incredible scene with Curtis where she is dancing to 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'. Dave Baptista, the other pro, as Eddie is the only other cast member who seems locked in, the other supporting cast- Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, and Billie Lourd- are just uneven.
The cinematography and sound design are overly aggressive. The shaky close-up hand-held camera work and soft focus don't really work, it distracts and it's pretty consistently incongruous with what is happening. It's a vibe that's more appropriate with a Terrence Malick tone poem not a drama that is attempting to be coherent. The same is true of the sound design, it frequently(and bizarrely) drowns out dialogue. The costuming and make up are great but all together the production design seems to be separate ideas and approaches that don't weave together but make each other even more discordant.
What the movie is actually trying to say is also kind of baffling. This doesn't empower Shelly, it doesn't really provide any insight on her experience, doesn't convey to us or explore her interiority. It's just one kind of hit after another, bleakness to no purpose, and quite frankly lacking much if any authenticity. There is absolutely a great movie in here, there are scenes here and there that are really brilliant, but writer Kate Gersten fails to offer any real emotional insight or truth and director Gia Coppola fails to adjust to what so clearly does and doesn't work.
An odd, uneven, frustrating piece of cinema with one absolutely ecstatic, transcendent scene from Curtis.
Currently in theaters.
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