O'Connor may be a decent actor with potential but he is not a leading man(at least not here), he absolutely crumbles under the weight of carrying this film. The character is on screen pretty much the entire run time and has very little dialogue, O'Connor basically does nothing, projects passivity and blankness aside from a moment or two where he tilts his head and gives a half grin, the only specific gesture he uses and one he does repeatedly. You get no interiority from him, no sense of depth, no understanding of what's going on with this character or why we should care about him. It's honestly baffling. He is, from minute one, profoundly boring. Since his meteoric rise in Challengers he's joined the underserving ranks of Austin Butler, Jacob Elordi, Glenn Powell, Timothée Chalamet, Paul Mescal etc. as Hollywood continues to try to force a new leading man on us(as opposed to letting talent and the box office speak for itself). The supporting cast(other than Alana Haim who, similarly seems to be cast because of industry hype rather than ability) is all great but they are all barely in the movie. It's extremely telling that, pretty much, the only compelling scene in the movie is when J.B. goes to lay low with his friends played by Gaby Hoffmann and John Magaro and the movie, finally, comes alive and it's because of Hoffman and Magaro.
Visually the film has writer/director Kelly Reichardt's patented understated meticulousness, the production design transportive, and the free-wheeling, chaotic, jazz score soars. Reichardt's craft has never been better but the story really begs the question why make this and why should an audience care.
A portrait of an uninteresting man being selfish and self-diluted.
Currently in theaters.
Don't See It.
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