POSITIVES:
1) Paul Dano floored me in this film. He completely steals the show for me. The fact he's pretty much the only adult actor in this film that isn't getting awards recognition is scandalous. He shows sides of himself here that I hadn't seen from him before and I loved him immensely. I also felt his character was by far the best written character and also the character that is in the right most of the time 2) Spielberg's direction is masterful as always. The film looks beautiful and there were lots of long takes and impressive camera work 3) By the end of the film, I did feel some warmth towards Sammy and like I'd been on a journey with him. It was the scene where he shows his Ditch Day film to his school that finally won me over and I gave in to the power of the film
NEGATIVES:
1) Michelle Williams and Judd Hirsch both getting Oscar nominations here, what on Earth is going on? I hated Williams' performance, it was so over the top and badly theatrical. I also have to say that I despised her character and felt like she was in the wrong most of the time. Then with Hirsch, he's average and fine, but he's only in one scene and it's nothing special? I actually forgot about his character completely afterwards and my girlfriend had to remind me 2) As the title of this review suggests, I found Spielberg to be being criminally self indulgent here. I understand that it's about his life, but a two and a half hour film about what seem like a fairly average family during the mid 20th century, who experience nothing that most regular families don't also experience, made this film a complete drag at times. I understand that we as an audience are meant to be interpreting this as being about Spielberg, who is arguably the best director of all time and therefore interesting, but that doesn't change the fact that nothing we see is really that eventful or noteworthy 3) Sammy's three sisters are given no personality or character depth whatsoever. They all blended into one and I don't remember their names or distinct features about them. They may as well have not been there.
1) Paul Dano floored me in this film. He completely steals the show for me. The fact he's pretty much the only adult actor in this film that isn't getting awards recognition is scandalous. He shows sides of himself here that I hadn't seen from him before and I loved him immensely. I also felt his character was by far the best written character and also the character that is in the right most of the time 2) Spielberg's direction is masterful as always. The film looks beautiful and there were lots of long takes and impressive camera work 3) By the end of the film, I did feel some warmth towards Sammy and like I'd been on a journey with him. It was the scene where he shows his Ditch Day film to his school that finally won me over and I gave in to the power of the film
NEGATIVES:
1) Michelle Williams and Judd Hirsch both getting Oscar nominations here, what on Earth is going on? I hated Williams' performance, it was so over the top and badly theatrical. I also have to say that I despised her character and felt like she was in the wrong most of the time. Then with Hirsch, he's average and fine, but he's only in one scene and it's nothing special? I actually forgot about his character completely afterwards and my girlfriend had to remind me 2) As the title of this review suggests, I found Spielberg to be being criminally self indulgent here. I understand that it's about his life, but a two and a half hour film about what seem like a fairly average family during the mid 20th century, who experience nothing that most regular families don't also experience, made this film a complete drag at times. I understand that we as an audience are meant to be interpreting this as being about Spielberg, who is arguably the best director of all time and therefore interesting, but that doesn't change the fact that nothing we see is really that eventful or noteworthy 3) Sammy's three sisters are given no personality or character depth whatsoever. They all blended into one and I don't remember their names or distinct features about them. They may as well have not been there.