He can't do it. He's now had four chances, and none of them have worked. Stop him, please.
I'd say for the first 40 minutes of so of Believer, I was on board. Green's direction was shockingly restrained; the plot, while nothing spectacular, was methodically introduced; and the editing was quite effectively unnerving.
Then the film takes a nose dive into generic bilge and doesn't stop spiralling downward for the remaining hour. The only good thing I can say about this latter half is that the performances remained earnest throughout.
Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil is brought back 50 years later only to have her character eviscerated, forgetting every lesson she learned in the original film. Then she gets pushed aside halfway through the movie and has zero bearing on the plot. She's only present for an insultingly inane attempt at fan service.
None of the characters have the complex compassion, flawed priorities, or stunning courage that was present among the cast of the 1973 classic. This film is full of nothing characters and it becomes more apparent as the story progresses and the writers had no idea what to do with any of the people populating their script.
The generic plot builds up to a climax that's incoherent in every conceivable way: thematically, tonally, and narratively, it's all over the place, earning none of the feeling that it attempts to evoke with its heavy-handed musical cues.
Given the solid first act, this movie's nowhere near as bad as Exorcist II or Exorcist: The Beginning. But I'm still appalled.
I'm appalled that the same filmmaker has now made four movies stemming from classic horror cinema, and all of them have been haphazardly thrown together with no thought given to coherent storytelling.
David Gordon Green, I'm begging you: stop.
I'd say for the first 40 minutes of so of Believer, I was on board. Green's direction was shockingly restrained; the plot, while nothing spectacular, was methodically introduced; and the editing was quite effectively unnerving.
Then the film takes a nose dive into generic bilge and doesn't stop spiralling downward for the remaining hour. The only good thing I can say about this latter half is that the performances remained earnest throughout.
Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil is brought back 50 years later only to have her character eviscerated, forgetting every lesson she learned in the original film. Then she gets pushed aside halfway through the movie and has zero bearing on the plot. She's only present for an insultingly inane attempt at fan service.
None of the characters have the complex compassion, flawed priorities, or stunning courage that was present among the cast of the 1973 classic. This film is full of nothing characters and it becomes more apparent as the story progresses and the writers had no idea what to do with any of the people populating their script.
The generic plot builds up to a climax that's incoherent in every conceivable way: thematically, tonally, and narratively, it's all over the place, earning none of the feeling that it attempts to evoke with its heavy-handed musical cues.
Given the solid first act, this movie's nowhere near as bad as Exorcist II or Exorcist: The Beginning. But I'm still appalled.
I'm appalled that the same filmmaker has now made four movies stemming from classic horror cinema, and all of them have been haphazardly thrown together with no thought given to coherent storytelling.
David Gordon Green, I'm begging you: stop.