Phoenix Clouden’s review published on Letterboxd:
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"When the horizons at the top, it's interesting. When the horizons at the bottom, it's interesting. When the horizons in the middle, it's boring as shit."
Goddammit if Steven Spielberg isn't the greatest director alive.
This movie hits all the right feels. It revels in the majesty and the technicalities of filmmaking. It also takes shots at the heartbreaking reality of the business and the art form, and how it can tear you in two.
Then, it has a truly powerful story about a family divided. These two story elements rarely clash throughout the film but they are connected in many ways. They feed Sammy's obsession with control and defining a life dictated by the camera. The need to make reality bend to perspective, and how to craft that perspective to give everyone the same shared experience.
Is It a little bit of Spielberg showing off? Yeah, but he's fucking Spielberg. He's earned it.
The film has joy and spectacle in the same depth that it has painstaking dedication, loss of self, and loss of identity. It both celebrates and criticizes the art, the artist, and even the characters themselves.
It's brash, bold, layered, and so damn touching and sincere. Gabriel Labelle is magic and at times, eerily looks like a young Spielberg. Michelle Williams is incredible as the grown up version of the manic Pixie dream girl you fantasize about, and Paul Dano plays the lovable genius who fell for her, but can't keep her. Judd Hirsch has a literal 5 minute cameo in this movie that is a truly great scene, but everything with Dano had my heart and my full attention. Give him all the awards.
This is a film that is brimming with life, love, and understanding. And although, it may feel like a film that won't exactly speak to you, you will somehow still feel seen.
And that's the magic of the movies.
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