#with flo

We are not breaking any visual grounds with this movie, but that is okay! It redeems itself by being funny and entertaining. During one of the competition sequences, I told my girlfriend "we should just attend cheer competitions," because we were so sold on the choreographies. I really liked the costuming in this, but that's just because I love the y2k aesthetic, like they are not doing anything especially new or fun with it. I liked the ending, with the team not winning the nationals ; I enjoy when movies don't have the perfect ending, it's more realistic and grounds the story more.

There's at least one homophobic slur per scene, which you would think would bring down my appreciation of the movie severely, but it's always funny so I'm genuinely not mad about it. My only gripe with the movie is that they didn't have Missy and Torrance get gay with it. (I'm kind of assuming Missy is written to be a lesbian because she gets called a d*ke like at least five times and she never really objects to the term, so we're halfway there really.)

Overall just a really fun movie like don't take it seriously and you'll have the time of your life.

I had seen this movie many years ago and I frankly did not remember much, but I did remember thinking nothing really happened and well... that still holds true lmao. Not that it's a bad movie, I think it's actually pretty good it's just like not that interesting. I liked the cinematography for sure, the way everyone interact with each other by flirting, and it's nothing new but Nicole Kidman is absolutely incredible and is underutilized. I also really liked Alan Cumming's like 2 minutes of screen time, very enjoyable to watch.

Apart from that, like I said, I think it's a pretty boring watch. The opening scene kind of sets you up for a Cruise/Kidman duo and they have something super interesting going on between them energy wise and then like.... you barely see her for the rest of the movie. I understand that's just not what the story was supposed to be, but it's still disappointing to see such a strong performance from her at the beginning and then to just be left with Cruise, who isn't bad... but who definitely isn't Nicole Kidman. Otherwise, this movie is just Cruise going around, not finding the people he wants to find, talking to other people, bargaining/offering money, showing his medical license... it's just not interesting. And that's really the movie's only problem like it's super well made otherwise.

The writing is my favourite part of this movie, it's so light and funny and genuine. I want to make movies that make people feel the way this movie does. I also loved the editing which also makes the movie that much more fun to watch because of how dynamic it is. Of course, the cinematography is great and while the colour grading is kind of harsh on the eyes at times, it fits the tone of the movie really well so I can't really be mad at it. The production design is also lovely, I especially love the details in her apartment and the whole sex shop set. I think this is one of those movies which just radiates pure joy. What a gift.

Okay, the thing is that this movie isn't like bad in the classic sense that a movie might be bad. Artistically, it has a lot of merit ; the costuming is great, the production design is very solid and it IS entertaining. What it isn't though is well written. It has been said before and it will be said again, but Mr. Safdie, with all due respect, you have now written three whole movies where the plot is just "asshole needs money really bad" and it SHOWS because well you're just making your characters do shit that don't make sense to make the idea work now. What do you mean his bathtub falls through the floor on some guy? What do you mean he eats out a world famous movie star in the middle of a public park? And now that we're talking about said movie star, she's probably one of the worst written female character of the last ten years - no nuance, no insight into the way she thinks, she makes decisions that don't make sense and we get no explanation as to why she did that other than "she is in a loveless marriage". I think the whole thing would've been a lot better if Safdie had leaned more into this movie as a comedy and made it more fantastical. To me, it kept teetering around, taking itself too seriously and then not taking itself seriously at all which made the ridiculous elements seem out of place when they came up. Also, this is one of my least favorite Timothee performance and by far. Of course, he's never bad like he acts well but I was always aware that I was watching Timothee Chalamet doing a character.