Never be admired by celebrities more than today, the United States elected an unstable game show chairman who appointed a series of television and internet figures to run our government. Our attention-based economy requires us all to buy, curate audiences, build personal brands, become influencers or be affected. His feature director made his debut, workMark Anthony Green uses John Malkovich as a stand-in for a dangerous obsession with charm and nostalgia and hits him with Ayo Edebiri as Millennial/ZZ Everywoman with star ambitions. It’s a fertile land of satirical thrillers, but work Inquiry is not enough to say anything interesting, and what Green really wants to say is unclear. work Not as shallow as the world in it, but it is not smart either.
|
work ★★ (2/4 stars) |
Ariel Eckton (Edebiri) is a young journalist working in a prestigious pop culture magazine and her editor, Stan Sullivan (Murray Bartlett), has been shifting for big tasks. But when reclusive pop idol John Malkovich invites them both to preview his first album in decades, Ariel first observes the weird and well-curated world of the incredibly wealthy cult character. Ariel is the only true outsider among worship fans and tired media veterans, trying to reveal the dark secrets of Moretti’s secluded compound. But the more interesting question might be: Why was she invited first?
Like Ariel’s boss, Moretti’s other guests come from the high echelons of their respective media. Juliette Lewis plays “the most annoying sex symbol on TV,” Melissa Chambers is an elite dad, Stephanie Suganami is a social media influencer, and Mark Silversten is a former partner of Moretti, who has since become a popular podcaster. The problem is that we have never learned a lot about them besides these descriptions. Therefore, when mysterious fates come one by one, the impact is very small. Even Ariel’s personality and goals did not have much effect, coloring the originally plain view character: the sensible character in the only land of gods. Perhaps there is no particularity of the guest intended to be the embodiment of the media form they represent, but this is not much.
Some smaller characters are indeed popular, such as Amber Midthuster, who is the silent concierge/law enforcer of Moretti compound. this prey Star proves again that nothing is more threatening than a 5-foot-5 person with soft facial features and only the Terminator stares. Tamera Tomakili (Win time,,,,, Fruit Site) also impressed, just like the young Aspen Martinez, an emotionally manipulated and completely brainwashed child at Moretti Compound, too.
As for Malkovich, he has a totally wrong charm to play a universally loved, top-ranked icon. He might be convincingly speaking (more generally) “genius” cult leader in spoken language, such as Keith Raniere of Nxivm, but as a “swinging wizard”, a male Madonna or a bald Bowie? Even Dream & Nile Rogers songs are not available for sale. Mark Anthony Green may mean valuing the public’s obsession with this real person, Jack Skellington, is ridiculous, but it still doesn’t work.
work It is an idea salad, a confusion of concepts, but most prominently is the condemnation of personality worship. Through Moretti’s cult, propaganda, work With the goal of outstandingism and false elites, a culture is proposed where ordinary people are willing to surrender or even torture themselves in order to find and celebrate a special culture. Those who find fame and wealth naturally want to support it is a logic. After all, if other successful people are just lucky and not worthy of “greatness,” they themselves may not be special, not more than they should have. Ariel, every woman of us, is easier to see this nonsense than other more influential guests, but she is not completely immune, nor is it most of us look at.
But, on the basic level of the thriller work Its groove will never be found. Shocking events just happen and then explain later, rather than building suspense and repaying it. Revealing what should theoretically help narrative clicks together, ultimately making it confuse it after the fact. The more you think about it, the weaker this kind of movie is, and it is the unfortunate fate of social irony. It can be fun occasionally, it can be shocking occasionally, but mostly disappointing.
