The premise of this movie is so evocative and brilliant, that what the director/writer actually gives you is even more of a disappointment. Don't be deceived by the publicity. This is by no means an apocalyptic melodrama, full of flame throwing hipsters wreaking havoc everywhere they go. FAR FROM IT. This is a vapid mumblecore boyfriend/girlfriend drama with some digressions that barely graze the original premise. Almost the entire movie consists of the very slow charting of how two couples find each other, couple, uncouple, recouple, etc. It's completely generic at that level.
Spoiler alert below!
Also, I totally lost respect for the director/writer when, after finally showing us something shocking and violent - most the main characters murder each other or commit suicide - all this turns out to have just been a revenge fantasy in the mind of Woodrow, and it turns out none of it actually happened. How cowardly.
The movie has great pretensions to rocking our world, but turns out to be entirely timid and conventional. All the expressionist cinematography in the world doesn't make it interesting or original. Skip it.
Spoiler alert below!
Also, I totally lost respect for the director/writer when, after finally showing us something shocking and violent - most the main characters murder each other or commit suicide - all this turns out to have just been a revenge fantasy in the mind of Woodrow, and it turns out none of it actually happened. How cowardly.
The movie has great pretensions to rocking our world, but turns out to be entirely timid and conventional. All the expressionist cinematography in the world doesn't make it interesting or original. Skip it.