Manā¦ there was a lot of good in this. The whole second chapter is fantastic. The scene at the gas station is perfection. There are some genuinely very funny moments. The end credits scene is hypnotic and wonderful. The entire film is shot beautifully. Danny Elfmanās score stole some scenes for me.
But the badā¦ the stilted dialogue. The poor pacing. The constant philosophizing about every mundane thing. I havenāt read the book, and I donāt have a plan to. Iāve heard itās good and I trust that. The dialogue here seems like it would work much better in a format where you can stop for a moment and ponder over what someone just said rather than just barreling through to the next thing. Itās like Baumbach tried to fit as many lines from the book in each square millimeter of film as possible.Ā It just didnāt work for me. What could be some interesting tidbits of truth turn into a downpour of pompous pontifications, pounding away at the point, duh, deathās at the door and youāre feeling down. So what? Itās all a distraction from the truest question in life, which of course is:Ā Do sheep have lashes?
