The Emperor has no clothes (Spoiler alert)
I have enjoyed Paul Thomas Anderson's films. But not this one. There were a few minutes of entertainment in the two hours and thirteen minutes, but not many. The William Holden and Jon Peters nods were great. Kevin Smith has spoken of a conversation he had with Jon Peters where Jon refers to himself as, "Being from the street." No one seems to be troubled by the affair between a fifteen year old and someone who is ten years older. Sure, the twenty-five year old is immature for her age. And the early maturing just barely post pubescent teenager is clever and entrepreneurial. Had the genders of the two protagonists been reversed would there have been an outrage? Kind of a Nabokov thing. Now, that story "Lolita" was meant to be and is creepy. Yet this is presented as joyous and fun. The Emperor has no clothes. The praise this film is getting is puzzling. 7.9 on IMDB...really! On RT the critics have it at 91% and the audience score is 69%. It is like everyone will not admit this is a bad film because they fear going against an auteur. And being labelled as unsophisticated. The Emperor has no clothes.
“Stop sounding like a philosophy guy, Albert Einstein.”- Alana to Gary
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