MovieChat Forums > Holy Motors (2012) Discussion > Overrated (spoilers)

Overrated (spoilers)

posted 12 years ago by matt-baen
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Terrible? No. A gem if it were a trim 85 minutes? Maybe. Even better if it were a short film. (It should have ended with the close of the sewer dweller segment.) But the sheer repetitiveness is hard to endure for two hours.

Dollhouse + The Adjustment Bureau + bad, slow pacing = Dickean indulgence. By the second appointment, we get the idea. There are few discoveries left besides the duplicates and the other "actors". It's just more of the same until the over-the-top weirdness of the chimp family and the talking cars.

A sociological allegory, cyberpunk without the tech, whatever; it's just too damn long. Sound of Noise did urban magical realism better and Beyond the Black Rainbow is a superior Dickean/Lynchian homage. 5/10.

[–] eryncerise 12 years ago

I would argue the length helps the point the film is trying to make about the over-saturation of stories and media in the modern era. You wouldn't really get a strong sense of that point when there are only two or three short subjects to go on; it kind of *is* supposed to wear on you, as it wears on Oscar (with stuff like the interlude helping to relieve that feeling for the audience long enough for them to recharge and dive back in).

However, I do agree that length for length's sake is an iffy, risky thing in film on the whole. It's often used badly and even when it works for some, that doesn't mean it'll work for everyone. So I definitely understand people not liking the film based on its length, and I still think your viewpoint on the movie is a good one to see.

"The best thing in the world is pooping. The worst thing in the world is too much pooping." -FKFTG