Reviews

Even in B Grade schlock you feel empathy, hate or some base emotion for the characters. Some kind character development is a cherry on top. With Asteroid City you feel zilch. You don't care for any of the characters, so when they leave one by one in the shadows you don't even go "where have they gone again?" In short, beautiful styling and a stab at a meta screenplay but I really just don't care for anyone or anything in the film. And because of that, I am left feeling bored. Like truly bored. Which is a shame given the acting talent that has been collated and displayed for our viewing entertainment.

Some of these other reviews are rough.

Not every car show needs to show a renovation to concours condition.

This is a case in point.

The show usually goes like this: two presenters take a beaten old car and drive from point A to B - usually with a little mechanical work along the way.

To me it's a pretty sweet show.

Not everyone has the money to do everything perfectly and this reflects that sentiment.

For me there's a big up side and down side.

Down side... I have to be frank, the presenters are knowledgeable but not big characters... as such it can feel a little boring at points.

Up side... they don't stray away from education on the show. To me that's a huge thing. They aim to impart a good 3-4 things a show, half of which were new to me. A good show for learning things on.

A total masterclass in directing from Paris Barclay.

How could you not walk away from this episode and feel hollowed out? Told from primarily three perspectives this story darts and weaves as it shines color on what happens when someone alienated in society connects with another.

A love story that ultimately is consumed by darkness that we, the viewer, are privy to.

Sure, the rest of the season is spectacular but this episode is some of the best TV I've seen. The deaf scenes and use of sound should be studied by others. What a treat. And not to mention what a ending. Love for / to everyone involved.

Brett Morgen has brought some interesting documentaries to life over the years.

Sadly, this is his folly.

As leaving the cinema I overheard a range of opinions from moviegoers from "That's 2 hours I'm never getting back" To "How many times did we see him walking up that escalator" Long, drawn out, and pieces together with random motivational quotes from Bowie, it was hard to do, but this documentary succeeded in making Bowie the one thing he wasn't. Dull.

Without a narrative and a very loose chronological sequencing, this 'documentary' is only for hardened Bowie fans.

Everyone else, be prepared to be confused, lectured to, and bored out of your minds.

Brett, please relearn the craft that you once had.

Nodding to 30s screwball comedies, this film is a God awful mess.

Chief suspect is a weak and strained script -- feeling almost like a play in parts as a cast of characters run from one room to another.

At the center of the issue is the fact that I neither care about the characters nor find the screwball setups they end up in particularly joyful. A comedy of errors is great when I'm along with it for the ride... I was just left bored. I genuinely feel sorry for some of the actors in this film. It's not their fault. It's just a terrible movie.

I watched the show and it was pretty amazing to be honest.

A lot of these reviews I sense have been written by friends of one of the early dismissed contestants.

That's just my gut, but the comments and low marking just don't add up to me.

Sure, they could've trimmed a few of the lamest jokes by the host, and yes, a little theater prepping for the hosts could've helped their likeability but all in all what I watched was a pretty addictive show that puts on display some insane talent.

To me this is only half a beat under the glass blowing show, blown away, which is super addictive.

The heart of the show lies with the contestants. Very talented.

I can not state this any better than other reviews have, this is without doubt one of the most emotional movies committed to film. There must have been something magical in the air when they made this movie. An absolute gem.

Jeeze Louise. What a hoot. On one hand, as a cult schlocky laugh out loud movie, it's a 10. On the other, I don't know where to start, weird subplots, terrible acting, a director who doesn't know where to point a camera... it's really an awkward, terrible mishmash of ideas thought up at a 12 year olds sleep over. One redeeming feature is the soundtrack, very 80s but very good. For years I assumed this movie was about child killers in masks... that would have been a far better film than this mess.

This is a film that really does stay with you. It makes you re-examine yourself and your life path as much as it makes you re-examine Burt's life path who is reexamining it through his character Vic Edwards.

This all sounds meta in the extreme but trust me, you will, and for that it's an entirely unique and well crafted movie.

There's some truly great character interplay but the most haunting and spellbinding scenes involve Burt (Vic) talking to his younger self from his seminal films. Kudos to securing the rights for this and kudos for the screenwriting.

To be honest, kudos all round. I want to see this filmmaker Adam with bigger budgets as I'd love to see what he does next. A smart and touching film that will have you close to tears more than once.

A perfect storm of doc-making. You have a researcher who's spent 15 years of his life getting close to every character, you have a compelling edit that never drags and creates more twists and suspense then 99.8% documentaries, and last of all you have one of the weirdest and most dumbfounding crimes ever undertaken. Blown away by this series and a huge congrats to everyone who worked on it.

When I first saw this in the cinemas in 1999 I loved it. The killer being the side attraction to the interplay of a Italian community sounds a nice angle, and the underlying tone of sex sex sex was a nice theme to a teenage guy.

Revisiting it 14 years on Summer of Sam is a pretty painful experience.

Admittedly there are some scenes that really pop. The talking dog out of nowhere is especially creepy, but also sadly undone by Michael Badalucco's hammy wailing of "master masttterr" like a 30s B grade horror. Also, pretty amazing is the scene where the baseball commentators are playing in the background and the killer is walking around as if the commentators are talking about his movements. So yes, not a complete write off.

On the down points though is pretty much everything else. Cinematic clichés and to be honest just cartoonesque characters, none of which we really feel for in any great depth. It's like Mean streets Disney-fied..

By Lee jamming in everything from the emergence of the counter culture punk culture at CBGB's (by the way mohawks didn't exist in the Punk culture until later on) to club 54, he's showed us every 1977 NYC cliché possible. Rather than taking us down and dirty on the streets of NYC and the fear in the neighbourhoods he's gelled over it by scattering a bunch of gems, none of which are explored in any great detail.

I have pretty huge objections to some of the scenes as well. The biggest of these is when the Italians go to the punk bar, look at all the patrons with nose piercings etc (once again this didn't exist in early NY punk bars till 1978 on) to hunt out Richie. At this point their reasoning for Richie being the Son of Sam is that he's a weirdo. Once they saw there's 100's of others that look just like him, shouldn't they have re-evaluated, or at least there be a scene where they are questioning their train of logic before deciding otherwise?

The interludes of Michael Badalucco placing children's blocks to spell kill and murder, is just corny and all in all the best parts for me is the bookends. The reporter who investigated the Son of Sam killings summing up the tone of NYC at the time is a nice touch.

Far from getting me into the mindset of what it felt like to live in an Italian neighbourhood at the time of the killings, the direction of the film completely removed me. Very surprised this has a 6.6 rating.