- Sensibility: Tragically sensible.
- Cinematography: Beautiful camera work that is critical to almost every scene in the film. Production design and costuming choices are also excellent at defining the characters without narrative explanation.
- Energy: It's a harrowing watch. The emotional roller-coaster of this film is an unbelievable ride with insane highs and lows. Only hiccup is during a singing scene that I think drags on just a touch too long.
- Narrative: An unforgiving, graphic story about addiction, abuse, and loss. Great writing tells you a story without overtly saying anything: Brandon's decision making is constantly adapting to subtle cues in the world around him, giving the character a sense of realism while also hinting to the viewer as to what is next. The film has brilliant, ominous, metaphorical book-ends that tell the whole story in and of itself.
- T-Points: The film received 5 bonus points: one for an elegantly acted sequence discussing a dirty hard drive, one for a brutal argument between siblings with cartoons in the background, one for a montage of sexual depravity, one for a tragic, gut-wrenching scene on a pier, and one for Fassbender's overall performance that perfectly hits the big scenes but also communicates the subtleties in his facial expressions that makes this film a masterpiece.
It almost feels critical not to give this film more than 5 bonus points, because Nicole Beharie's and Carey Mulligan's performances are so unbelievably good that they are critical to why this film is such a masterful work of art. Tough content with a great, powerful message. This film tackles issues that are very hard to talk about let alone film. Not for everyone, but this film is an annual watch for me.
Number of Watches: 5
