11/1/18
Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell are awesome. No peaches in this movie 
I think the closer you are to someone that has had a problem with addiction the better this movie will be. It is a combination of the books written by both the father and son. I think the father's side story is told better, but that could be because of my life. The story line isn't a typical addiction story, so that is a bit refreshing.
Chalamet's character isn't super likable and having sympathy for him can be hard at points. That isn't a bad thing, and I think Chalamet does a fantastic job in this role.
The sound track is way too distracting. I love Nirvana and I was singing along when it played, but it took away from what else was going on, on screen. The Neil Young song was equally distracting. Both pale in comparison to the blunder of putting Sunrise, Sunset in. There couldn't be a heavier handed move.
I like the way it was shot visually and California is a great backdrop, including the seedier side of SF. I hate the editing. I want a linear story line, a flash back here and there is OK. This movie, instead, goes scene to scene to scene all over the place. It took Ina and I five minutes to figure out a certain sequence and we still aren't sure we got it right.
The movie is clearly set in roughly 2008. The cell phones are annoyingly from that era, yet somehow the computers are older. Every plane is also a tri-jet. Those stopped regular passenger service in the US a while before 2008. I don't think the time was as important as they made it, kind of a bug and not a feature to me. With that said, I love the Volvo 240.
This is probably a good rental candidate. It is going to get Oscar buzz; white stars, white people overcoming adversity, California, previous nominees/winners.