Cosmopolis

Did I like this film....did...I...hmmm....did I like this film? I'm really not sure. Its got a futuristic, doomed, society-is-crumbling backdrop. I like that. Its pretty much telling us how we're all fucked and its our own fault. I like that too. Its even got loads of people looking cool with shades and stuff. I like that too! I even like R-Patz!

The main problem is its detachment. American Psycho (which this movie is probably closest to) had a main character whom was detached from reality and Cosmopolis' R-Patz is very similar. He wanders (or is driven) through the city on a way to get a haircut, bored and jaded by everything and everyone around him. The sex scenes have Pattinson with his eyes at half-mast, barely interested in what was probably the last thing to give him any pleasure in life. Just like Patrick Bateman. While we're on the subject Robert Pattinson is awesome. He is cool and distant with an underlying psychotic streak. If anyone thinks he is just a pretty glittery vampiric face, they should check this out and see that he is really quite talented.

Unlike American Psycho, Cosmopolis does very little to try and give you something to hang onto emotionally. Every character who shows up in the limo is cold, clinical and their dialogue is very very complex. For 90% of the movie its Pattinson and one other character talking about technology, death and the plummeting of society. All well and good but I was left dazed and extremely confused trying to keep up with dialogue, characters and what the heck was actually going on! Just as I was getting to grips with one paragraph, three more paragraphs of dialogue screeched past me like a runaway complication train made out of question marks.

But let me be clear, I didn't dislike it. I admire the unashamed complexity and the emotional barrenness of the characters, especially Pattinson, which is kinda the point, how money and technology is distancing us from being human. Unfortunately this means it must sacrifice anything that give the audience some involvement in the material but I guess that's like a metaphor or some shit.