icazares

What bothered me the most about this movie is not the movie itself, but the great amount of people that liked it. How come. There is nothing redeemable. There is no compelling story- instead we get three equally disconnected and unnecessarily long acts. Thirty minutes into the film nothing happens- only naked action. No story. It's like eating a cloying desert with a small spoon.

There are no memorable characters. Some of the acting is as poor as it gets. I would like to nominate Vanya's mom for the worst actress of the year, but in all honesty, everybody overacts. Anora, as a character, makes no sense, but the others are not necessarily better. The second act (break-in) is terrible. It's so amateurish that stereotyped that it makes me think what in the world the director had in mind.

There are no engaging visuals, or good music. In general the production looks cheap and outdated. I'm not necessarily against that -I like budget productions- but in this case it amplifies the low overall quality of the product.

I'm at a loss understanding how this movie won awards. It's empty calories. They could have gone deeper with one of the characters (why does Anora speak Russian?) but instead chose an on-your-face approach where there is no mystery or cohesive narrative. The whole thing was created to feature the end, which I would assume in the opinion of the director is brilliant and unexpected. In mine, it's lazy, vulgar, and completely expected.

I'm a former tennis player. I take offense on the weak and silly argument behind the story. The producers obviously know nothing about the sport, and even less about professional tennis. None of the actors are credible as tennis players, especially Art who apparently is the only multiple GS champion ever without an ego. Stanford players winning Slams... give me a break. The tennis action is pathetic. The points ill-constructed. I disliked Tashi profoundly as she comes across as a selfish woman with no empathy for anybody. I really don't understand what they were trying to do in this film: normalize the love triangle because it made the players better? No redemption, no character development? Please stay away from our sport.

I just watched the last episode. My voice is still trembling with emotions. "My Brilliant Friend" is, of course, brilliant. Astonishing. Over the last six years this series has played with my heart like no other TV product has. I, too, come from a compact and small neighborhood. I, too, attended a public school, although not as modest, poor, and intense as Lenu and Lila's. The series brought me back to my infancy and teenage years over and over, and after this last episode, there is nothing that I want to do more than visiting my old neighborhood of squared townhouses. The storytelling is incredible throughout the 4 seasons. The characters are well developed, meaningful, and authentic. The economic and social struggles in Italy, and the contrasting worlds of the North and the South could not have been depicted better. I could not recommend this enough. A true masterpiece.