André Berry

Loved this readaptation. Guillermo Del Toro is an awesome story telling visionary. So much more heart, soul & meaning to the story. Like a song sang by an expressive vocalist that makes one weep... In the wrong hands, it's meaningless, in the right hands, we feel... Bravo! Well done!

Brilliant! I feel as though someone was finally brave enough to show the Hollywood Star machine for what it is. I'm sure Britney Spears, Madonna and all Harvey Weinstein's victims can relate to Marilyn's star experience but at the same time, I'm sure the general public will have a hard time digesting anything other than Marvel super Hero images and shallow horror film knockoffs. This is probably outside the "Life is wonderful/Rodeo Drive" delusion of what star life could really be like. Well, one thing is for sure, you don't die at 36 years young, alone, of a drug overdose if life is so super wonderful. I got my taste of Hollywood young and quickly decided, I couldn't pay the price, but the general public really doesn't want to think of their stars as vunerable and human. "They're rich & famous!!! What could be hard about that?!" Kudos to Brad Pitt for helping to tell another side of a story we'd all probably choose to ignore. While happy, glitzy Marilyn is much easier to digest, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby,, Roman Polanski and their "Me too" victims show us, the machine is real and a lot of times, there's much darkness underneath that we as the public, are much more comfortable ignoring. Such is America though... ."Crictical Race Theory" doesn't allow the story of slavery to be taught even though it is an historical fact of American life. We'd rather not know about it. "Thats not fun!!!" Bring on the Super hero flicks and the beheading of zombies! Now thats fun! Oh and lest we forget.. Ana De Armas killed this role!! Killed it. Do we ignore that too?!

Being Black, I get the motivation behind making a super cool all Black Western. We have watched Westerns and period piece movies our whole lives without a person of color in the cast, crew or any other capacity and when we do see a person of color, they are the rare servants. This is acceptable in film because that is the role African-Americans were forced to live under..The Whips and Chains of Slavery...but it is a negative, dark image. A dark & ugly reminder for us, while a pleasant reminder of "The Good Ole Days" for others...so to create new images for our psyche, is wonderful. I totally get that. Where this move falls short is that it created its concept in a White American way. It based the bulk of it's story to rely on its Violence, Taking and Revenge themes...overused themes that are time filling concepts used in most of the movies that we've ever seen. Secondly it made the scenarios unrealistic and super slick. Do we really think Blacks could first of all, walk into...then proceed to rob a White bank without there being an all out, entire town backed, torch burning, dogs unleashed, manhunt with the N Word flying every other breath? In my humble opinion this "Super Glossy Unreality" is where this movie fell short. If it had created a reality of even the slightest racial tension, doubt, guilt or fear of retaliation, we would have felt the grit, fear and angst and therefore would have felt the heart thumping reality of their scenarios rather than them being Super Hero like & untouchable in their escapades. "Glossy." Having said all that...this movie was slick, well acted, and fairly entertaining, albeit, totally unrealistic. More reality could have made this decent Western, a great Western.