John Barker

Almost unwatchable! Like a basket of bad story ideas, overworked cliches, and underwhelming video antics masquerading as avant-garde, were shaken with campy performances, and then dumped out hastily to a streaming platform when some studio head must have discovered this abortion and flushed it. Unbelievable that this muck came from Coppola. Even more astonishing that Kilmer stared in these scenes. These were clearly early rushes that convinced the backers that the film was a hot mess. Just note the scene where Kilmer does a halfass Brando impression and others. Coppola should be eternally grateful that someone pulled the plug before this drivel sank his reputation. To any theater student parents that say, “My kid could do better than this!”, I answer “Anyone’s kid can do better than this “.

Didn’t anyone else notice the over the top nostalgic tropes of 9/11? Hell, ‘Dusk’ even refers to ashes in his mouth! I thought that the editing was frenetic and uneven. It seemed to resemble a grade school production of “War and Peace” in 25 minutes with a cast of several - keep an eye out for the tyke with the Napoleon hat as he zooms from one side to the other on a makeshift stage of old band risers. Aside from Day, and for the more mature ladies Dusk, the acting is only frequently wooden and stereotypical. Like how emotional was I supposed to be when the laundry staff tearfully crowded Hari in some kind of over scripted revival meeting? Jeez, they travel faster than light, but their technology hasn’t enabled them to find a way to get ink out of a shirtsleeve? I’ll keep watching, but only because I already paid for the month.