I'm not even sure if this film deserves a bad review or if it's better to just pretend I didn't endure this incredibly bad movie. Lola feels like the director decided to film the beat sheet instead of the actual script. The pacing is rushed, as if the goal was to get through the story quickly just to linger on longer close-up shots of Nicola Peltz Beckham's face. My initial thought was, "Does the director have a crush on Nicola?" Then I realized-she is the director, and also the writer. Suddenly, it all made sense. This film is nothing more than a vanity project, and it painfully shows.
I do have to compliment the Director of Photography.
Plot summary
19-year-old Lola James is trying to work to save enough money to get her beloved little brother, Arlo, out of their toxic home. Until one tragic night, when her whole world gets uprooted. From that moment on, nothing will ever be the same.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
March 01, 2024 at 11:12 PM
Director
Top cast
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A vanity project gone bad.
Insulting.
Aimless, illogical plot, insulting to people who genuinely experience trauma and poverty.
Shameless self-serving display from a very vain person who is either too arrogant and/or too ignorant to care about authenticity and the necessity of dealing with serious issues. Rape and abuse should never be cavalierly thrown into a plot with no proper exploration simply to create a glorified poverty aesthetic. Especially when the aesthetic is imagined from those (billionaires) least qualified to do so.
Truly hated this film and the entitlement of its creators. Would rate 0 out of 10 stars if I could.
Shocking awful
Shockingly awful movie, the kind that isn't just bad, but makes you really mad that you wasted 2 hours of your life watching it.
This film reeks of what a socially privileged person, high up in a penthouse only looking down on the world, imagines what the poor and vulnerable might feel like. To those of us at the bottom, this imaginary tale just comes across as a pigeon pooping on us.
Maybe they meant well, maybe not, this still comes across as a piece of trash. It's more poverty porn and exploitation, than a clever, heartfelt exploration of the issues covered.
The plot is full of traumatic life experiences, but it never builds up or evolves into anything. It's just a series of unhappy events. Every 10 minutes or so, a new traumatic experience happens, which fills in the next 10 minutes, until the next bad thing to happen. It's like as if the writers spent a day watching chat shows using the events in each show to create 10 minutes of storyline. Eventually, instead of building a relationship with the characters, you end up being saturated by trauma and sadly feeling disconnected and losing all empathy - that's not a good feeling.
The film work is self-indulgent and feels like an attempt to replicate some of the techniques that make cinematography an art form. Mostly, it feels very amateur, but in one or two places, it's not too bad. It tries far too hard, and it misses the mark, and in any case, even if it was outstandingly filmed (which it isn't), the cliche riddled storyline is far too bad to give it a 2 star rating.
Lastly, transcending the storyline and writing, the acting is terrible. Like, really, really bad.
I detecting a nomination of at least one Golden Raspberry for this...