I stand by my (out of context) excitement for Francis Ford Coppola probing the outer reaches of what we expect of cinema, but it appears “Twixt” nevertheless came and underwhelmed (to say the least) in Toronto, failing to fully reach its aspirations.
Tweets Motion/Captured’s Drew McWeeney:
It is appropriate that they screened Coppola’s “Twixt” today, because it is a freakin’ disaster.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt:
The pity is that the narration has got it all too right: His writer’s story is indeed third-rate.
The Playlist’s Corey Everett:
Personally, we’re not sure if there is any way the film can be remixed or edited into something worthwhile, iPad or no, and for us, this is one dream he probably should have forgotten.
Spout’s Christopher Campbell:
I should have let the elite press have Twixt to themselves. Oh god…
And it gets worse when you look across just general fan and attendee reaction. Ouch. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
UPDATE: Finally a positive spin on things today. Variety’s Rob Nelson:
…this disarmingly cheeky, intermittently gorgeous trifle would create the perfect bookend to a career begun almost 50 years ago with the Roger Corman-produced schlocker “Dementia 13.”
Movieline’s Stephanie Zacharek:
Twixt is a bit of a mess, but it’s also joyful and wicked, with a great, roly-poly sense of humor about itself. In its imaginative WTF-ness, it reminds me of Bob Dylan’s gloriously whacked-out Masked and Anonymous, just the sort of thing you’d expect a crackpot genius left to his own devices to make.
[Photo: American Zoetrope]
Comments
14 responses to “(UPDATED) Coppola’s ‘Twixt’ under serious fire in Toronto”
Time to make The Godfather: Part IV?
Ouch.
I’m not surprised
Damn.
Borat.
Look on the bright side. When the decade ends and people reflect, there will be a subset of people who call it a misunderstood classic.
@James D.- That’s exactly what I thought too, haha. I guess time will tell.
What seemed like an obvious folly, seems to have met its obvious conclusion – blistering ridicule from the media.
And thats exactly what people were saying. Not that the aspirations were bad, but that it honestly didn’t look like it would work out. Kudos for trying, it just seemed inevitable.
Variety’s review is significantly more encouraging:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946058?refcatid=31
There were a lot of people who didn’t like Youth Without Youth and Tetro, and I thought both of those were fantastic.
So while this is disappointing, I’m not going to be convinced that this is a misstep until I see it for myself.
Pleased by the counter-balance from appreciators today.
Lazarus, I agree with you totally.
As an admirer of his last two films, I’m still excited about this.
I adored it. It’s a mess but so what?