I won't remember a bit of this in six months. The acting is overall quite good, but the story-line is... boring? That's not quite fair. It's just uninspiring.

Went into this thinking that the discourse online and similar think pieces HAD to be overblown and had to admit, they had good gripes. If this were **almost** any other director this film would be such a bigger issue and is that right? Every "cinephile" adores PTA so he gets a pass from people? Some other thoughts: - Wanted to leave the film thinking everyone is overhyping Alana Haim, and jokes fucking on me because she slays - Should a 25 yr old female and 15 yr old male romcom be celebrated? - [spoiler] Regardless of if they spend the rest of their lives together or not, does that negate the fact that the relationship is being celebrated?[/spoiler] - Should it just be swept under the rug of "welp, this was what the 70s was like"? - Why does the Asian bit play for laughs?!? Why include it at all when it serves no purpose to the plot and is only a low hanging fruit chuckle from the crowd? - I love Benny Safdie, but [spoiler] should he have been cast in this role as a closeted individual when there is otherwise so much pressure to accurately cast actors for those roles?[/spoiler]

I just...didn't vibe with what this was putting down. I can appreciate the attention to detail, the performances put in by all involved and the somewhat rambling, cerebral style of storytelling; it just didn't connect with me how I think it was intending. I'll echo what I've seen by others online, Alana Haim should really pursue this as a full time gig. She is pretty great in this, and probably carried the whole thing along with the entire Haim family. I'm just not sure what this movie was trying to say, or if it was just trying to capture a moment in time? Or was just a throwback to the "good-ol-days" of the 70s? That and the somewhat questionable age dynamic of the two leads in the story does raise a bunch of questions that I'm sure have been discussed to death on other platforms. Not for me, but I can appreciate the merits and why people are raving about it.

Yeah, I dont know. Its one of those movies I wanna say I liked it, but actually i had no idea what was going ok.