Post by Dracula on Jan 11, 2022 0:42:22 GMT -5
Dear Evan Hansen(12/26/2021)
To say that the critical response to Dear Evan Hansen was negative would be an understatement, it was downright hostile and the film became a source of major ridicule all across the internet. It’s a movie I mostly watched so that I could then watch all the video essays out there about how terrible it was. So my expectations for this thing were about as low as they could possibly be and it was in that context that I finally watched it and found myself saying to myself “yeah, this is bad, but is it really that bad?” and I must say I’m not sure that it is. First and foremost, yes, Ben Platt is terrible in this lead role. He doesn’t look even a little bit like a teenager and just generally doesn’t work at all. However, I do think pretty much everyone else here is pretty good. Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Julianne Moore, and Amy Adams are all quite good here. Of course this is a bit of a double edged sword since it make Platt’s issues stand out even more, but credit where it’s due. I can also see how the music from this Broadway show has had as good of a reputation as it has, it’s pretty catchy and stands out. I also don’t think that the premise of this thing is as wildly “creepy” as some people are making it out to be: yes Hansen’s predicament is pretty bad but the movie lays out a pretty good explanation for how it started innocently and kind of spiraled out of control and it’s not like the movie is trying to argue that the web of deceit Hansen finds himself in is, like, a cool thing to have done. Of course that Platt performance is pretty damn hard to ignore and he definitely sinks this thing, and even without that I’d concede that the whole thing is pretty contrived and probably not the world’s most sensitive depictions of mental illness. So, yeah, bad movie… but I think critics were maybe a little too excited to have another Cats on their hands and oversold how much of a disaster this was. There are way worse movies out there.
** out of Five
To say that the critical response to Dear Evan Hansen was negative would be an understatement, it was downright hostile and the film became a source of major ridicule all across the internet. It’s a movie I mostly watched so that I could then watch all the video essays out there about how terrible it was. So my expectations for this thing were about as low as they could possibly be and it was in that context that I finally watched it and found myself saying to myself “yeah, this is bad, but is it really that bad?” and I must say I’m not sure that it is. First and foremost, yes, Ben Platt is terrible in this lead role. He doesn’t look even a little bit like a teenager and just generally doesn’t work at all. However, I do think pretty much everyone else here is pretty good. Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Julianne Moore, and Amy Adams are all quite good here. Of course this is a bit of a double edged sword since it make Platt’s issues stand out even more, but credit where it’s due. I can also see how the music from this Broadway show has had as good of a reputation as it has, it’s pretty catchy and stands out. I also don’t think that the premise of this thing is as wildly “creepy” as some people are making it out to be: yes Hansen’s predicament is pretty bad but the movie lays out a pretty good explanation for how it started innocently and kind of spiraled out of control and it’s not like the movie is trying to argue that the web of deceit Hansen finds himself in is, like, a cool thing to have done. Of course that Platt performance is pretty damn hard to ignore and he definitely sinks this thing, and even without that I’d concede that the whole thing is pretty contrived and probably not the world’s most sensitive depictions of mental illness. So, yeah, bad movie… but I think critics were maybe a little too excited to have another Cats on their hands and oversold how much of a disaster this was. There are way worse movies out there.
** out of Five
