hello and welcome to what the flick I'm
Christie this is alonso this is matt
we've got the highly anticipated return
of lindsey Lowen in the canyons movie is
more famous for all of us bad
pre-release buzz and all the stories of
this trouble production than it is for
anything in the film itself and you can
finally see it now without New York and
on VOD this week alum tell us about it
so the canyon stars Lindsay Lohan as the
girlfriend of a trust-fund producer
played by a porn star James Dean and the
two of them seem to be working on trying
to get some movie made but it turns out
that she has a past with the guy who
they've cast in the film and a lot of
past indiscretions are coming up to rear
their ugly heads meanwhile the two of
them have a rather unusual sex life that
involves meeting strangers on the
Internet
it's all very la as presented by Bret
Easton Ellis who wrote the script check
it out nobody has a private life anymore
care
all actors
so the whole movie begins with this
array of abandoned and decaying movie
theaters yeah right which I guess is
meant to be this very profound very
artistic statement about death of cinema
you know I thought that too but there's
a readi interviewer Schrader where he
said that this is a movie about 20-year
olds who lined up for a movie and they
closed the theater and the 20 year old
stayed because they had nowhere else to
go you do not get that from watching the
titles but um this movie is like a true
story that happened or no it's
metaphorically it's meant for Clooney
did not register though because none of
us got that um Matt's not seen it but I
know got early on the death of centers
of Lindsey Vonn oh she's super duper
naked in this as is James I'm right
there but you know what though this is
meant to be an erotic thriller it is not
arousing it is never really it's meant
to be an erotic thriller I think it's
supposed to be a Bret Easton Ellis Paul
Schrader collaboration which means
you're gonna get a very cold look at bad
behavior in Los Angeles among the
moneyed and you know under interesting
and I thought on that level it worked
really well I found it really effective
and in a you know it's that so if you if
you followed Ellis's work from lesson
zero to American Psycho and and and
elsewhere he specializes in this sort of
you know amoral blankness of characters
and I think these are very much along
the lines of the kind of stuff he's
written and then you match that set that
that look with with Schrader who you
know the American Gigolo guy he wrote
taxi driver he gives their lives a
certain kind of Sheen but at the same
time makes you realize that there is
nothing going on and they talk about
movies but they're never going to make
one and they don't even like movies
necessarily it's just a thing that they
feel like they have to do in their lives
to pretend like they have some sort of
meaning to it but nobody has feelings
nobody has emotions and I found it
really powerful they don't bring any
insight into these characters though I
mean the movie itself is as flat as a
people they depict right and so where is
the entry what they're also vapid and so
interchangeably so and so blandly pretty
like I don't know why I flipped to care
about any of them and they're tedious
lives and they're breathless text
messages
and who's screwing who screwing who over
I I guess I found their awfulness
interesting and when I David I with this
in he he said it sort of reminded him of
The Bling Ring which is also about kind
of empty behaving that I this movie for
me worked a lot better because I felt
like it was it was a harsher look maybe
and I don't know I it's hard I can't
exactly delineate the difference right
now I just saw the film but uh but all I
know is that this worked for me in a way
The Bling Ring didn't at least had
visual style this looks like crap this
looks like the low-budget film that it
is and if there's this it's a flatness
to it there's an awkwardness to the
pacing the dialogue is incredibly
stilted I guess you say it's intentional
because all empty people but what's
there to hold on to for us and what why
should we care about whether they get
away with their transgressions whether
this one person lives or dies when to
being a victim and I think that a story
unfolds where it you kind of just want
to see where they're gonna take it do
you want to see I did yeah I did care I
mean I didn't like anybody but I cared
enough to see what was gonna happen to
them and why and what what they were
doing to themselves what boxes they were
putting themselves into I know and I
think you know uh whether or not you
know the the you know Lindsey loan is
perfect for this movie and I know that a
good thing or a bad thing
you know she she there's a certain
blankness to her now unfortunately that
is perfect for this role and James Dean
as a porn actor I think kind of brings a
separation from his own emotions that
Sasha Gray brought to the girlfriend
experience which again I don't know if
that's intentional or not but it in the
final analysis when you see the work it
comes off the problem with Lindsay Lohan
being so so perfect for this is it's a
distraction right so you see her
lounging by the pool having a cigarette
you see her lunching at some trendy
place in Sunset Plaza or you see her
shopping at you know expensive stores
with oversized sunglasses on we see her
do this in real life is the fact that
she is in real life a troubled young
woman trying to get away from that it's
not helpful would you play the trouble
women in this film I think it's it's
huge distraction it doesn't necessarily
in view her with any kind of insight is
just tabloid fodder come to life on film
for me it is I felt like it was maybe a
blurring of the line between reality and
the character but I didn't you never
took me out of it is she good in this
I'm not sure she's good and I think
she's doing what the director wanted her
to do which is the empty and yeah but I
but but here's the thing I think you can
you could bring in a dozen other
actresses for that role and ask them to
be empty and they would do it wrong
Ahava she's got emptiness down there go
see when she did she did I miss that
Lindsay - I miss that Lindsay Lohan -
but I think that it's it's too easy to
fob off what she does here is being like
that she didn't do anything because the
history of cinema is littered with
people who can't even play themselves on
screen much less can't behave the way
they behave in a day-to-day way that's a
hard thing to do so I don't know if it's
a great performance but it's an
appropriate performance very moment
where she is a Ron herb I mean there are
moments where she is just frazzled and
it's all right there on the surface but
a lot of times she seems very distant
and her lines are very rushed to the
point where they're unintelligible on
whether that's her performance with the
bad sound mix um the version I saw I
mean I watch it our online screeners so
um but I I don't know I took I just I I
sort of I mean I kind of went in with an
eyebrow cocked because yes we we all
read the New York Times magazine story
and we you know the the the South by
Southwest programmer who shot her mouth
off and all that stuff but I came away
with this really I liked it they worked
for me
all right well what's your number then
please I give you seven okay I'm giving
it a 3 which Alonzo so kindly pointed
out is an average of five thank you us
now are you gonna go see are you curious
now
I am somewhat curious I don't know what
I'll have time to see it but yeah it's
only an hour and a half long so it's got
that going for it so our average is 5 is
17% on the tomato meter I do feel like a
lot of folks went into this movie
gunning for it
oh no yeah no question I think Michael
is alone as a big fat target are back
unfortunately wanna see her come back a
16 I absolutely do but I think in the
meantime I think Alicia's she's doing
interesting work and I do want to say
about James Dean I don't wanna I don't
wanna completely disappear uh I think
that he has a real presence on camera um
yeah I mean I think again you could put
a lot about you could put a bunch of
other attractive porn stars in that role
and they would have not registered this
guy really I think has something that
the camera picks up on oddly enough did
he look like
I thought he looked like a like a young
mix of Paul Ryan and Anthony Weiner
uh he's got a real political look to him
for some reason and the cold sneer the
cold disease c'mere
all right so check out the Kenyan I'm
sure your curiosity of nothing else it's
it's better than you've heard I think
from her or not my