In this cautionary tale, three people struggle to preserve their identities as they form an eccentric love triangle within the fast-moving internet age.... (Full plot summary below)
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In this cautionary tale, three people struggle to preserve their identities as they form an eccentric love triangle within the fast-moving internet age.
Leave your thoughts about Mainstream.
| Screen DailyJonathan RomneyNot so much bleeding edge as screeching edge, Gia Coppola’s Mainstream is a frenetic piece of pop-art social satire that strives to be super-current but feels oddly traditional beneath its eye-searing, pixel-popping surface. |
| The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungIt's a messy, childish scrawl of a film, but it is high on energy. |
| RogerEbert.comIsaac FeldbergMainstream may be up-to-date on stylistic grounds, but its narrative could use refreshing. |
| The A.V. ClubKatie RifeThe problem with Mainstream is it isn’t plugged deep enough into the culture it’s satirizing to really even know what its target is, let alone how to hit it. |
| The PlaylistGuy LodgeMainstream feels far more like a callow freshman effort, frantically tricked out with visual gimmicks and affected whimsy, none of which freshen up its palpably millennial stance on that ever-renewing question of whether or not the kids are all right. |
| VarietyJessica KiangA brittle, exasperated satire on social media celebrity, her sophomore film, like the tacky messiah it creates in Andrew Garfield’s YouTube sensation, soon becomes the very thing it sets out to expose: a glittery, jangly image machine that manufactures little of actual substance, except the conclusion that social media = bad. |
| Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeThe film has the knowing swagger of something on the cutting edge but none of the self-awareness to realize it’s late to the party. |
| The Film StageRory O'ConnorIndeed, the strangest thing about Mainstream (and it is a strange, strange film) is just how out of touch it feels. Granted, if it were easy to make a viral video we would all be doing it; yet what Coppola and her team have come up with is just so lame and off the mark and nauseatingly self-satisfied. |
| User ReviewGabrielGamasThe low ratings of the film it's only because of its magnificence. It brings back what cinema used to be in movements like La Nouvelle Vague. It's not a critic to the powerful elite nor dictatorial governments, it is critic to our ordinary life, it critics our attitudes. And not in the superficial way we are used to, it is in an intense way we can't handle. And that is the reason why it received such bad reviews, low ratings, it was because we, the viewer, are constantly attacked. And not by a good guy, not by a hero, because if it were, we could bear, we would think: "I'm sorry, man, but I am not a saint", but when it is a mad man who shows us what the problem is, when a lunatic shows us we are horrible person inside, we start to feel anguish and then repudiate the movie for its geniality. There is the need to deny the movie as a masterpiece so we can bury inside of each of us the knowledge of our own hypocrisy. Certainly this is not a Hollywood movie, this is, undeniably, cinema with its most pure essence. And the way Gia Coppola does that it's not only through a good plot and use of lines like most directors would, she uses strong and tense scenes to give the spectators a miscellaneous felling of repugnance, obnoxiousness and anguish. And not it's not only the critics that makes the movie so unique. Gia Coppola uses colors and pallets to tell the story throughout every scene we can see colors have meaning and it's used to guide the audience to have a feeling. The colors alongside the amazing camera technics gives one mesmerizing photograph of the film. It's beautiful, unique and at the same time completely audacious, doing justice to all of this genius's work. Also, we can't forget about the gorgeous characters development in which is captured the human nuances in different scenarios of power in only 94 minutes. It is completely amazing how real this movie is, and that is why he is so shocking, it is real. Therefore I may conclude saying I wish there will be more films like this one for our society need movies like this. And for Gia Coppola I tell you this, don't grieve for the low ratings and acceptance of the movie, it just happened because your masterpiece worked and affected people, so congratulations, because now I will follow your work with high expectations for this is one of the greatest works of its time. A precise film for the pandemics. |
| User ReviewchromateWhen watching the trailer, this movie seems like another "call out" to the culture of mainstream media, a subject that while interesting, has clearly been done before (and is pretty touchy for most audience members). It's true; this story might not have a unique purpose, but it still stands out from the rest. It felt like a mixing of nostalgia and modern concepts that were incorporated delicately for an appealing feel. This direction helped refrain from feeling like the movie was trying to drown the audience by keeping overwhelming moments brief, but at the same time still being able to draw emotion from all around good performances. These performances from the actors really helped keep these characters alive, and in short amount of time character relationships were able to feel natural and simultaneously confusing. This confusing factor is what kept the film from becoming another tiresome critique on our generation's fixation on social media and the internet. It kept you asking questions, which kept evolving the characters, relationships, overall messages and themes. The ability to get the audience to ask themselves the questions is incredibly important is because it makes the audience understand more (and feel better about themselves) as it allows them to do the deep thinking, instead of handing them everything on a silver platter. It doesn't automatically give you a target. You don't know who the "bad guy" is, or what he represents (even at the very end!) It's incredibly captivating, and I'm glad that Coppola was able to convey this. Additionally, the cameos of real influencers were not as obnoxious as I anticipated them to be since around a good half of them felt natural enough. I wouldn't call this a fantastic movie, since this theme is overdone and "Mainstream" brings nothing new to the table, but I appreciate the route that directors and writers took for what they wanted to do. It's a piece of art, and I can see all the little pieces of passion poured into it from its team. It definitely doesn't deserve such a low score. |
