Garrett Hedlund’s performance throbs with an anguish that’s far more honest than the sentimental euthanasia subplot at the center of the film.
The film is too nihilistic to believe its protagonist can be saved, declaring him a lost soul and satisfied to let him suffer.
Cédric Klapisch’s film becomes an effervescent variation on the time-honored story of striking out for the American dream.
Throughout, it becomes difficult to know whether we’re meant to empathize with these characters or laugh at them.
It flourishes in the spaces between the plot’s necessary setups and subsequent payoffs, which is nearly enough to redeem the film if not for the narrative going belly up in the third act.
Daniel Stamm’s film is solidly helmed, if expectedly over-reliant on unnecessarily grisly comeuppances that leave nothing to the imagination.
There are grudges held amid all the good will, an intention of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble to do things on their terms, and those terms stem directly from their upbringing.