From The Hollywood Reporter · Richard Lawson · · 1m 10s
Good intentions can't save a clichéd film
Kim Bartley's first narrative feature means well, but Lemonade runs on autopilot from the first frame.
In brief
Kim Bartley's first narrative feature means well, but Lemonade runs on autopilot from the first frame. Caring about the right things is not the same as making something worth watching. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
A debut with good intentions
Documentary maker Kim Bartley steps into fiction with Lemonade, a film whose heart and politics sit exactly where you would want them.
The question the film raises
If a movie cares about the right things, do you forgive the clichés and the generic plotting? That is the bargain Lemonade asks audiences to accept.
“How much do good intentions count?”
A teen caught in the system
The story follows an Irish teenager from a rough background trying to handle a pile of adult problems he never asked for.
Everything lands at once
His troubles all arrive together, timed less by life than by the needs of the screenplay. The convenience shows.
“as they all come rushing at him (quite conveniently, for the movie's purposes) at the same time”
Wholly predictable
You can see each beat coming. The indie means well, but nothing in it surprises.
Sincerity is not craft
The cookie-cutter form grates as a matter of art. Care about the subject does not excuse a shape borrowed wholesale from better films.
“its cookie-cutter form aggravates as a matter of art”
The takeaway
Caring about the right things is not the same as making something worth watching.
