Aubrey Plaza is brilliant in this (I really wish she had more recognition) where Abbott and Gadon provide enough gravity to their roles. The movie works best when these three are going at each other. The second half while strong brings distraction from the main story. Its still done very well and works well as a psychological drama as well, not much as a comedy. Very impressed with Lawrence Michael Levine's script and direction.

B+

This is very good. I just wish I knew what was happening in it. I think That seems most likely to me but I'd probably have to watch it again to see if that makes sense. Anyone else have a different take? I know the writer/director and Aubrey have said they both have different interpretations of it.

Aubrey is fantastic though. I wasn't blown away by her in the first half. There I was more impressed by Sarah Gadon who I had always been kind of meh on. In the second half Aubrey really delivered. This is one of the performances that deserves to be in the awards conversation but will never get nominated for anything major. She might be able to dust off a place for an Indie Spirit Award right now though.

8/10 (B+)

I had the same interpretation for the movie Mike specially with the way the film ended but I could see different interpretations of this which is why I loved the movie more.

The performances and the direction definitely carried this one for me and I actually enjoyed the first half more than the second half, but as a whole its a pretty damn compelling/fascinating film to watch unravel.

I can't say I cared or liked any of the characters though because I honestly didn't, especially Plaza, but damn is she great in this aswell as Christopher Abbot and Sarah Gadon.

B

I enjoyed first half more as well

This was really interesting and compelling. All three of the leads were great. B+

Both halves of the movie are perfectly fine on their own. Taken together though ... I dunno. I get that it is about the writing process, but I think they really needed a third segment to hammer that home (I'd make the second a bit shorter and then in the third she sees the black bear after only 5-10 minutes.) The transition from part one to two is very confusing, and I thought we were doing a One Cut of the Dead style film where we see how the first part happened, and all the things that went wrong along the way. But no, the actors switch characters and it plays more like an alternate version of the same story, which got kind of boring towards the end when they are just checking boxes rather than progressing the story.

Aubrey Plaza is really great though. She is sexy and seductive, then a completely unbalanced meltdown, two entirely different characters. I liked the first half a lot more mostly because of the savage burns the couple inflicts on each other (its nice to pick the brain of a real artist.) But yeah I just think there needed to be more ... or maybe less. Whatever amount it settled on was not the best.

B-/C+