Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009)

6.5/10
This is a frustrator. Gaspar Noe's interminable Enter the Void is a brazenly unique cinematic experience - especially in terms of visual style. The movie is a treat to look at, and comparisons with a drug-obsessed 2001: A Space Odyssey don't seem so ridiculous when you start watching it. After an unbelievable title sequence (watch here) and a tremendous first act, things steadily head south. The second act is less interesting but still enjoyable, but everything falls apart by the third and Noe seems to know it, throwing everything possible at the screen in any order in all manner of gratuity just hoping something good happens. A movie about the life and death of a young drug dealer and the relationship with his sister, there are lots of good ideas here but in no known universe is this film worth 2 hours and 45 minutes of anyone's time. A tighter edit could have made this a masterpiece, as it stands it's just a disappointment made all the more bitter by all the wasted talent on display.