So, this movie got really panned out of Venice with words like '‘indulgent,’ ‘narcissistic’ and ‘unbearable’ being thrown around, with others defending its stylish ambition. Innaritu has been accused of pretentiousness before of course with Birdman and Babel, but going all in with an autobiographical story may finally be too far in the Fellini direction for most critics (and who knows, 8 1/2 may well be torn apart if it had come out now instead of in 1963). Then Inarritu cut 22 minutes from the runtime, so that it’s now 2 and half hours instead of closer to three, so the version coming out in December isn’t quite the one that screened earlier. I’m not sure if it should be written off just yet, seeing as how the director has always been embraced by the industry and Academy voters in the past. This one may still be as well.
