Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Paul Creeden
I gave this film a middling grade out of respect for all the technical folks who worked on it. Some of the cinematography was OK. The locations could have been anywhere for the most part. The music was fair. The editing was OK. What I disliked most was the pretentiousness of it. It was a slick film trying to behave like an indie. Nothing worse.Now...about Sean Penn in this. What was he thinking? Did he have Hedwig-Angry-Inch envy? Did he always want to dress up? It reminded me of his foray into developmental disability, which was equally disastrous. Why does a man who can do justice to an icon like Harvey Milk take on a bogus project like this one?I skipped through the speechless scenes because I felt like I was being tortured. I can only say that this was one of very few films which felt in retrospect to have been a waste of my time.
RaidonD
This one, despite its cast and talents involved, is only ho-hum and rather slow moving except for a few genius lines. As I wrote before in one of my reviews for writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, his characters depend too much on a stylized way of existence and just because they may be inspired by real life persons or events, that does not make them more believable! Sean Penn is in his "I am Sam" mode, with a bit of Ozzy Osborne thrown in - not a good mixture. His rock star's motivation to go looking for the WW II humiliation source of his late dad's made no sense and escaped me completely particularly since he hadn't spoken to him in 30 years!
secondtake
This Must Be the Place (2011)Sean Penn tries very hard in this film, taking on a role of the worn out and disturbed rock star (Cheyenne) living in isolation. His character is weirdly ambiguous—and just plain weird—somewhere between a cross-dresser, a transvestite, and a myopic hedonist. He is something like "the idiot" of literature who seems completely out of touch but also has a wisdom and aloof perspective others do not.It sometimes works. The movie itself is filled with ambiguity, and not in an enchanting way. Since it does not charm by its aura and filmic intention (it has little of either), it should give us a better sense of what exactly is going on. Oh, you'll get the drift, and you'll pick up on the Cheyenne's regret and melancholy. And you might understand he hits the road in a bumbling search for some evil-doer geriatric Nazi (I'm serious) that no other person is better qualified to pursue.Well, any movie that pushes into its own sphere with some enthusiasm is worth watching, to me. I'm glad I did. But I can use my experience to warn a viewer that it's a personal calling here. Penn alone is reason to either hate or like the film, his overacting reminding me mostly that there are people who are really like this character who would have done much better. Instead we feel him acting all the time. It should be said that some of the other actors are forced to push their performances, too.One curious aspect to the film I loved was all the versions of the one song in the film, "Home" or "This Must Be the Place" by the Talking Heads (and performed by all kinds of people including David Byrne himself in a small, very tacked-on cameo). Some of the versions are so different you might not even catch that it's the same song again. Listen.So what's the point of all this angst and campy sadness? I think it's about the rediscovery of this Cheyenne's self. His real self, a person with normal qualities. He succeeds by breaking out of his self-imposed hermetic world and in a way it's a warm and almost terrific experience. For him and for the viewer. But for all its intentions it felt forced to me. There wasn't enough supporting material, not enough ambiance, and not enough character development (oddly enough, since it's all about Cheyenne's character). There is so much time spent on superficial aspects we never really get into the depths that might be here. Maybe.I want to think of this as a 10 star dream with a 4 star soul. That makes 7, I guess. But it feels less satisfying than that for me, and I'm thinking you'll know by now whether you might give this a tentative whirl.
Ben Larson
It's very difficult to get a handle on Sean Penn's aging rocker character. One thinks he has fried his brain. He speaks and acts slower than anyone I have ever seen. He looks the same as he did in the 80s, including makeup, but has lost interest in his music.Cheyenne (Penn) is married to Jane (Frances McDormand). They have been together for 35 years. Not only is this the opposite of what one would expect of a rock star, but she works as a firefighter. No, they are not broke, it's just what she does.The two of them are surrounded by some interesting characters in a film that moves at a snail's pace.You never really know where it is going, but at the end you realize that it was good for Cheyenne to get out of his world and grow up.
