Review of Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) by Minh N — 12 Apr 2016

I never write movie reviews, however, I could not just sit idly by while this movie gets so many praises. As a disclaimer, in general, I mostly agree with RT reviews when it comes to movies, especially, when movies actually ARE good (The Godfather, Once Upon A Time in the West, Edge of Tomorrow, Die Hard, Rear Window, etc to name a few from various genres). So I'm not writing this for sake of going against the flow.

The movie has no real story or plot. Just a movie following the lives of two individuals, mainly Adele the primary character, who becomes attracted to another girl and explores her sexuality. If you're a moviegoer expecting an engrossing compelling story with intense drama, this is not the movie for you. The movie really drags on for 3 hours, and a lot of scenes really serve no purpose, or at least not in an interesting way. It feels more like a soap opera/documentary in movie format, with some explicit sex scenes. If that is your cup of tea, and a soap opera lover (apparently is the case for all the positive critics on here), then by all means, enjoy this movie.

A lot of reviewers praise the acting, but what acting? The actors/actresses, no offense and safe to say, are practically playing themselves or a version of themselves. The characters are one dimensional, not interesting, and are just your typical everyday teenager/young adult from France. GOOD acting, is method acting (see Marlon Brando, Gary Oldman, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel (french), hell even most young recent British and American talent in drama movies) and playing characters that are different and outside your comfort zone while doing so convincingly. You're not really acting when all you're doing is playing yourself.

Last thing, a lot of reviewers praise how beautiful this movie is shot. If by beautiful,you mean shooting the movie in glorious 1080p with the most up to date camera technology (movie is from 2013), extreme closeups, etc. then sure, it's beautiful. Want beautiful cinematography? See any movie from Sergio Leone (50s-60s era), Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Alfonso Cuaron. TV shows like House of Cards have beautiful cinematography (with better acting and story to boot) that rival or improve on this movie in every aspect.

Sorry if this review comes off negative nancyish. However, the movie was just not enjoyable and quite frankly boring. It was hard to sit through the second half of the movie, when it was: more of the same, but for another hour and a half.

My 2 cents.