Review of Demolition (2016) by Spangle — 25 Aug 2016

Demolition is a solid film, but just does not fit together well. In many ways, it is broken just like its main character. Though his pain and lack of connection to that pain is entirely relatable due to his inclination to push things away and not really pay attention, the film is also really cliche.

From beginning to end, Demolition plays out like your average indie movie that explores grief in the wake of the death of a loved one. Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific, the soundtrack is good, and the film can really hit hard at times, but can never escape being your run-of-the-mill film about loss.

It never really achieves what it sets out to do in communicating this pain due to its sheer averageness. Additionally, though I see a parallel it tried to create between characters, the film really winds up becoming distracted as it focuses on too much and too many stories in its short runtime.

If longer, it may have had a chance to explore more of these. However, it seemed like Jean-Marc Vallee just decided he wanted to touch on a bunch of existential issues and figured he could cram them into Demolition.

Fortunately, Gyllenhaal is just so good, I can look past much of those issues. For those who are not afraid or tired of these cliches, Demolition may feel like a breath of fresh air and hit you like a ton of bricks.

For those who often find themselves watching films such as this, it will feel tired, even if its rock tunes and top-notch acting bring it slightly above the mean.