Review of The Canyons (2013) by Private U — 11 Oct 2013

The Canyons - Paul Schrader (USA, 2013).

Christian is the trust-fund kid with loose ties to Hollywood and Tara is his trophy wife, they enjoy working out, recreational drug use and inviting strangers from the internet to come around and take part in their sex life. When it turns out that Tara has a history with the lead of his film project his paranoia takes over and we see his mind games spiral out of control with terrible consequences for all.

This film has already become so famous for being bad it seems a tad redundant to even be writing about it. To be honest I was curious if a film could be as bad as this was being made out to be. This is afterall the film that was turned away from the likes of Sundance and SXSW for being too ugly, a film directed by Paul Schrader and written by Brett Easton Ellis that cannot even get a distribution deal beyond the one cinema it screened in in New York last month. When even something called Sharknado can get an outing on the basis that it's so-bad-it's-good, where has this one failed?

The film is not terribly made, it's not like Schrader has suddenly forgotten how to put a reel together. In the case of our two leads, the acting is not bad; James Deen makes a surprisingly decent screen presence whilst Lohan manages to remind us that there is (was?) talent there. If you haven't already I urge you to see A Prairie Home Companion, it's a Robert Altman film and despite featuring the likes of Tommy Lee Jones and John C. Reilly, Lohan is the best thing in it. Along with Mean Girls it stands as a testament to how badly the wheels can come off the rails and how far people are willing to let them fly in the name of entertainment. As for the rest of the cast, perhaps budget considerations where the reason most of them made it to the first read through.

It is terribly written, it makes itself out to be some piece of trashy fun. Like a feature length episode of an MTV reality show but with added breasts. Yet, every time it threatens to get in the slightest bit entertaining in this manner, the film ducks, it bobs and it weaves its way back to an anti-climax. Instead of relishing with guilty delight over how these empty, ugly, superficial characters ruin their own lives, it appears Easton Ellis wanted us to sympathise. With what exactly is still very much unclear. There also appears to be some sort of half hearted attempt at making it a psychological thriller but the script is simply too shallow, the actions and emotions on screen are without motive or justification.

As a z-list piece of fun this might have worked, however it has aspirations to be a film it simply never was and as a result just comes across as flat and lazy filmmaking. One gets the feeling, especially reading about the fallout from the film that Schrader may be done as a director, this is sad but not necessarily a bad thing, he was always a better writer anyway. Hopefully, Easton Ellis will go back to twitter and realise that no-one is as good as he thinks he is and hopefully Lohan will get herself together and exploit the talent she clearly has.