[bowener]

I watched this last night, and I still am not sure how I feel about it. It is obviously heavily stylized, and with that being said, calling out the movie for using modern hip hop is more or less pointless. This isn't marketed as an authentic representation of NYC in the 20s. If you went into this film without any knowledge of the director and his previous films (especially Romeo and Juliet), then I feel you have no room to argue about his style of filming. I liked how he represented his world for the most part, but there were a lot of things I really disliked. Several times throughout the film there was some terrible CGI work done. I am confused by it because there was some good work as well, and so I do not know if it was done for a purpose or not (poor resolution of certain characters such as the black trumpeter when it featured him playing - but only in some shots and not others). This may just be me missing something, but it bothered me. There were also the obviously awful green screen shots, but again that may just be my taste (like when they are in front of JG's house going up the monstrous stairs.

Overall I liked the performances, but I just don't know how I feel about the rest I suppose.