The Canyons (2013) Directed by Paul Schrader

This is a real actor's movie, so why not hire some real actors for the job?

This movie features the type of story in it that seems more suited for a stage play. It focuses purely on its characters and the storytelling and it also definitely is a movie filled with lots of dialog. However, from the first minutes on already I get a really bad feeling about all of it. Both the dialog and acting was extremely lacking, from the first scene on already. It also became very obvious to me, in that very same first scene, that this would be a movie that wouldn't ever be going anywhere interesting with its story. And indeed, as the movie kept going on it started to become more and more apparent that this movie is nothing but an uninteresting and terribly pointless one to watch.

The story is even kind of annoying, once the movie starts its attempts to become a thriller as well. It's the type of movie that's about intertwined relationships, involving themes such as love, suspension, paranoia and hate. The movie however never becomes a very interesting or tense one and it even feels ridicules, how the characters behave and what actions they take at times. None of the characters are besides likable enough, mainly because they all have their bad sides, which overshadows their good sides and basically all characters are doing some despicable things throughout the movie.

And why, oh why, would you ever cast a porn star and Lindsay Lohan in a movie that involves a heavy dramatic story and some serious acting in it? Really can't say that Lindsay Lohan is a terrible actress but lets face it, she is not exactly A-list material. And this really is the type of movie that would have benefited from the presence of some better actors in it. They at least would have been more able to give their characters some more range and depth to them and potentially could have made things more interesting and engaging to watch.

This absolutely never becomes a very interesting movie to watch with anything. Even the nudity and all of the sex feels too gimmicky and can't spice things up and make things more interesting for the movie. It's one you can real easily do without!

4/10

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