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"Suicide-inducing... self-destructive... bad noir and bad filmmaking in general. The plot is thinner than Nicole Richie. The film... makes no attempt to [use] the mechanisms of the form (such as narrative, direction of the mise-en-scène, or character motivation). A filmmaker better have the chops to rise to the challenge; Kerwin, sadly, does not. A lesson in how not to write or direct a film." -Drew Morton, Pajiba "Aimless... non sequitur... impenetrably surreal.... hollow... obnoxious... a real howler. Too disjointed and incomprehensible to be enjoyed as much else besides an exercise in style." "Disastrous... alienating... pervasively dull... misguided... laughably pretentious. The noir element should have reason to exist, [but] there is no such justification here; the approach feels like a one-dimensional affectation, and, worse, one that the director treats jokingly. The results are jarring and weird." "A secret of good noir films is that they're often very silly. YESTERDAY WAS A LIE, to its detriment, begs to be taken straight. The movie doesn't look or feel like noir... the images are often fuzzball, the lines blurring, with peoples' skin burbling out. The soft lighting simply mudges up the image, both looking and feeling sketchy. The cheeks are baby-fat, and symbolic of this postmodern mélange's feeling of kids imitating grownups. YESTERDAY isn't about any particular noir plot, but rather about people trying to play one... What starts off as noir feels like kids playing around." "It's almost impossible to follow anything that's going on, particularly on the first viewing... There's little draw to watch the film again. An unpolished, unruly story runs wild, lacking a decent focus. Everything just looks gray, murky and muted. The film is plagued by soft blacks and hazy visuals which make it look only a few shades better than standard-definition video." [NOTE: This reviewer watched the film in standard-definition video.] "A pretentious sci-fi film... wrapped in self-conscious noir trappings. Enigmatic to the point of distraction." "The film seems like an atmospheric shampoo commercial [with] look-alike actresses with unlikely masculine first names. Hoyle looks ridiculous with a man's hat perched on her long tresses. Hard to connect with and way too vague to inspire the urge to try to do so." "Murky narrative... excessively pretentious premise and dialog. The arresting visuals maintain interest, but only for a while." "Impossible to fit together into a coherent narrative." "Its execution loses emotional power in the translation from theory to theatrics. Appreciation and adaptation of noir aesthetics aren't enough to overcome an incompletely told tale nor a confusingly solved case. Perhaps the true crime behind this mystery is how Kerwin marginalizes [the Dead Man]. His woeful underuse in this film was a deflating disappointment... a sadly missed opportunity." "Undermined by plodding scenes that elect to 'tell' rather than 'show.' All hopes for subtlety or nuance are thrown out the window. The over-written dialogue often brings the proceedings to a screeching halt." "Kerwin spends more time swimming in the metaphysical sewage of his mystery than developing his characters or suspenseful (let alone coherent) plot line. YESTERDAY WAS A LIE replaces convention with a contrived time travel gimmick. Kerwin wheels his motifs with little regard for their weight or meaning." [NOTE: This review was published three weeks before screeners were mailed to press.] "So painfully excruciating to watch I literally could not stomach another movie. I went home, put a wet towel over my forehead, lamented my choice to become a film student, and refused to turn on anything electric for 50 hours." |