Kickstarter is both a wonderful and a terrible thing. On the bright side, it allows creative people with integrity and self-respect to bypass the capitalistic process of the entertainment business and turn uncompromising projects into reality, so that is great. Unfortunately, crowd-sourced funding also allows people with no critical judgement whatsoever (like moms, friendly co-workers or internet addict) to back shallow vanity projects that should've never seen the light of day in the first place. So my initial reaction to Paul Schrader and Brett Easton Ellis' THE CANYONS' ridiculously successful campaign was something like ''Huh? Really?'' The premise was uncompromising enough to sway me though, so I had to form my own opinion on this UFO in the Hollywoodian skyline.
The movie opens on a couple dinner. Tara (Lindsay Lohan) and Christian (porn star James Deen) are discussing and upcoming slasher production with Gina (Amanda Brooks) and Ryan (Nolan Funk). There is obvious tension around the table and Christian is willingly trying to provoke his girlfriend and make his peers uncomfortable. The situation is actually more than what it seems. Tara and Ryan were together in the past and share something unscathed by the jarring life of Los Angeles. The ex-couple is out of synch though and Ryan wants too much of what Tara is not ready to share anymore. It arises the suspicions of Christian, a trust fund kid who doesn't deal well with his own jealousy.
THE CANYONS has a rating of 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. Are the harsh critics justified? It's not a bad movie per se, it's wrapped up tightly. There are no gaping narrative loose ends and the film is not going out of its way to alienate the viewer. It's actually trying to tell a story. Maybe it's the main issue with THE CANYONS. We were expecting shock, iconoclasm, unexpected things. Instead we were treated to a disciplined bedroom drama/thriller presented in fine Hollywood upholstery. The hollow life of beautiful people is a recurring theme with Brett Easton Ellis, but that provocative variable that usually gets me off my seat is absent from the movie. If there was a point THE CANYONS was inherently trying to make about relationship and luxuriant lifestyle, I did not get it. I am probably not post-empire enough.
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Lost between a self-referential soundbite about movies and a lo-fi renderring of LiLo's boobies, I kind of liked the relationship between Tara and Ryan. Exes often are obsessed with one another. The feeling of longing and hoping for ''the one'' is a myth crafted by Hollywood and Brett Easton Ellis does a good job at deconstructing it through the infatuation Ryan has with Tara. By surrendering to his feelings in the reckless and gullible the way he does, Ryan puts the woman of his dreams in danger in order to satisfy his own impulses. Love is kind and generous, but desire is an egomaniac. It seems nihilistic out of context, but if you compare it to the totalitarian romanticism of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER for example, the relationship between Ryan and Tara in THE CANYONS comes off as brutally honest. Such honesty sure is unlike Brett Easton Ellis, but it's strangely refreshing.
I'm no too sure what to tell you about THE CANYONS. It's neither good or bad. It's not especially provocative for this day and age, it's self-important and maybe a little bland, but it meets the humble objectives it sets out for itself. I walked away from the movie feeling the same way I do when I walk away from the dinner table and I'm still hungry. THE CANYONS gets the job done, but it doesn't do anything that we love Brett Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader for. Don't believe all that negative hype about THE CANYONS. It is not a bad movie. It's too quiet for its own good though and completely misses the boat with the provocative content though. In a way, Brett Easton Ellis succeeded in not giving us what we were looking for, but I don't think THE CANYONS delivered what he was looking for either.
