Galveston

A criminal and a prostitute who had both hit the rock bottom grow closer to each other while they were on the run from gangsters and the law and it turns out almost exactly as you would expect. An overused theme, just played out by a different duo of actors than you saw the last time, or the time before that. And the overly sentimental ending doesn’t really help matters. [Sitges FF] (10/07/2018)

It's hard to believe that such a mediocre and cliché-ridden story came from Nic Pizzolatto, the mastermind behind the hit series True Detective, which broke new ground in the crime genre. Galveston, on the other hand, doesn't break any ground at all. It's blandly shot and lacks momentum. The film hits a dead end about 20 minutes in and spends the rest of its runtime floundering. Some semblance of creativity appears in the final moments, but it’s not enough to redeem the overall dullness of the plot. If the book tackles deep existential questions, the film seems uninterested in exploring them, opting instead to bore the audience with Elle Fanning’s unconvincing performance. Ben Foster’s talent is utterly wasted here. (10/08/2018)

Galveston is a very dull and tiring drama about an outlaw who receives a fatal diagnosis and decides to spend his few remaining weeks protecting a prostitute, both being in the local mafia boss’s sight (a true waste of Beau Bridges’ potential). The synopsis sounds interesting, but all that follows is just slow and never-ending rambling about life in damnation without any deeper digging into the topic nor – God forbid! – any answers. Ben Foster gives a solid performance, though I found Elle Fanning was not fit for her role – the two lack any chemistry between them. And the ending was maybe targeting the viewer’s emotions, but it left me totally cold. [Sitges 2018] (10/07/2018)