Chastain removed from Dolan's Upcoming Film

Is the original play this empty and meandering or did Dolan just fuck this up?

It's the third I've seen from him after Laurence Anyways and Mommy, and it's him to a tee: lots of hystrionics, pretty cinematography that feels tailor-made for Tumblr, multiple unnecessary pop music video interludes that disrupt the action and come across as blatantly self-indulgent rather than moving. (Blink-182 and Grimes blasting on the soundtrack within 5 minutes of one another here was jarring, not only due to their familiarity but mostly because they totally clashed with what was going on. Xavier, dude, if you're just gonna shuffle your iPod and take the first few tracks that come up to use in your movies, at least make sure they fit the tone and momentum of the scenes you're inserting them in.) But unlike those two titles, there's really nothing going on here at all. Laurence sprawled in a few too many directions and Mommy eventually became too circular and repetitive for its own good, to the point where you could chop 30 minutes off of each of them and not lose much, but at least there was enough in them to sink one's teeth into. Dolan clearly had his share of crumples to iron out going forward, but there was a passion and a vibrancy to those films that made them good.

It's Only the End of the World, on the other hand, feels like it's entirely made of air. There's a couple moments here and there when it looks like it could be going somewhere (mainly the ones involving Cotillard's character, with a special shoutout to Baye's lovely monologue in the woodshed), but mostly it just doesn't. Nothing happens. Nothing interesting is said (or screamed). Nothing particularly insightful or illuminating transpires. It's slippery in the most frustrating way. It amounts to nothing other than a 90-minute shouting match starring 5 talented actors who try their hardest but just don't have particularly interesting people to play. Cassel has the most to do and puts in a fair share of effort, but he's saddled with too much of a one-dimentional brute, while the other four (Baye and Seydoux in particular) do as well as they can with their underwritten parts. (Yes, including Cotillard, who was far far better than I expected given how hated her performance is around here -- don't hate me, Maria Helena! ) Ultimately, though, Cassel's character sucks in all the air around him-- not just within the film's universe, but also to the viewer. By the time we get to the fifteenth hysterical argument, it's tough to care much. Especially when all that's being said is white noise and the main character (the reason for all the commotion) is a blank slate.