Karl Miller
This is a movie I nominate as one of the worst movies of all time (and I even liked Ishtar). I've usually liked McDermott's work in the past and I'm a big snoop fan but I was shocked at how woodenly everyone in this movie delivered their lines. If I closed my eyes I could easily have been convinced I was hearing a preproduction meeting where everyone sat around and read the script out loud, having never seen it before. I can only assume that the director, in his directing debut, (after many, many, assistant second director jobs) had a bit too much of the chronic. The camera work is boring, plodding and depressing to watch. I can not believe that anyone involved in this movie allowed it to be put out without getting their names removed from the credits.The only good thing about this movie is that if I have friends over to watch movies and I get tired, I pop this in the DVD player and in a matter of minutes everyone decides it's time to go....
eidolonse
I ended up watching The Tenants with my close friends who rented the movie solely based on Snoop Dogg's appearance (a passionate fetish of theirs) on the cover. Understandably, I did not expect much. I thought the movie would include the typical array of Snoop Dogg related behavior and imagery often seen in cliché rap videos. However, my generalization was for the most part wrong. Unfortunately, this didn't make the movie any better.Most would describe the movie as a dark serious drama, whereas I would describe it as a dark seriously drawn out boring drama flick. The film tells a story of two struggling writers (Dylan McDermott and Snoop Dogg) who are trying to create their own separate masterpieces. Their polar opposite lifestyles end up forming an unlikely but highly complex and neurotic friendship. This friendship moves throughout the entire movie like a wild roller-coaster - most of which is contributed by Snoop's character - reminiscent of someone with a severe case of split personality disorder. And although the movie is a drama, the acting - which has a morbid and serious tone - from Snoop and company was more comical than anything else.I wouldn't recommend this movie for those who are attention impaired because this one has a lot of dialogue and a lot more dialogue after that. There are some mediocre conflicts, but even they are mostly bogged down with more dialogue. The end, however, jumped at me with a sudden surprise. It was a little bit twisted, somewhat unexpected and a perfect way to wrap up a movie that needed to end. While watching the ending credits I couldn't help but picture the director thinking, "Oh God, how the hell do I end this snoozer." By the way, the director laid out carefully planted hints and subtleties leading to the climax - all of which are more visible than Waldo in a crowded street of midgets wearing nothing but black sweaters.
greenwood-alex
Watching The Tenants has been a interesting experience for me. It is the first film I have ever seen where I have shuttled at speed through parts of the (non)action - and I can normally watch anything from turgid action movies to Serbo-Croat indie and find them fascinating.The Tenants is frustratingly sluggish and over-orchestrated. One of the main problems of the script is there is little realistic character dialogue, apart from the set pieces where characters 'collide' in a very structured setting (to make this work, the film needed to feel more conceptual, which it didn't). This leads to a lack of realistic character development; everyone seems two-dimensional.The worse for this is the character of Bill Spear, aka Snoop Dogg. I found his characterization very uncomfortable and very unsympathetic. At one point, I even stopped the film because I got so annoyed by the character's aggressive, violent and monotonal delivery, the lack of any other personality layer apart from that of the reactionary "on" switch (which gets really predictable after a while) and I so desperately wanted him to have some redeeming qualities. However, one reason for this jar might be the nebulous time scape of the film (supposedly 70s, it feels and looks more early noughties). If it had been more securely fixed in the 70s, his character might have seemed more understandable.The lighting of the film was also awkward. All the way through, the soundtrack attempts to provide a certain gritty, jazz-infused atmosphere that just did not come off, largely because the set was too well-lit.The Tenants, to me, is an unbelievable film. It doesn't depict real people or propose any interesting ways of thinking about race, identity or the life of a writer, be they white or black.Strangely, I came away with the feeling that this project needed David Lynch; his eerie, clastrophobic and obsessive look and feel would have lifted both the actors and the script into something quite remarkable.
seriously-2
When I first heard of this movie, and of course the fact that Snoop Dogg had a role in it, I didn't think much of it. But it made me curious; Snoop and a serious role...I hope it wasn't the intention to make us curious because Snoop Dogg was in it, I hope it was just a try for a serious play. And serious it was.Without spoiling a thing; I had a hard time imagining Snoop as the 'novellist', Willie. I know Snoop as Snoop Dogg, the famous and maybe a bit extraordinary, but very genius, rapper/MC.Leaving Snoop Doggs intentions in the middle; the story was crap. I could not relate to it, I could not identify with it and it made Afro-American people look like a bunch of racists, which was NOT a good thing. I know where the story was about, I know the intentions, but to me, these intentions did not come out right... Only the end was really worth watching!I think all of you should see it, not because of it's brilliance, but because of it's rareness. It's not your ordinary Drama, it feels real.
AD
