House of Gucci (2021)

[Eric Loves Rey]

Discuss

[Webslinger]

House of Gucci looks gorgeous and takes some really big swings that occasionally connect, but it is ultimately a messy film felled by a few critical mistakes. On one hand, there is a good deal to like about House of Gucci on a superficial level. The costumes are as eye-popping as one would expect from the subject matter, there’s some impressive makeup work that leans right into the wild style of its setting, some of the performances work, and Ridley Scott is skillful as ever in crafting impressively showy, cinematic scenes. However, the film’s biggest fault is that for all its storytelling ambitions and its starry cast, it keeps the audience and arm’s length and lacks a clear point of connection between characters and viewers. Obviously, characters need not be sympathetic in a crime saga like the one on display here, but at least the films in whose shadows this film stands (particularly the Godfather films and Martin Scorsese’s many forays into organized crime) made an effort to humanize their characters and allow them to connect with viewers so that their descents into corruption and depravity would feel like they meant something; that feeling doesn’t really come to bear here, or at least not in a manner that feels particularly compelling. As a result, the film feels like it drags its feet between big narrative beats, and the payoff of its biggest moments feels blunted. The other critical mistake is an astonishingly bad performance from Jared Leto as screw-up brother Paolo Gucci. Leto plays Paolo as a collection of tics and eccentricities rather than an actual character, and he does it all in a voice that could best be described as Borat imitating Mario (seriously). It’s a performance so bad that it sucks all the air out of the film every time he’s onscreen. And that’s a real shame considering that there are some solid performances from the rest of the cast. Lady Gaga will deservedly win quite a bit of positive press for a big, showy performance that works well for the most part. It’s not on the level of her revelatory work in A Star Is Born, but it’s further confirmation of her talent for understanding her characters and dispensing a sense of big theatricality where needed. Adam Driver is also reliable as always as Maurizio Gucci, delivering one of the film’s precious few internalized performances; up against so many loud performances, Driver’s mellower, more deliberate approach works well. There are also some nice moments from Al Pacino, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Irons, and Jack Huston, though the script is so tonally erratic that they still have some moments that don’t quite land. While far from a bad film, House of Gucci is a frustrating one. There are many admirable qualities on display, but there are also so many discordant elements at play that it doesn’t quite gel. 

 

C+

[poweranimals]

You can remove my vote. It was a mistake. 😂

[Jonwo]

The best way to describe this film is a cinematic soap opera. It's overacted and OTT but I enjoyed it.

[CJohn]

Another stunning adult drama from Ridley Scott with a tremendous lineup of stars doing their best acting in years. Hopefully Lady Gaga is nominated and Jared Leto wins the Oscar. Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons should also be nominated in a fair world. It is a crazy ride and entertaining as hell during the whole runtime.

Edited December 5, 2021 by CJohn

[filmlover]

Man this was messy and uneven. It certainly has tremendous production values but it definitely felt like something that would've been a better fit in the hands of Scorsese (or, if they truly wanted to go all out and embrace the camp factor, Ryan Murphy) than Ridley Scott's. It just becomes a long 158 minutes that left me wondering "can this please be over already" the longer it went on. It's perhaps no surprise that unevenness also spreads to the performances. Lady Gaga is definitely a certified Movie Star: she's not as great here as she was in A Star Is Born, but she knows exactly how to command the screen. Adam Driver is also superb, not that we expect anything less from him at this point. On the other hand, a buried-under-prosthetics Jared Leto is so over-the-top that he almost makes his derided Joker performance in Suicide Squad look restrained in comparison. There's a compelling movie or miniseries that could be made about this saga, but despite the tremendous amount of pedigree involved, this unfortunately isn't it. C+

[Joel M]

Fun movie. It's campy as hell and Lady Gaga is legit great in it and completely in tune with the tone of the whole thing. Even Leto is so ridiculous he's kinda compelling.

That said the messiness doesn't always work and it could have been shorter, but it's still pretty entertaining as it is.

[MickelC]

On 11/30/2021 at 6:03 AM, CJohn said:

Another stunning adult drama from Ridley Scott with a tremendous lineup of stars doing their best acting in years. Hopefully Lady Gaga is nominated and Jared Leto wins the Oscar. Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons should also be nominated in a fair world. It is a crazy ride and entertaining as hell during the whole runtime.

Indeed a super star cast, with all of them nominated or won the academy award. House of Gucci is one of the best drama movie created this year. 

[titanic2187]

The more I see this movie, the more I realise just how well Scorsese handle life-long story in his movie such as Goodfellas, the wolf of wall street and The aviator, especially with How Scorsese avoid soap-opera like storytelling while still maintaining the dynamics. 

And i become more understand why 3 hours is needed to tell complete story. HoC is a bit too short and therefore, some weird editing choice and cut happened in the movie

 

Jared leto is clearly overacting here, just too much of acting.  

[CoolioD1]

this is just straight up inept. there's a ton of dead air that makes every scene feel 40 minutes long. all of the actors look completely lost. big budget first year student film type shit! unbearable!

[Flopped]

I enjoyed this. Better than most of the garbage that got great reviews last year. No wonder it outgrossed them all combined. Grade: B