The Pretenders

Name: The Pretenders
Genre: Drama
Released: October 4, 2019
Duration: 95 min
Rating: 14
Cast: Antoni Porowski, Brian Cox, Danielle Burgess, Dennis Quaid, Jack Kilmer

2019

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Overwhelming dislike based on 5 Critic Reviews

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Movie Details & Credits

Cleopatra Entertainment | Release Date: October 4, 2019 | Not Rated

Starring: Antoni Porowski, Brian Cox, Danielle Burgess, Dennis Quaid, Jack Kilmer, Jacqueline Honulik, James Franco, Jane Levy, Juno Temple, Mathilde Dehaye, Mustafa Shakir, Shameik Moore

Summary: Life imitates deadly art as French New Wave obsessed film student Terry (Jack Kilmer) and his best friend, the smooth talking Phil (Shameik Moore) are both seduced by mysterious actress Catherine (Jane Levy). The longer they know each other, the more they realize they don’t truly know the real Catherine. After years of sex, betrayal, andLife imitates deadly art as French New Wave obsessed film student Terry (Jack Kilmer) and his best friend, the smooth talking Phil (Shameik Moore) are both seduced by mysterious actress Catherine (Jane Levy). The longer they know each other, the more they realize they don’t truly know the real Catherine. After years of sex, betrayal, and collateral damage, the three careen into a lifestyle that leaves one of them fighting for their life.… Expand

Director: James Franco

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 95 min

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Critic Reviews

Mark Keizer

Oct 3, 2019

While the film’s sense of experimentation carries a fair amount of intrigue, it traps its central threesome in an Easter egg-filled intellectual exercise punctuated by melodramatic strokes. It’s skillful enough to tickle the mind and the emotions but not effective enough to fully engage them. Read full review

Alex Saveliev

Oct 4, 2019

Pretenders pretends to be Bertolucci’s The Dreamers in its meshing of a saucy young love triangle with an impassioned ode to cinema of yore. Alas, Mr. Franco’s not quite there yet. Read full review

Jordan Mintzer

Oct 3, 2019

Not only does the film offer a superficial reading of all the famous movies that inspired it, but there’s also an incredibly bro-ish sentiment to the whole thing, as if Franco and Boone binge-watched half the Criterion Collection while slamming down brewskies on the couch. Read full review

Glenn Kenny

Oct 3, 2019

As nostalgic twaddle goes, “Me and Phil and the New Wave Girl” (I mean Pretenders) initially feels like an innocuous treatment of the joys and sorrows of cinephilia and young love. The sort of thing concocted by men whose collegiate experience taught them little beyond how to turn self-serving reminiscences into middling indie movies. Soon, though, it descends into several discrete modes of misogyny. Read full review

Katie Walsh

Oct 3, 2019

James Franco’s Pretenders begs the question: is this a film about bohemian artists or a parody of a film about bohemian artists? Because if we’re supposed to take this laughably trite and sexist claptrap seriously, one has to laugh. Read full review

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