I'm a fan of art films. I'm a fan of classic independent cinema. I'm a fan of experimental movies. But I'm not a fan of this.
Warhol makes a movie about a young criminal who enjoys a lot of 'the old up-yours' and saying the word 'scum'. Andy Warhol is not known for his cinema; while he has found fame in 'Flesh for Frankenstein' and 'Blood for Dracula', he isn't known for the films that he himself has directed. And for good reason.
He has directed films and shorts such as 'Empire' (8 hours that he forced people to sit through, all of a shot of a tower) and 'Sleep' (a 5-hour loop that he also forced people to sit through that was just his then partner John Giorno sleeping). As you can tell, Andy Warhol didn't make movies in the traditional sense.
Here is 'Vinyl', an hour-long adaptation of 'Clockwork Orange'. But believe me when I say that watching this film was one of the most tedious hours of my life.
The first 3 minutes are just of the main character lifting weights in front of a few people. The next 20 minutes are just of him talking about his lifestyle to a doctor and dancing, all done in the same room in the same shot. Soon, he is put on a mask, in which he sees terrible crimes being committed. There are long stretches of just him screaming. It's not suspenseful or shocking, just boring. There is no content or anything happening to keep the viewer interested. The whole film is just boring, and the acting is terrible. The lead actor delivers his lines with such stailness that his voice sounds flatter than an AI's.
Vinyl is a pointless, excruciating excursion into the most boring depths of Andy Warhol's mind. There is nothing. One can argue that he was trying to make us feel how the main character feels, but if that were the case, then the film should have shown what he was seeing and such. But it doesn't. It's just a flat, pointless and crudely-made movie that takes the concept of 'minimalist filmmaking' to a different level. A level that no one should explore, because it doesn't use the minimalism to boost its story and build tension and tightness. It's just bad, and there's nothing else to it. I would not recommend this film to a single soul. That would be cruel of me. One should not watch this, and that's all there is to say. You have nothing to prove by watching this movie. Just don't.
Vinyl is one of those films that you have to see to believe, but believing isn't worth the pain. It's the film equivalent of watching paint dry. Just don't watch it.
