This is excellent. Incredibly entertaining and touching. A really confident debut from Max Minghella. A-

Elle Fanning's natural effervescence serves it well, and it has a nice selection of electronic-leaning and female-sung pop songs from the last decade (Grimes, Robyn, Sigrid, etc.), but this film in general...I don't know. A strong wind could blow it away. I expected its portrayal of an aspiring pop singer and her entrance into the world of televised singing competitions to have at least a bit of bite, cynicism, and/or humor, but this is more a feature-length version of get-to-know-the-contestant segment on The X Factor or Pop Idol/American Idol. (This film would have felt more at home being released at the height of those programs' popularity in roughly 2003 or 2004, perhaps starring Amanda Bynes or Mandy Moore.)

I did not mind watching it for 90 minutes, but I also did not believe a single syrupy second of it as it hit every expected note, including Rebecca Hall's supporting role as a transparently avaricious and oily entertainment executive who comes bearing a, shiver, record contract. It is too rushed, tidy, and blandly primed for maximum crowd-pleasing uplift.

Yeah, this was pretty derivative. Elle Fanning is good but her performance as a stage performer and vocalist.... eh, which I feel was needed to make the movie pop. Other than the relationship between her and the former opera singer everything else is very bland.

I certainly enjoyed it but was a bit disappointed too. It's well-shot and the music is good. Elle is good too but her character isn't the most likable. It's a case of a movie where you're basically just rooting for her because she's the protagonist and you're supposed to. The last musical performance was really good.

Overall it's a solid flick but I expected more.

B

Same as Mike. I enjoyed it in parts but came out disappointed. Elle Fanning does really well here but as the second half kicks in the character makes complete out-of-character choices and then the finale comes really swift without any resolution and things happen. Rebecca Hall was wasted here. Much like most of the movie I liked the final song but didn't love it.

B