David Cronenberg Presents: “Robert Pattinson Reads Awkward Pronouncements About The Future”
by evanmcmurry
About halfway into a super-stylish, highly-aestheticized movie preview last night, I thought to myself, “This dialogue is sententious and terrible. It’s oddly on the nose, as if the characters had had thirty minutes to collect and condense every one of their lines, yet it’s entirely comprised of that vague intellectual babblespeak that sounds portentous but expresses nothing. [Sample line: “They’re protesting the future!”] Who in God’s name actually talks like this, let alone writes like it?” Then I realized what I was watching.
I once wrote an entire paper on the quick cold clang of Don Delillo’s dialogue, which often sounds like an urgent discussion about Derrida between two pieces of IKEA furniture. Needless to say, it doesn’t sound any better coming out of Robert Pattinson’s mouth.
A Flea in the Fur of the Beast 
Though I am not familiar with Delillo’s writing, I am familiar with Cronenberg’s dialog, which (coming from a published screen writer) has been exceptional in many films. Brilliant actually. Just as politicians shouldn’t be quoted out of context (“You didn’t build that” for example), a movie trailer cannot be used as a measure of quality for an overall movie’s dialog. I have not seen the movie yet (guessing you haven’t either) – but will get back to you after doing so and grade it accordingly.