Imagine if you can a mix of A Single Man, Crash, Babel and The Tree of Life, only a lot less coherent and about a thousand times more pretentious. At times, it is absolutely impossible to follow what's happening in Jonathan Teplitzky's Burning Man, which makes it especially difficult to care about our protagonist.
Coincidentally, Matthew Goode also starred in A Single Man, but this time he's the one grieving a lost lover. Unfortunately, we don't find this out until a good 30 minutes into the movie, well after we've opened with him masturbating, seen him drive like a complete jerk, and get arrested at his kid's birthday party.
The rest of the movie plays like some sort of fever dream because he's also dying(?) in a hospital room after his reckless driving caused his car to flip over a few times before catching on fire. So there are lots of flashbacks within flashbacks, like when his son was born, when he started his dream job, and when he started sleeping with every babe on the beach to numb himself after his wife died.
Sympathy will be the last emotion on your mind while this mess rambles on for close to two hours. Frustration, confusion, anger"”these things you might feel. Probably a little tired, too. Because while every frame of this movie looks gorgeous (as well as its actors, who are frequently naked), none of it is the least bit compelling. It's just one dull moment to the next. Now he's screwing; now he's crying; now he's staring blankly out into the sea.
You keep waiting for it to be over, but it keeps on going. You'll likely doze off, but you'll wake up when you hear John Lennon's "Instant Karma." That's when you know this beautiful nightmare has come to an end.
