Someone at the 20th Century marketing department has some explaining to do.
Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel” was met with mixed reviews when it premiered on September 10th at the Venice Film Festival, but some critics did like it. Instead of using a positive review from an actual critic who liked Scott’s epic, and there are quite a few to choose from, 20th Century decided to post a quote from a Letterboxd review.
The Letterboxd user who wrote the review goes by the name of orlan7opinion. This story gets weirder, though: orlan7opinion has a tepid 214 followers, and although he does seem to be hustling as an amateur film critic, he has had a tendency to fake-watch movies and fake-attend festivals such as Cannes and Venice.
The folks over at Letterboxd were alerted about this user and have now suspended his account.
Suffice to say, somebody over at the 20th Century marketing department is getting fired. They had other good reviews to choose from and they went with a fake from Letterboxd.
You can read Orlan Harris aka orlan7opinion‘s full review below. It’s a dandy:
“The Last Duel was everything I wanted, and more! I’m more then glad I’ve decided to stay in Venice for this film instead of go to Toronto for the in-person premiere of Dear Evan Hansen which I’ve instead watched in a Digital Screening, There are clear similarities to Rashomon, and it dosen’t bother me one bit, it actually made me love it even more because Rashomon is one of my favorite movies of all-time, Ridley Scott’s new epic set in the 14th Century is simply masterful, the performance from Jodie Comer is fucking fantastic, she’s Oscar nominee worthy without a doubt in my mind if she’s in leading, but if she’s in supporting she’s without a doubt goes for the gold and should get the win, absolutely phenomenal work from her, the writing from Ben Affleck, Matt Damon & Nicole Holofcener is quite possibly the best of the year, absolutely brilliant writing, the dialogue feels authentic and powerful, just what I wanted from 14th Century epic, the cinematography is breathtaking, from the beautiful landscapes to the stunning close shots I couldn’t take my eyes off, One of Ridley Scott’s best films, and definitely couldn’t be more different then his previous films, feels different but in a good way that I can’t specifically describe, Adam Driver gives a powerful and loud performance that I enjoyed every second of, Damon brings a performance fairly close to the level of performance that Driver brings, and Affleck I would say is fairly solid, he Dosen’t stand out very much, the production design and costume Design both stand out as some of the best of the year, this is definitely a must watch, a near perfect picture, should get recognized for Cinematography, Editing, Supporting/Leading Actress for Comer, Supporting & Leading for Driver and Damon, Director, Screenplay, Production Design, Costumes, and yes… Picture.”
The man doesn't stop. James Gunn has confirmed he's already hard at work writing his next film, even as ‘Man of Tomorrow’ makes its way toward theaters next summer.