Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 giallo Suspiria is a movie that can’t be accused of copying the original, because it’s way too ambitious for that.

And the problem–you know it was coming–is that the original movie was relatively simple: namely a horror movie that revolved around a dance academy. Guadagnino doesn’t neglect that aspect, but piles on a whole bunch of political stuff (The Baader–Meinhof Group, the Berlin Wall), political stuff that might have a little to do with the movie’s runtime of just over two and half hours.

And anyone that tells you size doesn’t matter they’re lying because at first viewing this movie was difficult to watch (because it comes off as very, very boring).

In fact, if there was a movie that I would compare it to it would be Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, another movie that at first glance is barely watchable.

The thing is, Guadagnino, like Kubrick, is an exacting director (though not quite in the same way, namely I haven’t read anything about Guadagnino being a sadist) and he’s made the movie he wanted to make, with apparently little in the way of compromise.

And it shows because Suspiria is nothing if not ambitious though that’s a double-edged sword in that it can come off as a bloated vanity project from an overindulged director.

And I’m not saying that’s what Suspiria is, though if that’s what someone thought it was I’d disagree, though I would understand the sentiment.