Harry styles

Yea ... about that

I had no idea so many reviews were already out. And they reflect pretty much what I expect of the film: humorless, shallow, cliche, “polite”, middling acting, too much focus on hetero dynamics and homo sex and not much exploration of queer-dom or homo passions beyond sex or homo friendship, affections, compassion, love, investment, commitment. Watered-down, safe stuff for white women.
 
I don’t really know how much “credit” he deserves for just taking on a film role. He’s clearly really desperate to quickly be seen as a “serious actor”. Taking on “sad queer” roles is a fast-track to that. It’s also not much of a risk considering he’s cultivated a semi queer-ish and “open-minded” persona for the last several years. I personally don’t have much issue with Harry. Nor am I that concerned with whether or not he has queer aspects, the dimensions of his sexuality and sexual journey, his preferences, his relationships, where he is in the gender, sexual, romantic, emotion, relationship, commitment spectrum. But some of y’all be looking for any reason to praise dudes that you think are straight/straight-ish.

As for the movie, it looks like another “gay romance” made mostly for straight/hetero-leaning white women: period piece, straight/straight-ish presenting actors, a downbeat and humorless tone, less a “gay romance” and more about sex and interpersonal drama, a lot of focus on hetero dynamics. If the reviews are good I’ll probably watch it eventually.
reviews for it range from utterly bland to trashing how bad his acting is
 
His acting in Dunkirk was good
Those scenes weren't complex, though. He playing "fear" and "bewilderment," for example.

In movies that more about interactions like these, you play many different emotions in a single sequence. It's a lot harder.

Not saying he's not up to it (I'm reserving judgment for now), but his performance in Dunkirk isn't really the measure.

By the way... on this subject, if you want to see why actors like Harrison Ford (who do a lot of dramatic action movies) are so good, watch his performances closely. The scene calls for something like "anger" or "fear," and he'll do ten or twenty variations on fear in ten seconds. So, just saying.
 
I don’t really know how much “credit” he deserves for just taking on a film role. He’s clearly really desperate to quickly be seen as a “serious actor”. Taking on “sad queer” roles is a fast-track to that. It’s also not much of a risk considering he’s cultivated a semi queer-ish and “open-minded” persona for the last several years. I personally don’t have much issue with Harry. Nor am I that concerned with whether or not he has queer aspects, the dimensions of his sexuality and sexual journey, his preferences, his relationships, where he is in the gender, sexual, romantic, emotion, relationship, commitment spectrum. But some of y’all be looking for any reason to praise dudes that you think are straight/straight-ish.

As for the movie, it looks like another “gay romance” made mostly for straight/hetero-leaning white women: period piece, straight/straight-ish presenting actors, a downbeat and humorless tone, less a “gay romance” and more about sex and interpersonal drama, a lot of focus on hetero dynamics. If the reviews are good I’ll probably watch it eventually.
I feel like this is the obvious reason. He clearly has no idea what he's doing per his own words and it's dumb he's getting praise for clearly trying to claim serious actor status by doing the bare minimum. Hes being thrown into parts that belong to a talented actor. But his fans are annoying and put him on a pedestal like he's a messiah.
 
I feel like this is the obvious reason. He clearly has no idea what he's doing per his own words and it's dumb he's getting praise for clearly trying to claim serious actor status by doing the bare minimum. Hes being thrown into parts that belong to a talented actor. But his fans are annoying and put him on a pedestal like he's a messiah.

It’s pretty much privilege. He’s white, conventionally cute, masculine and is ambiguous enough with his dimensions and love life that he can fit most people’s fantasies of him. So, people heap praise on him for embracing some femininity and maybe perhaps possibly being a bit “queer”, they heap praise on him for being a passable singer and whatever-ish live performer, they heap praise on him for simply not being terrible in a movie. It is what it is. But if this film and performance were well-received his stans would get even more unbearable.