US director Sam Levinson, French-US actress Lily-Rose Depp and Canadian singer The Weeknd at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty Images
US director Sam Levinson, French-US actress Lily-Rose Depp and Canadian singer The Weeknd at the Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty Images
Warning: This article contains details of a sexual nature.
The Idolhas received a bag of disappointing reviews after the series’ first two episodes premiered at the Grand Théâtre Lumière at the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival on Monday, according to Daily Mail.
Created by Abel Tesfaye -commonly known as The Weeknd - Sam Levinson and Reza Fahim, the series has been slammed by film critics and blasted for its ‘graphic’ sex scenes and gratuitous nudity.
The show stars Lily-Rose Depp opposite The Weeknd and follows the story of “rising pop idol” Jocelyn, played by Depp, as she begins a “complicated relationship” with Tedros, played by The Weeknd, who is the manager of a nightclub and “a leader of a modern-day cult”, according to the film’s synopsis.
However, The Idol has been the cite of much controversy ahead of its release date on June 5 following Rolling Stone’s harsh review. The publication dubbed the spectacle “torture porn” and pointed out various problems during production, referencing more than one insider involved in the drama.
Following its French premiere on Monday, which allegedly received a five-minute standing ovation, The Idol has received severe backlash on account of its “graphic” intimate scenes, however some praise for Depp’s performance was amid the criticism.
Lily-Rose Depp in the HBO series The Idol. Photo / HBO
The Hollywood Reporter’s Lovia Gyarkye dubbed the series “more regressive than transgressive” in a underwhelming conclusion of the show.
The review highlighted how HBO attempted to escalate the series’ illicit debauchery via its marketing strategy, advertising it as a product of the “sick and twisted minds” of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and singer The Weeknd.
The show was also described by Gyarkye as “an older, even more stylized version” of the second season of Euphoria, which starred Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie and Zendaya.
The critic also recounted a scene in the series where a music executive locks horns with a director and tells him to “stop c***blocking America”. Gyarkye said it “puts a metaphorical hand up at incoming haters”, and added that “sex sells, and The Idol revels in that”.
“Some of them have momentum, others are contradictory and most of them are confusing,” she went on. “It makes you wonder if in trying so hard to be transgressive, the show ultimately becomes regressive.”
The Hollywood Reporter also slammed the “gratuitous” displays of nudity by Depp’s character Jocelyn, saying: “Rarely does a scene go by without the camera showing flashes of her breasts or a**.
“You start to wonder if this is building to anything, and by episode two it seems likely that it’s probably not.”
One positive note on the series, according to Gyarkye, was that it “shows glimmers of potential when it stops trying so hard to be shocking”.
In other news, Variety reflected on some of the “controversial” sex-fueled scenes in the series and how they “scandalised” Cannes at its prestigious premiere.
Matt Donnelly and Zack Sharf wrote: “Revenge porn photos of bodily fluids on Depp’s face, masturbation with ice cubes, nightclub-owning scam artists and vile Hollywood sycophants populated the first two episodes of the already-controversial series.”
Deadline also commented on the film’s contentious nature as well as criticising Cannes as “attention-grabbing” for premiering the HBO show.
Damon Wise said of the film: “In a case of life imitating art, the crazy scenes surrounding the premiere would not have been out of place on the screen in a story that, at least as far as anyone could tell, is a satire on the sensation-saturated world of contemporary pop culture, where good is bad and bad is the bare minimum.”
Despite the underwhelming reviews, a few critics did commend Depp on her performance in the series, with The Hollywood Reporter dubbing it “persuasive”.
Deadline’s Wise described it as a “highly sexualised performance” “grounded and often vulnerable, discomfortingly addressing the fine lines between porn and art” and “power and exploitation that have faced young women in the music industry for years”.
The Idol will be available on Neon and SoHo in New Zealand
