It Ain't Channing's Fault

I would just like to go on the record here upfront that I have been championing Channing Tatum as a talented actor for actual decades now -- I remember seeing him in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints in 2006 and thinking hey, that pretty boy can act. This is all to set off against my pan of his latest movie, the big Sundance winner Josephine, which you can read at Pajiba today -- as of right now I'm one of two negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and by all accounts (other) people really fucking loved this movie so I feel defensive. But I stand by what I said. Which is that this movie is tepid at best. Oh but Chan's not the problem -- he's perfectly respectable -- but since it feels weird to criticize child actors... ahem. I try to step around that as much as possible in my review. I still haven't entirely figured out how to write about what I see as actively bad child performances -- it seems best to lay the blame on those doing the directing and casting and editing when this sort of thing happens. But I'm in a very very very small minority on this one as of right now. This movie won Best U.S. Dramatic Feature AND the Audience Award at Sundance. I don't in the slightest get it but whatcha gonna do... besides post a hot picture of Chan and move it right along.