I bailed out 20 minutes in

That’s a shame. Best move I’ve seen so far in 2019. To be honest, nothing else has even come close.

It's a strange little film, granted. But it kept me interested throughout. I finished watching it last night and I'll watch it again eventually. For me, it's one of those movies that I'll pick up on even more the next time through.

My initial impression was a David Lynch type film but more everyman than Lynch's usually are. I think you can enjoy the quirks along Sam's journey better if you were once a partying person like I once was.

Me too.
But I have a feeling it's one of those films that I might try again in a different frame of mind and I might like it.

Honestly, the entire film is a swirling loop of massive plots holes, that the "writer" (and director) didn't care at all about.

He was far too enamored with the string of pretentious, pseudo-philosophical, empty conspiracy theory bullshit, coupled with a healthy dose of drug-induced stupor and absolutely pointless nudity and sex scenes, to actually bother stringing together even the most basic skeleton of a plot. I find that with a lot of modern filmmakers/writers, and show writers, and in part I call it the "JJ Abrams effect", because he popularized this kind of "keep em confused and keep throwing vaguely mysterious and slightly interesting things with no point or concept of an endgame" type of storytelling.

I wasted my time watching it, because I'm a sucker for good conspiracy stories, and well executed mysteries. This film, however, presented neither. Only the hollow shell and empty promise of one. I absolutely get the "keep the audience guessing, and don't tell them too much, so that they can use their imagination and draw their own conclusions" approach to storytelling. But this is, again, really only the pretense of that. It seemed pretty clear to me, that the writer/director had no real intention to weave some complex, profound conspiracy story. He just liked the idea of one, so he literally crafted a film based on nothing more than those trappings, peppered with his own quaint little tastes and pop culture nods to make it seem "relevant".

If you are into films purely as a visual medium and "spectacle", if you're the kind of film-goer who watches something and tends to mainly focus on, and appreciate, the the cinematography and imagery in a film....yeah, sure, this film has its moments. But if you care whatsoever about actual, quality storytelling, or seeing a film with some kind of actual, meaningful substance, then I would recommend NOT doing what I did, and don't waste the precious 2 hours and 20 minutes of your life on this.

If you bailed out that early then you definitely wouldn't have appreciated what was still to come.

Was it seeing Andrew Garfield's bare ass that finally did you in? 'Cause that's when I was in it to win it!