HBO's Fahrenheit 451 takes a melodramatic, heavy-handed approach to Ray Bradbury's classic novel

GQ

"HBO’s new film adaptation—directed by Ramin Bahrani, and starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon—certainly looked like a sure thing," says Scott Meslow. "We live in unsubtle, maddening times, with a president who hates real journalism as much as he hates reading. If there’s any truth to be found in Fahrenheit 451’s overripe, melodramatic dystopia, it’s that many things that used to seem ridiculous and implausible are starting to look routine. But all the disturbing aspects of modern-day America can’t account for the oddities of this heavy-handed, unenlightening Fahrenheit 451 adaptation, which places a heavy emphasis on book-burning at a time when physical books are just one of many ways to consume literature. This Fahrenheit 451 adaptation had a somewhat troubled gestation; you have the sense that the team behind the movie desperately wanted to say something about our era but couldn’t quite figure out what they actually wanted to say."

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• Fahrenheit 451 struggles because "we are dystopia'd out"
• HBO's film lacks the poetry of Bradbury's novel