For starters I’m a huge fan of Flo. I think she’s great, fresh talent and I haven’t disliked her in anything I have seen to date. I’m also a really big fan of reality benders where people find out their world is fake/simulations and all that stuff. I’m not a huge fan of Harry Styles, never have been even when I was a young girl and 1D was all the rage, so if I’m being honest I was a little annoyed that he was added. But I did end up liking his performance-is he going to earn accolade for it? No. But the chemistry was there and I think he did good. I’ve seen far more mediocre and after seeing him I think having Shia cast would’ve made the movie a complete flop. I would’ve never bought Shia in a role like this. Maybe like the real world dude but not the one within Victory. Also, I really LOVED seeing Chris Pine as a villain! I feel like I’ve never seen him as anything other than the nice guy who either gets or doesn’t get the girl. Seeing him play a creepo cultist was fun and I honestly wish the movie would’ve gone more into his story. All that being said, I did not go into this move believing I was going to be watching the next award magnet. I also think that I related to it on a personal level because my ex was like Harry’s character. I worked all day long, took care of our house and kids, and dealt with my own health issues while he would sit on the game all day and then belittle me bc the house was dirty or I worked too much or I wasn’t around to make him feel special. And he would say things like oh he’d kill for me, he wants to give me a different life but then would do absolutely nothing to actually get us there and when I began calling him out on his inability to actually change, he gaslit and isolated me from others so I wouldn’t question it anymore. Just like Harry’s guy-Rather than get his ass off his little incel computer cult and get a job to help his wife, his idea of helping is to literally force her into a fake world where he can trap her, gaslight her, and never actually have to be a better person bc he can fake it all in the simulation. That kind of experience is super traumatizing and I think as humans we just innately connect to pieces of art or media that make us feel seen. So, sorry for the long winded reply but those are my reasons! I do get why others may have found it droll or pedantic, I think if it had different people in the development it could’ve really blown tf up!