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jrshel
Reviews
A Chorus Line (1985)
Loved The Stage Play / Hated the Movie
I find it amazing that the other comments are so consistent; people seem to either have loved this movie or hated it. I tried to read through most of the comments to to figure out the tendencies and couldn't come up with any.
This movie was dated when it came out. The music, choreography, costumes... all out of style. The play works (I loved the play) because it's timeless in the sense that the audience has to accept that it was written at a time when it might have been extremely hard for a male dancer to look out at an audience and admit that he was gay. Or for a female dancer to sing out about her plastic surgery. But this movies tries to be so hip yet, when these things happen ("That's when I found out I was GAY!" and "Tits and Ass"), they fall totally flat. It would have been more impactful if one of the effeminate male dancers (oxymoron?) had shocked everyone on the line by coming out as a heterosexual or if Audrey Landers had sung about her breasts being real.
What a bummer! As someone else said before me, it would have been so cool if this movie had given us more insight into each of the characters and shown us what we've had to imagine when watching the stage play.
What is probably the biggest problem is the casting. Look at all the actors bios and see where they are now. A close friend of mine was on that set when the movie was shooting and told me that the cast all acted like this movies was going to propel them to stardom. Not quite.
My advice: skip it. If you want to see bad dancing, rent "Showgirls" or "Staying Alive."
Le divorce (2003)
Quelle Catastrophe!
OK... I had a couple of hours to kill and this movie was just starting. I didn't go into knowing much about it, but I usually enjoy Thierry Lhermite movies (les Bronzes, les Ripoux). Within 10 minutes of the start of this film, I was anxious to leave. I forced myself to stay for most of it and couldn't take anymore. So unless there is a major plot twist at the end where everything suddenly makes sense, this was a BIG waste of money. I felt very bad for most of the actors in this who were probably all 1. realizing that Kate Hudson just doesn't have the presence or charisma to carry this kind of story 2. hoping that the audience would just be charmed by the romance of Paris and French people as a backdrop that they would miss the stupidity of the plot and stereotyping of French people.
What was up with the conversations between French people going back and forth from English to French? Isabel is ordering in French in the restaurant when she's having dinner with her parents(to show how fluent she's become) yet the server asks her in English how she wants her meat cooked. She answers in French. ???. Roxy is debating divorcing her husband with him and their attorney and they're bouncing around from language to language.
I felt particularly bad for Matthew Modine (especially when the guy who plays Yves - featuring the Kramer haircut and some bizarre facial hair scheme - looks at Matthew and says that he looks "weird."). And even worse for Leslie Caron. Sam Waterston's attitude throughout 3/4 of the movie (remember, I walked out) is saying something like: "when can we wrap for the day so I can do some sight-seeing?" And finally, did anyone else notice the peculiar resemblance between Kate Hudson and Bebe Neuwirth, including their voices. Hmmmm...
L'auberge espagnole (2002)
Near Miss
Yes, there were some very funny situations, but there were some pivotal problems with the plot.
1. The notion that Xavier is going SO FAR AWAY for a year of his life. You can get from Paris to Barcelona in less time than it took to watch this movie. Yet, when Xavier leaves his girlfriend and mother behind, you'd think that he is on his way to live in Nepal for a year. Ironically, when it's convenient for the plot, he jumps on a plane to discuss something with Martine. And his mother complains that she won't be able to communicate with him for a year; everyone else in the world seems to have his cell phone number.
2. Romain Duris in the role of Xavier was a very big problem for me. The writer/director puts us in a position where it's up to us to assume that Xavier must have some redeeming qualities that make him endearing to everyone he encounters, but I didn't see that anywhere. We don't know why Martine loves him so, we don't know why Isabelle singles him out to be her accomplice in love and life, we don't know why Anne-So is willing to risk everything she has to be with him, we don't know why her husband first asks Xavier to take care of Anne-So and then doesn't seem surprised when he discovers they've been sleeping together and finally appears at Xavier's going away party (???), we don't know why the roomates agreed to take him in, etc. I would have let all that go if an actor with a bit of charm had been cast in that role.
All in all, this whole thing felt to me like a big set up so that Alistair's visit would turn out as funny as it was.
Laurel Canyon (2002)
Didn't Work For Me
I, too, saw the trailers and was looking forward to seeing this movie. Even waited for a later showing since the one I wanted to go to was sold out. But I was so disappointed because there was absolutely nothing to like. The characters were not interesting because it felt like the movie was written only to give Frances McDormand a vehicle to take some risks (don't worry, I won't spoil anything). But none of it was believable and there are flaws along the way that make it hard to focus on the characters. One gets the feeling that Jane and Sam just met, for instance. There is absolutely no intimacy between them that would suggest that she was ever his mother. Alex is a Phd candidate writing a dissertation? The only reason we should believe it is that she wears glasses. When pressed to describe what she is studying, she says that it's too hard to explain. Anyone who has ever been around a recording session knows that every studio scene in the movie was written and directed by someone who has no concept of what happens in one (like recording a full band working on a hit single while the lead singer is trying to write it, or changing the direction of a song because Alex - who later shows that she knows only one dance move when trying to look sexy - feels that "it's not pulling her in"). The Claudia character feels like it's just there for Jane to get angry on the phone ("you're just blowing smoke up my ass, Claudia!") unecessarily, especially considering that Jane says that twice. It would have been more impressive for us to think that Jane is the kind of producer who likes to put out quality products for the fans and for the artists she is producing, not for Claudia to stop calling her. Not to appear too picky, but Jane seems much more like a manager in the movie and not much like a producer.
Sam went to Harvard Medical School, and is studying to be a psychiatrist, yet, when he is sitting with Sara (a 2nd year resident!), they discuss issues much in the way average high school seniors would. The writers of Frasier should have been tapped for a little guidance with that dialogue. I won't even get into Sara's character and trying to understand how she was directed. From Israel? Someone should have told her that Israelis don't speak with a Russian accent. Ok, ok... I'll stop... I really wanted to like this movie. Really.
The Banger Sisters (2002)
Not Funny At All
No, sorry, didn't work on any level for me. Not funny in any way. The script felt like it as it was written from the male perspective about the way 2 male buddies would act if they had been put in the same situation as Suzette and Vinnie in this film. I am a big fan of both Susan S. and Goldie H. and find that these roles were embarassing for both of them. I thought G. Rush did a great job as did Susan S.'s daughter. But there was very little resolution and very little depth to all the events that took place. Why is it that Suzette is such a positive influence on everyone around her yet can't hang on to a loser job and an apartment? What makes Vinnie decide to finally accept Suzette in her world? What makes Vinnie decide to go back to the way she used to be? What makes Vinnie's family decide to "be true" all of a sudden? What make her husband suddenly accept that the woman he married had personal interaction with all of the genitalia in the rock world? Maybe it will all be explained in "The Return Of The Banger Sisters."
À bout de souffle (1960)
A Love Letter To...
I just saw this movie for the first time. Granted, it must have amazed spectators when it first came out, but I found it to be quite annoying and I had a hard time watching it all the way through.
It felt to me as though the author of the film, whoever it was, had some kind of unexplainable "thing" for America, represented here by Jean Seberg. But, it's not really America we're talking about, but it's what the author knows of America (Bogart, Thunderbirds, Cadillacs, Westerns, Eisenhower, etc.). I believe that if all the American references had been made to things French (Jean Gabin, Citroen, Charles de Gaulle for instance), and if the Jean Seberg role had been played by a French actress, the movie would have been extremely banal and would have never gotten the notice that it got. Much like if the title role in "Chocolat" had been played by Courteney Cox.
Fatou la Malienne (2001)
Pleasant Surprise
Last night, this movie was on TV5, the French cable channel. I sort of half watched it at first, finding it mildly entertaining, kind of a window on what life must be like for Fatou, a young lady of African heritage living in Paris, caught between the culture and traditions of her immigrant parents and her own aspirations of becoming a hip London hairdresser. In a very subtle way, a young man from Mali is introduced, and he tries to sweep Fatou off her feet, using a traditional "French" approach. When that doesn't work, the young man resorts to more traditional means. That's when the movie suddenly stopped being lightly entertaining and became extremely interesting and provocative, to say the least. The movie has the feel of a low budget movie but that works well for it, often helping it along and giving it a "cinema verite" feel. This movie will be of particular interest to people who, like Fatou, are caught between multiple cultures.