Reviews (30)

Heavenly Description of After-Life Accomodations and Romance
This Compelling movie brings much Understanding to the concept of "Life After Death" and gives us a few clues about how to get-around when we do not have bodies, anymore! This movie also shows that you do not just Quit doing all of the things you love...you simply have a Lot More Time to do them! If you have ever questioned dogmatic beliefs or had "Lucid" dreams that foretold an After-Life that contradicts what you have been led to believe...this movie is for you. If you are a person who seeks Knowledge about Spirituality, this movie is a great addition to your personal collection of images, data and theories. Or....if you are just a Romantic person, who enjoys a Great Love Story! Get your box of tissues ready and delve into this Highly Under-rated film. I would give it 5 stars, if it were a little faster-paced...but, that's just my Opinion. Most women Love this film (and guys should give it a try)! "Made in Heaven" is difficult to find, where I live, so I wonder how many people know about this Great Movie. There are many surprising scenes in this film and I believe it should be considered a Classic.

Beautifully woven story:love, heaven, earth, rebirth, death
The opening credit of the film "The story you are about to see could be true. You may even know some of the people." sets you up for and helps you ponder the story line of the movie. There are questions which we all ask ourselves and things we all wonder about. Where does inspiration come from? Did you ever notice that when you meet some people you just click? How about all of the seemingly small, insignificant things which have happened in your life. Things that had they not have happened, your live would be drasticaly different? All of those things that struck a chord but only later did we realize the significance. The lyrics of the title song "We've Never Danced" by Neil Young tells the story in itself: "Between heaven and earth, there's a ballroom glow, where couples glide in the evermore.......I hope it's not too late, we were more than friends, I can hardly wait, til we meet again." Some of these questions and mysteries are presented within a beautiful and moving love story. As you'd expect, the answers can't really be put into words, without trivializing them. So all we can do is experience the magic of the story and at the end, know that we have experienced part of the connection between heaven and earth. I highly recommend that you seek out this video and experience the magic.

Great story, cinematography, and music
This is one of those rare movies that takes the subject of life after death and gives the viewer layers to ponder. Do souls go on? Are there new souls as well as old ones? Can we really talk to G*d that smokes and wisecracks? I felt the use of color was particularly done well and the cinematography was exceptional. Then there is the sound track, one of the best I have ever heard. I would love to meet whomever picked these songs, they are perfect. Next to "Streets of Fire", this is about the best music from any movie that is not a musical. I wish they would release it on wide-screen DVD. PS- the small part casting is great, watch for Neal Young as a truck driver!

A Maid In Heaven Movie
If you believe in love, if you believe that their is only one special someone for you, if you believe that the love you share with your significant other was "Made in Heaven," this is the movie for you. Timathy hutton plays the all American nice guy who dies after rescuing two kids from drowning. In heaven, he meets the love of his life played by Kelly Mcgillis. As they are about to marry, her soul is sent to earth. Timathy's character asked to be sent to earth to find her. He is given thirty years to do so. This sweeping story is nothing short of mesmerizing. You can't help but route for these two people. You want them to find each other and you care about the things they are going through. This film makes you believe in the "L" word in it's true sense. Even if you are not one who can grasp or understand the notion that love made in heaven is a possibility, you can't help but get caught up in this little story about these two love struck souls. I highly recommend this movie to every romantic at heart person out there. If you ever find yourself in the arms of your loved one on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon, this is the movie to cozy up with. Yes, it's a "Chick's Flick" but sometimes, they can be good too.

Great Feel Good Movie
This is a really great rainy day movie....I love to watch this movie when feeling glum....this movie makes you believe again...take the time and watch it...you'll love it! ... Read more

Amazon.com

The press kit's historical notes should be standard issue for anyone who sees Alan Rudolph's (The Moderns, Choose Me) look at the famous intellectuals who dotted New York's finest hour in the 1920s. If you only know the names of Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, et al. in passing, this movie will hardly generate more study. These writers and thinkers, most famous for having lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel, seem as weightless and thin as the fictional ones in The Moderns. Most luminous is Mrs. Parker (Jennifer Jason Leigh), whose passion for unhappiness is rarely interrupted. Leigh, in a performance that viewers seem to love or loathe, swirls "witty" dialogue with pure force and must be praised for keeping your interest in a life that was so dreary. The chief problem is not the performances (Campbell Scott is quite fun in a change-of-pace role); it's that the movie comes off as a taped show on stage: the characters are not real andit's all dress-up. Rudolph illustrates his main character's writing (donefar too seldom in writers' bios) by having Leigh speak Parker's poetrydirectly into the camera. --Doug Thomas ... Read more

Reviews (21)

If One Has To Be A Voyeur, This Is The Way To Go
I won't argue with the reviewer who maintained that this film portrayed the players of the Algonquin circle in a stagy and unrealistic manner. It gives me smug satisfaction knowing the obvious hole in this criticism is that these ingredients can make a film great if done right. And done right it was in Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle. Each time I see this film, I experience the joy of watching the lives of luminous people through a peephole, a delicious voyeuristic journey into the unknowable literary past.

The thing about Jennifer Jason Leigh and her interpretation of Dorothy Parker's manner of speech? Did you ever sit through hours of Julia Child's famous cooking show and take note of the distinctive speech of this remarkable lady, also from New England? If Jennifer Jason Leigh were ever to star in a biography of Julia Child, she would either have to learn the idiosyncracies of Ms. Child's speech or not play the part.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is brilliant and almost became Dorothy Parker in the black and white scene where she recites a poem about all the things she shouldn't do and how she doesn't, after all, give a damn. That short scene was acting at the highest possible level achievement. Ms. Leigh recited the poem in characteristic Dorothy Parker style and conveyed the essence of the poem and the poet exclusively with her eyes.

I am proud that this pinnacle of dramatic performance was given by an American actor. So often, with all of the puerile bilge that pumps out of the filmmaking industry in this country, we forget that we have stunning talent to show the world.

Alan Rudollph temporarily back in form!
During the mid-eighties, Alan Rudolph was one of the enfants-terrible of filmmaking, along with John Hughes, Barry Levinson, Lucas and Spielberg. Then, for some reason, we lost him. After finishing off a trilogy that featured Keith Carradine and Genevieve Bujold, Rudolph proceeded to make ill-advised movies like "Made In Heaven", losing MY interest almost immediately. You'll remember, if you saw it, that this film featured Timothy Hutton and his then-wife, Debra Winger. Winger played God, if you can believe that.

Anyway, with "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle", Herr Rudolph is back in form, going back to his "The Moderns" era, the 20s, but this time, taking a bead on the PSEUDO-bohemian life in flapper era New York, specifically the goings-on amongst the habitués of the Algonquin Round Table and various Condé Nast and New Yorker Magazine writers and editors.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is good as the acerbic Ms. Parker, but I can't help thinking that the somewhat well-known standup comic, Margaret Smith, would not have been a better choice. She has the mien, NATURAL speech pattern and delivery you would expect Dorothy Parker to have had, and her act consists of just the type of bromides and anecdotes you'd expect to come out of that droll lady's mouth. Leigh is just too cute and cuddly to portray such an acid-tongued, distaff reprobate!

However, some of the other actors portraying Algonquin luminaries were picked MUCH more carefully, specifically the two doing Alexander Wolcott and George S. Kauffmann. It is, however, almost disturbing that Campbell Scott, parlaying the famous Robert Benchley, bares not a WHIT of resemblance to HIS target, either in manner or appearance!

However, true to Rudolph form, the era is reproduced flawlessly, from the costuming to the set design and art direction. The writing is witty, esp. for the background male members of the Round Table. However, as good as Leigh is, you get the feeling that she is either trying to hard in the role of Parker, or is just about to nod off, her reading is so lethargic.

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Jennifer Jason Leigh, I just think that the inimitable Ms. Margaret Smith would have been a much better choice.

Nonetheless, this is Rudolph again at his best....putting the microscope to an artistic microcosm and recreating the setting faithfully. Unlike any other director...Alan Rudolph is the undeniable KING of mood!

You could do much worse than rent or buy this highly atmospheric movie about a woman who is too often ignored in the world of cinema.

Mrs Parker vicious wit rules, okay!
The biting and caustic wit of Mrs Parker is bought superbly to life by the versatile actress Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays the brittle writer, critic and sometimes playwright to vulnerable perfection.

This is not an easy film to watch and I can understand why some people found it hard to get into. I mean the 1920s were supposedly a time of fun, jazz, speak easy booze and laughter all around, the Great War was over and life was back to normal.

However watching the desperation of Mrs Parker's generation, the bright young things drink themselves silly, take drugs and lash out at each other in a perpetual game of verbal cat-o-nine-tails makes you realise that perhaps everything was not as "normal" as most people hoped.

The film jumps back and forth through Mrs Parker's life, some of the best scenes are in black and white, and we are treated to subtle barbs, cruel wit and tasty treats in the guise of a crackingly good cast, with Mathew Broderick doing himself proud as the sweet talking but brutal rouge who abandons his pregnant lover (Mrs Parker), Andrew McCarthy as Mrs Parker's husband Eddie, fresh from war and addicted to morphine.

All in all this is a deliciously complex film that will you need to see more than once, well worth an evening in with a box of pop-corn and a friend to share the sarcasm, and the very satirical humour that runs through the film from beginning to end.

Could have been a great movie
I love the subject, I love Dorothy Parker, I adore Robert Benchley, I am really into the Algonquins at present. I've watched this film several times, but to no avail. If only I were not hearing-impaired, I might have understood more of what JJ Leigh is saying. As it is, I haven't a clue 93.7% of the time. I suppose closed-captioning would help, but for that I will need a newer television set. Did she have to be quite that slurry? The Benchley is well portrayed, but a bit too ideally. One is not prepared, from Campbell Scott's wholesome portrayal, for his cerebral hemorrhage from alcoholism as I was just turning one month old not far away. The sad fact is, Benchely was a teetotaler and pressed into drinking by his social set and film role stereotype. Anyone who has seen the real Benchley of the late thirties and early forties can see what it did to him.

Three stars, mostly for the other Algonquins.

this movie disrespects parker but still survives
Jennifer Jason Leigh is not the reason to watch this film. She shows no range in it what so ever. If you watch the black and white parts in the movie and the color parts of the movie, you'll see no change in Jennifer Jason Leigh's way of portraying Dorothy Parker. She's a depressed woman all the way threw, never light or happy. I thought the color sequence was supposed to be about Dorothy being a funny and witty writer with a personality that overshadowed her writing. At the table with her friends, she says nothing. As usual, Jennifer Jason Leigh slurs her words all the way threw the film. I think Jennifer Jason Leigh goes to work drunk because she did the same voice in "Dolores Claiborn" and "Hudsucker Proxy". She slurs her words in every movie except perhaps "Fast times at Ridgemount High" so don't say that the way she talked was a way of her trying to become Dorothy Parker. It wasn't, it was probably just a bad effect for all the boozing and pill popping Leigh has done in real life. Sorry to disappoint. What saves the film is Campbell Scott, who shows depth. He loves Dorothy and it shows but he respects her friendship too much to change it to romantic one because he perhaps he wants to look after her like a father does or perhaps because he's afraid of losing her friendship. He's the only person on this film who is amusing and brightens the entire film whenever he is in the scene. He outshines Dorothy and runs circles around her, she is certainly not the life of any party as she mopes around, slurring her words, acting like a old bag lady when she was supposed to be a engaging young woman with talent. The only time Dorothy is semi worth watching is when she is with Benchley. It is really sickening that Dorothy Parker was slandered by this film like this. The way they portray her husband, Alan in a black and white sequence is also sickening. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

More proof that circuses are evil and circus films are bad
I went into this film hoping for a touch of horror; after all, Barn of the Naked Dead would seem to imply that there are going to be dead people (apparently naked) involved. Well, a handful of people do die, but we don't get to see any kind of gory details of the kills, and, strangely enough, there is no nudity whatsoever to be found here. Normally, that would not be a problem, but the film title promises us naked dead people and fails to deliver any skin whatsoever - that's just not right. There is a barn in the movie, though - I have to give them credit for coming through with that promise. The movie itself is pretty hard to watch. Almost against my better judgment, I'm rounding up and giving the movie two stars just because they did establish a plot and actually followed through on it. A bit of unnecessary silliness at the end did nothing to raise my opinion of the film, though.

What we have here are three young ladies traveling to Las Vegas in order to perform in a show. One of them knows a great shortcut through the desert - you know nothing good is going to come of that. Well, they end up stranded in the middle of the desert overnight; the next morning, though, help arrives in the form of a nice young man who offers to drive them to a phone, etc. But wouldn't you know it? The nice young man is actually a psycho who thinks himself the ring leader of a very special circus - a circus made up of female human "animals." He has quite a menagerie already, although he doesn't seem to be training them for much of anything. When they get out of line, he takes the whip to them, and when any one of them proves herself unwilling to be trained, he takes it upon himself to discipline her severely.

I have certainly seen worse exploitation films than this one, but that doesn't make Barn of the Naked Dead a good movie. While the acting of Andrew Prine as the insane ring master is actually quite good, a significant number of roles went to actors and actresses of less impressive quality. The print of this film is also very bad. The colors are the polar opposite of vibrant; this film could deteriorate horrendously in the coming years without anyone even being able to notice. I didn't care for the ending, as it introduced an element that robbed the film of the bit of effectiveness it had managed to generate, yet there is a story here that holds together and makes sense - and that keeps it from being a truly bad movie.

Barn of terror
Barn of the naked dead was interesting, its one of those moivies thats great to watch late at night.I can tell you though that its a moivie that needs to be put on dvd totally remasterd. this vhs edition looks like they found the reels of this moivie in some abandoned drive in theater.It would make a great double feature disc. Another thing I would like to see the trailer for this film.THe poster art is amazing 5 stars. Andrew prine is the best in this film, I love the tower scene where you first see him in this great outfit.His mutant father was like the poster art shows him. No nudity though ,this film got a R rating yet today i see PG movies way worse for children to be watching.So if you cant stand moivies not remasted good wait for the DVD.In the mean time Ill have to live with the vhs version. So i gave this film 4 stars for the bad film quality. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The Next-To-The-Last really good Alan Rudolph movie....
Between 15-18 years ago, filmmaker Alan Rudolph, a protege of Robert Altman's, came out with a trio of really excellent films that captured the feeling of the times and places they were set in beautifully. The first was "Choose Me", a story about singles in the tail end of the disco era and the effect casual sex has on its characters; "Trouble In Mind", to this day, the ONLY film that attempts to capture the bizarre zeitgeist of the early eighties and the late seventies, a time that every person over 30 has lived through cognitively, but no other filmmaker sought to fictionalize....

Then there was "The Moderns": A movie so thick with atmosphere, good acting and mood that you'll be hard pressed to find something to compare it with. The story centers around unemployed artist Nick Hart, (Keith Carradine, the star of Rudolph's other two masterpieces,) dealing with the sudden appearance back in his life of Rachel, a woman who blows hot and cold, and who just happens to be his peripatetic wife from an earlier life. The odd thing is, she's ALSO the wife of a shallow, materialistic so and so named Bert Stone, a "little man" who made his fortune in prophylactics. These parts are played by Linda Fiorentino and John Lone....Lone being a truly quirky bit of casting.

Despite her long absence from his life and Stone's presence, they rekindle their old relationship under Stone's nose, although he obviously suspects something from the beginning.

Set in Paris in the 20's, Hart and his fellow characters are pictured as having a peripheral connection with Gertrude Stein's inner circle, a circle that includes Ernest Hemingway. This is where the atmosphere comes in, along with excellent music, as Rudolph recreates the period and setting near-perfectly, allowing his actors to reveal the mechanics of bohemian relationships, circa 1925 or so...

In true Altman/Rudolph fashion, the ensemble cast's the thing, as every character seems to get equal screen time. Geraldine Chaplin has a turn here as one of Hart's paramours and sponsors and Genevieve Bujold is a cagy art dealer Hart has business with. Wallace Shawn also has a part as a "passing scene" columnist for a Parisian newspaper who contemplates suicide.

Rudolph pays attention to every tiny detail, and has his American characters speaking English in interplay with each other and his French characters speaking French. Bujold speaks a form of "esperanto" that includes BOTH languages throughout the film.

Can't afford that ticket to La Belle France? Rent this movie, break out the brie, boules and chablis and enjoy this substantial, quirky movie!

Fun Film!
This an entertaining, unassuming film, set in Paris of the 1920s. I have always liked films set around this time because they are fun in terms of their music, the style of dress, and their mood. This film loosely follows a struggling young artist (is there any other kind?) as he works on his craft in Paris. Along the way, you have great costumes and great tunes. I love the theme song played at the beginning of the film as well as that short "Da-Da" piece played in the middle. Linda Fiorentino supplies the flapper beauty and oh boy is she pretty! There are some historical figures that pop up in this movie, like a young Hemingway casting about in Paris, and they help to add to the flavour of the film. If you like films such as "Henry and June" or Jennifer Jason Leigh's Dorothy Parker film from the 1990s, then you should give this DVD a spin. You might enjoy it!

The little things
I would give this movie five stars for myself, but objectively I recomend it at four. The other reviews do a good job of summing up. I just wanted to add that if your a fan of little touches and subtle humour, this is one of the greats. Hemmingway played more as the kind the drunken writer you might actually meet in real life, constantly giving out philosophy and observations in an un-solicited manner, obsessed with fair play (see the boxing match). Two American tourists in the cafe getting their literary facts wrong in the begining of the movie. An oil painting bobbing up and down as the background of a scene in a moving car... Hope I'm not giving away too much, but the little touches are part of why this is such a fun movie. If your into art, literature and the romantism of the twenties, but can still laugh at it and yourself, this is a great film.

"Speak to me of love...."
A good, solid movie. I was drawn to this film by Alan Rudolph the director and Keith Carradine the lead actor, then when I saw the other members of the cast I knew the film HAD to be good. It is set in the art and literature world of 1926 Paris, and has overtones of John Huston's "Moulin Rouge" in its occasional biographical sketches. The characters are living in 1926, and the movie does such a good job of transporting the viewer to The Jazz Age Paris, that no one seems stale. Keith Carradine once again does a great job of being a disillusioned, cynical man with still a heart of human goodness. Geneiveve Bujold is excellent as a true, supporting friend, and Linda Fiorentino plays her part perfectly as a love who slips into and out of places, and not always when you would like her to. Geraldine Chaplin is terrific in her removed and superior manner in dealing with everyone.
The song "Speak to me of Love" sung slowly and softly in French thoughout parts of the film acts as a binding agent to keep bringing the events together to the main theme. Most of the situations that come up are believable and attention holding, and it is a solidly enjoyable experience seeing them get worked out.
I drank the wine from its bottle. I watched the movie. It was good.

Because I Love Paris
I was probably drawn to THE MODERNS because of the 1920's Parisian settings. I make no secret of the fact that, in another life, I must have been a very happy Parisian. As the song says, I Love Paris. Over the past several years I have spent weeks on end wandering about the streets and cafes of Paris, searching for the vestiges of the Paris of the lost generation. Amazingly enough, if you know where to look, a lot of that Paris is still around. For what's not still there, THE MODERNS is one of the better ways of filling in the blanks.

In my opinion, the plot is just an excuse to create a unique ambience and plop the viewer into the world of Paris of the 20's and 30's. We get glimpses of some of the expatriate Americans who either made the Parisian scene famous, or became famous because they were part of that era. From my own investigations, I have been led to believe that Hemingway was less of a fop and more of a bully than the Hemingway of THE MODERNS. As opposed to one of his fights as it was portrayed here, Parisians are more apt to talk about the fight that he picked, in the Falstaff Cafe in Montparnasse, with a man whom he outweighed by 85 pounds and whom he beat severely.

Not to complain, however, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas et al, are only here as backdrops, and they serve that function perfectly. The plot, for what it's worth, centers around a technically expert, but financially unsuccessful artist named Nick Hart, portrayed by Keith Carridine; Nick's ex-wife and sometimes lover, played by Linda Fiorentino; and a commissioned art forgery. A sub-plot or two also floats around. In particular there is one about the potentially explosive animosity between Hart and his ex-wife's current husband. For comic relief there is a perennially depressed reporter, known simply as Oiseau, played by Wallace Shawn.

Put all of these characters, plots and sub-plots into the film can, shake vigorously and out pops THE MODERNS. Amazingly enough, I really liked this movie, and I predict that you will too. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Quirky look at a family in crisis
Alan Rudolph has directed some very interesting, though little-known films over the last twenty years... In his latest, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Rudolph mostly succeeds in creating an offbeat comedy-drama about a husband and wife team of dentists. Campbell Scott and Hope Davis play Dave and Dana Hurst, who lead a fairly typical, if hectic upper middle class existence. In addition to being a dentist, Dana is an opera singer. They have three young girls, who take up a large part of their nonworking time. Much of the film, in fact, focuses on the daily challenges of a couple raising children. While this gets tedious at times (there is a twenty or so minute segment where we get to see the whole family throwing up as they suffer from flu), it manages to convey something, obvious as it is, that other movies tend to overlook. Namely, that whatever else may be going on in their lives, children take up a great deal of parents' time and energy. The conventional fabric of Dave's life starts to unravel when two unrelated incidents occur one day. First, he sees his wife in what appears to be a romantic embrace with another man. Secondly, he is harassed in public by an obnoxious disgruntled patient (Denis Leary, who is his usual wise-cracking self). From this point on, the movie turns surreal, as Leary becomes a walking hallucination in Dave's life, dispensing unwanted advice and providing comic relief from the otherwise heavy mood. The transitions between comedy and melodrama are sometimes rather sudden, but both work well in their own way, so the imbalance doesn't hurt the film. As in many of Rudolph's films, Secret Lives of Dentists uses a sharp focus to illuminate the small events in the lives of a few people. Everything takes place over the course of a few days, and not all that much actually happens. We mostly watch Dave's struggle to maintain his sanity while dealing with his conflicted feelings, such as love and anger towards his wife, devotion and impatience with his children. The film is slow paced, so if your movie attention span is short, it may not be for you. Yet I found it to be an original, funny and often touching look at a family trying to keep itself together.

Some-what depressing, but a good look at marriage.
I love Indie movies, "Why?" you may ask? Because they usually much better at depicting real humans then Hollywood films are. And okay, some indie films are just as bad as Hollywood films, that's a given, you *always* have to sift through the crap to find the good stuff. But as with anything, when you find the good stuff, the search was worth it.!

So, anyways, I will say that to me, this movie was fairly depressing. It moved fairly slow, but it fit the film, and it went by pretty fast. I felt the relationship between Dave and Dana was handled really well. And the performances by Campbell Scott and Hope Davis were wonderful. All the acting in the film was great, I especially like Denis Leary in this movie, and generally I dislike him(A LOT), but he's PERFECT for the role he plays here.!

I just like watching what Dave is going through, it just seems what I'd be thinking if my husband were cheating on me. Or some-what like thoughts I've had about people hating me. Its fun watching him play-out scenarios in his mind as well.

I mean generally the main problem with marriages and many relationships is lack of communication. That's especially true in this film, they've gotten so wrapped up in they're day-to-day lives they don't have very much real communication. When one of them tries to communicate the other isn't in the mood to listen. And of course their's the whole affair thing with his wife, so she is generally unreceptive of his attempts at affection and communication.

The only thing I dislike about the movie is just how unsympathetic it is. But it makes sense, because if you're cheating on somewhat you're not really thinking much about their feelings, or if you are, you block it out. Oh well, overall I'd say this is worth a view for people who want an honest look at marriage. It makes you realize just how much work a marriage takes. :)

God Bless ~Amy

Like a shot of novocaine
I don't mind if a film is slow-paced, so long as there is something of substance to grab me and hold my attention. The Secret Lives of Dentists is a forgettable trudge through middle-class family life and the mind of the dull and repressed dentist and dad, David Hurst, who is tormented by his unfaithful and distant wife and worn down by the demands his children make on him, even though he loves them all. Clumsy and awkward, the movie belabors the same points over and over again and slowly numbs your mind. Only one sequence of scenes stands out in memory - when the Hursts all come down with the flu and begin to vomit left and right. Great, I got the point that they were sick, but really, how much puke needs to fly in order to convey this fact?

If you want to see a great film that stars Hope Davis, watch About Schmidt. It's also a slow-paced film that deals with ordinary, everday subject matter; however, unlike The Secret Lives of Dentists, About Schmidt is moving and thoughtful and will linger in your mind for days after you watch it.

the ache of marriage
"I am 38 years old, and it seems to be that I've arrived at the age of grief. My wife is seeing another man, and I don't kick her out of the house. She doesn't kick me out. I can't imagine kicking anyone out of the house. Do you kick them? Or do you... kick them?"

Campbell Scott has always been one of my favorite actors, and his performance as a somewhat repressed, subdued and not very socially adept dentist is excellent and compelling. It slowly dawns on his character, Dave Hurst, that his wife is seeing another man. The distance between his wife, Dana (who is also a partner in their shared dental practice), and him grows while both try to carry on with their lives as normal. Sadly I think the movie with its deliberate and slow pace reflects accurately the non-communicative state of many marriages. People become
so busy and wrapped up in the daily grind (in the case of the Hursts, they have three small children, none of whom seem to like their mother very much). Dave struggles not only with expressing himself but with the question of why his wife
looks at him, as he puts it, "with regret" rather than with desire. Dave's frustrations, questions and suspicions finally boil over when he treats a rather belligerent, cantankerous patient (Denis Leary), and Dave imagines the patient is following him around, provoking him and making him think about his relationship to Dana.

Dave is not interested in confrontation with Dana because he is not interested in taking action. He fears the adverse consequences if he were to confront her. What if Dana wanted to leave him for someone else? What if their marriage split up? He was more willing to accept doing nothing to maintain a strained status quo. As the relationship becomes more strained, and as Dave personifies many of the qualities he imagines his belligerent patient to have, there are physical repercussions in the family... the entire family gets violently ill, with the
oldest daughter manifesting ongoing symptoms of nausea brought on by stress and anxiety (which is she clearly sensing in the household).

Overall I felt this movie was well done. The performances were excellent (cannot really complain about Hope Davis and Campbell Scott), the mundane quality of daily life and the sometimes silent suffering and lack of understanding that accompanies the tedium is captured here. As Dana comes alive in the beginning in
a community theater musical, and the let down that comes when the production ends, she embodies a person emotionally distraught at having lost some kind of passion. Most telling, she cries about the end of this period of artistic expression, freedom, and Dave does not notice. Dave and Dana share a
conversation at one point in the movie about whether they are really friends with each other. Dana always felt their marriage would grow wider and larger, but she only saw that it became smaller. They admitted that they scared each other, but they never really dealt with their personal issues. The subtle
portrayal of marriage and its failures as well as the failures of communication are well developed here, and for this reason, the film is a good choice.

Torture
I found this film as torturous to watch as the protagonist felt his marriage was to endure. I had no sympathy for him, both for his behavior and lack of; and, other than Denis Leary, every moment was either boring or disgusting - mostly boring. For 1/4 to 1/2 the film, five characters are Vomiting - UGH. A film about a tortured marriage needn't be torturous to watch in order to get the point across.

The main character's inability to take action was not only frustrating, but made him so unlikable--he was wimpy to the point of, from a filmic perspective, inactive and lacking "character"--that there was no one to care for here. The wife was intentionally not a sympathetic character, so no love lost there - but again, she was just too unlikable and uninteresting. And there were three cloying children. A few funny moments strewn about. But not nearly enough. And Leary's charisma, not nearly enough. I fought my way through. I truly despised it. Please, take out the hour of vomit. It's a family drama, not a drug film.

As a reference point, I'd say I've enjoyed about as many Alan Rudolph films as I haven't. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In Made in Heaven, Timothy Hutton plays a young guy in 1946 who's just been dumped by his girl and decides to go to California. On his way, he rescues a family from a car that's driven into a lake--and drowns in the process. Of course, he finds himself in Heaven, and there he meets Kelly McGillis, a soul who's never been born on Earth. The two fall in love. Just as they're about to get married--just for the fun of it, since by the rules of Heaven they're already married--McGillis gets sent to Earth to be born. Hutton pleads with Emmett, a figure who may or may not be God, who finally agrees to give Hutton 30 years on Earth to find her and continue their love. This 1987 Alan Rudolph film teeters on the edge of absolute cheesiness and steps over that edge at moments, but mostly it miraculously maintains a delicate, sweet, and affecting tone. McGillis is good, but Hutton is superb, demonstrating an honest charisma that makes him engaging even when he's being a jerk. The depiction of Heaven avoids the patronizing, overdone joyfulness that too many movies fall into. Though the idea sounds like pure saccharine, Made in Heaven consistently sidesteps the obvious and comes up with something genuine. Rudolph is a prolific but erratic director (his stronger movies include Choose Me, Trouble in Mind, The Moderns, and Afterglow), but this is one of the ones worth seeing. Made in Heaven features Debra Winger and an uncredited Ellen Barkin, as well as cameos by rock stars Neil Young, Ric Ocasek, and Tom Petty. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (30)

Heavenly Description of After-Life Accomodations and Romance
This Compelling movie brings much Understanding to the concept of "Life After Death" and gives us a few clues about how to get-around when we do not have bodies, anymore! This movie also shows that you do not just Quit doing all of the things you love...you simply have a Lot More Time to do them! If you have ever questioned dogmatic beliefs or had "Lucid" dreams that foretold an After-Life that contradicts what you have been led to believe...this movie is for you. If you are a person who seeks Knowledge about Spirituality, this movie is a great addition to your personal collection of images, data and theories. Or....if you are just a Romantic person, who enjoys a Great Love Story! Get your box of tissues ready and delve into this Highly Under-rated film. I would give it 5 stars, if it were a little faster-paced...but, that's just my Opinion. Most women Love this film (and guys should give it a try)! "Made in Heaven" is difficult to find, where I live, so I wonder how many people know about this Great Movie. There are many surprising scenes in this film and I believe it should be considered a Classic.

Beautifully woven story:love, heaven, earth, rebirth, death
The opening credit of the film "The story you are about to see could be true. You may even know some of the people." sets you up for and helps you ponder the story line of the movie. There are questions which we all ask ourselves and things we all wonder about. Where does inspiration come from? Did you ever notice that when you meet some people you just click? How about all of the seemingly small, insignificant things which have happened in your life. Things that had they not have happened, your live would be drasticaly different? All of those things that struck a chord but only later did we realize the significance. The lyrics of the title song "We've Never Danced" by Neil Young tells the story in itself: "Between heaven and earth, there's a ballroom glow, where couples glide in the evermore.......I hope it's not too late, we were more than friends, I can hardly wait, til we meet again." Some of these questions and mysteries are presented within a beautiful and moving love story. As you'd expect, the answers can't really be put into words, without trivializing them. So all we can do is experience the magic of the story and at the end, know that we have experienced part of the connection between heaven and earth. I highly recommend that you seek out this video and experience the magic.

Great story, cinematography, and music
This is one of those rare movies that takes the subject of life after death and gives the viewer layers to ponder. Do souls go on? Are there new souls as well as old ones? Can we really talk to G*d that smokes and wisecracks? I felt the use of color was particularly done well and the cinematography was exceptional. Then there is the sound track, one of the best I have ever heard. I would love to meet whomever picked these songs, they are perfect. Next to "Streets of Fire", this is about the best music from any movie that is not a musical. I wish they would release it on wide-screen DVD. PS- the small part casting is great, watch for Neal Young as a truck driver!

A Maid In Heaven Movie
If you believe in love, if you believe that their is only one special someone for you, if you believe that the love you share with your significant other was "Made in Heaven," this is the movie for you. Timathy hutton plays the all American nice guy who dies after rescuing two kids from drowning. In heaven, he meets the love of his life played by Kelly Mcgillis. As they are about to marry, her soul is sent to earth. Timathy's character asked to be sent to earth to find her. He is given thirty years to do so. This sweeping story is nothing short of mesmerizing. You can't help but route for these two people. You want them to find each other and you care about the things they are going through. This film makes you believe in the "L" word in it's true sense. Even if you are not one who can grasp or understand the notion that love made in heaven is a possibility, you can't help but get caught up in this little story about these two love struck souls. I highly recommend this movie to every romantic at heart person out there. If you ever find yourself in the arms of your loved one on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon, this is the movie to cozy up with. Yes, it's a "Chick's Flick" but sometimes, they can be good too.

Great Feel Good Movie
This is a really great rainy day movie....I love to watch this movie when feeling glum....this movie makes you believe again...take the time and watch it...you'll love it! ... Read more

Reviews (6)

One of the Greatest Willie Movies Ever!!!
Bless my soul, this movie is finally coming to DVD!!! This has to be one of the greatest Willie Nelson movies ever (this and Barbarosa). It is smartly written and has a certain chemistry about it. Everything just fits. It is a wonderful gem of a movie that I'm glad will no longer be one of the moritorium VHS titles. If you're a Willie fan, it's a must own. If you're somewhat curious, check this movie out. You won't be disappointed.

+1/2. Cute Willie Nelson vs. Nashville caper film
A fast-paced, fluffy film about the "outlaw country" lifestyle. Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson play Doc Jenkins and Blackie Buck, two grizzled road warriors who will only face life on their own terms, come what may. Early in the film, Doc gives up life on the road and tries to make it big as a record producer in Nashville; his evil, unscrupulous business partner royally screws him in the contract negotiations, and Willie spends the rest of the film trying to get out from under his thumb. For his part, when onscreen Kristofferson mostly just smiles and acts carefree and high on life. Leslie Ann Warren opens up a gaping black hole of talentlessness and tunelessness, improbably cast as the "next big thing" country star that Doc and Blackie pin their hopes on -- it's all very well and fine, except that the gal can't sing her way out of a paper bag. Regardless, this is a fun film, a nice chance to see Willie, in particular, be completely charming. Some fun songs, too, though at times a bit heavy on the '80s rock influences.

We love it!
My wife and I like to open a few stubbies of beer and settle back to watch/listen to Willie and Kris and the cast having a lot of fun. Unfortunately we have to hire it, and always have our eyes open for a copy. The script, music, acting appeals to us. Definitely one our our favourite films.

fun movie - great soundtrack
I enjoyed the movie a lot, but I enjoyed the soundtrack even more. Songwriter, Under the Gun, etc... now I just need to find a CD copy of the soundtrack (or maybe a DVD copy of the movie?).

Songwriter: One of The Best Pictures of The Year
Dr. Drew Casper PhD., Professor of Critical Studies at U.S.C.'s School of Cinema/Television lamented the lack of Oscar(tm) consideration for this as "one of the best pictures of the year"(1984). As one of his former students, I concurred wholeheartedly. Having seen this movie 3 times upon it's very limited original theatrical release, and countless times since, I think it's a shame the studio didn't know how to market this as a universally appealing Musical Comedy. Produced before the heyday day of The Sundance Film Festival, and before studios knew how to market Independent Films, this hilarious movie was neglected a proper release and ignored except by the small elite group of critics who saw it on the tiniest screen of Hollywood's Beverly Center and in film school. Everyone loved it! Tri-Star mistakenly thinking a movie starring Country Music legends Willie Nelson and Kris Kristoffersen would only appeal in the South, stifled it's theatrical run by limiting it's release to cities south of the Mason Dixon Line. But this movie is actually a very, witty, and fairly sophisticated comedy better suited to a wider City Slicker and Art House movie crowd. As a native San Franciscan who cannot stomach Country music, I made its Soundtrack the first (and last) Country Music record purchase I ever made. I loved this movie, considering it among my top ten favorite movies of all time. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

If you haven't seen it, please do
Gets better every time I see it. One of the best movies made in recent years hands down.

nice ending
It is amazing how the mind works when it is in jeopardy. I became a fan of Glenne Headly in this movie.

A superb thriller/drama with a terrible miscalculation
Alan Rudolph's Mortal Thoughts is a drama about murder, not movie murder where a hitmen shoots a guy dead with rock music on the soundtrack, but real-life murder, where the killer/killers have a crises of conscience, act with shock, disbelief and paranoia.

The film is set around two couples, James (Bruce Willis) & Joyce(Glenne Headly)and Cynthia(Demi Moore) & Arthur (John Pankow). The film starts out as a pitch black comedy, with Bruce Willis giving an excellent performance as the loud, abusive and downright nasty James. His wife Joyce played by the lovely Glenne Headly is a neurotic who is constantly half kidding her best friend Cynthia about how she would like to kill him. The whole movie is carefully framed with a detective (Harvey Kietel) asking Cynthia questions about one or several crimes. Slowly the flashbacks reveal the events as if they were happening in real time, and the film's momentum builds to a point where it becomes an unbearably tense drama.

The murder or murders in Mortal Thoughts are not commited by a movie-physcopath, but people who have lost their nerve. Throught out the film they have to clean up after it, hide evidence and virtually go insane in the proccess. It the documentary like portrayel of the murders and the first rate acting that makes this film so much better then the countless other murder mysteries you may have seen.

The film however does have one major flaw. After slowly revealing its cards with tense intorrogation scenes the ending is a complete cop out. Without giving anything away, I will say that after working so hard on revealing the facts in the detective's questioning, the truth is unveiled by us seeing the thoughts of one of the major characters. This is not only cheating, but it also leaves a second major crime unresolved.

Despite this, I highly reccomend you see this film. It has a certain truthfulness that makes it more unerving then many serial killer movies.

This is a great suspense movie!
I have watched this movie twice and enjoyed it very much. It really surprises you at the end! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Brilliant Effort by Alan Rudolph and Superb Cast
Alan Rudolph takes a mystery and turns it inside out, with the help of great acting. Tom Berenger as the crusty, savvy detective. Elizabeth Perkins as the hapless but lovestruck detective wannabe. Ann Archer at her radiant and amusing best. And Neil Young (yes, THAT Neil Young) in a delightful cameo role as a heavy who gets what he deserves. A small film it may be, but the script is excellent, the photography impressive, the familiar theme of mistaken identity is well played, so this is in many ways Rudolph's best film.

Alan Rudolph's Best Film
Those unfamiliar with director Alan Rudolph should not hesitate to buy this video. It's a carefully crafted mystery with a wry sense of humor, visually exciting, and well-scripted. Tom Berenger is at his best, well complemented by Elizabeth Perkins, Ann Archer (at her steamy best), and yes, a cameo by Neill Young (yes, that Neill Young) that is bound to please. This is a small film but one that aspires to greatness through its noir plot, crisp dialog, and excellent acting by all. The larger theme of identity seems, in a way, Hitchcockian, but the movie is not at all derivative. When it came out in the 1980s it received good reviews but went quickly to video, though it deserved wider recognition. Note: although not billed as a "family" flick, the absence of gratuitous violence et al is a welcomed relief. So when is the DVD coming out? It's about time. Until then, buy and enjoy the VHS tape. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

quirky but entertaining
"or to put it in terms you might understand,
'The sword of damocles is hanging over pandora's box'..."

This film is more proof that Wisdom and Intelligence are not the same thing. Trixie isn't very bright or well educated, but what she lacks in book-learning she makes up for in street smarts and good morals. She's not unnattractive, just rather plain.
Cute, but not beautiful. Chews gum alot.
Sort of a female "Columbo" but even dimmer.
Just judging from her looks on the box cover
of the VHS cassette, I don't know why, but I just assumed
she was British. She looks stereotypically British,
and I was surprised to hear a sassy Chicago accent come
from those lips and not some kind of Cockney or other London accent...then again, the last feature film I watched was
THE LIMEY, so maybe that's still in my head subconsciously.

You have to get used to the title character's dialogue...I found it rather painful on my ears...and you will start talking like Trixie if you're not careful, with all the mangled metaphors!...I'm not sure it's really believable someone could talk that way so consistently, regardless of educational background...I'm sure the actress had to spend a lot of time working on her lines to get them so perfectly screwed up...sounds more like a foreigner whose first language is not English speaking that would be more believeable.
Some of it is mildly amusing, I'm sure some people howl with laughter the whole way through...but I didn't. I think Trixie would have been/could have been just as good a movie without the speech impediment...a "female Columbo" is not a bad idea for a movie, but they could have done it more effectively by studying Peter Falk's methods. Or if they insisted on the language schtick...I still say what dissapointed me most is that Trixie just looks so BRITISH. If Zellweger can pull of a Brit accent and Aussies can pull of US accents, this film would have worked nicely in London..."Trixie" could have taken lessons from Brad Pitt's Irish gypsy character in SNATCH, for instance.

Nick Nolte does a good job playing a bad guy. The female actress in the supporting role, the 16 yr old vixen, was
a positively disturbing character.

still, this was worth the cost of the rental.

Great dialogue
Trixie is a uneducated and seemingly naîve, but surprisingly effective cop, who basically speaks in mangled metaphors and expressions.

"I believe in taking the bull by the tail and staring him right in the eye."

"No, you can't have a drink, you are not drinking yourself into Bolivia."

Wonderful film, one of Rudolph's best
Like all of Rudolph's films, this was overlooked and poorly released. That makes perfect sense, as most critics have a hard time with movies that are hard to define/summarize and audiences want a lot of big dramatic moments, even if they exist in the absence of true, human moments. Rudolph is one of the best movie writers out there and if we could only get the serious literary crowd to see his movies, he might get the recognition he deserves. Anyway, if you're a fan of Rudolph or the actors, they're all at their best here (great comic performance by Watson, can't wait to see what she does in the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie). PS The world would be a better place if all of Rudolph's films were released on DVD (with a commentary). Somebody, anybody, take action, please.

Weak story with numerous funny lines
One needs a certain warped sense of humor to enjoy this film. Trixie (Emily Watson) is a self proclaimed "Private Defective" whose butchery of English is nothing short of cleavacle. Her command of idioms is not as bad as it is worse. She is Norm Crosby taken to the tenth powder. She mixes semaphores with a high-speed blender. Her malapropriations are so funny they border on historical.

The writing of Trixie's dialogue by Alan Rudolph is extremely clever, but the story that surrounds it is very quirky, constantly meandering off point. I'm not a big fan of Rudolph's wry style of directing, but this film actually has its moments. Some of the things that pop out of Trixie's mouth are priceless. I found myself tolerating the boring story to hear what she would say next.

Emily Watson's performance is excellent. She gives Trixie a naïve charm and gritty determination that is fun to watch. It is hard to fathom how she is able to say her lines with a straight face. Her Chicago accent is horrendous though. Nathan Lane also gives a tragically droll performance and Nick Nolte is absurdly humorous in his caricature of the corrupt state senator.

This film was pounded by almost everyone, but I like this kind of word gymnastics, so I enjoyed it despite itself. I rated it a 6/10. If you can appreciate a punny character without much of a story, it might be worth a try.

Quirky characters don't make up for a lack of plot
Trixie is the kind of movie that you want to love. It contains characters who are more interesting than the people most of us meet everyday. Each is unique in a depressing way. Is Emily Lloyd's Trixie on target? Who knows? You've never met anyone like her before. Does Nathan Lane overact? Yes, he always does, but never before in such a small movie so you usually don't notice it. How did Nick Nolte come up with his sleazy politician ? Well, haven't most of his roles in other films benefitted from his sleaziness? Everyone in this movie is overdrawn but your heart is touched by them nonetheless.

But quirky, touching characters don't make a movie. The plot, script, directing and sets all seem to be offhand as if they were occuring in a dream you might have when you are sleeping with the television on. No one--not the actors, not the writers, not the director--seems to know where this movie is going. And, so, it doesn't go anywhere.

If you like showcases for quirky acting, you'll find much to smile at in Trixie. If you don't care about meeting the man mumbling to himself behind you on the supermarket checkout line, you won't want to meet Trixie either. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A one of a kind movie....
In my earlier review of another one of Alan Rudolph's movies, "The Moderns", I cited this film as being the ONLY movie to cover what life was like in the weird period in western pop history between 1975 and 1982. This was a period when David Bowie's bizarre influence permeated just about everything having to do with American and Western European night life and sexual rebellion. NOBODY sought to document this strange footnote in the 20th century timeline other than Rudolph, and he does an excellent job!

This is one of a trilogy of movies Rudolph directed when he was "hot", just after he had developed his own style, apart from Robert Altman, his mentor. "Choose Me" and "The Moderns" were the other two. (To appreciate the difference that eventually set the two apart, rent Rudolph's "Welcome To L.A", which could have EASILY been an Altman movie, and compare it to any one of these three.) Unfortunately, since these three movies, Rudolph hasn't done much that could be considered landmark, with the exception of "Mrs. Parker and The Vicious Circle". A damned shame, really.

The story centers around Kris Kristofferson, starring in one of his few really good movies, as a disgraced cop who gets paroled back into Seattle society after serving time for murdering a crime lord for harassing an old flame of his, Wanda, played by Genevieve Bujold, whom he reunites with after he gets out. Wanda owns a popular diner haunted by weirdos and hangers-on over which Kristofferson takes an apartment she offers to him out of gratitude. Into this mix comes Coop, played by Keith Carradine, a young married with the requisite financial problems all working class young marrieds face: New baby, new expenses, a wife to support....After finding out that jobs are hard to come by, (this IS after all, set in the late 70s and early 80s,) Coop soon turns to crime after meeting with a strange, black habitue of Bujold's diner, played by Joe Morton. Coop soon transforms from an average Joe to something resembling a cross between the Joker from Batman and Bowie's Thin White Duke, turning off his young wife, played by Lori Singer. This drives her into the arms of Hawk, Kristofferson's character. Hawk happens onto her right after Coop comes home late one night from one his first forays into petty crime with his newfound friend, Morton, and Hawk just happens to be passing by their shabby motor home after the fight between the two younger people ends.

Eventually, Coop and his friend try to deal with Hilly Blue, a fey crime lord played by the well-known, late transvestite actor Divine, and nobody's life from there on in is quite the same again.

This movie captures the neon world of the late seventies new-wave/punk era near-perfectly and is unique in the fact that it is the ONLY movie to do so! The acting, specifically Carradine, Bujold and Morton, is top-notch, the music, by Mark Isham, is moody, jazzy and noir-perfect and humor abounds throughout.

One of the oddest portions of the movie is a latter part involving Coop and Morton and yet another crime lord of the city named Nate. Nate is, quite frankly, a sissy with an eye for VERY young ladies. However, he's powerful enough to make life very rough for the two punks.

Buy this movie, and I assure you, it will stay in your OWN mind for quite a while.

A real Noir sleeper
Very atmospheric film, that deserves a DVD. A real sleeper with some very real dialogue. Check the scene when Kristoferson's character explains to Singer the way it would be living with him. Just brilliant writing, one of my favorites

Rain City Blues
Alan Rudolph has created a fascinating off-beat look at America, through the eyes of a cynical ex-cop, Kris Kristofferson, who goes by the name of Hawk. The setting seems to lie in a no-man's land between the past and the future, as Seattle is transformed into a bleak, dreary city under martial law. Hawk reluctantly finds himself as a guardian angel for a young woman, Lori Singer, and her baby, who have been abandoned by her erstwhile husband, David Carradine, who rather absurdly gets drug into the dark underworld of Rain City. Hawk's old flame, Genevieve Bujold, provides most of the emotional punch in this movie, running a diner inhabited by local rif-raf, which serves as Hawk's hideout. The story is cartoonish, but that is part of its charm. The dead-pan performances carry the movie through its rather predictable twists and turns, highlighted by a comicly nuanced performance by the great Divine as the kingpin of the Rain City underworld. The Mark Isham score is given haunting refrains by Marianne Faithfull. Rudolph seemed to have fun with this movie. It moves along well with a perfectly inane closing scene in which Hawk brings the proper forces back in order.

Why no DVD - the market's out there.
Here's a taste of bittersweet that will leave you wanting more.

A slightly different future. Devine as a man. Kris Kristofferson almost showing emotion. Lori Singer's best ever imitation of Darryl Hannah. Genevieve Bujold in her best role since King of Hearts. A great soundtrack. What's not to like.

They pressed a laser, where's the DVD? ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Funny and fierce failure...
The thing about many Deconstructionist existential thrillers being churned-out these days (MINUS MAN is a good example)is that the Directors think they're cinematic Franz Kafka's and they're not. Alan Rudolph's effort here is typical. It's fierce and funny. Clear and deliberately incoherent. It mistakes a few good sequences ...like a few good lines...for a film-poem. The acting by Matthew Modine in his Jekyll & Hyde role(s) as Henry "the wimp" and Freddy the punk-thug is fine. The masturbatory/ fantasy dance sequences of Henry's hyper-aesthetic, dipsomaniacal girl friend, Beverly (well-played as human time-bomb by Lara Boyle) are tense and provocative. But so what? The story is hash. The characters are such burnt-out cases that in all important trials of identification/sympathy, the verdict is nolo contendere/nolo comprendere at best; and "shoot them all for their own good" at worst. Fred Ward's role as BOSS HOOD is an underdeveloped waste. When bottom-feeder Richie NUNN...shrilly essayed by Tate Donovan...is greased, the effect is ho-hum rather than a jolt in awe at Freddy Ace's remorseless cruelty and will. The closing scene of Henry...now "illuminated" to true identity...arraigned before The Cosmos (The Grand Canyon) is trite, film school stuff. It doesn't achieve anything other than manifestly demonstrate Director Rudolph's film is a con job where imagination struck-out on viewers hoping for a solid hit.

The movie is interesting to watch. Like Marisa Tomei, playing semi-illiterate "writer" Rosie, we're hoping for a story. What...in my estimate...most viewers get is thematically unfinished and artistically fragmentary. EQUINOX is neither "pop" thriller nor successful existential probe of the human condition. Yes,it's funny and at times emotionally fierce.But overall it's costume jewelry fraud indulgently parading itself as Kafka-esque. Ironically EQUINOX is what Kafka detested in art: fake truth masking real Lies; and parodies of Parody foisted as Reality...

To do or not to do
Two young men who could not be more different: A clumsy mechanic who will never dare make a pass at an equally shy reader of Emiliy Dickinson; and a gunman racketeering for the mob, whose wife has an incredibly bored way of adoring him. The do men have more than just an uncanny resemblance. They are twins who don't know of their brother's existence.

The gunman is perfect and successful at everything he does. The mechanic never gets anything done, because he knows that even eating a peach can disturb the universe.

That is the situation out of which Alan Rudolph makes an immensely clever, funny, thoght-provoking and touching film. It is like no other film I have ever seen, indeed its emotional and intellecutal range, its dramatic presentation reminded my of Shakespeare. Yes, "Equinox" is up there with the greats.

Quirky, fascinating movie
A fascinating film- one of alan rudolph's best and least known. From its setting in the city of "Empire",to the soundtrack with the mysterious old woman's voiced/whispered diary, to the somewhat disturbed characters, etc. For fans of the elliptical and intuitive, a really good movie.

Excellent. English Patient without Katherine and war
Beauty. Power. Soul. Reflection. Passion. These are options when bargaining for a life. Some options are necessities to some. Worthless to others. How does one decide? This movie cannot be "reviewed" or "summarized" any easier than can a person be described in 5 lines in a personal ad. But I will say I've rented it 5 times and will again until I buy it. When I see my Lion twin in my life, I want to be looking in the mirror. But I won't be. The best Hollywood has done lately is film about "a life so changed." This film posits the terror in the knowledge of the shapeability of the self, the self that never seems to defy it's own inertia, until it sees the unmentionable... ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A Quirky Ode To Sexual Liberation (And Romance!)
'Choose Me' is an odd little movie, set in a stylized (and stylish), totally libidinous after hours kind of twilight, even though some scenes take place in the day. The onscreen music is after hours jazz, and the soundtrack underneath uses songs of Teddy Pendergrass in sometimes shockingly effective, nearly subliminal ways. The complex plot, which I leave to others to describe, deals with the curious interface between love and lust in a witty, ironic way. Keith Carradine is compelling as the mysterious stranger who is all things to all the women in the film. Bujold does a nearly dual role as radio talk show host Nancy Love and her daytime alter ego, Ann. It's a lot of fun, as well as something to give you pause as you pursue your desires.

Choose it.
Simply, Choose Me is an edgily romantic, iconic, moodily hilarious, foolhardy movie of a movie by one of the true heirs of Michael Powell. Rudolph's use of colour, textures, the unpredictable, and a literate script make for a unique roundabout. Bujold is a treasure, Warren should be far better-known, and Carradine - well, my favourite line in the movie:
'No, I'm the same. The town's different.'
Love at large, indeed.
Rudolph doesn't always get it spot-on, but this and Trouble in Mind and Equinox is 3 movies better than some directors of greater renown.
Choose it!

Clever as it gets, but . . .
. . . where's the other two brilliant contemporary Rudolph films, ``Welcome to L.A.'' and especially ``Trouble in Mind''? Some kind of legal hassle?

If I were to make a move, this would be it
This is one of my all-time favorites, along with Nashville, Exotica, and Kieslowski's Blue. My ultimate romantic movie, in a beautiful but sordid way. R.D. Chong is wooden, but doesn't detract from the movie. The biblical allusions escaped me at first (Eve's bar, Adams street, ultimate redemption ...), but this is a heartfelt paean to true, less-than-sane, love. Is Mickey, the male protagonist, crazy? Does it matter? I saw this at least 6 times the year it opened at a small art-house theater, and I watch it time and time again without tiring of it's hopeless, dreamlike, romanticism. Mickey is a man, wandered off from an insane asylum, searching for a lasting taste of a past love that he can't recapture or redeem. He is willing to be a partner for each of three beautiful but flawed women--but who is willing to take a chance on him? Beautiful.

An Ophuls rondelay transplanted to bleary-eyed LA.
'Choose Me' is a romantic melodrama structured like a farce, thriving on exits, entrances, bad timing, mistaken identities, coincidences, sexual play and mounting violence. Following his beloved Ophuls, Alan Rudolph charts the shifting relationships and sexual/romantic entanglements of 6 characters - Genevieve Bujold, a sexually repressed radio-psychologist; Lesley Anne Warren, a prostitute-turned-bar-owner, whose pleasure in promiscuity cannot conceal a desire for love; John Larroquette, Warren's barman and occasional lover; Keith Carradine, a recently released mental patient and self-confessed 'pathological liar', who may or may not have been a killer, CIA spy, mechanic, top photographer, multiple husband, who asks every woman he kisses to marry him, and around whose loose-limbed sexual presence the various plots turn; Rae Dawn Chong, who hangs around Warren's bar wanting to catch her cheating French gangster husband, Patrick Bauchau - with a narrative as fluid as his camera, weightlessly gliding through and between scenes, its very textures charged with the emotional volitility of the characters.

With Rudolph films, it is all-or-nothing - either his elaborately artificial constructions work completely, or they collapse; either the viewer falls for the artifice (not just in the coincidence-laden plot, but the neon-pink mise-en-scene, with lighting, interiors, choreography, composition and music orchestrated to unreal effect) or you are repelled. The artifice, disdaining social realism, penetrates deep emotional truths, and the ambiguous last frame is the best since 'The 400 Blows'. 'Choose Me' was considered a masterpiece on its release; its characters, waltz-like rhythms, witty script and swooning self-belief are certainly seductive, as is its willingness to punctuate the seriousness about romance with silly bits of business; in hindsight, however, it looks like a dry run for Rudolph's masterpiece, 'Afterglow', which is similar in set-up, but somehow just right in a way 'Choose Me' nearly is, but isn't quite. ... Read more

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Director Alan Rudolph's adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions centers on suicidal car dealer Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis), his drug- and television-addled wife Celia (Barbara Hershey), his cross-dressing sales manager Harry (Nick Nolte), his dim secretary and mistress Francine (Glenne Headly), and Vonnegut's alter ego of sorts, pulp writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney). Dwayne is desperate for meaning in his life and starts to believe that Trout, who has been invited to the town's impending arts festival, will be able to tell him some truth he's never heard before. The EPA is investigating toxic sludge under property Dwayne owns, Celia is losing her already fragile grip on reality, Harry is growing increasingly paranoid that Dwayne knows about his private habits, and Francine is impatient with Dwayne's increasingly erratic behavior. Meanwhile, Kilgore Trout grouses about his failures and finally decides to attend the arts festival as a final act of self-humiliation. On top of all this, there are four or five other characters, all eccentric to the point of overload. It's difficult to get a fix on what the movie wants to be about, but Glenne Headly makes her character an island of sympathy in the ocean of everyone else's self-absorption, and Albert Finney creates some poignant moments as Trout is confronted by people who either scorn or worship his stories without any attempt to understand them. Featuring a cameo by Vonnegut. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Reviews (60)

Kurt Vonnegut is Better Read than Seen
For those who love Kurt Vonnegut, you would appreciate this movie, but only immediately after reading the book version. For those who haven't read the book "Breakfast of Champions", you will be utterly lost in this film.

Kurt Vonnegut stories are fantasies, written tongue-in-cheek with little reflection on reality. The characters are cartoon personifications of annoying people, and the setting is generally a middle-America, strip mall-saturated, consumer-ish nightmare. Just bringing the audience up to speed on the story environment is difficult to visually represent within the timeframe of an average movie.

The acting is done well, especially Albert Finney as Kilgore Trout, Vonnegut's alter ego that appears in many of his books. Bruce Willis does an adequate job as Dwayne Hoover as does Barbara Hershey as his wife, but the story didn't allow us understand them enough. Once again, putting a Vonnegut book to film and making it complete within 2 hours is, in my opinion, an impossible task.

But unlike most similar book-to-movie transitions, "Breakfast of Champions" holds true to the book, so much that it falls short of conveying the roles and motivations of the characters and circumstances. So once again, Vonnegut readers will be amused, but newbies will be befuddled.

...And Cut
You know, some books were never meant for the world of film. Despite how popular and well loved they may be by everyone, that doesn't mean it'll make a successful movie. "Breakfast of Champions" is a perfect example of this. While it proves to be a masterpiece in the written form, it ends up being one lousy film that tries so hard to be funny and fails almost every time.

The movie follows the basic premise of the book, but adds and changes things around (which I understand, because most of the stuff in that book wouldn't be able to translate on film--hence, why it should've never been done in the first place). Dwayne Hoover is a car dealer that everybody loves and trusts. Dwayne Hoover, is also losing his mind. From his pill-popping wife to his cross-dressing business buddy, Dwayne is losing his grip on reality on a daily basis. Soon, he will meet a sci-fi writer that nobody has ever heard of (except for one deranged fan), Kilgore Trout. Their meeting will be the final straw for Dwayne and chaos will be the aftermath.

What made the book so funny in the first place was the actual commentary by Vonnegut as the overall narrator. It wasn't necessarily funny only because of the characters and their actions, but mainly because of Kurt Vonnegut's voice. Of course, they have to do away with the narration in order to have it work on film. The problem is, however, it doesn't work. It feels like a bad imitation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." It's rarely funny nor is it strange, it's just plain annoying. The only way this film will be understood by others is if they have read the book ahead of time. And even if they've done that, they'll only end up being more ticked off at the debauchery that is the movie, "Breakfast of Champions." I wasn't expecting a dead-on adaptation, just something to do the book some kind of justice. Sorry to say, this film does no such thing.

The DVD has almost no special features, and for the first time ever--I could care less. In fact, I'd be even more ticked off if this DVD had tons of special features while other great movies have "doodley-squat" for special features.

"Breakfast of Champions," while a literary masterpiece, is a "fabulously well-to-do" dud as a movie. I can't even recommend this to people who haven't read the book, as they'll most likely despise it since they will have no idea what is going on. This movie is living proof that some timeless literary classics were never meant for the big screen. I think Vonnegut would agree with that. In fact, with all of the rants he does on entertainment, TV, and short attention spans, it wouldn't surprise me if Vonnegut structured the book to be un-filmable on purpose. Avoid it and stick to the book, if you want my honest opinion. -Michael Crane

Breakfast of Champions
This movie is hilarious. I saw it like 20 times before I read the book, and couldn't even really tell what it was about, but was intrigued by it nonetheless. Then I read the book, and realized what was going on, and it became 20 times better. All these naysayers don't know what they're talking about. Buy this movie, I've been trying to forever but no one has it but here. BUY BUY BUY!!!!

Terrible Movie in it's Own Medium
The movie is not as good as the book. It never is.
The movie does not closely resemble the book. It never does.

These are the most common complaints I have heard most people make against this film, but I am going to leave those things adside and judge the film simply as a comedy, but first a brief synopsis.

Wayne Hoover is a well to do car salesman in Midland city and he is having a very bad day. He is starting to see things that are really not there and hear voices that are really not there. He is going insane and he knows it.

Kilgore Trout is a sci fi writer who writes outrageous stories that appear in pornograpyh magazines. On the whim of one of his only fans he is invited to Midland city for an arts festival and decides to go. When Wayne and Kilgore meet all hell breaks loose.

The sad truth though is that all hell does not break loose as it should in a comedy like this. The performances are very subdued. For instance Wayne Hoover has a scene with an employee who is secretly a cross dresser about his clothing! What a hoot huh! Unfortunatley no, it is not a hoot it is barely even