As far as New York shock docs go I prefer Story of a Junkie which is way more authentically grimy than this film, while also making life on the fringes look genuinely appealing in its distaste for the 9-to-5 grind.
This film is beautifully shot and very pretty. with pink gels everywhere, but I think it's a little too clean-looking for its own good. Various performers and weirdos express a hatred of gentrification but ironically the film itself makes pre-Giuliani…
A thoroughly charmless vehicle for noxious ideology. At least with conservative art like Dirty Harry you have the undeniable thrills of Clint Eastwood blowing away some bad guys. Here we have to endure a very tired-looking Gary Cooper reciting long, irony-free and clumsily worded monologues about why individualism is good to the general approbation of a seemingly endless series of middle-aged men in suits. The most thrilling scene is a very long elevator ride. (Okay maybe that's not quite true…
Offensively stupid on multiple levels, a movie by people who think real rape-revenge films are beneath them while condescendingly co-opting those films' transgressive impact – but they can't even get that right, because any feints towards real violence are effectively neutered by some goody two-shoes bullshit where Carey Mulligan surprises would-be date rapists by giving them a stern talking-to instead of cutting their dicks off. (And let me tell you, as someone who has had their fair share of interactions…
Surprised by the positive attention and generous ratings this is getting because it seems very ill-informed about sex work in general and BDSM in particular, and very conflicted in terms of what it thinks its characters are getting out of it. I think the upbeat ending might have something to do with it – it's lovely and charming and full of goodwill, and it almost made me reconsider my stance on the rest of the film.
Ultimately though I think…
Lucinda liked Kyle Faulkner’s review of Mulholland Dr.
Lucinda liked Jamie Tram’s review of Wolf Man
Lucinda liked Felix Hubble’s review of Wolf Man
Lucinda liked Mark Hanson’s review of Direct Action
Lucinda liked Felix Hubble’s review of Babygirl
