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mitch-23
Reviews
200 Cigarettes (1999)
Stellar ensemble vehicle
this is one of my all-time favorite movies; as evidenced by my review history, I am not a compulsive reviewer, but decided that if one more movie deserves my shout-out it is this low-profile and vastly underrated effort so I dredged up my registration information which I hadn't used in years; I remember stumbling upon the movie at my local home video rental store nine years ago; I immediately fell in love with this star-jammed vehicle that effortlessly manages to be stridently observant and yet retain a light and joyfully irrelevant touch; some of the reviewers complain that its crowded story-lines don't allow for fully-fledged characters but fail to see that it's one of the successful wink-wink aspects of the movie: most of the protagonists ARE fully-fledged, it's just that there just so much to their character! They are either shallow/vapid people or one-track minds desperate to score before the last hours of the old year ring out; both types can be sketched with a few confident strokes! for instance, just listening in on the bathroom conversation of Caitlin and Bridget you get all the insight into their character that you need to know perfectly well where they come from and what is their motivation; come on, given the lightweight subject matter I don't see how you can expect a 162-minute English patient-calibre backstory; you might ask then why waste time on a movie about shallow people or people obsessed with hosting the perfect party? because shallow plus zero self-awareness plus NYC art-scene types equals funny; being so caught up in party dip and New Year's decoration that it leads up to existential drama and queasiness is also hilarious in my book; and 200 cigarettes serves up just that sort of delightful cinematic entertainment; not to mention that it has one of my all-time favorite one-liners: "I DARE you to f*** me!"
Central Park West: Stephanie and the Wolves (1995)
sex, money, superbitches from hell, back-stabbing, sex and MORE sex
i can't believe there is not ONE comment on this fabulous series that remain one of my all-time faves; i could not really begin to list all the wonderful aspects of CPW; for me everying worked: the cast, the plot, the one-liners, the music; my favourite character was that of Kylie Travis who, unfortunately, disappeared form the face of the earth after the series; she is great! i am at a loss why the show did not caught on...
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Hepburn and Peppard are undoubtedly the cutest coupling to hit the silver screen.
Over the years, I found out that, without exception, all great movies are based on a previously written material. It seems that a movie needs the backbone that the book source provides to be thoroughly engaging. Another thing that I found out with the passage of time is that, and I'm roughly quoting Linda Hunt's character in 'The Year of Living Dangerously", if one does not lapse into the promiscuity of the failed romantic, one will always leave the movie theatre after seeing "Breakfast at Tiffany's" befuddled by this world where unrequited love is always lurking in the corners and where beauty has no alternative.
Only recently did I re-live the magic of the onscreen Hepburn/Peppard duo and that was when I went to see "The Object of My Affection". What binds these two movies together in my mind is the fact that they deal with unrequited love between two out-of-this-world cute people (now is the time to note that the happy-endish twist that the story gets in the movie is so contrived and preposterous, without in the least bit damaging the quality of the goods, that I prefer to treat it as an unrequited love story as it is in the book). Having been there myself, I would dare suggest that there is nothing more beautiful and heart-rending as unrequited love. That is why I find both movies deeply moving.
Another major plus for "Breakfast.." is that, by some miraculous coincidence , Hepburn was around when they were casting it because she IS Holly and Holly is HER as Peppard is "Fred", aka Truman Capote with whom he shares an uncanny resemblance.
I am, however, left toying with the thought that if love is impossible between these two, many of us have little to look forward to. Except, maybe , the next screening of "Breakfast at Tiffany's".