Wow. Ok, so that is a pathetic way to start a movie review. But my god, what a movie.
Tape is directed by Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Waking Life) and stars Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman. They are the only cast members of the film and the entire feature takes place in a single motel room.
The film was shot on digital and the opening sequences had me dreading yet another movie that is to showcase the direction and film quality with no real plot. I could not have been more wrong.
There are very few films that can be carried merely by the dialogue of the actors. Tape is one of them. As the credits started rolling, both my husband and I were sitting in awe with our mouths hanging open. And the amazing thing is, while I knew what was happening and even predicted the ending, I was still completely captivated as I watched it unravel.
It's very realistic in presentation. Though by the end, you still don't know what the true reality of the film was. But I think that's how it's supposed to be. Very reflective of life. The difference between true fact (if there is such a thing) and the perceptions of the people involved. The effect that intention has on a situation.
I highly recommend this movie, especially if you liked Before Sunrise and Waking Life. Though beyond being based on dialogue, Tape is in a league of its own.
A suspenseful, superbly acted piece of 'Motel Hell'
Alright, I'll just let it fly right now: I don't think I've seen a movie since Dead Poet's Society in which Ethan Hawke doesn't kinda blow. He's not so believable in Linklater's Before Sunrise, got undeserved acclaim for Training Day, and pretty much destroys the art of acting in Taking Lives. So it was a nice surprise to see him not suck after Linklater's fascinating, superbly acted (holy crap, I just said that about an Ethan Hawke movie) Tape, which needs about 20 minutes to get its look-at-me-I'm-a-badass-indie-film-shot-on-DV-with-cool-angles attitude out of its system. But after that, whoa boy. The film takes place entirely in a low-rent motel room where Hawke is staying; his high school pal, played by the underappreciated Robert Sean Leonard (the guy who blew his brains out in DPS), drops by and before you know it, it's less high school reunion and more Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. You see, Hawke's Vince exposes a secret from Leonard's Jon's past and a cunning game of psychological hot potato begins. What impressed me the most about Tape is how it defied my expectations at every point that the movie turned - there are more twists in it than a Hollywood thriller, and the movie becomes so engrossing at points that interest becomes giddiness. But the best thing about Tape is how well its actors (including Uma Thurman, who drops by in a pivotal role) navigate the facial and verbal expressions that would accompany such an encounter. For a low-budget indie that could have been pretentious and silly, this movie is so well-nuanced and executed it'll have you clamoring for more in its all-too-brief 84 minutes. GRADE: B+
Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard together again
Richard Linklater(School Of Rock, Suburbia, Dazed and Confused) directs this powerful and in your face experience about three friends who come back in their lives and then things start heating up. Hawke is a drug dealer, who blames Leonard for raping Thurman way back when. When the tensing and the sparks fly between the 3, its great acting and to the 3 actors its probably one of the best performances of the leads in their careers. one of the best movies of 2001, period. a movie not to be missed
This romantic, witty, and ultimately poignant glimpse at two strangers (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) who share thoughts, affections, and past experiences during one 14-hour tryst in Vienna somehow remains writer/director Richard Linklater's (Dazed and Confused, Slacker) most overlooked gem. Delpy, a stunning, low-key Parisian, meets the stammering American Hawke, as the two share a Eurorail seat--she's starting school in Paris, he's finishing a vacation. Their mutual attraction leads to an awkward meeting (beautifully played by each performer), and Hawke suggests that Delpy spend his remaining 14 hours in Vienna with him.
Typically, this skeleton is as much plot as Linklater provides; as usual, he's more interested in concentrating his talents on observing the casual,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ethan Hawke - Julie Delpy Director(s): Richard Linklater DVD Release Date: Released the 06 November 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $11.24YOU SAVE $3.74!
Buy it
Waking Life is a film that never settles down. Or maybe it never wakes up. Regardless, Richard Linklater's animated meditation seems to strike a perfect balance between the plotless meanderings of Slacker and the unquenchable knowledge-seeking of Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. Any way you look at it, this is a weird, original movie.
As he attempts to figure out what separates dreams from reality, the protagonist (Dazed and Confused's Wiley Wiggins) hears an earful from everyone he stumbles upon. Ramblings range from the scholarly (Linklater's former college professor Robert C. Solomon gives a monologue) to the banal (of which there are plenty). Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Steven Soderbergh, and Adam Goldberg all get animated cameos, basically playing themselves.... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 May 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.98 Your Price: $9.98YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sean Penn - Naomi Watts - Benicio Del Toro Director(s): Alejandro González Iñárritu DVD Release Date: Released the 16 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $11.98YOU SAVE $3!
Buy it
Ethan Hawke directs this starving-artist mood piece set in a famous New York hotel. A loose collection of artists and lonely souls waft in and out of the Chelsea in what is more a slice-of-life mood piece than a drama. The film (shot entirely on digital video) is best recommended for those who still subscribe to the notion that all artists are emotional wrecks with substance-abuse problems and that this is somehow romantic. The characters speak in poetry as often as not. If you are of a poetic bent, you may find this quirk beautiful, but more prosaic souls will find it embarrassing at best. The cast, however, is excellent. Kris Kristofferson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rosario Dawson, Robert Sean Leonard, and Steve Zahn all do fine work, especially given the difficult dialogue and frequently... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paz de la Huerta - Vincent D'Onofrio Director(s): Ethan Hawke DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
Richard Linklater's debut feature is a comic kaleidoscopic portrait of the quirky characters stuck in a college town (it's Austin, Texas, but it could stand for hundreds of such places), a devilishly clever and endlessly inventive film that overcomes its nothing budget with scene after hilarious scene of short, sharp cinematic shots. Structured something like Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty, Slacker is a comic series of character pieces, each lasting a few minutes before the camera picks up and follows someone, perhaps simply an extra in the scene, to the next conversation. Characters spout off theories on everything from JFK and Charles Whitman (we even get an eerie glimpse of the water tower he climbed for his killing spree) to Elvis and UFOs, and more (wanna buy a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Linklater Director(s): Richard Linklater DVD Release Date: Released the 14 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $39.95 Your Price: $35.96YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
