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DVD Hysterical Blindness
Uma Thurman is painful to watch in Hysterical Blindness--and that's a compliment. Thurman completely gives herself over to her trashy character, a pathetically self-deluding good-time girl who hangs out in a tavern in Bayonne, New Jersey, circa 1987. She occupies the bar stool next to her best bud (a dead-on Juliette Lewis), willing herself to believe that an obviously indifferent pick-up is Mr. Right. Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) directed this familiar but nicely-rendered HBO production; her visual style, full of obscured sightlines and opaque glass, emphasizes the heroine's inability to see clearly. Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara, as Thurman's mom and her gentleman suitor, add an echo of Cassavetes realism. But it's Thurman's tour de force, capturing the kind of lost soul whose idea of first-date chat is to break an awkward silence by boasting about her best sexual skill. She will make you cringe. --Robert Horton
This has to be one of Uma's top performances, ever. Her part has to be one of the most real characters ever written about. You saw her not as a role, but as a real person.You may have saw yourself in her, or you may have you seen thousands of other girls in her. In reality, all she wants is love. Just to feel love, and to be loved. She is willing to go to any depths possible to find it. Desperation, so to speak.
When watching 'Hysterical Blindess' you almost forget you're engaged in a film, it seems like you're watching the world around you. Because this is it...this isn't some fiction story that you know is impossible to ever happen..this is what goes on in the real world that surrounds us.
Definitely check out this film, I do believe you'll enjoy it. Juliette Lewis & Gena Rowlands also give all-star performances.
Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis are consummate actresses. Perhaps that's why this film was so painful to watch - they both did very well portraying twentysomethings with little self respect. Debbie's (Uma) father left her and her mom when she was 13; her motives for bar slumming are classic, obvious, and sad. Beth (Juliette) has a daughter whom she leaves at home alone to go bar hopping with Debbie nearly every night. They repeatedly trade their dignity and their sexuality for that very temporary illusion of closeness with a guy (aka, "one night stands"). Neither one of them knows how to not flirt with any eligible male that shows them the slightest interest.
As you might expect, this outlook on life leads them into some bleak situations. Debbie imagines that a guy she meets one night is much more into her than he really is and starts throwing herself at him in a lot of embarrassing stunts to get and keep his attention. Beth nearly loses her daughter. There's a very pointed moral to this story about appreciating your friends and loved ones, not looking for something that isn't there and facing reality - all very true in my opinion.
What really didn't grab me about Hysterical Blindness was the fact that it was paced so slowly that it seemed to take forever to get around to making its point; meanwhile, I can relate to Debbie all to well on some level, which is a painful thing. It drags me back to that time in my own life where I was just as insecure in my own way. Not a nice place to revisit, even if honest. And I was bored even then.
So, if you're really into Uma and Juliette, this is a brilliant showcasing of their talents. Otherwise, I'd skip Hysterical Blindness in favor of any of the more upbeat chick flicks like 13 Going on 30.
Andrea, aka Merribelle
Blind 30 something Chick
I guess I'm a Mira Nair fan. I saw her Mississippi Masala (1992) and thought it was a great success. I believed her to be an ethnic director, dealing with Indian matters. I was wrong. The girls of Bayonne, NJ are authentic to their nails and accents. Uma Thurman gives it up, not the glamour girl we're used too, but a thirty something bar fly unable to land a man. It's not that she's unattractive, this is Uma we're talking about, but she is socially retarded because her daddy ran out on the family. Consequently, she hits all the wrong notes in interaction with the local Jersey Guys. The stress has caused symptoms, hysterical blindness, as her tone-deaf social antics at the local nightspot resemble the antics of immature high school girls. Her friend, beautifully played by Juliette Lewis is just a little bit smarter, but not much. They dream about being really hot when they were sixteen. Lewis' grade school daughter, April Autumn is crying out for a responsible mother. Meanwhile, Ben Gazarra, still suave after all these years, is romancing Uma's mom, Gina Rowlands. This is a slice of life movie. The pill freed women back in the 50's, but one wonders if it did them any good.
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... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ethan Hawke - Robert Sean Leonard Director(s): Richard Linklater DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This town drama from Ted Demme centers on former classmates coming together for their 10-year reunion. Scott Rosenberg's (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) script thoughtfully passes over the usual grumblings of young adults who can't believe they still live in the same snowbound town. They accept--even welcome--their blue-collar jobs, whether plowing snow or cutting hair. Willie (Timothy Hutton), the lone wanderer, returns to his listless house in a state of flux, the piano-bar circuit wearing thin as is his relationship with Tracy, a well-off attorney (Annabeth Gish). He isn't the only one with problems. Tommy (Matt Dillon) occasionally sleeps with his now-married high school sweetheart Darian (Lauren Holly) while the earnest Sharon (Mira Sorvino) is left to wait.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Matt Dillon - Timothy Hutton Director(s): Ted Demme DVD Release Date: Released the 03 April 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) adds her angry voice to the cinema of forgotten children in this wrenching drama of an 11-year-old boy (real-life street kid Shafiq Syed) who heads to the big city and joins a sea of homeless kids and down-and-out adults scrambling to survive the pitiless streets. The fantasy of Bollywood dreams hangs just out of reach in posters, movies, and radio tunes, momentary respites from the hard reality of a world ruled by brutal pimps and drug dealers. In the tradition of Los Olvidados and Pixote, former documentarian Nair's feature debut is shot entirely in the slums of Bombay with a largely nonprofessional cast from the same streets. Though the drama is at times misty and melodramatic, her clear-eyed look at the mercenary world around... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Shafiq Syed - Sarfuddin Quarrassi Director(s): Mira Nair DVD Release Date: Released the 04 March 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The corsets and high waists of the 19th century meet the lush colors and visual splendor of India in Vanity Fair, a classic novel translated into modern celluloid by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). The very contemporary Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Election) at first seems to hit the wrong note as Becky Sharp, an orphaned girl who rises to the heights of society using her quick wits and feminine wiles. But as Vanity Fair unfolds, the movie's tone embraces both period decor and modern attitudes, searching for a bridge that will carry us more deeply into a different time. It isn't wholly successful--the movie's end wraps things up awkwardly--but some scenes achieve a surprising and vivid immediacy, in particular one in which Becky's gambler husband... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gabriel Byrne - Reese Witherspoon - Romola Garai - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers Director(s): Mira Nair DVD Release Date: Released the 01 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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