7/10
Tilda Swinton for President
1 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those movies that looks like it was developed from the Sundance workshops... and what do you know? Hallmarks of the category include female chauvinist perspectives, emasculated or violent male characters (if there are any men to speak of), long stagnant takes shot on digital video, and an aggressive tendency toward unresolved endings. This has most of them.

And I don't care, because Tilda Swinton is plenty of reason to watch any movie. Even THE BEACH. Okay, I won't go that far. But she is pretty exciting. To paraphrase the old line, I'd pay to watch her go to the bathroom... and, in this movie, I get to. Several times. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Not that I ever wanted that... alright, enough on this subject.

Plus Amber Tamblyn, who far from sucks here, and Melissa Leo, who never gets enough to do in movies - though, Jesus, girl, you are racking up the films lately. I think Leo's made as many films in the last four years as she made her entire previous career - though, again, she usually doesn't get too many lines.

Actually, Hilary Brougher raises this picture somewhat above its disadvantages through nuance, innuendo, and lack of blatancy, though this very ambiguity does ultimately queer the ending, as in, I don't really get what's going on with the shrink character when credits roll. Not that I need everything spelled out, but I need to know what language we're speaking. Perhaps Sudden Cutaway to Overexposed Window means something in Girrrlish.

Maybe I need to bone up on my Independent Woman Filmmaker symbolism. Or maybe I need to shut up before I get slapped with a Thoughtless Human with Penis label and written into another script where men fail to make the world entirely comfortable for women.
0 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed