Choose Me
Added 10/10/2009
I loved this film when it came out and it is still very good. Alan Rudolph is a filmmaker who make small idiosyncratic films with a bit a humor. The stories are slight and there is usually no solid ending. They are fantasies that kind of fly away. In this film, a man who may have been a soldier or spy for the US, comes into a bar looking for the bar's namesake, Eve. Lots of things happen. Lesley Ann Warren is Eve who attracts men like flies, Genevieve Bujou as a talk show radio "psychologist" who lives with people to do "research" but has a troubled psyche herself, and Keith Carradine as the wayward man who has affairs with both women. Really fun with good amusing scenes.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Dazzling Film Making Here
Added 2/27/2009
I saw this film for the first time in 1984, and now following 15 to 20 viewings, I'm still astounded by the integral cinematic elements, which makes it quite the sleeping beauty that it truly is. Director Alan Rudolph wrote the screenplay, creating unique yet robust characters, whose interplay is as illustrious as a fine tuned baby grand. Lesley Ann Warren's "Eve" is absolutely scintillating as a vulnerable woman who succeeds in capturing everything she wants without genuine fulfillment. Genevieve Bujold issues a brilliant multi-faceted performance as both "Nancy" and "Ann". She plays a radio psychologist who counsels love's bewildered souls, while hiding beneath the conflict of her own. Carradine is superb and uncanny with his ability to portray someone who is provocatively disturbed yet intrinsically sincere. Not one of the aforementioned three possesses the ability to balance the scales of love. This film will forever glisten in my Top Ten as it leaves me forever quivering for more equivocal chaos.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Loads of fun, but...
Added 12/8/2008
I loved this movie when it came out, but watching it again after all these years, I'm giving it a harsh 3 stars. There is a lot to like about this movie. As others have noted it is very funny (in the zany, offbeat way of After Hours and other 80s flics), but also very smart about it's subject matter: sexual desire, love and identity. There is an elaborate game of false names and uncertain identities. Eve is the owner of Eve's bar, but she's not the original Eve - just fell into it by chance because of the coincidence of the name and then seized the moment to embark upon a whole new life. Mickey appears to be a fake with delusions of grandeur, maybe crazy, maybe not. And then again maybe the things he says about himself are actually true. And then there is Ann/Nancy who is either a successful therapist or a runaway psycho, or both. (She's even more of a case than I'd remembered!) Throw in a French gangster for spice and then watch them all fall together improbably. So you get the picture. All of this adds up to great fun and also inspires some genuine reflection. The ultra-smooth, almost campy Teddy Pendergrast soundtrack adds a lot to the sexy, ironic mood. Bujold is weird and wonderful, as always, and Caradine never looked so good or had a role that better suited his particular charm. However, I could not figure out what was going on with Chong's delivery (was it supposed to be deliberately stagey, or was it just bad?) and I did not think this was Warren's best performance either. I really liked the sound studio look of the outside of Eve's bar, but otherwise the production values were a little weak, and this dated the film more than I would have expected. Some of the scenes feel too hastily done and the critical scene where Ann/Nancy tells all to Eve is awkwardly staged, diminishing the impact. The fight scenes really are not well executed and it adds to those too many moments where this smart film starts to look a little cheesy - and not in the right way. Still, I was very happy to watch it again, as I have such great associations with it. And if you've never seen it, you probably oughta, but be prepared for some of its weaknesses.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Overlooked film. Keith Carradine, Genevieve Bujold, Very Smart with a wry sense of humor. Early John Larroquette.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Can I choose an unedited Choose Me?
Added 1/30/2008
I was disappointed that eight minutes of great erotic love scenes, the best part of the film, were edited out of the video version. There is a lot of cruel labeling and stereotyping of David Carradine's character. Don't people with mental disabilities have enough obstactles in employment, marriage et cetera without the media's often criminal stereotypes? Add two stars for the unedited version of this film.
2 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Choose Me
Added 10/10/2009
I loved this film when it came out and it is still very good. Alan Rudolph is a filmmaker who make small idiosyncratic films with a bit a humor. The stories are slight and there is usually no solid ending. They are fantasies that kind of fly away. In this film, a man who may have been a soldier or spy for the US, comes into a bar looking for the bar's namesake, Eve. Lots of things happen. Lesley Ann Warren is Eve who attracts men like flies, Genevieve Bujou as a talk show radio "psychologist" who lives with people to do "research" but has a troubled psyche herself, and Keith Carradine as the wayward man who has affairs with both women. Really fun with good amusing scenes.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Dazzling Film Making Here
Added 2/27/2009
I saw this film for the first time in 1984, and now following 15 to 20 viewings, I'm still astounded by the integral cinematic elements, which makes it quite the sleeping beauty that it truly is. Director Alan Rudolph wrote the screenplay, creating unique yet robust characters, whose interplay is as illustrious as a fine tuned baby grand. Lesley Ann Warren's "Eve" is absolutely scintillating as a vulnerable woman who succeeds in capturing everything she wants without genuine fulfillment. Genevieve Bujold issues a brilliant multi-faceted performance as both "Nancy" and "Ann". She plays a radio psychologist who counsels love's bewildered souls, while hiding beneath the conflict of her own. Carradine is superb and uncanny with his ability to portray someone who is provocatively disturbed yet intrinsically sincere. Not one of the aforementioned three possesses the ability to balance the scales of love. This film will forever glisten in my Top Ten as it leaves me forever quivering for more equivocal chaos.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Loads of fun, but...
Added 12/8/2008
I loved this movie when it came out, but watching it again after all these years, I'm giving it a harsh 3 stars. There is a lot to like about this movie. As others have noted it is very funny (in the zany, offbeat way of After Hours and other 80s flics), but also very smart about it's subject matter: sexual desire, love and identity. There is an elaborate game of false names and uncertain identities. Eve is the owner of Eve's bar, but she's not the original Eve - just fell into it by chance because of the coincidence of the name and then seized the moment to embark upon a whole new life. Mickey appears to be a fake with delusions of grandeur, maybe crazy, maybe not. And then again maybe the things he says about himself are actually true. And then there is Ann/Nancy who is either a successful therapist or a runaway psycho, or both. (She's even more of a case than I'd remembered!) Throw in a French gangster for spice and then watch them all fall together improbably. So you get the picture. All of this adds up to great fun and also inspires some genuine reflection. The ultra-smooth, almost campy Teddy Pendergrast soundtrack adds a lot to the sexy, ironic mood. Bujold is weird and wonderful, as always, and Caradine never looked so good or had a role that better suited his particular charm. However, I could not figure out what was going on with Chong's delivery (was it supposed to be deliberately stagey, or was it just bad?) and I did not think this was Warren's best performance either. I really liked the sound studio look of the outside of Eve's bar, but otherwise the production values were a little weak, and this dated the film more than I would have expected. Some of the scenes feel too hastily done and the critical scene where Ann/Nancy tells all to Eve is awkwardly staged, diminishing the impact. The fight scenes really are not well executed and it adds to those too many moments where this smart film starts to look a little cheesy - and not in the right way. Still, I was very happy to watch it again, as I have such great associations with it. And if you've never seen it, you probably oughta, but be prepared for some of its weaknesses.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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