guilty pleasures

i may be one of thirteen people that love this film. whoopi goldberg never fails to make me laugh out loud as terry doolittle. while i think they could have found someone like timothy dalton to play jack, that's a minor point. goldberg was very smart to do this after 'color purple' because it showed her versatility.

this film came and went without much notice. too bad. theresa randle is brilliant as girl 6, a struggling actress that decides to dabble in phone sex to pay the bills. spike lee has a great script to work with and a soundtrack featuring songs by prince plus cameos by madonna, richard belzer, naomi capmbell, coati mundi and the list goes on and on!

this movie contains reese witherspoon's one performance. she is out of control as tracy. and chris klein has the breakout role as the dumb as a fox jock with the lesbian sister. matthew borderick also lends much as a smarmy teacher overseeing the high school election for class president.

this is an all right pizza on a saturday night kind of film.

sometimes, i wish i were young only because i would have nothing to compare this film with or be able to set it in a context. when it was just about diana ross looking fabulous and singing an oscar nominated song, it was more than enough. now that i know about tony perkins' and his misuse of his genius, berry gordy's abuse of his power and the non-use of tony richardson, i can only think of what this film could have been. shame on me.

i'm glad that i found the tv show that inspried this wacky movie. at times, the format that works so so well on tv is too light for a film but the actors are still the most solid ensemble cast out there. no one--no one--stands out because they are all unifromly brilliant.

yes, this movie is a HOT mess! so what?

but it gets three stars from me because of molly hagan. she is an actress that doesn't work nearly enough. when she does, she's does lovely stuff with her characters. i went to see this movie expecting to kill some time. and there she was, giving the character of connie some sparkle and warmth and lending a lot of class to a movie that didn't deserve it.

i am not the biggest crawford fan--surprise, surprise. her films are like madonna's film for me. they're great when she's not the focus, like 'grad hotel' or 'the women'. but this film is another matter. it's really good! and it could easily have crawford's most mutlilayered performance as a woman obsessed with a man that doesn't deserve her love.

before gordon parks became a director of note with shaft(1972), he was a renowned photographer. he also took reflections of his childhood in the south and wove them in to this lyrical and poetic film about growing up black during the depression.

al jolson disowned his work in this film and, as a result, a lot of people like to say it's a bomb. it isn't. it's a risk taking film musical that needed a lighter touch than lewis milestone's. and, this may be the dancer in me, but it needed a dance number or two. it's got a great cast supporting jolson and a fun theme song. plus richard rodgers makes a cameo appearance.

jane fonda rocks this film as the nubile vagrant turned prostitute in 1930s new orleans. she is in good company with laurence harvey as the gentle yet tough romancer dove, barbara stanwyck as closeted lesbian madam jo and joanna moore as the fragile hooker precious. this film aslo has a great opening sequence by title master saul bass and a fun jazz inflected score by elmer bernstein.

i have n't seen a wayans film in a long time. and i am proud to admit it--this film made me laugh out loud! the youngest wayans is a delight as thomas uncles and essence atkins is loads of fun as his hood-rat sister charity. on the other hand, the film is an insult to anyone that knows the life of a dancer. and i'm not 100 per cent okay with forms of dance like ballet and jazz being equated to gay people. but what can you do? satire is satire and the wayans bros. live by the tenet 'where there's blood, there's bound to be pecking'. peck on, bros!