Hideous Kinky (1998)
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65% of critics liked it
(52 reviews) -
56% of users liked it
(7,675 ratings)
Gillies MacKinnon directed this $5.6 million production with a screenplay by his brother, Billy MacKinnon. The film adapts the 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) about hippie misadventures in North Africa in 1972, as described by a five-year-old girl.… More Gillies MacKinnon directed this $5.6 million production with a screenplay by his brother, Billy MacKinnon. The film adapts the 1992 autobiographical novel by Esther Freud (Sigmund Freud's granddaughter) about hippie misadventures in North Africa in 1972, as described by a five-year-old girl. Disenchanted with the dreary conventions of English life, 25-year-old Julia (Kate Winslet) heads for Morocco with her children, six-year-old Lucy (Carrie Mullan) and precocious eight-year-old Bea (Bella Riza). Living at a low-rent Marrakesh hotel, the trio survives on the sale of hand-sewn dolls and a few checks from the girls' father, a London poet who also has a child by another woman. After the girls match their mother with gentle Moroccan acrobat and con man Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), sexual gears are set in motion, and he moves in, serving as a surrogate father. Julia's friend Eva (Sira Stampe) urges Julia to study in Algiers with a revered Sufi master at a school of "the annihilation of the ego," and in another sequence European dandy Santoni invites Julia and the girls to his villa. As finances dwindle, Julia's philosophy is "God will provide," although usually it's Bilal who provides. This film was shot October-November 1997 in Morocco, where Winslet caught a stomach bug. Back in London, she went directly into the hospital and thus missed Titanic's London premiere. The score blends North African music with British-American pop hits of the '60s. The film's title derives from a word game played by the girls. Shown at the 1998 Dinard Festival of British Cinema and the 1998 London Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Directed By
- Gillies MacKinnon
- Genres
- Drama
R,
- In Theaters
- Jun 1, 1998 Wide
- Studio
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Critic Reviews
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Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
The fusion of dream sequences and evocative landscapes makes the characters' feverish sense of living at the edge of reality contagious.
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Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Kate Winslet, luscious in a brilliantly colored caftan and flushed from the heat of an African sun, makes a beautiful hippie, circa 1972, in Hideous Kinky.
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Lisa Nesselson, Variety
Kate Winslet continues an uninterrupted line of fine performances with the modest yet affecting Hideous Kinky.
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
MacKinnon draws terrific performances from all involved (Winslet bravely refusing to court our sympathies), lets character, mood and meaning take precedence over story, and assembles a great music track as a bonus. Spot on.
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Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
It augurs well for the long-term integrity of her career that Winslet in this movie doesn't try to ingratiate herself with the audience.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Kate Winslet
as Julia
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Said Taghmaoui
as Bilal
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Bella Riza
as Bea
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Carrie Mullan
as Lucy
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Pierre Clémenti
as Santoni
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Sira Stampe
as Eva
- Abigail Cruttenden
- Ahmed Boulane
- Michelle Fairley
- Kevin Mckidd
- Mohcine Barmouni
- Peter Youngblood Hills
