Customer Reviews

75 Degrees in July

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Impressive debut for the filmmaker, and the performances are really great. As is the photography of the Texas landscape.

Really heartfelt and wonderful story. Superb acting and well directed. Highly recommend it!

I enjoyed this movie, but it's not for action adventure fans. It is an introspective look at a dysfunctional family. The performances are wonderful. Unfortunately, the DVD itself was defective. I exhanged it for another copy, and it had the same defect in it. Hopefully, I will eventually get a keeper!

Leyte returns to her sister, mother, father and brother-in-law who she used to go out with, but left, and this man she was dating has married her sister, and they have 2 kids. Leyte does modern sculpture which her family disdains with all the usual Hollywood treatment of southern country dullards. She has a show in town and apparently is world-famous. Every scene, and every relationship has the heavy-handed smearing of dialogue with as much dysfunction as the writer/director can muster. In every scene, it's almost as if the question :'how can we make every person except Leyte as superficial,defensive, jealous, cowardly and hostile (while keeping a civil face on) AS POSSIBLE?'
It's almost as if the director has just started therapy or read his first book on interpersonal psychology: "Oh boy, watch what I have this character say! They are all So bad!"

Yes, demonstrating dysfunction can be an important step in communicating through art on human relations, but when all you can do is show the DISJUNCTIVE, you're showing half-an-ass while looking like a donkey yourself. The movie screams: "look how bad these people are! How shallow, cowardly, defensive!"
I answer back: "What are you going to do about it?" Thats the artist's role. We know there are weak, evil, selfish people who will try to eat you alive, but the film has no answer at all.

SLIGHT SPOILER:
There is a brief attempt to show character development as the younger sister - demonstrating traits which in real life would probably have her entering a psychosis - breaks down in a hostile tirade against him and her husband holds her tenderly. He then, apparently, has the strength to tell his father-in-law he cant (verbally) abuse his kid which the grandfather has a tendency to do. If this is the best the director can do as an answer to the dysfunction, he shouldn't have started.