Customer Reviews

Advice From a Caterpillar [VHS]

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I liked this movie; sweetly romantic with a bit of a twist: two artist friends (straight woman, gay man) are trying to be sophisticated and avoid any hint of having real feelings in any of their relationships. But whoops! They really do want feelings and one of them ends up with them, despite trying to deny it. Personally, I think there's a hint that both of them end up with them, but the story stops before that can be developed unfortunately. The biggest problem is that this dvd is the worst dvd I've ever rented: no menus and it's got a &*^%&^%$^&*%^&%!!! intro with ads for other movies that you can't skip. Fortunately my DVD player would let me fast forward over it, but if this weren't such a good movie, I wouldn't buy it.

Being a big Miranda Hobbes (Sex and the City) fan, I first rented this movie only because Cynthia Nixon is in it. I loved it so much that I had to buy it. It starts off a little zany, but once you get into it you don't want it to end. It is definitely worth checking out and it has a lot of good quotes in it.

Cynthia Nixon portrays Missy, a celebrated artist, whose claim to fame is taking her family's cheesy home movies, copying them on video, and then adding wry commentary. Her best friend Spaz (Andy Dick) can't seem to keep a relationship or art gig going, and has turned to catering to pay the bills. Commitment phobe Missy is happy with her affair with married "suit" (Jon Tenney), provided he remains casual about their relationship. Add to the mix bi-sexual Brat (Timothy Olyphant) who has captured both Spaz and Missy's eyes. Missy and Brat are attracted to each other, but is she willing to ruin a long-term friendship for a roll in the hay? Apparently. Instead of joining Spaz and Suit for a weekend in the country, Missy and Brat have a roll in the city. With next morning blues, Missy races to Spaz to confess.

Can anyone really believe that Tenney and Olyphant would vie for a whiney fashion don't like Nixon? Just another pretentious piece of tripe released under the guise of independent film making. There is zero chemistry between Nixon and either man. Compare that to her on-screen chemistry with Johnny Messner in "One Last Thing," which does a much better job of displaying her acting talent. This was jut a huge disappointment from start to finish.

The only thing original about this story is the title, derived from "Alice in Wonderland," which plays a key role in the film. If you have a burning desire to see this, put it at the bottom of your NETFLIX queue and catch up on Sex in the City reruns instead.

There are some women, great women I might add, who totally freak about relationships and run away from the very idea of them. I am one of those women. And, alas, a movie has been made about my kind.
Advice from a Caterpillar is great because the lead is as psycho about relationships as I am. Maybe even more so. The lead actress (sorry, don't know the actress' name) is dating a man she calls the suit who is married because she knows his being married protects her from anything too serious. Her best friend (Andy Dick) is a gay man and therefore off limits in terms of a relationship.

Then the gay friend meets a bisexual someone who they are both in love with. Enter Timothy Olyphant. Olyphant is pretty much a yummy piece of eye candy anyway, but in this movie he is absolutely edible!

What ensues as the relationship-phobic woman falls in love is great. It is me.

The title of the film comes from a line in Alice in Wonderland, "Come back!" the Caterpillar called after her. "I've something important to say!"

And the movie itself has something important to say. "WATCH ME!"

This pre-SATC Cynthia Nixon film is an unexpected delight. I originally rented it solely because it starred Cynthia Nixon & I am a big SATC and Miranda Hobbes fan, but it won me over! I had to find a copy for my movie library & I'm thrilled I found it so easily here on Amazon. I am not an Andy Dick fan at all, but even he had his shining moments in this film. And, Timothy Olyphant was an actor I was familiar with, but had not really left much of an impression on me...until now! He was terrific here and he & Nixon are adorable together. Their chemistry really grabbed me!

First of all, I'll rate it for you: "R". They use the "f" word a lot. There's also about 30 seconds of partial frontal nudity ... which gets a PG-13 rating now-a-days ... during a love scene (though, they're not it love). For some reason, Blockbuster has this listed as "Youth Restricted Product". I guess that's their new term for "R". I dunno. It could be that they have phobias regarding adult conversation.

The plot is OK. Each character has a weird nickname that distracts a little from what's going on. The writing is eclectic. The final scene seems to be written by another person altogether ... perhaps the screen writer was bi-polar ... but that just makes it fun, doesn't it?

Anyway, this is a story about a woman who is afraid to make a commitment to a real relationship because it'll make her feel. But guess what happens....