Customer Reviews

All I Wanna Do

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

ALL I WANNA DO (which is also known as THE HAIRY BIRD) is a loving and hilarious look at the swinging 60's, featuring an impressive script and direction by Sarah Kernochan and a capable, strong cast.

Odette (Gaby Hoffmann) has just been shipped to Conneticut and Miss Godard's School for Girls. Run by the kindly Miss McVane (Lynn Redgrave - GODS AND MONSTERS) the school is a sanctuary for the girls who will have to take a second place to men when they eventually have to leave and go into the real world.

Odette falls into the outsiders group known as the Daughters of the American Ravioli - trouble-making Verena (Kirsten Dunst), brainy Momo (Merritt Wever), sex-hungry Tinka (Monica Keena) and the almost-pathelogical Tweety (Heather Matarazzo).

When Tweety accidentally discovers the plan to merge Miss Godard's with a neighboring boy's college, they put a huge and potentially dangerous plan into action to get rid of the "hairy bird"...

A clever and canny comedy filled with superb performances. Standouts in the cast include the wonderful Heather Matarazzo and the fantastic Monica Keena. The film also features Rachael Leigh Cook and Rosemary Dunsmore (ANNE OF AVONLEA).

Most teen comedies nowadays are so mindless, unfunny, and unrealistic that they aren't even worth watching. Although this movie is pure "chick flick", it's nothing like today's teen-sex comedies starring Chad Michael Murray, Lindsay Lohan, and Hilary Duff.

"All I Wanna Do", set in the early sixties, tells the story of Odette Sinclair, who is sent to an all-girls boarding school after her parents discover her plans to have sex with her boyfriend. Though reluctant at first, Odette befriends the school's biggest troublemakers, Verena, Tinka, Tweety, and Momo. They have their share of adventures with the boys, their classmates, and their teachers. But the girls aren't prissy--they're smart, sassy, funny, and ambitious, and when they find out that their school is merging with an all-boys academy, they pull off their biggest heist yet.

The acting in "All I Wanna Do" is brilliant; the writing is smart, funny, and filled with political humor of the 60s; the characters are real; and, the movie is funny, sexy, and memorable. It's a level above the standard teen-sex romps, more mature but still fun for younger and older teens. You can watch it again and again over the years and find something new with each viewing--"All I Wanna Do" is definitely worth your time.

Interestingly, this movie takes place the same year that Betty Friedan wrote "The Feminine Mystique".
It begins in early 1963 when one Odette Sinclair, played by a rebellious but very charismatic Gaby Hoffman, is taken from her home in Michigan, horse in tow, to the Miss Godard's School for Girls in Connecticut by irate parents after she is caught planning a tryst with her boyfriend, Dennis (a still-slightly boyish Matthew Lawrence).
At first, she resents the change of atmosphere. But the solemn, tremulous girl soon finds companionship with a group of girls, who, although they can be antagonistic, encourage her to find other aspirations beyond having sex with her boyfriend. These include her two luminescent blonde roomates, the sexually mature Tinka,whose favorite colors to wear when she's out of uniform are red and black, and the ever-scheming Verena, deftly played by Monica Keena and Kirsten Dunst respectively.
Heather Matarazzo's bulimic Tweety is a rather weak-willed character, and Merrit Wever's Momo is strong and smart. Together, these girls form a secret organization called The Daughters of the American Ravioli, in which they pledge to help each other acheive their goals. One of the more immediate ones is to rid the school of their lecherous teacher Mr. Dewey, to whom his portrayer, Robert Bockstael, gives such understated underhandedness. At a time when sex crimes against students at the hands of teachers may have been underreported due to the fact that the teachers most likely would have gotten off, this makes an interesting subplot.
But 1963 was the beginning of the modern feminist movement, and these girls take matters into their own hands after the Board of Trustees threatens to merge the school with the St. Ambrose Boys Academy without giving the students any say in the matter. Using every non-violent rescource they have to gain the attention of authority figures, they ultimately help to bail their school out of the financial troubles that led to the decision to merge with the Boys' Academy, and we watch these girls assert themselves and find their voices in a way that might have been more unusual in 1963 than it would be today.
Lynn Redgrave leads the cast as the prudish but sympathetic headmistress of Miss Godard's with a very accurate New England accent (Notice how the statue of the school's foundress looks like her). What struck me about her appearance was mainly her outdated hairdo. The soft-spoken Abby Sawyer, portrayed by Rachel Leigh Cook, is the hall monitor and school legacy who takes a surpising(or perhaps not-so-surprising) turn. Rosemary Dunsmore is Abby's controlling and rather narrow-minded mother who, with her husband, serves on the Board of Trustees. Her role as Mrs. Sawyer is more than faintly reminiscent of her role in "Anne of Avonlea" in which she played another staff member at a girls' academy.
The party scene was fun to watch. It's interesting, though, how the only minority boy and the only minority boy and girl were paired off, which is how it most likely would have been done in 1963 to avoid complaints from the parents. The music is lively, the rowdy townies come in handy when it comes to putting the girls' tormentors in their place, the dresses and hairdos had a certain elegance and grace, and the cast members were talented and attractive, including the radiant Barbara Radecki and Phobe Lapine as Tinka's mom and sister.
Ultimately, this film is a bouncy 90-minute romp through the early modern feminist era which harmlessly pays homage to girl power.I feel upbeat and inspired after watching it!

"All I Wanna Do" is a hilarious teen comedy with memorable characters, original screenplay, and priceless jokes. Unlike most current teen comedies (with the exception perhaps of "Orange County"), this movie does not rely on gross humor or stereotypical characters and predictable love stories and plots. For those who do like that stuff, there is still a lot of vomiting, smoking and hormones in the movie, but they're all done in a clever, realistic and very funny way.

Kirsten Dunst is excellent in the movie, showing off her comedic style. Verena, Dunst's character, is not only the most ambitious and most conniving, but she is also the most attrative of the girls and has insecurities. Definitely a step up from the usual teen movie female character. Also, the main guy character, "Snake," likewise has a personality, compared the meatheads of the usual teen flick. He is in love with Tinka, and he has a strong group of funny sidekicks who all share a strong interest in photographing dead animals. (Trust me, it works.)

Interestingly, the movie is not only completely hilarious, but also has good messages. For example, girls should date nice guys!! Don't even consider the jerks (the private school guys the girls prevent from entering their school). Also, it's completely okay for girls to support each other, not be backstabbing, and to have dreams and goals beyond their appearance and finding a date. And the photographing interests of the nice versus bad guys is actually very revealing.

A definite must see!

I had been looking forward to this film since August 1998 when I saw a little blurb about it in a teen magazine. I couldn't wait to see it in theaters. Unfortunately, it never arrived in theaters here in Portland, and I didn't get to see it until just recently, on video. I guess waiting that long made me have unrealistic expectations for this movie. I thought it would be the best movie EVER or something. It's not . . . but it's still pretty good. "All I Wanna Do" is the story of a group of girls at a prep school who try to keep the school from going co-ed. Heather Matarazzo and Rachel Leigh Cook are both hilarious in this film, and Kirsten Dunst shines, as usual. There's some sexual innuendo in here that probably isn't appropriate for anyone under 13, hence the PG-13 rating. And the movie is free of action, suspense, or really a lot of plot. Still, the film's young actors and actresses save the film and make it watchable and worthwhile. Some parts are funny, some will make you think. Not a bad movie at all.

I thought this film had originality, sure, there's been alot of films on boarding school, but this one was different. It was terribly cute in certain scenes and while cheesy, I think the fact that it had so many great unknown actresses (and actors) really made up for that. I got to see so many people I liked in one film that are rarely seen at all, let alone together.

The soundtrack is also really nice, though I don't think they sell it, they had it available on the films website before, but they've since taken the website down.

I suppose this would be called a 'chick flick', and it is. It would be cute to watch at a sleepover, with your girlfriends, or a mum and daughter would also enjoy watching it together.

this movie is absolutely hilarious. ESPECIALLY, if you've ever attended a single sex high school. i went to (and was kicked out of) a girl's academy and the way the girls act in this movie is a bit exagerrated but scarily familiar. this should be a cult classic for those who have ever attended an all girls school, you will have flashbacks to your school its so hilarious and true. otherwise it is a very entertaining film with a lot of rising stars. this is a female empowering film with a quirky edge and political commentary.

This absolutely hilarious movie, set in 1963, is about a girl who is kicked out of her school and is sent to Miss Godard's, a private school for girls. At the beginning, Odie, the main character, absolutely hates the school and does not want to be a part of it. However, life goes on and Odie realizes that her roomates and their friends are actually a lot like her, and they become good friends. After becoming a member of the DAR (Daughters of the American Ravioli- i love that name!), Odie realizes her real goal in life, not to meet up with her boyfriend and "have a little fun", but to become a lawyer and do something with her life. My friends and I absolutely LOVED this Kirsten Dunst and Rachael Leigh Cook movie, and we will be forever murmuring "up your ziggy with a wa wa brush" to each other in study halls. A great comedy for teenage girls (but inappropriate for anyone under the age of 13- maybe OK for mature 12 year old- because of some sexual business) but nonetheless aboslutely hilarious. Great for the independent girl!

If you have a multiregion DVD player, the uncut version of this film is available from Australia, under the original title "The Hairy Bird". It's a Region 4/PAL disc.

This is yet another movie that Miramax has tampered with. Check out the end credits song, it matches the original title of the film, not this one.

5 stars for the movie, zero stars for Miramax.

All I Wanna Do was a great and funny movie. Our story begins in early 1963, where a Motor-City Maiden named Odette Sinclair(Gabby Hoffman) is determined to lose her virginity, until her mother catches her with a birth-control device and ships her and her horse off to Miss Goddard's School for Girls, an all-girls boarding school, supposedly in Connecticut which she think is "surrounded by high walls and lesbians."
The girls take place in countless adventures and mis-adventures, determined to get what they want and find ways around the school rules. They have an amazingly tight friendship and find fun and trouble in almost every situation. However, when they find out that they're school is merging with a boys boarding school, they have mixed feelings, but attempt to pull off their craziest scheme yet.
The acting was great, it was full of timely AND timeless humor, and is a fun, feel-good movie. The more I watch it, the more funny moments I find hidden in. It probably won't be the best movie you'll ever see, but it's something everyone (especially teen girls) will enjoy.