Customer Reviews

The House of Yes

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This move is a trip. One I am sure some people will hate - but hey, it takes all kinds. Parker Posey's performance is just incredible. An unstable Jackie O' wannabe, her mood swings,rapid-fire one liners, and attitude make this film the winner it is.

Bujold as the matriarch shows a droll comic side that I have never seen in her before and it is perfect with the dialogue she has. "Talk? Why would we want to do that, it only leads to trouble." A scene where she is trying to ship Tori Spelling off in a cab is hysterical.

Tori Spelling does a good job as the naive Donut Queen who has no clue what she just walked into. I mean the poor girl grew up eating pancakes. Even Freddie Prinze Jr. does not do badly.

Yeah the plot is sick: incest, assasinations, mental instability, jealousy and denial. But mixed up with this cast it is very, very funny. Strange and wonderful if you are the dark humor type.

This wonderful comedy of manners had some of the best dialogue I've heard in ages. The ensemble cast plays off each other brilliantly. Despite showing Parker Posey (who's brilliant in this) on the cover with a gun, it's more talk than action in this blackest of black comedies.

Set 20 years after the Kennedy assasination, it follows a demented wealthy Washington family through about 12 hours wherein the brother brings home a fiance and the rest of the family tries to intervene.

Caveat: Don't watch it on a first date.

Some may consider this film "good" or merely "excellent." Others, such as myself, view it as the crown jewel of all cinema. A low-budget, high-quality independent film about a family brought together for Thanksgiving brings the electricity of playwright Wendy MacLeod's words to gleaming ferocity before your very eyes. You'll be disappointed if you're expecting computer-generated asteroid collisions or giant space-robots: the focus of this film is doubtlessly its dialogue. Tori Spelling, a naive outsider (Is she acting? Who can say?), is suddenly introduced into this family and taken completely unaware by their sharp wit and seething mindgames. Characters banter effortlessly in the closest thing I have ever seen to verbal fencing. The cohesive family unit is clearly abnormal, which gives every frame of this movie a twisted and dark feel to it. This movie is a must-have for any fan of Parker Posey, because she shines on the screen as the manipulative and vicious-yet-at-the-same-time-very-fragile Jackie-O Pascal. Upon watching "The House of Yes," you will be changed. Maybe a little, maybe a lot.

Parker Posey was once quoted as wanting to stay in the independent film genre and not moving into the big budget films, and I say "Thank God!" We want her here! She is probably one of the smartest actors of our time, and this is probably one of the most brilliant scripts we may encounter. The fact that this movie relies on dialogue, and not sinking ships or laser wars, makes me think that there is hope for the cinema. I finished watching this film, rewound and watched it again, but not before shuddering at the fact that I found a movie that showcased incest so incredibly funny. Get this movie if you are interested in the fine art of acting because movies like this are what make it still an art.

The was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. There were quite a few awkward chuckling moments, but a ton of hilarious, quick-witted dialog delivered extremely well by the actors involved. I love dark comedy, and I feel like this movie was dark enough to suite my tastes, but not so dark that I felt uncomfortable, which is a fine line. This isn't a laugh-out-loud movie (though I did laugh audibly), but more of a "He he" movie (if that makes sense)... I haven't seen/read the play, so I can't comment on how closely it matched or if it was what I expected, but I do want to see it performed now!!

Parker Posey does an amazing job as "Jackie-O" in this movie - it would have been pretty easy to be drastically over-the-top in this role, but Posey goes just over-the-top enough to play the role to a T. I thought Freddie Prince Jr. and Tori Spelling did a great job as well. Their roles didn't lend themselves to be done "well" (in a thespian sort of way), but they didn't take themselves too seriously, which made the characters funny. It was great to see them branch out.

My friends and I absolutely LOVE this movie! We found it totally hillarious. We are always quoting lines from the movie, we love it so much! We recommend it to anyone who has a love of quirky comedies and, of course, Parker Posey!

This movie may not have the most exciting plot or location, but the razor sharp dialogue more than makes up for it! Quirky, intellegent, and funny.

House of Yes is freaking hilarious. The kitchen knives, 37 seconds... How can you not laugh. I went out and had the movie special ordered. I would encourage everyone to watch it at least once. You won't be sorry.

The movie makes the biggest impact 2-3 days later when you realize you can't shake the eerie feeling it's left with you. Parker Posey gives her best performance since the manic "Party Girl" and Josh Hamilton reigns in a potentially overwrought role with understated anguish and longing. Tori Spelling fills the air-headed role well in the beginning and then wonderfully when her character gains strength. All in all a movie worth watching even as you gasp at material rivaling the Zapruder film in sheer horror.

Every once in awhile a cast comes together which actually does justice to what was already a wonderfully comedie noir script. The House of Yes is exactly that movie.

To overly simplify the plotline, there once were two twins. They had a sexual (read: incestual) relationship. One decided to be normal and left for the big city. He came out closer to normal. The other decided to stay behind. She went crazy. Their younger brother is none-too-bright. Their mother doesn't know if all her children are from the same man.

When the male twin returns home with his new fiancee for Thanksgiving, everything falls apart. Oh, did I mention they have an obsession with the Kennedy's?

This is not a Sinbad-style gag movie. This is a dark, funny movie. The casting was perfect. Parker Posey portrays perfectly (absent alliteration) a semi-psychotic woman who evinces both lunacy and feline lethality. Josh Hamilton is all the more disturbing for the degree of normalcy he brings to the role of Marty. Freddie Prinze Jr. plays the part he was born to: a half-witted simpleton. Tori Spelling plays the part SHE was born to: a half-witted simpleton who is actually more clueless than Freddie. Genevieve Bujold tops it all off with her disinterested matriarch character who -- after examing the situation -- casually notes that ''Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to baste the turkey and hide the kitchen knives.''

I leave you with two sets of quotes that should give you a taste for the dialoge, and let me state for the record that there is not one word in this film that doesn't have a joke or hidden subtext to it. It may be the best-written movie ever.

- Brian

Quotes taken from the Internet Movie Database.

Genevieve Bujold: What's that gun doing there?
Parker Posey: It's not a gun. It's a camera.
Genevieve Bujold: It's a gun.
Parker Posey: It's a camera that looks like a gun.
Josh Hamilton: Relax, Mama, it isn't loaded.
Genevieve Bujold: How do you know?
Josh Hamilton: I checked.
Genevieve Bujold: What's it doing there?
Parker Posey: Being gunlike, gunesque, gunonic.
Genevieve Bujold: Where did it come from?
Parker Posey: God?

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Tori Spelling: I don't think you're insane.
Parker Posey: You don't?
Tori Spelling: No.
Parker Posey: You don't think I'm an eensie weensie bit insane?
Tori Spelling: I don't think you're insane. I think you're just spoiled.
Parker Posey: [exasperated] Oh please, if everyone around here is going to start telling the truth, I'm going to bed.