Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An Odd Couple's Haphazard Night of Pizza Deliveries, January 27, 2007
Seven years after his ambitious attempt at depicting the high life of the mid-70's Manhattan disco scene in "54", writer-director Mark Christopher has come back most modestly with this elliptical low-budget 2005 coming-of-age comedy that seems to be a cross between a 1980's John Hughes movie and "Napoleon Dynamite". It actually plays out a bit like a teen version of Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" as it follows two disparate characters on an all-night adventure hinging on a series of pizza deliveries. The focus is on a lonely overweight girl, Cara-Ethyl (obscurely named after Irene Cara and Ethel Mertz from "I Love Lucy"). A social outcast forced to make up an imaginary friend to appease her temporarily blinded mother, Cara-Ethyl celebrates her 18th birthday with lots of food but no one to share in the festivities.
Enter Matt Firenze, a thirty-year old failed political activist with his own pizza delivery truck and a prolific track record with women but little else to show for himself. He feels sorry for her plight and invites her on his runs for the night. While Matt attempts to give her lessons on self-acceptance, Cara-Ethyl inevitably experiences deeper feelings that lead to revelations about both their lives. The idea is sound if rather unoriginal, but Christopher's off-kilter, episodic approach feels contrived for all the wrong reasons in spite of a smattering of well-earned laughs. Kylie Sparks certainly gets all of Cara-Ethyl's eccentricities and precociousness down pat, but her character is conceived in ill-fitting clichés over how an awkward, friendless teen finds her identity. As Matt, a cast-against-type Ethan Embry has moments of resonance, but he mainly appears to be channeling Matthew McConaughey's laconic slacker in "Dazed and Confused". The two leads never seem to gel since the contrivance of the situation is too overwhelming.
Familiar faces show up in the supporting cast - Julie Hagerty with her eyes excessively bandaged as Cara-Ethyl's not-so-clueless mom, Marylouise Burke (Paul Giamatti's drunken mother in "Sideways") as Aunt Grandma, and Alexis Dziena (Sharon Stone's oversexed daughter in "Broken Flowers") as a hairball-producing tart. The film clips by quickly at eighty minutes, and I have to admit some of the music used was entertaining - a karaoke number from "Bye Bye Birdie", Lulu's throaty voice on "To Sir With Love" in a strangely disco-oriented club, and Embry's plaintive guitar number. With middling picture quality due to the digital filming, the 2006 DVD has a few extras worth noting. With some help from producer Howard Gertler, Christopher provides unobtrusive commentary on an alternate track and on an eight-minute featurette about some of the scenes.
|
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
clever and insightful, December 8, 2006
I saw this movie in the theater and bought the DVD - have watched it twice. Kara Ethyl is a 17 year old intelligent, obnoxious, overweight and outcast teenager, thinking that turning 18 is going to make everything in her life better. Matt is a 30 something pizza delivery "man", intelligent, who is trying very hard to believe he has made something important out of his life. They meet when Matt delivers pizza to Kara Ethyl's birthday party - noone came!
Matt, feeling sorry for her, invites her to deliver pizza with him for the evening. During the course of the evening, they go to Matt's bachelor pad, meet some of Kara's high school bullies, meet some of Matt's friends and girlfriends,etc. - events which are funny and poignant.
The two main characters, totally opposite personalities, take care of each other during the evening and its hard to tell which one learned the most from the other.
The casting of the other characters was done very well with each character bringing their own personality into the movie. There is someone in this movie everyone can relate to - either as being that person or knowing someone similar. (I have since seen one actor on the new hit tv program "30 Rock".)
I do agree with the previous reviewer that this will turn out to have a cult following.
This if a fun and enjoyable movie to watch and at times made me laugh and other times was sad.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a nice surprise, May 14, 2007
Nice little movie - very touching in some parts and way too close to real life in others.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Ryan Gosling
DVD ~ Katherine Heigl
DVD ~ Sean Biggerstaff
DVD ~ Jason Bateman
DVD ~ Kathy Bates
