Customer Reviews

Plain Dirty

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I rented this one because of Dominique Swain, I kept watching it because of Dominique Swain, but I ended up enjoying it because of the 2nd half of the movie. What starts off as a "burning bed" flick set in the Louisiana swamps ends up as a compelling drama in which three main characters undergo a life-changing transformation. Swain fans may be disappointed that she spends the entire film covered in grime & most of it wearing an eye patch. Once the abusive husband issue is resolved halfway through, the movie really comes into its own. The ending is very satisfying as the two main characters realize that they are irresistibly connected in a most profound way. Director Zev Berman does a great job.

Perhaps not everybody's cup of tea, but I loved this movie. Intense from the outset. I did not find any of the characters to be particularly likeable. The title aptly describes the squalid lives of most of the main characters. A visually rich film with some nice twists in the story. Henry Thomas ("Elliot" from E.T.) turns in a particularly outstanding performance of explosive menace. Dominique Swain (as Inez Macbeth) fills the screen with her sensuality - a battered lady Macbeth who instead of manipulating her husband, manipulates others to carry out her dark wishes. Arie Verveen is just plain creepy (and dirty). Hard to think of apt comparisons in the filmaking style, but one that comes to mind is perhaps a touch of David Lynch - especially with some of the grimy and creepy visual touches.

Like other great movies that fall way under the radar, this movie appeals to a specific audience called movie fanatics! If you are a movie fanatic, this movie is not to be missed.

The performances of Dominique Swain and Arie Verveen will haunt you. Just like her character in "Lolita", Swain once again fills the screen with overpowering sensuality and intensity. I have never seen Arie Verveen before but I am now obsessively seeking out his other movies. His character is a beautiful, hypnotic redneck. Yes, I used beautiful and redneck in the same sentence!

See this movie now!

I sat through the entire movie, and while I did enjoy it I couldn't shake the aversion to all of the dirt. Everybody lived in absolute squalor except for the so-called "rich" folks. I have been around my share of country people and for the most part they have been clean and orderly folks. Contrast that to the characters in this flick who live in the most sickening of environments with dirt everywhere, dishes that appear to have never been washed, bugs crawling all over the kitchen...yechhhhh!!! Even the people themselves stayed covered in dirt for the whole movie. Real people don't live that way. The plot is good, the acting okay, and the ending pretty well fits with the storyline, so I can't give it fewer than three stars. Give the cast a bath and put them in more normal surroundings and it would be worth four stars. However, an argument could be made that the story needed this type of set to play out properly...I'm just saying it was pretty depressing. The story is set in a swampy area of Virginia and has a fair amount of action and tension. One of the lead characters has two or three marijuana plants growing on his porch and figures he'll be able to sell the pot when it's ready for harvest and make enough to give his wife a better life. Remember, I didn't give it five stars. Turns out the pot is junk and not able to get anyone 'high' so he goes about trying to come up with a way to get some good seeds to plant on his four acres of land. Meanwhile his wife is already working on her own plans for a better life and he suspects it. Throw in a local 'witch' who smokes profusely and reads bones in order to give his wife advice and you have the makings of this movie. Did I mention that this guy is also abusive? After giving our heroine a black eye he explains to her that that's just how he is and she needs to remember who she married. A real sweetheart of a guy! Of course there's also the demented friend of the husband who gets corralled into watching the wife and making sure she stays chained up while the husband is away. Well, you had to figure somebody would die and sho' nuff it happens. The local police woman appeared overly aloof and didn't seem to connect a body in a ditch with murder. She was ready to accept that it was either suicide or accidental death without so much as doing an investigation. She would never be a candidate for a part in CSI. This movie is worth watching if you can stomach the filth and don't mind the lack of startling twists. You the viewer are privileged to see everything that happens, which means, among other things, that you are never shocked by something unexpected. Not a lot of gore in this one, and only the slightest fleeting glimpse of nudity. Just as well since a naked woman covered in dirt would be less than arousing. Buy it...don't buy it...the choice is yours. I only rated it three stars because it would not be my first choice for a movie to watch. Enjoyable...for some, arguably, yes; for others, no.

This movie was very interesting. I enjoyed it thourougly. To be honest, I bought it because of the tags. I'm a sucker for good stories and nudity. This had no nudity at all in it. So don't buy it based on that fact. If you want a great story though this is for you. It has a really creepy feaurette in the "special features". I'd recommend this movie to just about anyone.

I came across this movie on the LMN, and I loved it!! I was sucked right into this movie from the beginning, and caught myself wondering why isn't she doing this, or why doesn't she do that? I love Dominique Swain, and she was brilliant as a poor southern girl, and her friendship with her fortune teller friend was great, but the only part that really bugged me was WHY WAS SHE SO FILTHY THROUGH THE WHOLE MOVIE? I don't mean a filthy mouth, I mean, she obviously NEVER took a bath. EVER. I wanted to reach into the movie and throw her into the river myself.
I don't recommend this movie for everyone, I personally love everything about the south, and this movie has IT ALL! The accents, the messy house out in the bayou, the mental stalking crazy guy, the abusive husband,... if you like that kind of thing, this is the movie for you, but if not, you might want to invest in a movie like,... Girl, where Dominique is clean and sweet.

I liked the way this movie worked. We are introduced to a poor couple living in some nameless small town in the Deep South and watch this quirky little cast of characters live in squalor by choice as well as circumstance. I liked that the movie portrayed the young pretty thing (Inez/Dominique Swain) realistically, she could not look too attractive in this film. It starts out as a star-crossed lover movie but it's more of a fable - don't judge a book by its cover comes to mind along with several other proverbs.

Plot goes something like this: fortune teller friend (Karen Allen) advises Inez that her true love is waiting for her. Inez assumes it's the rich pasty faced aristocrat with whom she has been fornicating. Her husband, struggling to get them out of poverty through robbery and other schemes, is not happy about the long disappearances of his wife on a daily basis so he beats & locks her up to stop her cheating ways. Flowers is a creepy figure that sniffs around Inez and helps the husband keep guard. Inez talks Flowers into doing her dirty work but things do not turn out the way she planned. The ending was very fitting and had an edgy fairytale quality to it. Rain comes poring down on Inez and her one true love, washing all their dirt away. Which made "Plain Dirty" a very apropos title - living life sometimes is just plain dirty unless you have a fairy godmother (Karen Allen) and fate bring you your one true love, by any means necessary.

There were key scenes that helped the characters come to life: when the husband places a chain around Inez' foot in an honest attempt to keep their marriage together, it is pathetic yet poignant; the touching scene where the fortune teller takes care of Inez and shares what little she has; or where Flowers and Inez discover they had the same childhood hiding spot. These are not just "backwoods hicks" as one angry reviewer suggests and you don't need to go to poor areas to find people neglecting one another and ignoring what is right in front of them. Also, I did not find Inez to be a helpless victim. It is clear from the very beginning that it is not one of those movies.

I gave it four stars for the engrossing characters and plotline and subtracted one star for the loopy MacBeth references - they have no place here and Scotland, PA does a greater job of updating Shakespeare's MacBeth then this movie.

WOW. I almost turned it off 30min in but I am very glad I continued to watch because this was a complete surprise. Very well done and pay very close attention to the symbolism and what is said in the film. I really don't want to spoil the film for anyone but the characters are much more complex than what first meets the eye.

This movie is pure poetry: it rips through all stereotypes of poor Southern folks to bring us complex people with unsatisfied longings and iron-strong wills. The things the characters say are continually surprising, metaphoric and profound: it's a bit like Shakespeare in a swamp. Love will make them all do crazy things, but true love transcends the squalor, opens their eyes and washes away their misdeeds. Karen Allen is perfect as the back-woods witch and Arie Verveen is to die for!!!

I dont remember this in theaters though it played some festivals under a more artsy name, then got this title for the video release. Them that expects the usual Cinemax late night smut and neon misogyny will be I'm happy to say disappointed. This is a brave, interesting, beautiful movie, in which the most sypmathetic character is a creepy redneck named Flowers who likes to sniff Domique Swain's sandals. Little Elliot from E.T. is all grown up and give us what is perhaps the best, most complex, even sympathetic portrait of an angry, wife-beating loser. You Swain-hunds wont even get real nudity so go check yourselves (her cut off jeans aren't half as short as Daisy Duke's), this be art and love lovers swamp territory all the way. Great viola music and poetic dialogue, with it's many MacBeth references this would probably go real good with Scotland, PA though I aint ever seen it and this is probably better.