Choose Me
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Movie Reviews of Choose Me
Movie Review: An Ophuls rondelay transplanted to bleary-eyed LA.
Summary: 4 Stars
'Choose Me' is a romantic melodrama structured like a farce, thriving on exits, entrances, bad timing, mistaken identities, coincidences, sexual play and mounting violence. Following his beloved Ophuls, Alan Rudolph charts the shifting relationships and sexual/romantic entanglements of 6 characters - Genevieve Bujold, a sexually repressed radio-psychologist; Lesley Anne Warren, a prostitute-turned-bar-owner, whose pleasure in promiscuity cannot conceal a desire for love; John Larroquette, Warren's barman and occasional lover; Keith Carradine, a recently released mental patient and self-confessed 'pathological liar', who may or may not have been a killer, CIA spy, mechanic, top photographer, multiple husband, who asks every woman he kisses to marry him, and around whose loose-limbed sexual presence the various plots turn; Rae Dawn Chong, who hangs around Warren's bar wanting to catch her cheating French gangster husband, Patrick Bauchau - with a narrative as fluid as his camera, weightlessly gliding through and between scenes, its very textures charged with the emotional volitility of the characters.With Rudolph films, it is all-or-nothing - either his elaborately artificial constructions work completely, or they collapse; either the viewer falls for the artifice (not just in the coincidence-laden plot, but the neon-pink mise-en-scene, with lighting, interiors, choreography, composition and music orchestrated to unreal effect) or you are repelled. The artifice, disdaining social realism, penetrates deep emotional truths, and the ambiguous last frame is the best since 'The 400 Blows'. 'Choose Me' was considered a masterpiece on its release; its characters, waltz-like rhythms, witty script and swooning self-belief are certainly seductive, as is its willingness to punctuate the seriousness about romance with silly bits of business; in hindsight, however, it looks like a dry run for Rudolph's masterpiece, 'Afterglow', which is similar in set-up, but somehow just right in a way 'Choose Me' nearly is, but isn't quite.
Movie Review: Short List of All Time Favorites
Summary: 4 Stars
Girlfriend dragged me to see this at Beverly Cineplex in 1985. Will always be grateful. Took one star off because it did seem kinda dated, and there might have been some editing down for the DVD. Either that or my memory is too creative. I remember it as "hilarious". This time it gave me that interior smile.
No quality issues with disc.
Choose Me is an amazing, hard to describe film. It starts off surreal, then scary, then surprises you with a series of revelations and blends humor into the mix as the viewer is privy to the big picture but the characters are only reacting to the limited information from their perspectives. For TV airing a newspaper described it as a "romantic fantasy" and that is accurate but don't let the "romance" tag scare you off, guys.
Like Arrested Development, this film respects your intelligence and rewards careful listening.
Deserves much more recognition. And what a cast!
Plus, for 30 years I have been telling special women that they are "like music". Now I remember where I got that line.
Movie Review: Loads of fun, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved this movie when it came out, but watching it again after all these years, I'm giving it a harsh 3 stars. There is a lot to like about this movie. As others have noted it is very funny (in the zany, offbeat way of After Hours and other 80s flics), but also very smart about it's subject matter: sexual desire, love and identity. There is an elaborate game of false names and uncertain identities. Eve is the owner of Eve's bar, but she's not the original Eve - just fell into it by chance because of the coincidence of the name and then seized the moment to embark upon a whole new life. Mickey appears to be a fake with delusions of grandeur, maybe crazy, maybe not. And then again maybe the things he says about himself are actually true. And then there is Ann/Nancy who is either a successful therapist or a runaway psycho, or both. (She's even more of a case than I'd remembered!) Throw in a French gangster for spice and then watch them all fall together improbably. So you get the picture. All of this adds up to great fun and also inspires some genuine reflection. The ultra-smooth, almost campy Teddy Pendergrast soundtrack adds a lot to the sexy, ironic mood. Bujold is weird and wonderful, as always, and Caradine never looked so good or had a role that better suited his particular charm. However, I could not figure out what was going on with Chong's delivery (was it supposed to be deliberately stagey, or was it just bad?) and I did not think this was Warren's best performance either. I really liked the sound studio look of the outside of Eve's bar, but otherwise the production values were a little weak, and this dated the film more than I would have expected. Some of the scenes feel too hastily done and the critical scene where Ann/Nancy tells all to Eve is awkwardly staged, diminishing the impact. The fight scenes really are not well executed and it adds to those too many moments where this smart film starts to look a little cheesy - and not in the right way. Still, I was very happy to watch it again, as I have such great associations with it. And if you've never seen it, you probably oughta, but be prepared for some of its weaknesses.Movie Review: Can I choose an unedited Choose Me?
Summary: 2 Stars
I was disappointed that eight minutes of great erotic love scenes, the best part of the film, were edited out of the video version. There is a lot of cruel labeling and stereotyping of David Carradine's character. Don't people with mental disabilities have enough obstactles in employment, marriage et cetera without the media's often criminal stereotypes? Add two stars for the unedited version of this film.