The Opposite of Sex
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Movie Reviews of The Opposite of Sex
Movie Review: Hi-LAR-ious!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you don't take life and love too seriously--and aren't easily offended--this movie is a great romp. See it before you buy it; it's not for everyone.Movie Review: 8-)
Summary: 5 Stars
Loved this movie! Might not be for everyone though . Amazing acting and great story.Movie Review: ;w;dw
Summary: 5 Stars
I want iMovie Review: A most original sex comedy
Summary: 4 Stars
There were fewer than usual alternative movies released in 1998, but The Opposite of Sex makes up for half a dozen of them. It is a scathing dark comedy, best suited for people who enjoy seeing a film that writes its own formula. Nothing and no one is spared by director and writer Don Roos, yet he still fills the story with a number of redeeming values. This is social satire rather than the nihilistic raving of a disillusioned Generation-Xer. While not destined to be seen by that many viewers, it is still a work that will be remembered long after the year's expensive formula fluff is forgotten.
Roos certainly does not hesitate to take chances. Not only is the main character Deedee [Christina Ricci] one of the rudest, self-centered teenage characters ever seen, she also narrates the movie. This means we see everything from this pathetic creature's view point. Roos and Ricci, who's come quite a distance from her days as Wednesday in The Addams Family movies, pull it off. Yes, Deedee is a dreadful young woman, but we start to see that this is all mostly a defense mechanism against a world she views as heartless and unfair. We all know people like this. They strike out furiously before the world can strike back at them.
Young Deedee leaves her rural Louisiana town, claiming later to have been molested by her stepfather. Like most of her stories, we never know for sure if this is true or not. She goes to visit her school teacher half-brother in the Midwest and promptly steals his boyfriend Matt, played with comic assurance by Ivan Sergei. Not terribly bright, he leaves town with Deedee, who's convinced him he's the father of her forthcoming child.
Her brother Bill [Martin Donovan] and his best friend Lucia [Lisa Kudrow], who has the hots for HIM, say good riddance. When Matt's other boyfriend [Johnny Galecki] shows up demanding to know where he is, Bill can't tell him because he doesn't have a clue. The lad follows through on his threat to claim Bill seduced him when he was his student at the local high school.
That should be enough about the plot to convince some people they wouldn't watch this if it were the last video on earth and to show others that, since this is obviously not a normal movie, they will have to see it.
The acting is first rate. All of the principles are people who seem to have decided at some point that it's better to be a real actor in a small, independent movie than to be a prop in a large one. They came to this project with a number of off beat films to their credit. Even Kudrow of Friends fame makes small pictures during her vacations from the series.
The story, of course, travels an improbably road. Roos keeps it fast moving, shocking and funny. Traps are laid by Deedee, the totally manipulative narrator. Things we expect to happen don't, and vice versa. The writer-director is great at making up characters. I suspect that his unflinching portrait of a trailer trash girl from Louisiana is based on some people he's known in his life. Like it or not, she's far from being a caricature. Ultimately, what really scares us about her may be her brutally honest observations about the other characters, rather than what she actually does to them.
Movie Review: Ricci's perfectly irreverent and Roos' scribe sparkles
Summary: 4 Stars
Although it did not receive a single Oscar nomination, "The Opposite of Sex" will be the kind of movie that survives long after this year's statues have been handed out. Christina Ricci, whose become the new Drew Barrymore bad girl teen of Hollywood lays it on thick as DeeDee Truitt, an atypical teen who uses sex as her weapon that is backed by an unbreakable stride, a completely selfish candor and lack of political correctness usually reserved for the most hardcore of cynics. Narrating in the beginning, she states "I don't have a heart of gold, and I don't grow one later, okay? But relax. There's other people a lot nicer coming up...we call them losers." The listless DeeDee, who hates her world, starts over when she shows up at the doorstep of Bill (Martin Donovan, exceptionally adept at the empathy), her gay half-brother in Indiana who takes her in despite apprehension. Not more than a couple of weeks go by before she hightails it out of the house, and with Bill's boyfriend, Matt (Ivan Sergei), in tow. The heartbroken Bill then goes in search of the duo along with Lucia (Lisa Kudrow), who hates DeeDee and loves Bill. Throw in further diatribe of Matt's all-talk-no-tough ex (Johnny Galecki) and the quirky Sheriff Carl Tippett (Lyle Lovett), and one has the makings of an independent classic. Discourse runs amok between these individuals, and with credit going to writer/director Don Roos, every person shines in their assorted role, no matter how big or small. Roos, making his debut behind the camera, gives a distinct edge to both the characterizations and the dialogue spark that makes everything go up like a four-alarm fire. Sympathy's hard to come by in this black comedy, because DeeDee's candid ways make one think twice before getting emotionally involved. The bonuses on the DVD include five deleted scenes, that amount to about twelve minutes' worth of footage, as well as an audio commentary by Roos, producer Michael Besman and editor David Codron, who pound themselves too hard on their own work. The tagline says it all for this unforgettable flick: "You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be offended." And it's worth it.