Film Reviews by JM

I put this DVD in my player with some trepidation as the description was hardly edifying and I couldn't remember why I placed it on my "To watch list". No doubt, it had been well reviewed, and that explained why I reserved it. The description makes it sounds as though it could be a dispicable and sordid American trash movie, but in fact it was an enjoyable piece of Saturday night fun. What turns it from trash to enjoyable is entirely down to the light touch and humour, the acting of Aubrey Plaza and the handling of the whole sex issue. The final conclusion is that sex is OK but it's the emotional side which is all important and subverts you with surprising results if you let it. This gives the film an wholesome moral framework within which to work.

I'd never heard of Aubrey Plaza, but I certainly have now! She has a wonderful deadpan delivery and in places seems quite socially inept, but it suits the character and the character suits her. After watching this, I hunted down various Aubrey clips on You-tube and quite enjoyed her comic style and timing.

A surprisinly good teen movie and well above the usual crude outing for this genre.

The first hour was fine. I enjoyed the Parisian scenes, the sultry French singing, but after this I thought it began to pall. By 90 minutes I was thinking "how long could they keep rambling on like this?". 100 minutes and I started seriously wondering whether I could really go the distance. I didn't want to give up so I cheated and started playing at double speed and skip reading the subtitles, watching in normal speed every few minutes. The cast tells me it should have been a brilliant film, but it became so tedious and repetitive (especially the music) that it ends up as being one of the worst films I've seen for a while. And that's from someone who loves French cinema.