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Plot Summary
The
movie starts at a student party in the campus of a New England college.
The first student is introduced and then the film rewinds to the beginning
and picks up on another student and story. Once again the film is rewound
to the beginning and another character is introduced. The film then jumps
back in time and the story of student life on campus and in particular
their sexual relationships (or lack of them) starts…
Review
The movie takes a dark comic
look at the sexual antics of a group of college students. Some are just
looking for their next conquest, others aren’t sure of their own
predilection, some just admire from afar and with all the hang-ups and
confusion it’s amazing that anyone gets together! Whether gay, straight,
promiscuous or chaste nobody seems to be particularly happy! This explicit
black comedy has a bitter humour from the start and except for a few
lighter moments a sense of hopelessness prevails throughout the movie.
The story starts by introducing
some of the characters and then jumps back in time finally ending where it
started. To illustrate this the film is rewound so that we see people
walking backwards. This is slightly amusing for a while and then quite
annoying. The director Roger Avary was a writer on Pulp Fiction and there
is “a bit of a Pulp Fiction thing going on here” with quirky dark
humour and story overlaps. Pulp Fiction of course was a lot cleverer that
this.
There are a lot of characters
in the movie and not one of them is likeable! Most of them don’t stop
whinging while the others seem to be unbalanced! James Van Der Beek (from
Dawson’s Creek) plays a character totally different to the precocious
Dawson from the TV programme and I suppose that at least is an
improvement!
The Bottom Line:
Bitter black comedy with no real story, humour or entertainment
value.
Lasting Thought:
Maybe I missed the point and I hope I did because this is the type
of movie that even if you missed the point you hope that there was one!
Otherwise, what was it all about?
Your
guess is as good as mine but perhaps the whole message is that when it
come to attraction there are no rules and that we are pathetic at
explaining, controlling and expressing our feeling and desires, never mind
trying to satisfy them!
Reviewed by Niall
Quinn, Premier Movie Reviews 2003
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