Change Your Image
Sylvaro
Reviews
Ripe (1996)
Definitely Different, but be prepared!
**SPOILERS**
Well, on the whole, this movie was both pretty good, and fairly sad. It centers around 2 fraternal twins, Rose and Violet, age 14. After the death of their abusive parents, they escape on a fantasy-driven voyage across the sticks to salvation in Kentucky?!?! Needless to say, they both discover their sexuality in different ways, (not necessarily realistically, such as 14yr old Violet's first *real* kiss ~AS~ she cleans up after her first period) ending up on an out of hand, rather isolated army base, complete with homoerotic rituals. Staying with a drifter, Violet falls in love with him (above kiss) and her sister becomes upset as she has no place in the world and her only solid link, her sister, is falling for a 30 something drifter, leaving her in the lonely dust. Rose briefly befriends an MP who rescues her from her first (also pedophilic, but this time, just shy of a rape) sexual experience and teaches her to shoot, giving her a gun. Rose eventually kills the drifter. Violet, instead of killing Rose over her lost lover, does a much more damaging thing and leaves, stranding her, alone. The movie ends as Rose fails to kill herself.
Sound cheesy, or unbelievable? Well, I imagine that such a thing is possible in the sticks, when no one else is around. Human nature can sure get us into strange, unorthodox situations. So if you can stretch around some of the abnormal situations the movie offers, you can see through the window it opens. You will look upon a very sad portrait, watching 2 girls, really just kids, trying to run away as they lose everything. This movie is reminiscent of a few other escapist films about young kids in really crummy situations that you might have seen. If you are easily "cheesed out" or creeped out, don't watch this film. Also, this film is only good if you are the type of person who is very good at viewing abstract meaning and the big picture.
Buffalo '66 (1998)
The Plus and Minus
Overall, medium quality but definitely worth watching once.
-On the downside there is a large flight from plausibility (that some might see as a plus). Also the movie moves slowly and can get to be dredging with its dialogue at times. The urge to punch the main character is also relatively strong.
+On the Plus Side there is a wonderful late 70's/early 80's "gritty" feel to the movie that is refreshingly different, even if anti-refreshing by nature. There is also a very strange fleet from anything rational in terms of characterization, the positive side of the negative above. All in all the BEST quality is Christina Ricci herself. She portrays the most supportive and wonderful woman a guy could hope for while being beautiful all the while. In fact, tying in with the last plus, her surreal tap dance to King Crimson (kudos to other fans of *good* prog rock) was among the most randomly charming things I have ever seen in my entire life.