I enjoyed this movie when I saw it, I was too young to truly understand it's charm but was charmed nonetheless. In my opinion it was poorly advertised as a woman's American Pie, although there is humor here it is more satirical than American PIe's slapstick comedy.
The film involves 3 rich, yuppy high school girls as they apply to college and explore sex. Bonnie Hoffman was superb in her role as the "mean" friend, and that is a loose term. She has her moments of being mean to her friends, in the way one passive aggressively hates on a friend due to extreme insecurity. Her character portrayal is a more realistic and subtle parody of a 90's rich girl, at least at the time it was released. That being said, this film overall parodies the lifestyle of rich New York kids in the 90's, which was scandalized to the point of seeming like soap opera plots and dramatic acting in other entertainment at the time.
I did not find Ryan Reynold's character charming, just odd and a bit childish, which is unfortunate as he is the main love interest and a waste of an actor's natural charm. The character of Nell was complex, and in my opinion should have been the protagonist in a more serious coming of age version on the film. Stream was fine in her role, that being she wasn't excruciatingly annoying, but not quite complex either. This film had more of a feel like Empire Records without all the outlandish subplots and dramatic acting, than a mainstream comedy like American Pie.
I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of the established actors in the film, from Mia Farrow's spiritual, hip mom character to Peter Bogdanovich's pretentious artist.
There was also subtle focus on the overwhelming pressure of getting into Ivy League school, but making fun of how ridiculous it is kids with a higher social economic status "struggle" with it.
The main topic of this film being a young woman proactive exploration of her sexuality, which often gets labeled as boring. I enjoyed this character's outlook on her sexuality and open curiosity about it. This film handles it sensitively without debasing it and without shoving it down your eyes and earholes. Compared to its contemporaries where sexualized women were portrayed a needy or overly promiscuous, and overall objectified. I truly feel this movie was ahead of it time.
The film involves 3 rich, yuppy high school girls as they apply to college and explore sex. Bonnie Hoffman was superb in her role as the "mean" friend, and that is a loose term. She has her moments of being mean to her friends, in the way one passive aggressively hates on a friend due to extreme insecurity. Her character portrayal is a more realistic and subtle parody of a 90's rich girl, at least at the time it was released. That being said, this film overall parodies the lifestyle of rich New York kids in the 90's, which was scandalized to the point of seeming like soap opera plots and dramatic acting in other entertainment at the time.
I did not find Ryan Reynold's character charming, just odd and a bit childish, which is unfortunate as he is the main love interest and a waste of an actor's natural charm. The character of Nell was complex, and in my opinion should have been the protagonist in a more serious coming of age version on the film. Stream was fine in her role, that being she wasn't excruciatingly annoying, but not quite complex either. This film had more of a feel like Empire Records without all the outlandish subplots and dramatic acting, than a mainstream comedy like American Pie.
I thoroughly enjoyed the performances of the established actors in the film, from Mia Farrow's spiritual, hip mom character to Peter Bogdanovich's pretentious artist.
There was also subtle focus on the overwhelming pressure of getting into Ivy League school, but making fun of how ridiculous it is kids with a higher social economic status "struggle" with it.
The main topic of this film being a young woman proactive exploration of her sexuality, which often gets labeled as boring. I enjoyed this character's outlook on her sexuality and open curiosity about it. This film handles it sensitively without debasing it and without shoving it down your eyes and earholes. Compared to its contemporaries where sexualized women were portrayed a needy or overly promiscuous, and overall objectified. I truly feel this movie was ahead of it time.