Monday, December 27, 2004
Mango Kiss
It's occurred to me that I tend to post about movies I like, and not so much on movies that didn't really do much for me. So as a public service, I now make note of my thoughts on one of the new DVDs marketed to lesbians, Mango Kiss.
Dreck. Don't bother. Full of stereotypes and completely self-centered characters without much in the way of redeeming value, this one falls into the usual traps of indie lesbo films. First, it's poorly cast. The main characters are supposed to be early-20s recent college grads, but I'd say the actors portraying them haven't seen college in at least a decade. If they couldn't find any actors who could pull off a character of that age (because, you know, there's such a shortage of young actors out there), they could have written the characters as late-20's, early-30's. Second, the dialogue bounces around between annoying play fantasies and equally annoying attempts at profound feminist sociological analyses, succeeding at neither. Third, the filmmakers rely on lots of fun-filled montages to show us how fun and thrilling every little moment of the characters lives are. That is, when those lives aren't filled with self-inflicted drama.
A well-done, well-placed and carefully utilized montage can impart lots of useful information and advance a storyline in a nice compressed timeframe, but when used like this they're just bad.
I think this movie could have been done better, but it just didn't quite reach its mark. Instead of Mango Kiss, check out Treading Water, Out of Season, or Go Fish. Low budget indies that did it right.
For review with a more favorable view, check the article on AfterEllen.
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Dreck. Don't bother. Full of stereotypes and completely self-centered characters without much in the way of redeeming value, this one falls into the usual traps of indie lesbo films. First, it's poorly cast. The main characters are supposed to be early-20s recent college grads, but I'd say the actors portraying them haven't seen college in at least a decade. If they couldn't find any actors who could pull off a character of that age (because, you know, there's such a shortage of young actors out there), they could have written the characters as late-20's, early-30's. Second, the dialogue bounces around between annoying play fantasies and equally annoying attempts at profound feminist sociological analyses, succeeding at neither. Third, the filmmakers rely on lots of fun-filled montages to show us how fun and thrilling every little moment of the characters lives are. That is, when those lives aren't filled with self-inflicted drama.
A well-done, well-placed and carefully utilized montage can impart lots of useful information and advance a storyline in a nice compressed timeframe, but when used like this they're just bad.
I think this movie could have been done better, but it just didn't quite reach its mark. Instead of Mango Kiss, check out Treading Water, Out of Season, or Go Fish. Low budget indies that did it right.
For review with a more favorable view, check the article on AfterEllen.
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 12/27/2004 11:54:00 AM
