SnoopyStyle It's summer 1976 Beverly Hills. Vivian Abromowitz (Natasha Lyonne) is a teen annoyed at her sudden boob growth. Her father Murray (Alan Arkin) keeps moving the broke family with her, and brothers Ben and Rickey to avoid paying rent. They stay within Beverly Hills limits so the kids attend the better schools. Cousin Rita (Marisa Tomei) has run away from an asylum and uncle Mickey is willing to pay his brother Murray if she could stay with them. Eliot Arenson is the pot-selling neighbor.Natasha Lyonne is wonderfully awkward. There is some good dysfunction in this family but there is also some bad awkwardness. It's not a movie filled with big laughs. I could do without one particular uncomfortable scene. There is more good than bad in this movie. It's generally filled with good dry humor.

zetes After falling in love with Tamara Jenkins' sophomore feature, The Savages, a short while back, I have finally caught up with her debut. It's pretty obviously a first film. Jenkins has created some memorable characters and some good situations, most certainly culled from real-life experiences. But the story arc is pretty weak. The film is at its best when concentrating on its protagonist, Viv, played by the wonderful Natasha Lyonne. She's a great character, the kind that reminds me of how few well developed female characters there are in movies. I also liked Marisa Tomei's character, too, for the same reason. The men are considerably less interesting, and there are almost too many of them. I've never been a fan of Alan Arkin, so it was hard to overcome that prejudice here. He's kind of a despicable character, and it was hard for me to sympathize with Viv's unconditional love for her father. It doesn't help that Jenkins fails to resolve the father character's major transgression in the last part of the film, instead just dismissing it. Jenkins also bombs most of her set-pieces, and a lot of the scenes she tries to end on laughs are duds. And the jaunty score really needed to be dropped. The movie is not nearly as cheerful as the music seems to think it is. Overall, I liked the movie. But I am impressed that Jenkins could create the perfection of The Savages after a sloppy debut and nine years off. That makes her sophomore feature even more impressive.

noralee The cast and vignettes in "Slums of Beverly Hills" are better than the totality. Natasha Lyonne is particularly good, switching from dead pan comedy to poignant and she is warm chemistry with Alan Arkin as her dad.The ending trailed off. As a person behind me pointed out, if they're staying in Beverly Hills for the school district, how come they're never in school?If you're collecting coming of age movies (or Kevin Corrigan movies) it's worth seeing, like "Manny and Lo," another, better indie movie about virtually parentless teens and how they cope.(originally written 9/12/1998)

lissotrichous1 This is a movie with well-drawn characters you can really relate to.Much like Ben and Ricky, I also enjoy sitting around in my tight-whities, eating Trix and watching H.R. Pufnstuf. That scene brought back memories. I also learned the hard way that you can't trade cereal for drugs.Sadly, Vivian was too busy obsessing over puberty, etc. to realize the answer to all her problems would be to have her hair straightened. People with curly hair are not like the rest of us. Science has proved that their brains are so busy growing hair in weird spirals, that they don't think as good as us normal people.