Red_Identity There's something so off-kilter about this film. Something that makes it stand apart from others of its kind. The structure is pretty complex, if one takes into accounts all of the turns in the story the film makes. The performances are aces, but Kudrow really stands far and away at the top. One of the finest TV actresses ever, if not the finest (her work in TV is masterful) she has the perfect blend of comedy and drama here. Her work is effective on a dramatic level, even though it's also a pretty hilarious turn. This is a fantastic performance, hitting all of the right notes and pitch-perfect keys that one can hit. This is highly recommended.

westpenn49 I really wanted to like this movie, but I didn't. It just didn't work -too long basically to carry the annoying personalities.Christina Ricci's DeeDee is a case in point. First they make the 18 year old Christina look 20 and cast her as a 16 year old. Yes the character is pretentious but it didn't work.Second you just don't like the characters after a while. Lisa Kudrow quirky but after a while, get a life Lucia. Bill the patient lover, get over it your love is dead and your lover is an idiot. Strangely the only character that didn't get old or stale was the over the top Jason. That I suspect was because he got just little enough screen time.10 minutes in I would have given it an 8 as it was it got a 5 and only because it started so well.

pushfrog_2000 The movie promises to offend you, and I promise you that it fulfills it's promise. The problem is, in the end it retracts most of what it said and makes most of the feelings of offense go away, except for a group of people who don't even largely play in the movie (but Don Roos apparently wished to alienate).From the start of the movie, we are introduced to Dede Truitt, who is the narrator but not, surprisingly, the lead character. A white trash brat from Louisiana, she promises us that she doesn't have a heart of gold and doesn't grow one later.Dede hates her stepfather for reasons we're never told, and hates her mother for being "the one that killed" her father. Although I was told by others her family life was suggestive of abuse, to me, it came off as her being shallow and angry at the loss of her birth father and taking it out on the people around her. She ruins a funeral for her step father and runs away to live with her half-brother (a "real live homo") across the nation.Bill, her brother and the real main character of this movie, and his live-in lover Matt have hit a rough patch in their lives. Bill is a sweet, sensitive guy mourning the death of his, for all intents and purposes, husband. Tom "the dead guy" left Bill with quite a bit of money, but no direction. Because of this, Bill is cruising through life, allowing the slander from his students and typical bumps of life to not phase him in the least.Things for these two characters began to circle around the next plot point: Dede seduces kind hearted Matt and makes him believe he's the father of her baby.Dede lies and manipulates her way through big hearts and little minds, finding a rival only in the intellectual but bitter Lucia (played convincingly by Lisa Kudrow). Matt shows no true character development nor weight as the movie carries on. In fact, when his lover-on-the-side Jason enters the picture, Matt becomes nothing more than a shallow husk of what could have been a good character.Johnny Galecki fails at Jason's first big scene, not quite hitting the emotional depth he needed to convey a hopeless lover at a loss. However, by the end of the film, he picks up some steam and manages to make Jason come across a lovable guy who just wants to find his little piece of happiness. Unfortunately, though, Jason never learns a lesson. He enters the movie lying about Bill molesting him as a student, and leaves the movie lying about the Christian Coalition paying him to do so. Bill and Lucia are the true redeeming characters of this film, as they grow to finally allow emotions back into their lives and receive the happy ending they suffered to get.What interests me is that the movie appears to be teaching about the good in all people, and tries to put a positive spin on even the most horrible of characters. An interestingly hypocritical pivot for a cynical satire of "real life". Not a very satisfying experience, in my opinion.

Lee_Baker OK, now I understand the reason why many people will dislike this movie. It deals with many taboo issues, such as underage sex/pregnancy, homosexuality in a unfavourable light, murder, profanity, mischief and illegality. Writer/director Don Roos gambled the movie's entire ideologies in order to get the important message across. Lets face it, it's not as if Roos is an inexperienced scriptwriter of this ilk. After all, he penned the screenplay to another "Anti-women's liberation" movie, 'Single White Female'. He seemed the perfect guy to translate the honesty of lower/middle class America to the screen; and the style he chose to produce the movie in needn't be mentioned at this stage. Now, onto the film itself...Didi Truitt (Christina Ricci) is the most cynical and sarcastic of all teenage girls. She believes the world owes her favours and should pay dividends. Her step-father passes away and so she leaves her mother and goes to find her long-lost step-brother Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan) in hope that he will take her in and give her the life of Riley, which she never had at home. She takes a gun with her...She knocks at his front door - his boyfriend answers; this shakes Didi up, but nevertheless she is in desperation, although she never lets it transcend. Her step-bother is an English teacher at the local high school: He is a pushover of a man who has no discernible masculinity whatsoever. He lost a very close ex-boyfriend to AIDS a year before which is obvious to the viewers that this wrecked his life, but to his "handsome airhead" of a boyfriend, Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei), it is not.Due to the close relationship he held with his ex, he has since adopted a possessive and maniacal "sister-in-law" figure, Lucia (Lisa Kudrow), who wholeheartedly disapproves of Didi right away. Lucia is a dominant presence in Bill's life and she takes the helm whenever any crisis is imminent. Many people hate Lucia - she doesn't care.Didi and Matt have a crush on each other and basically, they end up in bed together. After months of sneaking around behind Bill's back, Didi announces that she is pregnant, and that Matt is the father. They steal Bill's $10,000 stashed in his safety deposit box and elope to Los Angeles where Matt takes up a minimum wage job to support Didi and the unborn child. Matt quits his job after running into Bill and comes home early one day to find Didi in bed with Randy (the guy with one ball). She announces to Matt that the baby is in fact Randy's. The latter has a terrible temper and he and Matt begin to rumble. Didi and Randy leave together and set up home elsewhere. He and Didi have a confrontation in which she ends up killing him.Matt visits and they leave together to escape the law. Didi has the baby and the audience's expectations are toyed with again here. The narrator (a monotonous and cynical Didi) tries to convince the viewers that she dies during childbirth. This is held for about 15 seconds, then the truth is revealed.At the end of the movie, Didi goes back to school - more bad-tempered than ever - and Bill is left with the child, while he becomes involved with Didi's parole officer. The final shot is where Didi shouts "Go!" to the audience. A sign of anxiety and depression, or just plain swings-and-roundabouts for a troubled teen? Anyway, I've missed out a bit involving a character called Jason and the media circus that he erupts on Bill's already sucky life. But just in case you read this before watching the movie, at least there's a couple of surprises in there for ya.All in all, an excellent, if complicated, movie (of course, in my opinion). There are not enough honest movies like this one. In a time when the only teenagers Hollywood churned out were those from 'American Pie' and 'Cruel Intentions', it was a breath of fresh air. I am a firm believer in that people should be taught the importance of self-discipline when growing up. Knowing how to deal with certain situations, etc. I also believe that Hollywood perhaps shouldn't gloss over things as much as they do. It is really important that some people have access to a film that deals with adolescence frankly; and as far as the message goes - It leaves a deep mark that you won't soon forget.Great Movie - ****