Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

merklekranz Zero entertainment value would be the best way to describe this wretched film. Billy Zane is a strutting ass, so pompous and unlikable that you will immediately be disgusted. His religious rants make no sense as does the entire movie. Equally unlikable is his twin sister, Gina Gershon, who portrays a street trollop with no scruples. Both are so stuck on themselves and each other that they are two of the most boorish characters I've ever seen on the screen. Constant voice overs only add to the train wreck of a script, which is basically unwatchable. This movie is a real turn off, and most definitely should be avoided. - MERK

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx Just to point out from the start that I think the key to understanding this movie is that the narrator Marty is unreliable. More on this later! This World Then The Fireworks is an adaptation of a Jim Thompson novella that follows twin sociopaths Marty and Carol and their apparently arbitrary despair-filled lives. I think it is fairly easy to identify with them in some sense, and their feeling that the world in general or America in the 50s specifically, is a pretty unfair place. Because they are both upset that some people go unloved in the world they both marry people that they have selected under the criterion that no-one else would have them. Marty's wife has elephantiasis, through no fault of her own he points out, and in the normal course of events could not have married. I think certain circumstances that are beyond one's control often lead to not being able to lead a fulfilled life, and I think that Buddhism is one response to this whilst Marty's and Carol's is another. I think it's one of the great taboos to talk about that your chances of being loved and loving are entirely determined by whether you were brought up in an emotionally stable environment, and whether you are physically attractive, neither of which things you have much control over. It's taboo because if a happy person accepted that, they couldn't really feel comfortable in the world.Whilst they seem to have no respect for the laws of society, and no respect for the rights of people that cross them, Carol and Marty definitely have embraced self-sacrificing personal moralities. I think this is the extra zing, the lemon neon shock, that Thompson added to his usual cocktail recipe.Like I say earlier, I think the key to understanding this movie is that the narrator Marty is totally unreliable. As well as being a sociopath, he's a textbook narcissist. He quits his job because he's upset that his boss thinks he can understand him, he then states that no-one can understand him and that people who thought they did needed knocking down a peg. Belief that only special people are able to understand you is a symptom of narcissism. Also his claims about his ability as a reporter are entirely self-reported and look suspiciously self-inflated. Despite no experience of politics he thinks he can sort out all of America's troubles, for example by introducing a tax on bowel movements. He's also exploitative and lacks empathy. The empathy deficit is demonstrated by his attitude towards his sister at the end of the movie (can't say any more!), and his family in Chicago. I think the thing that most unsettled me in the movie (despite gratuitously violent scenes) was Marty's grandiose delusions, which also upsets me in The Killer Inside Me, another Thompson film adaptation. All these things are symptoms of a narcissism that arises out of an abused childhood (he mentions being clubbed a lot as a child as well as many other things), and needing to boost one's feelings of self-worth as a reaction.His repeated insistence that he's not had an incestuous relationship with his sister probably also comes off as unreliable. The key part of his false testimony probably comes right at the start of the movie, where he pretty calmly talks about a life-shattering event as if he's not scarred by it. And yet every symptom of his narcissism and sociopathy correlates with severe trauma in early childhood.There's always the option so enter into the sociopathy and see Marty and Carol as some sort of trailblazing social pioneers, which is probably why this movie is so popular in France.I'm going for dualism, there's something in what Marty says about life, and there's also a lot of nonsense which is born out of his hideous suffering. Due to the presence of fairy-light style diegetic lighting, and the most wonderful filters and period recreations, I'd have to say this is one of my favourite films. It's also one of the saddest films you could ever see.

lastliberal If you like neo-noir, or the real thing from the fifties, then this film is for you. The look and feel of a fifties classic is all over this film from the cinematography to the music to the narration.It is a story about a totally dysfunctional family. The children witnessed their father killed while shagging the cop's wife from across the street. Mom didn't seem to mind, but then she was wacko, too. Why do people play in their own back yard? The kids grow up totally weird as expected. Gina Gershon (Bound) plays the sister, who left a rich husband to become a prostitute. She had that classic look of the Fifties - white skin and the full pouty lips. Style the hair right and she could be Ava Gardner. Is there something going on with her brother (Billy Zane) that is more than brotherly love. That is for you to figure out.Sheryl Lee ("Twin Peaks", Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, John Carpenter's Vampires) can always be counted upon to present skintastic moments in her films. She comes through here as a sex-crazed cop who hooks up with the brother.Lots of death, of course, as that is the rule for noir, and lots of passionate and sexy moments. An entertaining Fifties film presented as they never could in the Fifties.

Dr.X There are a lot of plot holes and implausibilities in this one, but overall I thought it was worth a look because Sheryl Lee gives a great performance that is full of emotion, conflict, and sensuality. Gina Gershon does a nice job too, and the small-town 1950's atmosphere is nicely done. The odd tension between the siblings is overplayed and some of the character's actions don't seem very credible to me, but still an interesting film as a one-off when better options aren't around.