I really like Kathryn Hahn, but this is not one of her best. I found myself wondering how much longer there was in the film, which is never a good sign. Some scenes felt awkward and prolonged but not in a good way.
... View MoreSometimes small films are good enough to highlight the good and bads of society. But the thing is they won't to everybody. This is not a message film, but about doing good. Self is important, but still you can care for other than yourself. It was about an average modern day couple. They come across a young woman working in a strip club and try to support her to give up it to live a normal life like them. They know the risk of letting her in, so what comes later is a trouble that affects the family and friendship.You won't believe that it was one of the Tarantino's top ten films of the year 2013. I find it not bad as well. But surely it should have been better. Feature film directional debut for the writer and producer. From the woman filmmaker, women oriented film drama. Fun to watch, yet a very serious thematic. From the cast side, both, Kathryn Hahn and Juno Temple were good. Surely a delightful film if you are not anticipating a big from it.6/10
... View MoreA charming, touching indie dramedy. I watched it mainly because I really like comedian Kathryn Hahn. I've loved her presence as a character actress since she popped up in Step Brothers a few years back, and she's stolen scenes in movies such as Wanderlust and TV shows such as Parks & Recreation since then. I'd heard it was a bad film, but I thought it was pretty good. Hahn stars as a wife and mother. Her marriage (to Josh Radnor) isn't bad, necessarily, but their sex life has kind of died. One night, on a whim, she decides to have a couples date with her best friend at a strip club (her friend swears that it gets her husband's motor running). There she meets a young stripper played by Juno Temple, and she becomes a little obsessed with the girl afterward. Not sexually, exactly, though there may be an element of that. It's kind of a motherly attention, mixed with a deep curiosity regarding the girl's highly sexual lifestyle. When she finds the girl outside of work, she's basically homeless, so Hahn takes her home, hoping to maybe glean some of her secrets. There isn't much of a plot. It's mostly just a film about people. It really gives Hahn, who is in general a supporting player, a chance to shine, and, man, does she ever. This is a fantastic performance. Temple is quite good, too. The men in the picture are a little underdeveloped. If Radnor had been more of a character, the film might have been great. As it is, it's pretty good.
... View MoreI've previously been a big fan of the director's work, The United States of Tara and Six Feet Under especially, but this is a tiresome piece which doesn't really go anywhere. Or anywhere interesting, at least.Bored housewife Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) seems to be trudging through every day life without taking much pleasure in it until she meets a stripper with a heart of gold (or so it seems at first) and invites her in to her home. After discovering that said stripper is also a sex worker she becomes more obsessed with her, until, inevitably, events take a darker turn.The first half hour of the movie is fairly amusing and well written, albeit with thinly sketched characters that it's hard to care about. But after that the film is painfully self-indulgent, predictable, and transforms in to a tedious mumblecore flick where we're supposed to care for the central leads despite them having no depth at all. An incredibly over long and agonisingly dull party scene seems to go on forever and from that point on everything is hit home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, until the film eventually ends and you'll wonder why it couldn't all have been summed up within 45 minutes.Centering around the idea that "You don't appreciate what you've got until you've lost it", it could be of interest if it wasn't for the badly drawn characters and frustratingly predictable plot developments, that ultimately lead to an ending you'll have seen coming a mile off. It's a real shame as the first thirty minutes show promise, but it truly fails to deliver on it.
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