Having recently arrived in LA, being single and alone, I wanted to indulge in the crassest display of sex available in a legitimate theater. I went to Choose Me, because the movie's ad seemed to promise the kind of sex farce that abounded in the 80's. I stoked up in the parking lot and drifted into this prepared to laugh at myself, and the film.What I found turned out to be one of the most fascinating and engrossing film experiences of my life. There on screen was my new home, there was the suburban bungalow where I rented a room, and there was a dreamscape of possibilities, magical encounters, charismatically understated nutcases, and hidden visual surprises, all wrapped up in a sensual masterpiece of a soundtrack by the MAN, Teddy Pendergrass.I won't rehash the plot or the cast. I'll only tell the guys that if you want to give your lady a break from your action film jones, then plug this in and enjoy the ride. Don't worry, what first appears to be a soap opera is a much more perverse beast than you can imagine. And believe me, if she isn't a bit frisky at it's conclusion, then you should seriously rethink your relationship. This movie, as surreal as it is, riffs on so many truths about men, women, sensual desire, and conflict between and within the sexes, that any thinking adult can't help but be drawn into the highly detailed set pieces.There were so many additional personal references in this film, that I wish everyone could share in the many shocks of recognition this gives me. I lived in Nashville when Altman filmed his masterpiece, and drew great joy from the subversive realism that outraged the Chamber Of Commerce boosters and the Country Music community that expected a simple minded 'Wish You Were Here' postcard. The connections with that film are numerous. My first art house movie experience was seeing 'The King Of Hearts' at Vanderbilt University, where a young Genevieve Bujold melted my heart. Gailord Sartain, the intellectual, multilingual poker meister, who appears briefly, was a comedian in Heehaw drag, and quite familiar to Nashville audiences. Later, I was in a doomed relationship with a dead ringer for Lesley Ann Warren. Watching this with her was a very peculiar and erotic experience. I once sat leaning against a tree on a hillside by the Nashville Speedway's parking lot at Fair Park, getting buzzed and watching Teddy Pendergrass conduct his mostly female audience like a God. They swayed, moaned, and shrieked on command, completely under his spell.I love this movie, and find something new to enjoy every time I watch it.

I suppose like most persons who access IMDb, sometimes I want simply to get some information on a movie, title or principal. Other times it's to enter comment on a particular film or show, sometimes just to browse, and sometimes to do some combination of these.Having just seen this film again, I looked at some of the previous comments first. One was made by "budmassey" more than 4-1/2 years ago, and is probably one of the best reviews of a film - professional or amateur, lengthy or brief - I've ever seen.If anyone happens upon this one, please look at his. I agree with him totally - and this film truly encompasses ALLUSION, NUANCE and SEXUAL ENERGY (without any prurient aspects for the latter) as well as any piece of entertainment, ever.Keith Carradine and Lesley Ann Warren are two of the most talented, interesting and engaging actors I've ever seen - and I have enjoyed each one's performance in any film or television production I've seen.Genevieve Bujold and all of the picture's remaining cast are also outstanding, and in addition to "budmassey"'s adjectives, I'd add that this film, throughout, is one of the most ENGROSSING you'll find.

Although I have to say it's . . . a little disconcerting to rate a movie#1 and I think top 10 lists are like. . . film festival programming, itseems to be an impossible job to make one that is at all sound... Ihave to say nonetheless that this is my favorite movie of all time.Aside from the entertainment value and the sweetness what reallyis profound about this movie is it's view of love/romance. It's veryantiromantic or anti hollywood romance tradition in its wisdom tosuggest that love isn't a matter of finding "the one" as keithcarradine says in the movie "there might be plenty of other peoplewho would fit the bill but we're here and they're not" it's about 2people making a decision to lose it for each other . . . At the sametime AR's films really do seem to have this "one and only" theme,e.g. The Moderns. So. .. it's kind of dialectical or what have you, too. It's too bad his earlier film "Remember My Name" is pretty much offthe map. Starring Geraldine Chaplin and Anthony Perkins it wasanother of his really interesting movies. Just about everything elsesince from him has been such a disappointment. I didn't manageto see "Afterglow" I'm sorry to say. "Trixie" was just a piece ofgarbage. I don't know what happened to this guy . . . sigh

Director alan rudolph is what is commonly termed an "eccentric. his films are decidely off-center, with characters ruled by quirks and odd obsessions, a committed stable of actors who appear from film to film, a sense of narrative stucture i would describe, charitably, as "loose" and funny, overlapping dialogue- all characteristics he learned from his former associate and master robert altman. when his films don't "work", which is a little better than half the time, it is like poor altman...the debts are too obvious and the deficits as well. but when the mystical alchemy of such a loose, character-driven structure do come together, such as in this film, the result is peerless (even when one of the peers in question is altman, one of the best directors the world has ever produced). choose me has a plot, rife with conicidence, fit for a screwball comedy but its tone, and the charcters in it, wander through it each in his/'her own romantic/personal reverie and the machinations of the plot seem less like a constructed device and more, as keith carradine's mickey states at on point, "just like a dream".carradine, genvieve bujold, lesley anne warren, patrick bachau and rae dawn chong populate this world, each sad, each lonely and each bearing a burden of loss and pain, meeting and making love, and attacking (sometimes violently) as if according to some inner romantic logic only they hear. ther'es pain, there's loss, there are past mysteries and dark actions only hinted at and, strangely enough in the end...there is hope. which is what love, at its heart, truly consists of. red neon, teddy pendergrass, rain-slicked streets at 2am, a first, unexpected kiss, old movie posters, tough guys bested by tougher guys, an unending cascade of full red, hair, a sudden gunshot and an ending as weird and uncertain as love itself followed by the smile of one who, against all logic succumbs to hope. the most romantic movie ever made. period.