Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drop Dead Gorgeous
| 21 June 2010 (USA)
Drop Dead Gorgeous Trailers

An aspiring model, Cynthia, becomes the focus of a documentary when she is chosen as the face for the world's biggest fashion designer, Claudio. Cynthia accidentally overdoses and with deadlines looming they decide to use her corpse to continue filming.

Reviews
Maynard Handley

I think the reason this movie has such a low rating (and some bad reviews) is that it suffers from an *extreme* version of the discrepancy between the actual movie and the movie that is advertised. To look at the poster you'd imagine you're in for some sort of "Weekend at Bernie's Fashion Week" or "Zoolander 2: Derelicte meets Dead". The movie is good, but it's nothing like that. The movie is a genuine black comedy. I'm a guy who likes his comedies laugh out loud (think "There's Something About Mary"), and this is not that type of comedy. It's amusing, but there's nothing especially laugh-worthy in it. This is, rather, absurdist comedy, the sort of thing you watch because you can't believe anyone would think that way and you want to see how much more awfully they will behave.A movie that criticizes the fashion industry is not especially daring; what makes this one work is that the satire is so well-structured and, simultaneously, over-the-top but also completely organic. You don't see ham-handed rants against capitalism, modeling agencies and the rest (except for one rather ham-handed sequence against documentary film-makers); rather what you see is an oddly compelling story that just happens to show terrible things along the way. One final reason to watch: the model star of the show, Cynthia, played by Ivy Levan, looks insanely like Jennifer Lawrence throughout the entire movie. It's uncanny, and I don't know to what extent it's deliberate, but adds well to the whole air of "reality but unreality" of the piece.

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kristinkeam

Sadly, the one 'professional' review of this film has been done by someone who seems more interested in showing us he knows gossip about Jeremy London. Am I expecting too much from a review site that exists primarily to tell you where you can see naked celebrity bodies? That was rhetorical. I, however, am more interested in the illustrious cast member who he has not recognised (surely more important for a reviewer?). Steven Berkoff has a long filmography and is one of the greats of the English theatre. He is wonderful in the film and is an amalgamation of every idea you have had about diva designers.This is a black comedy and the premise is marvellous. Yes it is done on a shoestring and cleverly. Yes there is some over the top humour, but there is wit and depth here too. And the director shares his inside knowledge of the inanities of the modelling game. If you love America's Next Top Model for humorous reasons (and please tell me you do!) then you will enjoy this.

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Cookie Monster

There was another film with a similar name? Didn't see it. This was fun and funny, a little T&A, beautiful dead model. Lots of esoteric dialogue so if you're only into action and things that go "boom," this is NOT your movie. Interestingly shot: from a mocumentary perspective, so PAY ATTENTION, people! There were too many people in the film and I got some of the people mixed up at first. Berkoff definitely livened up the film as did the dead girl (no pun intended). Hey, it's hard to play dead...and look good too. So if you call that acting, then give kudos to her. Too many "lesser" roles could have been cut and the film would have moved along just as nicely. Who the hell was the necromaniac and do we really care? All in all, good debut for this new director/writer.

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philipald

This is a funny but dark look at fashion photography. It can be pretty confronting at times, but you certainly get the feeling the filmmakers know this territory pretty well. It may take a while to warm to it as it's a quirky set up - but it just gets increasing outrageous and there's few sacred cows left standing at the end.The cast are excellent. Steven Berkoff is really great as the Karl Langerfeld like fashion designer. Josh Cox - who you usually see as the nice guy - makes a great weirdo. Jeremy London,a morally ambivalent agent, also gets a meatier character than usual.I notice a couple of the girls, and there's lots of gorgeous gals, have gone on with Dawn Olivieri (Heroes, True Blood) and Natasha Alan (True Blood) lading the charge.Someone should show this to the all the super models! Actually, the fashion world in general.

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