Beautiful Girls

 

Beautiful Girls 1996

• Director: Ted Demme
• Seen by this director: Bruce Springsteen videos and episodes from Homicide Life on the Street
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren Holly, Rosie O’Donnell, Max Perlich, Martha Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapaport, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Timothy Hutton – The Ghost Writer, Secret Window, Daniel, Ordinary People
• Matt Dillon – Crash, Drugstore Cowboy, Rumble Fish
• Noah Emmerich – Trust, Beyond Borders, Cop Land
• Annabeth Gish – The X Files
• Rosie O’Donnell – Wide Awake, Sleepless in Seattle
• Max Perlich – Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Darwin Awards, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Homicide Life on the Streets, Feeling Minnesota, Georgia, Drugstore Cowboy
• Martha Plimpton – I Shot Andy Warhol, Stanley and Iris, Running on Empty, Stars and Bars, Mosquito Coast
• Natalie Portman - Thor, Black Swan, The other Boleyn Girl, Darjeeling Limited, Paris je t’aime, V for Vendetta, Star Wars, Closer, Cold Mountain, Anywhere but Here, Mars Attacks!
• Michael Rapaport – Sully, Friends, Cop Land, True Romance
• Mira Sorvino – Union Square, Angels Crest, Reservation Road, Lulu on the Bridge, Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion
• Uma Thurman – Be Cool, Kill Bill 1&2, Hysterical Blindness, Tape, Les Misérables, Gattaca, Pulp Fiction
• Why? I remember liking it the first time.
• Seen: Once before. Now 9 November 2022      

Will (Hutton) is a touring jazz pianist who gets paid in 1$ tips. He goes back to his hometown in upstate New York for a high school reunion. He meets with his old buddies and gets a crush on the 13-year-old neighbour girl Marty (Portman) and ponders his relationship with Tracy (Gish), who’s planning on coming to the reunion. His friends, several of whose work is ploughing the plenteous snow, all have trouble with women.

Sexist, insecure, violent, foolish, lost, lovelorn men. Angry, disappointed, anorectic, sophisticated, seductive women, one an outspoken feminist (O’Donnell) and one a precocious, smart-mouth kid, the above-mentioned Marty.

The men talk to each other. The women talk to each other. The men want beautiful girls. What the women want is much more complex.

The actors are all good but as usual Natalie Portman out acts them all.      

4 * of 5