Just Looking

Starring:Shirl Bernheim, John Michael Bolger, Amy Braverman, Chevi Colton, Joey Franquinha, Heather Hopwood, Ilana Levine, Richard V. Licata, Patti LuPone, Ryan Merriman, Gretchen Mol, Deirdre O'Connell, Peter Onorati, Marcell Rosenblatt, Alex Sobol, Christopher Spitzer, Daena E. Title, Robert Weil, Allie Spiro Winn
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her

Average customer rating:

Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck
Feels like a Prequel to "Nine Lives"
VERY good...
Lush, Real, Significant.
Wonderfully subtle

Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her
Starring: Glenn Close , Cameron Diaz , Calista Flockhart , Kathy Baker , and Amy Brenneman
Director: Rodrigo García
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Nine Lives
Ten Tiny Love Stories
Head Above Water
Junebug
In Her Shoes (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00005BKZE
Release Date: 2001-07-10

Description

Touching, compelling and original, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her spins a brilliant tapestry of interwoven vignettes. Starring OscarÂ(r) winner* Holly Hunter, five-time OscarÂ(r) nominee** Glenn Close, Golden GlobeÂ(r) Winner Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal") and Golden GlobeÂ(r) nominees Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels), Amy Brenneman ("Judging Amy") and Kathy Baker ("Picket Fences"), this "really special film" ("Ebert & Roeper and the Movies") is an absolute "triumph" (Mirabella). In the heart of L.A., six extraordinary women have come to an emotional crossroads: a talented young detective (Brenneman) struggles with loneliness, an ambitious bank manager (Hunter) contemplates motherhood and a successful doctor (Close) confronts her spiritual emptiness. At the same time, a blind teacher (Diaz) searches for love, a middle-aged writer (Baker) grapples with prejudice and a gifted fortune-teller (Flockhart) grieves for her dying lover. Poised between fear and hope, each woman must weigh the choices she's madein order to meet the future unfolding before her.

Customer Reviews:

Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck.......2007-01-28

The reviews available here do a great job whetting the appetite of those who haven't seen this remarkable film, so I'll keep my comments short. In this movie, and in his Nine Lives, Rodrigo Garcia gives us more dramatic substance,insight, and pleasure in any single 10- or 20-minute segment than we can find, nine times out of ten, in the standard industry
"blockbuster" of whatever length. I found these by pure luck, and am astonished by my good fortune.

Feels like a Prequel to "Nine Lives".......2006-06-27

"Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her" is a movie written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, who wrote and directed what I think was the 3rd best film of 2005 "Nine Lives." This film features much of the cast of that film. This movie is Garcia's first movie and it's apparent, it definitely has a first movie vibe to it. Unlike, "Nine Lives" which let us eavesdrop on 15 minutes in the life of a woman and never leading us back to that woman; This film gives us vignettes (that are much longer than 15 minutes) and at the end brings us back to see what became of the women. While each vignette is an affecting and smart one, Garcia was able to show more emotion in the 15 minutes than he was in these 30 minute or so ones. Like, "Nine Lives" all of the vignettes are separated into sections. The first one is:
1. "This is Dr. Keener": We meet a woman named Dr. Keener (Glenn Close) who is taking care of an elderly woman. A fortune teller (Calista Flockhart) arrives at her house and predicts her future.
2. "Fantasies About Rebecca": Rebecca (Holly Hunter) discovers that she's pregnant; Meanwhile, she has sex with a co-worker (Matt Craven) and chats with a homeless woman.
3. "Someone for Rose": A children's book writer named Rose (Kathy Baker) watches as a dwarf named Albert (Danny Wood) moves in across the street; as her son Jay makes a shocking revelation.
4. "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine": The most affecting of the vignettes, is the story returning the fortune teller Christine (Flockhart) who watches as her lover Lilly (Valeria Golino) dies.
5. "Love Waits for Kathy": A detective named Kathy (Amy Brenneman) deals with loneliness, while her blind sister Carol (Cameron Diaz) bonds with a man named Walter (Matt Craven).
In a nutshell, there's the synopsis. While all the vignettes are affecting, I think the most entertaining one is "Someone for Rose"; While, as I said, the most affecting is "Good Night Lilly, Good Night Christine." Holly Hunter delivers the best performance in the movie, while Glenn Close is completely understated and Cameron Diaz delivers one of her best performances. The biggest problem with the movie, although it has very few flaws, is that some of the vignettes drag on too long, but it's not Garcia's fault...It's his first movie. He does a show an amazing talent for going into a woman's life for a few moments and making something out of it. This is a good film, it's not a great film but it's definitely worth checking out.

GRADE: B+

VERY good..........2006-04-29

These slice-of-life ensemble-cast episodic movies are sometimes hit and miss, but this one was pretty solid all the way through. The unspoken common theme is, as the ironic title suggests, the hidden interior world of women, behind their deceptively "ordinary" day-to-day facades.

Luckily this film does not pretend to offer any great sweeping bromides, it just takes us deep into the inner lives of the five women featured here, all played magnificently.

This is a film that stays with you and invites repeated viewings, precisely because it does not provide neat, easy answers but rather respects the mystery and impenetrability of each individual's experience.

Lush, Real, Significant. .......2006-02-05

I am sitting here, almost wordless, wondering
how to weave together just the right words to
describe the lusciousness of this film.

I described it to the woman at the Video store
and she said, "Sold! I am seeing it now!" after
I mentioned how real, how truthful and how artistically
woven together these stories are and how
skillfully it is crafted.

The cast is phenomenal - how many times can
that be said? What especially amazed me was
the talent in small roles - people like the
late Gregory Hines.

Holly Hunter floored me, walking alone down
a Los Angeles street - so together one moment
and falling apart the next.

Amy Brenneman as the sister who has given so
much for her blind sibling (played amazingly by
Cameron Diaz) who finally "gets it" after
an awakening discussion with her pupil.

Kathy Baker with her teen-aged son - wow.

ANd more, more, more - the camera angles, the
metaphor throughout, the connections between
seemingly unrelated characters just like there
are undoubtedly connections between YOU and
seemingly unconnected people in YOUR life as well.

My single favorite line - Calista Flockhart
as Christine, the Tarot Card reader - to Glenn
Close, Dr. Keener, the OB/GYN... "None of this
is written in stone - it is up to you, too."

This one is a keeper - a keeper indeed.

Wonderfully subtle.......2005-11-22

Great film. The director did a marvelous job with this one. It's a quiet film that requires a lot from the viewer. He gave a hint of that with the title. This is really a film where you need to look closely at the actreses. Watch every move. There's so much going on underneath the surface and that's what this is about.

The scene where the Glenn close character has her fortune read is a great example. If you watch her face as she listens there's an entire string of different thoughts that just barely betray themselves on the surface. Anger, denial, defensiveness, acceptance, sorrow... All these things appear and disappear without Close having ever said a word. Very well done.

Not, of course, for viewers with short attention spans, or those who've grown up on average Hollywood fare. This is, in many ways, a Latin American movie. It feels more at home beside Amores Perros or Twenty-One Grams than it does beside most movies from American directors. This is a very good thing. Garcia works his actors/actresses hard, with stunning results. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

SUMMER OF 42 meets THE WONDER YEARS
GRETCHEN MOL WOW!
very trouching movie
This is a funny movie....about family, new beginings and sex
Charming coming of age film? I think not.

Just Looking
Starring: Shirl Bernheim , John Michael Bolger , Amy Braverman , Chevi Colton , and Joey Franquinha
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000059H75
Release Date: 2001-04-24

Customer Reviews:

SUMMER OF 42 meets THE WONDER YEARS.......2007-03-23

Oh yes, reminds me of my youth, reading those 8 pagers and Playboy. This is one of my favorites. Ryan is outstanding. I wonder what else he has done. I was expecting a PORKYS type movie, but was surprised by the quality and realism. Usually I don't like profanity, but it is absolutely required in this movie. I was thinking. Ryan was asked by another male kid to join a sex club. The only other members were two girls. I don't know about you, but if I was the other kid, why would I want another male to move in on the two girls. Two females and me: that's my kind of sex club!

GRETCHEN MOL WOW!.......2004-12-11

It is an great coming-of-age film by Jason Alexander. It reminded me of growing up in the same era and having an unrequieted crush on a knock-down-gorgeous model 10 years my senior. Alexander handled the perinnial exploration of sexuality by budding teenagers with humor, sensitivity and a wise director's tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek. If you can find it just seeing Gretchen Mol in capri pants and less is worth whatever price you pay for it. Also the color was excellent. If you cannot find it and have DISH or cable sometimes it comes up on the Independent Film Channel, sans commercials.

very trouching movie.......2002-12-26

like other reviews have said, i caught this while skimming through the movie channels. unfortunately, i didn't get to see the beginning - i just caught on that the movie was about this kid wanting to know about sex. that just sparked my attention, but the story line of the movie itself drew me in.
it's a wonderful movie with great acting, especially for the part of lenny. the movie touches on some subjects that some people could consider "disturbing", but we all know thats a part of life and part of learning about the birds and the bees. some aspects just take you by surprise.
definately would keep true to the guidelines of the R rating, though. if youre past youre awkward pubity years, this movie will definately take you back to how you were feeling back then.

This is a funny movie....about family, new beginings and sex.......2002-08-29

I first saw this movie when i saw skimming thru the movie channels bored out of mind when I came across the movie Just looking starring Ryan Merriman who plays the title role lenny and what surprised me it's directed by jason alexander. I am glad i watched it. from beginning to end i was giggling and laughing.
This movie is set in the 50's. It's about lenny a 14 kid who has alot of questions about the opposite sex you know the normal stuff kissing, love, marriage but who am i kidding he's a kid in america he's curious about sex! But don't let me turn you off of this movie this is a heartwarming film as well it touches on subjects as sex and the difficulties of married life and family.
But all in all this movie a great and funny film and a movie i think anyone will enjoy.

Charming coming of age film? I think not........2002-05-12

The first ten minutes of "Just Looking" really dictates the direction most of this movie takes. Lenny (Ryan Merriman) is a 14 year old boy living in New York in the '50s. He has a burning desire to see two people have sex. Who are the best people he has in mind? Well, his own mom and stepfather of course! How pleasant. Unfortunately for Lenny, he is caught before he sees anything and is sent away for the summer to stay with his uncle and his uncle's wife.

Lenny's next plan is to see his uncle and his wife have sex. However, the wife is quite pregnant and they aren't currently sleeping together. Then Lenny makes a new friend. Him and his buddy spend most of their free time hanging around a couple of girls. They have a little club where all they do is sit around and talk about sex. The problem is...it's not done in an innocent, charming 1950's sort of way. I am no prude by ANY means, but I found it rather disturbing listening to these kids talk about stuff which I am not even allowed to repeat here due to Amazon's guidelines. It may work in a movie like "Kids" (1995) but in this film it just seems perverted.

Description

Not Love Just Frenzy is a fast and funny adventure through the wild Euro club scene in the style of the scandalous Pedro Almodovar! A group of hot and horny twentysomething friends looking for love at Madrid's hottest disco get tangled up in a maze of wild sex, drugs and gunfights as they encounter flashy drag queens, self-absorbed gigolos and a whole host of other outrageous characters. Accompanied by a dynamite soundtrack and starring many of Spain's top young actors, including appearances by Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky), Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls) and Bibi Andersen (Kika) as a high-class lesbian pimp, "Not Love Just Frenzy" is too hip to miss.

Customer Reviews:

Not love just sexy and a disappointing ending. . ........2007-06-26

I really wanted to like "Not Love Just Frenzy" more than I did. It's certainly a pretty picture--pretty colors, pretty people--but, unfortunately, the movie turns pretty ugly by its disappointing ending. Let's just say I wasn't left with a very good feeling after watching this flick. However, I do have a few positive things to mention about "Frenzy": it has a gorgeous cast! Gustavo Salmeron is a hot young thing (at least he was back in 1996)--and his steamy shower scene with Javier Albala is almost worth the price of admission. Almost. And Beatriz Santiago delivers the film's best performance as daffy art student Maria--a delightful character who you're rooting for throughout the film. Oh yes, then there's Penelope Cruz's brief 5-second appearance--which isn't worth anything. The film is a lot of fun in the beginning, but it eventually dissolves into an ending that just leaves you feeling dirty--and wanting to go take a shower with Mr. Salmeron. If only.

Just love not frenzy,DVD.......2005-10-14

Very sweet, Almodovar's style movie about Spanish club life, drugs, homo- and hetero sex affairs and crime. Lots of music, stylish drugqueens and emotional dialogs - all that stuff which we love in Spanish cinema.

Just plain crazy fun!.......2005-07-21

Excellent movie. It was extremly entertaining, cleaver, well acted and directed, erotic and overall well done.

Pansexual frolics in Madrid's club scene.......2003-06-17

NOT LOVE, JUST FRENZY [Más que Amor Frenesí] (Spain 1996): The staff and customers of a popular Madrid nightclub - gay, straight and everything in between - are thrown into disarray by the arrival of a handsome stranger (Nancho Novo) whose life is threatened by a corrupt cop (Javier Manrique) seeking to connect him with a brutal murder.

Virtually every review to date has compared this outrageous Spanish melodrama to the early work of Pedro Almodovar, and while the movie was clearly inspired by that director's commercial success, NOT LOVE, JUST FRENZY is hugely enjoyable on its own terms, despite an initial lack of focus and a series of disappointing plot developments toward the end of the film. Co-written and directed by Miguel Bardem and debut filmmakers Alfonso Albarete and David Menkes (I LOVE YOU BABY), the movie features some of Spain's sexiest rising stars - including popular actress/TV presenter Cayetana Guillén Cuervo (HISTORIAS DEL KRONEN) as a trampy nightclub owner with the hots for Novo, and Gustavo Salmerón (99.9) as the eternal party-boy who dumps his deceitful boyfriend Javier Albalá (SECOND SKIN) to pursue an impossible infatuation with the unattainable, ultra-beautiful Liberto Rabal (LIVE FLESH) - and includes cameo appearances by Penelope Cruz (blink and you'll miss her), Javier Bardem (ditto) and Almodovar favorite Bibi Andersen as a lesbian pimp(!). The script combines sure-fire commercial elements (unrequited love, sexual betrayal, nymphomania, etc.) with layers of melodramatic excess (the gigolo who swears he was framed for murder, the psycho cop determined to nail him come what may), and the movie indulges an exhilarating sexual candor, including a heated exchange between Salmerón and Albalá in a shower, Novo and Guillén Cuervo enjoying a wild encounter in front of a bank of video monitors, and - in the film's most romantic episode - Rabal's full-frontal nude scene on a rooftop at midnight. All in all, voyeurs will certainly get their money's worth! About halfway through, however, the movie surrenders its 'gay' credentials and descends into mere 'camp', dropping several interesting plot threads to focus on Manrique's increasingly psychotic behavior as he launches a series of violent assaults on the primary female characters (the final sequence is a jaw-dropping combination of sex, death and bodily fluids!). Still, the movie is well-played by an engaging young cast (watch out for the lovely shot of Guillén Cuervo sweeping down a crowded high street in a billowing Victorian-style party dress!), and most viewers will be impressed by the filmmakers' refusal to compromise their eccentric ideals.

Though listed in several sources as 125 minutes in length - apparently the result of a typo - the movie runs 104m 19s on Image's all-region DVD (minus the logo of US theatrical distributor Jour de Fête), and it seems completely intact. The image is letterboxed at 1.85:1 (anamorphically enhanced), and while colors are bright and vivid, the print is more than a little ragged in places, particularly at reel ends where cracks and blemishes are highly pronounced, though not enough to spoil the overall presentation. Released theatrically in Dolby Digital, the DVD has been downmixed to 2.0 Dolby surround - a problem which is now endemic on DVD's from independent US distributors - and while the booming Euro-pop soundtrack is rendered with gusto, it doesn't represent the original theatrical experience. The permanent English subtitles are excellent throughout, but there are no extras at all, not even a menu screen, only a chapter list. Talk about basic!

Just plain fun if not terribly deep.......2002-10-21

The plot is simple enough...she and her two roomates throw a party to find a fourth. Meanwhile, her ex comes back but with the police after him for a suspected sex murder. All of which is a mere excuse for meeting a gorgeous gigolo, a foxy starlet, one cool madam, and a host of flashy queens, not to mention a cabal of street agitators--all of whom move to a disco beat. If you like Pedro Almodovar, you probably love this.

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her [Region 2]

Average customer rating:

Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck
Feels like a Prequel to "Nine Lives"
VERY good...
Lush, Real, Significant.
Wonderfully subtle

Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her [Region 2]
Starring: Glenn Close , Cameron Diaz , Calista Flockhart , Kathy Baker , and Amy Brenneman
Director: Rodrigo García
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Nine Lives
Ten Tiny Love Stories
Head Above Water
Junebug
In Her Shoes (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B00005KI2R

Customer Reviews:

Things I'd Never Have Seen Except Through Luck.......2007-01-28

Feels like a Prequel to "Nine Lives".......2006-06-27

VERY good..........2006-04-29

Lush, Real, Significant. .......2006-02-05

Wonderfully subtle.......2005-11-22

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