Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Kenn-15 This film ran through the art house circuit so quickly most people missed it, and that's too bad. Now it's finally beginning to show up on cable, and I hope it gets a larger audience. Amos Kollek's other films are also hard to come by in the U.S. -- I know I'D like to see more of them, after having seen this one, but this seems to have the lightest touch, from what I can tell.Among the many things it has going for it, is the incomparable Anna Thomson (Levine), a character actor I've followed since her days in the rep company of the original Tracy Ullmann Show on Fox television, through her unforgettable role in Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN, to this interesting role of Bela.Magical Realism is a kind of sub-genre I always enjoy, and when it plays against the gritty, wonderful city of New York (my home town), I sit up and take notice. This is the kind of dark underbelly of one of my favorite (also underappreciated) TV shows, Jay Tarses' "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd." If you knew and liked that, and can do with something darker and more sexually explicit, you'll probably like this.Bela triumphs, and so do her strange friends, in this pretty unique film, which is slow paced, as slice-of-life character studies are, so be prepared for that. If you tend to criticize films for being "too slow" or not having enough plot, you might not like this, but if you are happy examining characters and living with great dialogue and situations, hang in there. If you like "Smoke" or "Blue in the Face," you'll probably love this.

wizekrack I went to see this movie having read several wonderful reviews. Unfortunately, i believe it to be one of the worst movies i have seen in recent years. The acting was quite poor, the storyline never really picks up and the ending comes out of nowhere; starting off very realistically and ending rather fantastically. It does not help that the lead actress, Anna Thompson, is incredibly difficult to watch onscreen in all her plastic glory. It is hard to take her seriously as a person, let alone as an actress. Her mouth is so tight that she appears expressionless throughout the film. Her character is barely developed and you never feel any sympathy for her or ultimately care what happens to her.It seems as though the script was written in a stream of consciousness mode where storylines only barely interconnect and no theme is ever developed thoroughly. There are three groups of people, all in different age brackets, who seem to be searching for love. The senior characters are most thoroughly developed and the best cast. One at least feels something for them and their storyline is seomwhat interesting. The middle-aged characters, however, the protaganists of the film -Bruno and Bella- are all over the place and never really figure anything out. They never talk things out and we never really know what they're feeling for one another until we overhear Bruno speaking to someone about Bella. Then there are the small children, who seem to appear in the film almost accidentally since they barely have anything to do with the rest of the movie. They appear in only ONE speaking scene which leaves the viewer with an impression that they are completely superfluous.All in all, i thought "Fast Food, Fast Women" was a poor excuse for a film. There were many untied ends or confusing elements throughout the various plots (eg: Bella's mother coming to visit toward the end or, SPOILER: Bruno's affair with Emily) and scenes that seemed unneccesary or made little sense (eg: Vitka's son coming to learn to use the PC, the bum living below Bella's apartment). For the tiny bit of entertaining dialogue the old men provide in their park and diner scenes, one is much better off watching old Woody Allen movies or Seinfeld reruns. Don't waste your time or money on this one.

glazzie This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen! I saw it at the Toronto film festival and totally regret wasting my time. Completely unwatchable with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.Steer clear.

YoTT This is a good film. No doubt about it, the actors, the atmosphere, the story. It's good. But still this movie has a few problems. In general this movie is about the loneliness of people and their search for love and identity. It is brought to us from a very personal and warm point of view; the characters with which it deals vary from young children to very old people. SPOILER ALERT The first problem is with the characterization of the people in the movie, the old people and the young children are ok, apparently they have enough character in their faces and body gestures, on the other hand, the characters that are in the middle need to have a special gift for us to pay attention to them, they all have to be either a cab driver that is actually a writer that won't give in to his publisher or a whore that used to be a dancer and can play piano. I guess that ordinary people looking for love are just not interesting enough. Another problem is that the main character is not really living the American dream, all along the movie she is fighting to stay loyal to herself but eventually (I'm telling the end now) she I really happy only after she inherits a huge sum of money with which she buys a huge estate and opens a successful restaurant chain. All in all, it is a good movie, and the director certainly has a good eye, but there's still some maturing to do.