Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

peripatitis-33392 Some films are like that. It is not as if this is a masterpiece but perhaps there is some truth within the film, the acting or the relationships between the actors? Who knows.. But i do feel that films that one can revisit, even if there is nothing new to see but somehow touch you deserve a lot more than an 6.8.

winstonfg This is one of my favourite movies of the 80's: A sophisticated, adult story in the 'Funny Girl' mould, about relationships and suffocation, growth, change, and moving on, leisurely and wittily told with barely a false note or step, except perhaps a slight tendency to tug at the heartstrings; and one of the best endings I can remember.And boy, is there a lot of smoking; literal and figurative.The Bridges make a great ensemble, and Michelle Pfeiffer has never been more radiant (as well as proving she has a great set of pipes), and the score and cinematography are sumptuous. And along the way it introduced me to the work of Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour and, by proxy, artists like David Benoit and Diane Schuur.Good as they are, you can keep your Shinings and Platoons and Raiders. For me they are a class behind this film, which rightly belongs in the running with Blade Runner, Raging Bull and The Color Purple for movie of the decade.

Alex Deleon BERLIN 66 Reviews by Alex. Panorama. image1.jpeg "The Fabulous Baker Boys" 1989, by first time director Steve Kloves who later made the Harry Potter films. Seen as part of a retrospective of the films of famed Berlin born DOP, Michael Ballhaus, Now 82, who gets a Silver Bear this year for his life's work as a dependable Hollywood cinematographer who worked with many top directors. This however isn't one of the.Film features the real life brothers Beau and Jeff Bridges as two fictional Brothers, Frank and Jack Baker, who are not particularly fabulous but play dual back-to-back jazzy piano gigs at cheap night spots in Seattle. Whe the jobs get slim they decide that they need a female singer to liven up their fading act. After many hopeless auditions guess who turns up -- an incredibly scruffed down Michelle Pfeiffer who happens to have a knockout voice like a white Billie Holiday and a very come hither stage presentation. Her dynamic style injects new life into the Baker Boys act with a highlight reached when she drapes herself all over Jeff's grand piano as if copulating with the instrument during a sensational singing number -- "Making Whoopee" -- the memorable high point of a fundamentally forgettable picture.Unfortunately, for the rest of the film, although she has become pianist Jeff Bridges' lover and there are extended groping and snuggling scenes between them -- there is, oddly enough, no screen Chemistry between them -- zilch -- and the film dies a slow death from there. Whether it was the direction or some kind of real disattraction is hard to say, but despite the fact that both Jeff and Michele are at the height of their early screen attractiveness what one sees on screen is sheer mechanical sham. One device overly used in the Film is Jeff constantly with a lit cigarette in his mouth as if he were supposed to be Bogart in Casablanca or Gainsbourg in Paris. It just doesn't fit his look or personality and everything else in the picture including Pfeiffer's overdone raggedness is out of kilter. Even the Ballhaus cinematography is nothing to write home about. The brothers end up hassling each other heavily for no good dramatic reason and in the end Bridges rejects Pfeiffer, or was it the other way around? Anyway, she walks off into driftlessness as the picture finally ends. I normally like Bridges movies but this was a surprising disappointment from every angle considering the promising cast. One down and many more to go in a packed festival week.

Tim Kidner For an adult love story for an older generation with one of the best jazz soundtracks ever set to a movie, The Fabulous Baker Boys remains a smooth delight, topped by the inspirational casting of Michelle Pfeiffer.Its laid back sophistication is peppered with brotherly rivalry, catty one-liners from Pfeiffer and a smattering of humour, that all just takes the edge off it all taking itself too seriously. I always wondered why Beau Bridges was so called, especially when contrasted here against his real-life (as well as in the story) brother. Beau is plain, balding (running joke about using a revolutionary new hair tonic, in a spray can) and married, while a smooth and fresh-skinned - with Fabulous hair! - Jeoff, we see waking up with his latest sexual encounter at the film's start and is dashing throughout.There's a wonderful predictability in the story that whilst obvious is essential as the piano-playing brothers, who've had the same act for the last 15 years, get the sack from their cosy cocktail lounge slot. Get a girl singer, to add glamour and class is what they decide and so the essential misfits and talentless line up to audition. Of course, Pfeiffer stumbles in late, swears, but, as only in the movies sways them and gets the job.This is, of course the most sublime part of the movie; Pfeiffer, in tight shapely dress, draped over a shiny grand piano, Jeoff and Beau tinkling the ivories and the excellent Dave Grusin score ever achingly evocative and playful. But, of course, the frictions start to seep in and of course, the magic can't last.As I said, the tried & trusted music/fame/film formula works well but is never obvious and we are left with an ending as open as the beginning, which is refreshing - and for the better. Any lesser film would have a sugary pigeon-holed finale that would raise the happy level but which would dissipate immediately after.Though there is some swearing, this film doesn't need, or resort to adult material and in this day and age, this is like a breath of fresh air. Actually, the whole experience could be summed up as such, yes, a breath of beautiful, fresh air.