The House of Yes

1997 "Enter at your own risk."
6.6| 1h25m| R| en
Details

Jackie-O is anxiously awaiting the visit of her brother home for Thanksgiving, but isn't expecting him to bring a friend — and she's even more shocked to learn that this friend is his fiance. It soon becomes clear that her obsession with Jackie Kennedy is nothing compared to her obsession with her brother, and she isn't the only member of the family with problems.

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Reviews

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece
Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
moneygirl-227-676452 The eccentric nature of this film initially caught me off guard because the writer seems to be going for surprising rather than expected. I choose to say that because the viewer never knows what might happen next. For example, Posey tapes masking tape in the shape of an "X" on the windows of their luxury home and when asked why she's doing this, she says she "saw it on the news" and after this they move on to another random activity that fits into the setting. Never boring, the random events come together well. While the incestuous relationship between the twins is predominantly one-sided with Jackie-O being obsessed with Marty, Marty continues to feed his sister's desires by playing the role of John F. Kennedy even though he knows his sister is on medication. Their mother suggests to Lesly, Marty's fiancé that she is a symbol of purity for Marty and that she should go away or inevitably leave without Marty because he isn't. Anthony, played by Freddie Prinze Jr., was unnecessary to the film because you could literally delete his character and not much would change. When he annoys Lesly in her room, I as a viewer was also annoyed because I was anxious to get back to the more interesting developments in the film. The mother could remain because she adds an interesting layer to because of the mysterious death of the father and the mother's view of her incestuous twins. Tori Spelling and Parker Posey had good chemistry together. *spoiler alert* When Marty decides to be with the "symbol of purity" character Lesly over his maniacal twin sister, the narrative lost some of its power. He had just spent the night making love to his sister. His fiancé, Lesly, spent the night having sex with his brother Anthony, yet they still decide to be together even though they had gone through this experience of sexual promiscuity. I don't mean to say they should have cared more. I think the writer should have explained in a more thorough way why the characters would make the decisions they made. Overall, it was a good film and worth a watch.
Wes Lambert Writing recently about "Happy Tears" gave me pause to think about my trajectory as a Parker Posey fan which began in the mid 90's with "Party Girl". Unfortunately the indie cult status of "Party Girl" means it has a very very very long wait on Blockbuster.com. They might as well admit that it will never ship. However today "The House of Yes" arrived in the mail. This is a brilliant, wicked film that might suffer from the accusation of being pretentious with it's over indulged, privileged characters and lightning fast witty dialogue. The story is that Marty Pascel (Josh Hamilton) has made the unbelievable blunder of bringing his mousey girlfriend (Tori Spelling) home to meet his wealthy, dysfunctional family on the very night they will all be virtually trapped together by a hurricane. The driving force of the family and the movie as a whole is Parker Posey as Marty's sister, Jackie-O. She in step with the weather outside is pretty much an evil, brilliant, psychotic (with the pills to prove it) bitch in a little black dress. An unhealthy obsession with Jackie Onassis and Marty are icing on the cake. Worse yet for the poor girlfriend, once back in the fold, Marty does very little to discourage Jackie-O and ultimately joins in her twisted games. Nothing ends well here unless you see the world through Jackie-O's eyes that is."House of Yes" also contains perhaps my favorite line of dialogue ever - "If people are going to start telling the truth around here, I'm going to bed".If your experience with Parker Posey is one of "You've Got Mail" and "Scream 3" or worse yet "Superman Returns", I suggest taking a trip back to the 90's to see how she earned the title queen of the indies.
jackcaughran This film's thick and pervasive irony requires a sophisticated sense of humor. Starring Freddie Prinze, Jr., and the inimitable Tori Spelling, "The House of Yes" didn't give me great expectations, but for Parker Posey I was willing to take the risk. It turned out to be perhaps the most original comedy I've ever seen and one of my new favorite films. Naive reviewers and low ratings here on IMDb have confirmed my suspicion that most people completely miss the point of this film. There is nothing earnest or straightforward in the least about the story or the dialog. Writer Wendy McLeod and director Mark Waters are trying to do for film and theater (certain genres of them, at least) what "A Mighty Wind" did for folk music, or "Best in Show" did for dog shows. Although, I contend that "The House of Yes" accomplishes this parody in a vastly more ruthless and consistently incisive way than Christopher Guest could ever dream.The entire film is poking fun at all things trite, melodramatic, and self-serious about modern film and theater. From the narrative, the characters, and the setting, to the direction, cinematography, and dialog (especially the dialog), "The House of Yes" is not a film but a caricature of a film, adapted from a play that is the caricature of a play. Anyone who has read or seen a few modern plays will recognize the stilted, stylized dialog and the actors' artificial, super-sincere interpretations. Wendy McLeod is no idiot; she has a post-graduate degree in theater from Yale. She's not writing this doggerel in earnest; she's making fun of other people's doggerel. I mean, c'mon.In less skillful hands, this film could easily have slipped into the realm of burlesque. If, for the sake of humor, you want to point out lots of annoying, hackneyed film and theater conventions, you run the risk of making an especially annoying film. But I think, for the most part, McLeod and Waters dodged this bullet. Not every line in the film hits the perfect chord, but a surprising majority of them do."The House of Yes" is not typical as a dark comedy, as a cult film, or as any other film genre. I've never seen anything else like it. If you're smart and have a wicked sense of irony, you'll love "The House of Yes." If you can't recognize a joke without a laugh track, I recommend "There's Something About Mary."
awhoughton ***SPOILER FOLLOWS!**** After the first 15 minutes, we ran through the entire rest of the film at fast-forward reading all of the dialogue in subtitles because the acting was so poor, the dialogue so overdone, and the so-called "plot" so utterly predictable. You cannot even write a spoiler for this film because you already know exactly what will happen about 20 minutes into the film. The incest angle is written in purely for contrived shock value and the stupidity of the ending, when Marty could have easily saved himself, was just unforgivable. Don't waste 80+ minutes of your life watching this film. You'll truly regret it.