Movie Review: Pretty Persuasion (2005)

Genre: High School Satire  

Director: Marcos Siega  

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, James Woods, Selma Blair  

Running Time: 109 minutes  

Synopsis: At a posh Beverly Hills high school, 15-year-old Kimberly (Evan Rachel Wood) aspires to become an actress, but remains sore that her best friend Brittany apparently stole her boyfriend. Kimberly helps new Muslim student Randa adapt to her surroundings, and they navigate around English teacher Mr. Anderson (Ron Livingston), who has a reputation as a molester. Meanwhile, Kimberly's unpleasant home life is dominated by her father Hank (James Woods), a loud-mouthed racist. A school production of the Diary of Anne Frank provides Kimberly an opportunity to achieve multiple objectives.

What Works Well: This snarky high school satire takes aim at multiple targets, and often succeeds with cold-eyed efficiency. Lecherous teachers, catty best friends, self-obsessed wealthy parents, vacuous boyfriends, trophy third wives, attention-seeking journalists, sex-as-a-weapon, and showtime lawyers are all on the agenda. Evan Rachel Wood excels as the psychotically calculating calm in the middle of the storm, Kimberly's genius manipulations revealed with deliberate pacing through well-crafted flashbacks.

What Does Not Work As Well: The tone oscillates sometimes wildly between humorous, hurtful, and plain crude, before veering towards too-dark territory in the final act. 

Key Quote:

Kimberly: So, Brittany, this is Randa. Randa's from the Middle East, but she's really sweet. She doesn't say much, though.

Brittany: Hi! I know all about the immigrant experience, how hard it can be - I'm Canadian.

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Movie Review: The Estate (2022)

Genre: Comedy

Director: Dean Craig

Starring: Toni Collette, Anna Faris, Kathleen Turner, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston

Running Time: 96 minutes

Synopsis: Siblings Macey and Savannah (Toni Collette and Anna Faris) are struggling financially and about to lose their coffee shop business. Macey is more responsible but unlucky in life and love, while Savannah is flighty and scrappy. When they learn that their rich Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) is about to die, they rush to her house to try and weasel their way into her will. Unfortunately, cousin Beatrice (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her husband James (Ron Livingston) are already there with the same agenda, as is cousin "call me Dick" Richard (David Duchovny). 

What Works Well: Some of the jokes land well and the quality cast members buy into the silly premise, with David Duchovny having the most fun as the oily cousin absolutely no one wants to have. A side-track involving Aunt Hilda's long-lost high school sweetheart (Danny Vinson) scores with all-out audacity.

What Does Not Work As Well: Director Dean Craig's flimsy script leans heavily on far-fetched character actions and frequent vulgarity, sacrificing smarts and wit along the way. Neither Aunt Hilda nor any of her relatives are deserving of sympathy, severely hampering enjoyment.

Conclusion: The crass treatment of a flimsy premise deserves no windfall.



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