Monday 17 October 2016

Lying (1 Star)


This is the 18th film starring Leelee Sobieski, made in 2006. When she looks back on her acting career this must be her biggest regret. How could she have allowed herself to be connected with such a piece of pretentious junk? I usually reserve my one star ratings for films that I'm unable to watch to the end. In this case I did hold out to the end, but only because it starred my favourite actress.


A young woman called Megan invites three of her female friends to stay at her house in the country for the weekend. They eat and drink, they talk, they bore one another and they bore the audience. Sarah (Leelee Sobieski) lives by herself in a large house opposite, spending her time reading old newspapers and practising semaphore flags in the garden. Eventually she visits Megan to find out why her friends are outside playing with black dolls. She gets bored and goes home. The other three girls leave and go to a yoga class. The end.


The film didn't have a script. All the dialogue is improvised. It shows. The actresses are obviously just as bored as the characters they play. The DVD has a commentary track with thoughts by the director (M. Blash) and two of the actresses (Chloe Sevigny and Jena Malone). That might help me to understand what the film is about, but I honestly don't care. My suspicion is that the film is the result of a wager. M. Blash was sitting in a bar with his friends, when someone staggered to his feet and said, "I have a great idea. Let's make the most boring film imaginable and call it art. The critics will praise us and we'll be famous". Fortunately, the critics weren't as stupid as they expected. The film was made on a budget of $150,000 and didn't even earn that much at the box office.

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