Movie Review: What Alice Found
Nov. 17th, 2003 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesthattomTonight I saw "What Alice Found", an independent film written and directed by A Dean Bell. It won Special Jury Award at Sundance 2003, Grand Prize Deauville Film Festival, and Official Selection Tribecca Film Festival. For a film that was made for only $109,000, this one is a real winner. Simple, not over-played, realistic, and no hollywood ending.
This is a story about a girl from New Hampshire who runs away from home to visit a friend in Florida. On the way, her car breaks down, she runs out of money, and, well, I don't think it would spoil the plot to tell you that this movie is about "truck stop prostitution".
The young girl (Alice) is played by Emily Grace (From the web site: "A native of New Hampshire, 25 year old Emily Grace is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she graduated with honors in 1999." Go Emily!) This is her first feature film and she does an excellent job of portraying her role. Judith Ivey plays Sandra, the woman that helps her into the biz. Judith is a two-time Tony Award winner and you'll recognize her from many other films. Her acting is understated, which makes the movie so good. Knowing her skill, she could have stolen every scene playing the part like "Flo" from Mel's Diner. Instead she was like a subtle, gentle, typical southern mom.
It's so good to see independent film again. I'm used to Hollywood endings (which, for this movie, would mean Alice goes on to become a Washington lawyer, and then president--I got that joke from someone else, sorry)
For the perverts out there, the best part was seeing the transformation of Alice from a frumpy young girl to a young girl in trashy clothes and heavy makeup. I give it two thumbs up just for that scene where she dyes her hair and learns to put on too much makeup.
For the political people out there: There are some scenes that give accurate glimpses of poverty living (flash-backs to Alice's home in New Hampshire). People that say, "Oh, why don't poor people just get a job!" and shit like that need to see this movie. The other politically-interesting thing to me was that it showed poverty portrayed somewhere besides big cities or southern rural towns.
This film has just recently gotten a distribution deal. It opens in NY on Dec 5, LA and SF on Dec 19. January it opens in Berkeley and Chicago and other places.
For more info about the movie, including where it is playing visit the web site: http://www.whatalicefound.com/
This is a story about a girl from New Hampshire who runs away from home to visit a friend in Florida. On the way, her car breaks down, she runs out of money, and, well, I don't think it would spoil the plot to tell you that this movie is about "truck stop prostitution".
The young girl (Alice) is played by Emily Grace (From the web site: "A native of New Hampshire, 25 year old Emily Grace is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she graduated with honors in 1999." Go Emily!) This is her first feature film and she does an excellent job of portraying her role. Judith Ivey plays Sandra, the woman that helps her into the biz. Judith is a two-time Tony Award winner and you'll recognize her from many other films. Her acting is understated, which makes the movie so good. Knowing her skill, she could have stolen every scene playing the part like "Flo" from Mel's Diner. Instead she was like a subtle, gentle, typical southern mom.
It's so good to see independent film again. I'm used to Hollywood endings (which, for this movie, would mean Alice goes on to become a Washington lawyer, and then president--I got that joke from someone else, sorry)
For the perverts out there, the best part was seeing the transformation of Alice from a frumpy young girl to a young girl in trashy clothes and heavy makeup. I give it two thumbs up just for that scene where she dyes her hair and learns to put on too much makeup.
For the political people out there: There are some scenes that give accurate glimpses of poverty living (flash-backs to Alice's home in New Hampshire). People that say, "Oh, why don't poor people just get a job!" and shit like that need to see this movie. The other politically-interesting thing to me was that it showed poverty portrayed somewhere besides big cities or southern rural towns.
This film has just recently gotten a distribution deal. It opens in NY on Dec 5, LA and SF on Dec 19. January it opens in Berkeley and Chicago and other places.
For more info about the movie, including where it is playing visit the web site: http://www.whatalicefound.com/
