kentashcraft

I'll admit up front that I would gladly watch Chloe Grace Moretz read the phone book. I consider her the greatest actress of her generation, with a range from here to Jupiter and a colossal screen presence. But that's why I have mixed feelings about her in this role. She's just too damn visually arresting to be believable as an outcast. You can't take your eyes off her, which is normally a good thing, but not for this part. Sissy Spacek (who was 10 years older!) had the kind of rabbity plainness that allowed her to fade into the background when needed. For better or worse, Chloe can't escape her superstar quality.

Julianne Moore's performance is obviously more understated than Piper Laurie's was, which was wise on her part. Piper's performance in the role of the mother was flat-out iconic, and trying to reprise it would have been really risky. Otherwise, I did like the fidelity to the original in the script and dialog.

Of course, as a sad sign of the times, the prom had a DJ rather than a live band like the original.

I'm going to start with the aspect of this movie we all recognize but never talk about - the stereotype of the "Jewish-American princess" (JAP). Scarlett's character of Barbara Sugarman is the personification of every JAP joke, from her conservative sexual preferences to her controlling nature to her upwardly mobile ambitions. Yet despite that and having been given a Jewish- sounding name, which Jon's father even comments on, she is never specifically acknowledged as Jewish in the script. I don't have a problem with portraying stereotypes as long as it's done honestly, but here I think it was a case of doing it while stopping short of admitting it. Sorry, screenwriters, you can't have your PC and eat it too.

Having said that, my assessment of this movie is simply "revolting." How can we like a movie centered on a shallow man's overtly portrayed masturbation addiction? Its one saving grace is the always brilliant Julianne Moore's role as the breath of fresh air in this polluted story. I'm really amazed that Scarlett, who has always chosen her roles wisely in the past and now has her pick of them, would have agreed to do this one. It isn't as if she needed yet another Hot Chick role in her resume.

And the Catholic Church connection did nothing but make Jon's character more disgusting. As a movie, it's a well done realization of a story that I'd just as soon not see.

These are some of the most despicable characters I've ever seen in a film. Not so much because of what they do, which doesn't really hurt anyone much, but because of the kind of people they are - narcissistic, shallow, and morally bankrupt. Born into lives of wealth and privilege, they define their lives by the greed for more wealth and privilege. Their parents might be even more loathsome for nurturing these attitudes, but since they play relatively small roles in the movie we end up hating them somewhat less than their kids.

It's been said that "A story is only as good as its villain is bad." By that standard, this is one great movie. It makes you want to condemn these kids to a hell of poverty, powerlessness, and most of all, absence of attention.