Undescribable Perfection

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A rather bland film with various strong points. First off, the pretty pictures of the posh side of New York are nice to watch. Dominique Swain is not a great actress, but still in every film she displays an attractive cuteness, and beside her there are plenty more pretty schoolgirls to be enjoyed (some of them even went on to do more well-known stuff). The late Brad Renfro plays another troubled teen, and even funny man Scott Thompson pops up in a serious role. Then there are quite a few elements in the story that make for some spicy drama-ingredients, that might well have really worked...But as I said before, there is a blandness to all of it that keeps me from going really under in this teen tale of... well, teen stuff gone bad, basically. It does have its moments, and at those moments that blandness has a sort of stilled quality to it, but it altogether stays unconvincing. And then the voice-over... pretty much totally unnecessary, sounding much like 'dear diary'-entries.5 out of 10, and that's me being generous.

Some girls just wanna have fun. Some girls just want some attention. Christina Wayne writes and directs this gritty drama that indirectly ends a small-time, but expensive crime wave. Cat Storm(Dominique Swain is an attractive teen that craves more attention, love and respect than she is getting. Her best friend Delilah(Bijou Phillips)is expelled from an all-girls private school. Cat becomes infatuated with a boy that gathers before school at the same corner every morning. She finally gets William(Brad Renfro)to notice her; and he tries to initiate her to the rich set with its drugs and sex. Ms. Storm goes from outcast to being just tolerated. The handsome William is popular and easy to create trouble, which seems overlooked for he seems stinking wealthy...but no one seems to know how he comes about his money. Not actually a coming-of-age flick; but a look at how wealth influences teen behaviors. Also starring: Mischa Barton, Lacey Chabert, Jacob Pitts, Michael Murphy, Alberta Watson and Nora Zehetner, who I found the most impressive of the cast.

For me this movie is about losing things and being lost. And it makes the observation that when you're lost you can end up losing things that you didn't know you had much less that you wanted to keep. Cat (Dominique Swain) doesn't know who she is, which ironically doesn't keep her from not liking who she is. And in the people around her -- family and friends, adults and peers -- she finds varying amounts of belonging, rejection, hope, and disillusionment. In other words, Cat is just 17 in a way that should be familiar to us.That's one of the strengths of Christina Wayne's quiet, mature film is the feeling of verite. I've never been young and rich in NYC (or near-rich, or formerly-rich, or trying-to-keep-up- with-the-rich) but Wayne's portrait seems so detailed it makes me really curious to know if she has been. Far from being "Just another spoiled rich kids film - _Kids_ meets _Metropolitan_!" Wayne shows us Cat trying to "fit in" and a diverse number of reasons -- from financial to social to emotional to behavioral -- why you can cast out of this insular, cannibalistic sub-culture. Another strength is Wayne's direction and writing. The film is well-constructed with strong characters, with images and (Yeah, I'll say it ...) motifs that appear once and then quietly reappear in different contexts. And all throughout Wayne shows a really nice eye for pictures. Plus she's got really good people doing good work. I mean, everyone is in this movie: Swain, Renfro, Phillips, Zehetner, Chabert and Barton (before they had to try to be smoking hot), Scott Thompson of _Kids in the Hall_ fame. She even gets Melanie Griffith to do a walk-on.One thing the film has going against it is the marketing. Looking at the trailer and the film poster, it's clear that Lions Gate or whoever didn't know how to pitch this film. It seems like they wanted it to be naughtier or rowdier or ... brighter than it is. But it's not a melodrama. There are no simple heroes and villains, no moralizing on right and wrong, no suspense- ridden plot. It's the type of character-based, even, sad, dramatic storytelling that seems to go down better in Canada that here in the States. I like it, though. If you've got a quiet morning and some time, it deserves a try.

"Tart" is a good illustration of old the Yogi Berra saying: "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up someplace else". Writer/Director Christina Waye (in her first feature) has managed to make a $3 Million movie that ends up someplace else. "Tart" is either a coming of age story devoid of characters that a rational person can connect with, a black comedy without any humor, or a sexploitation movie without anything that is particularly sexy.Unlike the standard Swain film, "Tart" actually employed a competent and experienced production designer. Good enough to provide two extremely nice shots: the scene of Swain and Barton taking a bubble bath together and the scene of Swain in the park-featuring a nice montage of the "Alice in Wonderland" sculpture. The symbolism incorporated into these elements supports the possibility that Waye (despite the absence of a linear logic or unity of tone) actually has some visionary talent and aspirations for making a quality film. It is even possible that Waye was trying for a fusion of the somewhat expressionistic "Metropolitan" and the camp classic "Cruel Intentions" which also deal with the Manhattan upper class. There are many camera shots framed by windows and doors yet few tight shots of faces and eyes. The former technique hinting at symbolism and the latter at intentional distancing from the characters and their motivations. "Tart" seemed on the verge of veering into camp territory at least twice and would have been well advised to keep going in that direction. First there was the scene where they try to dump the seemingly deceased Swain into the garbage chute. Then there is the whole bit about her father being Jewish (played to the same extreme as Joel Grey dancing with the Jewish guerrilla in "Cabaret"). In her other films Swain's acting technique is to overwhelm each scene in which she appears (insert scenery chewing here) but in "Tart" she actually shows an ability to restrain herself. This is the best performance of her career. It also provides some clues about her physical deterioration from willowy super cute in "Girl" to hulking lumpy-faced in "Pumpkin". This transformation was about half-complete by the time she made "Tart"; so go the ravages of time. Mischa Barton ("Sixth Sense's" I feel better girl) and Lacey Chabet are excellent in supporting roles. The rest of the cast is simply horrible, although some of the blame for this should go to Waye's script and direction.