El beso de las buenas noches

I watched this on my betamax last night again. The opening credits and music is fuzzy and lo-rez, wholly impressionistic. I am not one for expensive special effects, nor demanding of a well-crafted story or skillful acting. This movie just gives me a warm feeling, and at some level I think that's all it sets out to do. Uma is scintillatingly beautiful, ala '88 makeup trend at the time. This was the first movie I ever saw her in - before she became known - and I fell in love with her androgynous look immediately. Buscemi shows up, as well as a great cameo by east village music master Arto Lindsay (Ambitious Lovers) as a cab driver. Everything looks exactly the way it did in NYC '88, down to the horribly trashy dive clubs. If you watch movies for a certain feeling, you'll enjoy this one. If you watch movies in order to wax poetic like a fluke critic, then move on to some Oscar list.

If you're an AVID Uma fan, or have interest in the New York No Wave scene in the 80's, than this flick is..... well..... just OK. You can see why Uma became a successful actress. In this film she had nothing to really do and she still pulls out a decent performance. Steve Buscemi makes a pretty depressing appearance as a washed up musician. Paul Dillons acting was absolutely horrible. Skronk guitarist, Arto Lindsay, makes a creepy cameo as well. The soundtrack is avant Gard and makes an awkward yet fitting mood to this "film". Overall, It's just amateur film-making with known actors, bad lighting and no real flow to the story.

Where to start? Extremely poor lighting-most of the time you couldn't tell what was going on. The actors' are hidden in shadow the majority of the time. It's like someone shot the movie in their unlit basement at midnight. Didn't someone at least have a snakelight or something?

The dialogue is pitiful, mundane and the movie plods along at a molasses pace. You spend most of the movie wondering "what just happened?", and trying to figure out one scene while it moves on to the next.

The editing is choppy. You'll see characters go into one location, no explanation as to why there there, and then in next scene they're at a different location. It gives the editing job done on "Plan 9 From Outer Space" a run for it's money. Finally, to top it off, Paul Dillon's unibrow is incredibly distracting.

I'd skip this movie. My roommate bought it for $1.99 and it wasn't worth that much.

This was Uma Thurman's first feature film, and she started her acting career right at the very bottom. She is youthful and attractive in this film, but that's all the film has going for it. It is utterly dreadful. Very, very amateur. Thurman plays a femme fatale who goes on dates with middle-aged wealthy men, and then drugs them and steals their money. Meanwhile, a deranged guy who owns a rabbit is obsessed with her. That's about it. Steve Buscemi appears briefly. The other character is played by Paul Dillon (brother of Matt). Strictly for staunch fans of Uma Thurman only; and even if you are one, beware.

....or "dreary thriller", maybe. You see, this flick begins like a low-key drama (some scenes, like Dillon's meeting with Buscemi, have a documentary-like feel that reminded me, believe or not, of Andy Warhol), then turns into a straight slasher thriller. Uma Thurman makes a promising acting debut, however - and am I wrong to believe that Dillon is Matt's identical twin? (He even acts like him). (*1/2)