Tart

Betcha my bottom dollar (not that I have any) that Dominique Swain watched MY SO- CALLED LIFE. She channels Angela Chase in her movie GIRL (which I've only seen snippets of) and again, here in TART. She gives us teenage angst, a sense of desolation and despair, to perfection in this outing. And then there is Mischa, lovely as always, as the mean girl, and Bijou Phillips as the wild one.

Problem is, what went into the mix, choice ingredients; but the cake turns out kinda bland. Many of the scenes are far-off, the entire movie is oddly distant. It could have been great, but whoever was at the helm, avoided that achievement skillfully.

Is the movie true to real life, though? I have to concede, yeah. But real life is mostly about as interesting as closed circuit security monitoring on an uneventful day. The movie lacks zing. And please, if your idea of something controversial was the toilet + ice bucket scene, please keep it to yourself.

The director also avoided a nude scene while delivering what the script described. The Bijou Phillips character was supposed to be dancing with her top off, instead it was filmed rather puritanically with just her jacket off. Yeah, that boy would rush out the way he did to go see a girl removing only her jacket. I'm pretty sure the script called for more, but bare flesh was circumvented (for whatever reason, lots of possibilities spring to mind).

All in all, we the viewers, lost out on what could easily have been a much- better experience. This small-budget movie need not have cost much more in order for it to be great. Only a little bit more and it might have been something truly worthwhile. As it is, a weak botched attempt that only shows wasted potential.

On their own, both Dominique and Mischa deserve much better scores. The vague lethargic storyline bogs them down completely. And the title of the movie would be off-putting to the intended audience, while the poster/box design hints at a sexy schoolgirl. Who is that on the poster/box anyway? Totally misleading.

I love movies that almost grasp the reality of a teens life. Though I do enjoy the occasional happy ending, as unrealistic as they are. Tart was real, the boy really screws you over and leaves you heartbroken. 'Chick flicks' have probably a more depressing ending than movies like Tart, because you know you will never find that perfect mate, it gives us false hope and sets us up for disappointment. While Tart is cold, hard, reality. Probably a little more harsh than most of our realities. After watching Tart, you don't think wow that was a great movie because it leaves you with an uneasy feeling. Life isn't rainbows and butterflies, and Tart is a great example of that, what we refuse to see, but its there. Love it or hate it. But I choose to love it.

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.

This is another respectable entry into the genre of the unhappy and unloved teenager, going after a boy who turns out to be no prize, and trying to fit in with her fellow classmates, but how does it find its audience when the title misleads you into thinking its a sex-and-drugs movie, and the video cover misleads you into thinking it's has Melanie Griffith it when she only makes two passing appearances? -- one is her coming out of doorway. Hard to come to the film in the right frame of mind after all the deceptions.

Can someone tell me what is the song title we hear at 50min I have done some researches and couldn't find it even with the lyrics: If the little boy, likes the little girl, he should give her the world to that little girl. Tell her that he loves her, put his arms around her, chase the clouds away. If the little girl, likes the little boy, she shouldn't get upset, she shouldn't get annoyed, if that little boy, takes a little time waking up his heart, making up is mind. Note: it sounds like a song from Leonard Cohen