O Outro Lado de Beverly Hills

It's summer 1976 Beverly Hills. Vivian Abromowitz (Natasha Lyonne) is a teen annoyed at her sudden boob growth. Her father Murray (Alan Arkin) keeps moving the broke family with her, and brothers Ben and Rickey to avoid paying rent. They stay within Beverly Hills limits so the kids attend the better schools. Cousin Rita (Marisa Tomei) has run away from an asylum and uncle Mickey is willing to pay his brother Murray if she could stay with them. Eliot Arenson is the pot-selling neighbor.

Natasha Lyonne is wonderfully awkward. There is some good dysfunction in this family but there is also some bad awkwardness. It's not a movie filled with big laughs. I could do without one particular uncomfortable scene. There is more good than bad in this movie. It's generally filled with good dry humor.

This is a Jewish movie with the missing mom being a really key component. In the scene with Viv looking at the remote figure of the mom with two daughters as they leave to go shopping -- even (or especially) this mom who says big breasts are out of date, and who has provided her daughter with a nose job -- there is clear yearning for and respect for a mother. And in the responsibilities Viv is given and which she takes pretty courageously i'd say, she is a little mother to her family. Cousin Rita Abramovitz, on the other hand, is a female disaster, and Marisa Tomei's performance is spot on. Again, not comic. Human feeling and weakness showing through veneer of sexual energy. Our culture provides for sex first. Sex sells. There's a temporary sense of power, but this is not what people are. And Tomei gets that across. She disentigrates into illness. Elliott the pot dealer is drawn with accuracy and tenderness, recalling people i knew back then and illuminating them for me. The scene that was key for me in this motion picture is the father at his restaurant(with hair on his head in a lovely flashback)dealing with his cook. The meat. Could move the setting from Beverly Hills to the LaBrea tarpits . . . watching living creatures thrash and sink in the black goo of materialism.

Being 17 in 1976, this movie perfectly captured that era's tackiness and lack of direction. It hurt just to look at the clothes and listen to the music.

I found the movie a perfectly realistic change from the overwrought seriousness and cookie-cutter "family" pieces.

I especially liked the dead cat, Rita's "boyfriend", and "It's a building thing."

Evocative, scary [in a PVC-upholstered sofa sort of way], redeeming, honest -- I was laughing through my tears.

The Slums of Beverly Hills is a coming-of-age story from the perspective of a young girl. Vivian, the protagonist, is the pubescent member of a roving band of urban gypsies in 1976 Beverly Hills. The band consists solely of her divorcee father, and two brothers; one older and one younger. They don't roam far, just in the confines of the Beverly Hills school district. They are joined by a rehab-fleeing, neurotic female cousin, who becomes a guide for the young Vivian, leading her through the sexual-emotional vicissitudes of teenagerdom. Very clever, and also very heartfelt, The Slums of Beverly Hills really connected with me. I felt for the family. The acting is top flight and this makes up for some grating story lapses. When in the mood for a comedy I highly recommend this movie.

This was a very pleasant surprise. It's hilarious and nostalgic (especially if you're a woman in her mid-thirties), but also really meaningful and moving. This movie is a highly original and often painfully accurate depiction of female adolescence -- from bras to blood stains.

The whole cast is wonderful. Natasha Lyonne is amazing -- I haven't been so captivated by an actress since I saw Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves." Alan Arkin -- where has he been? -- is wonderful as her father, and Marisa Tomei is outrageous, but not over the top, as her sexy rehab-escapee cousin. Marisa and Natasha are particularly amusing in their scenes together, where they often speak a private language not unlike "ubby-dubby" (remember ZOOM?). The vibrator scene is not to be missed -- you'll never hear "We Got the Funk" the same way again!

I've been very disappointed with a lot of the highly-touted indies of the past few years, but "Slums of Beverly Hills" is the genuine article. I can 't wait to see Tamara Jenkins' next film!