Agito Radical

The setup is all too familiar: we have a girl who wonders about life. She has sex, is disappointed in love (always mildly by our measures) and thus "grows up."

Its a persistent fiction that is glued into filmdom and god knows how many lives it has bent.

But as these go, this one isn't as tendentious as the others. I think that's because of the triple narrative structure.

The main narrative is the girl (here Dominique Swain fresh from "Lolita"), who tells us what is going on in her mind. Thhings like "I wish I could grow up." Sometimes her narration is her thoughts in the story rather than over it, such as when she says something polite but is thinking something rude.

The second narrative is the story we see of course. Naturally, all the sex is akin to dreamy cuddling.

The third narrative is embedded in the story, the narrative of incisive rock songs. Indeed, they are rock songs about the very stuff of the story and inspired by the story itself. The three are woven together, each commenting on the other.

Few young viewers will notice, but this is pretty sophisticated storytelling. Even though every thing in it is empty and borrowed, the whole seems much fresher.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

When I saw this movie my last thought after previewing it was: WOW!! Finally, a movie that speaks to everyone who views it, a film that never had one dull moment in its running time! I was so amazed I had to watch it over and over again. I love Dominique Swain after watching this! I thought Sean Patrick Flanery wasn't bad either, even though I hated his character, Todd Sparrow. I liked it how this film was made when all these stars weren't as popular as they are now, like Tara Reid and Selma Blair. The film explores Dominique Swain's character coming out of her shy shell! She goes through all these emotional changes and grows stronger because of them and you really feel she has grown up by the end of the film and she's realized know one should ever use her like Todd Sparrow did throughout the whole movie up until the finale. The movie just relaxes you and takes on Andrea's journey of self-discovery of herself and the movie shows you that with a comedic outlook and I really like that touch. I give this film 8/10 stars! You'll love it like I did!

"he poured his soul into the air and it condensed and dripped into my hands."... huh? Now I have read some other comments about this movie that say it is an accurate portrayal of teenage life. Honestly who has ever thought to them self that someone was pouring their tangible soul into the air. This movie was filled with ridiculous metaphors that were side splitting good fun. It was a pseudo intellectual blowout. The dialogue was unrealistic rambling done so seriously that I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Its directing was so bland and unoriginal that it gave me a headache. I recommend this movie to the misanthropes and debasers of the world who love to see failure.

I didn't read the book & didn't walk in with preconceived notions. Basically a coming of age film about a girl attracted to a fledgling rock star and she falls into the "groupie" mindset & lifestyle for a bit. Nothing epic but everyone plays their part well & it's an entertaining movie.

While the movie has some gaping holes -- I don't buy the Todd Sparrow character for a minute -- it's actually a decent film that I found myself enjoying more than I thought I would. I rented it mainly for Dominique Swain, who I think is underrated, but found myself engaged in the film. The most surprising thing -- who knew Tara Reid could actually act? And what happened? I'm not saying she's Meryl Streep in this, but really, I'd never have guessed she was capable of playing more than the blonde bimbo she's been doing since American Pie.