Imagine I'm Beautiful

In her talk: "What it's like to be a Woman in Hollywood," McDougall Jones begins with a Story & ends with a Revolution, that No Woman (or Man) should miss. (Search for her name on TED.com or in app "TED")

You'll get much more from the watching of this film, if you take just to buzz thru her TED talk.

PS Her talk is also a Call to Action to other Women Filemakers, so - if you, or some1 you know, is one - let them know... It can help increase the # of movies we get to see, about women & made by women, from current near-0 level to (more than 50%, since films done by & about women, as it happens, MAKE MORE $$).

Another reason to be part of this revolution:

20th Century Fox, Paramount have No Female Directors through 2018

(The writer of "Imagine I'm Beautiful" intends to change than, invites you to do what you can to bring this change.)

As I said at the top, viewing Writer's TED talk will add much to your experience of "Imagine I'm Beautiful"

I commend it to you... as a man. ;-)

Naomi Jones wrote and starred in this movie, and it's an amazing accomplishment. You don't have to imagine she's beautiful because she is. I would compare her appearance to Anne Hathaway in "The Princess Diaries" or Rachel in "Glee". But maybe Lana is insecure (maybe this is the reason for the movie's title?) because in an early scene she feels she has to make herself look like a hooker. People with anorexia have a similar problem, thinking they are fat. And whether it is intentional or not, in one scene late in the movie, Lana doesn't look good at all. She could pass for a man dressed as a woman, and she looks older. Maybe it's the lighting.

However, Lana is so nice and considerate of others, always trying to help. Her personality makes me think of a less annoying Rachel. And yet there's always the feeling that she will end up going off the deep end or doing something else crazy. With others, she seems so nice, but alone, there is always the hint Lana has some mental problem. In fact, there's something weird about the editing, like we're always going back to the past in a very brief flashback.

Another great acting performance comes from Katie Morrison. Kate is a very complicated character and not predictable at all. Jones' writing for this character is superior. She seems fine but cynical when we first meet her. Well, of course. She's a typical New Yorker. Not really friendly, but not mean. Yet. Then it turns out maybe she's the insecure one, always depressed, always alone listening to terrible music, drinking, smoking, possibly doing drugs, even suggesting suicide. If she's an artist, her work looks like what kids do at elementary school. She's attractive but not really pretty. Yet. Later on, Lana has a positive influence on her and she shows promise of getting her life back, and at one point she looks beautiful. Not in an overdone hooker kind of way like Lana was earlier. Actually, there is a video on imdb at the time I am writing this and the first image you see is Kate when she looks beautiful. And Kate's ups and downs throughout the rest of the movie could have given us a quality production on its own, without Lana having any problems.

The men who played the boyfriends did a good job, and both were nice. Geoff had the bigger challenge in Kate, but he was patient.

If you're one of these people who likes a film that didn't take the easy route giving us something obvious and formulaic that will bring in audiences and money, but rather something that might get Oscar nominations or some other honor instead, this may be for you. I found the women's relationships interesting if complex, but I prefer my movies to be happier with simpler plots. Maybe simpler isn't the word, but you can have complicated and be more accessible.

There's not much here in the way of good music. There's Kate's loud depressing junk. And there is new age synthesizer as a character is just sitting there not doing much and, to me at least, annoying. I remember one scene that had something pleasant, and that still wasn't my taste. That's not important.

Some creative editing takes place at the end. It's very confusing but effective. We keep jumping back and forth between two scenes so it takes a while to understand what is happening. It doesn't fit a formula I certainly didn't see it coming. It's not ideal, but it's somewhat satisfying.

I guarantee this is not family friendly. Plenty of words get bleeped out. Sometimes it's hard to figure out what's going on. And there is sex and suggestions that sex will happen, and cheating.

This isn't the first movie I've seen that does this, but in the closing credits there is a list of people that are thanked that goes on for days. I can't imagine how all these people played a role in making the movie possible. There are several theater groups on this list. Anyway, the more people who are thanked, the less likely the film is to have been "commercial" or successful.

If I just watch what I get on broadcast TV, sometimes there will be a nice surprise. Surprise, yes, but nice? Sort of.

From the very start of this story you instinctively know it will not end well.

Director - Meredith Edwards and writer - Naomi McDougall Jones worked together so obviously well they created this gem of a film. The two main characters - Lana (Naomi McDougall Jones) and Kate (Katie Morrison) are perfectly cast as the two emotionally needy apartment roommates. - These two characters are the story! - Everyone else in the cast are just support for what is happening and has happened to these two girls.

Lana shows up at Kate's apartment in answer to an ad to rent a room. Kate is bitchy and strange - we don't know why. Lana takes the room and takes pity on the erratic and depressed Kate. The communication between these two girls is difficult and strained. Lana is weirdly compassionate and, we the viewers know there is something up with this girl - we only know she is from Utah and her mother committed suicide. As the story progresses Kate eventually warms to Lana because Lana wants to be helpful. But Lana's behavior becomes more and more intrusive into Kate's life and we can see that Lana is emotionally and socially unstable by her interactions with Kates boyfriend. But Lana's fall slowly brings Kate out of her shell of depression and back to her boyfriend. By the end of the story Kate seems to have given up and is letting Lana control her life. Then suddenly the truth about Lana comes to light.

This film is easy to get involved with and has numerous unexpected twist.

I am big into movies and I love foreign movies and before "Imagine I'm Beautiful" I watched a movie from Argentina, where the central character goes psycho, murderous and complete bananas, and as much as I preach into loving foreign movies,that one was a completed disappointment.

But why I am talking about that when "Imagine I'm beautiful" is centered in New York?

Well both movies go into the human psych, fears, anguishes, and while one gets bloody and weird, the one I am reviewing left me wanting more and thinking for several minutes after the final credit faded away...

What if instead of imposing our fears and despairs unto others, we do the best to change their lives and awkwardly try to make them happy?

Would the world turn for the worse?, no I don't think so, we would be just a bunch of "cuckoos" prancing smiles around and refusing to settle down with reality, bitterness and else.

I don't know if this movie will appeal to everyone but I'd really like to gather some friends around and make this movie the subject of analysis. I identified with this movie because people who know me cannot comprehend why I always smile at the world, even though when implies a little sacrifice of the soul.

As I said before this movie will appeal to those who see the world and the rest of the people in more colors than black and white.

To the producers and actors and everyone involved in the making of this movie: thank you for this soul searching statement about the elusiveness of happiness.

I've first heard about Imagine I'm Beautiful in a TED talk, where the lead actress was very enthusiastically talking about how them girls got together and made a movie against all odds and the male dominated industry in Hollywood. While the story in the TED talk was great, the one in movie wasn't as much. I can see the potential in it and enjoy the fact that is truly a female focused film, but it also had inherent flaws that made it almost boring to me. However, I am glad to report that what I think was not very good had more to do with the production values rather than the flesh of the story. In other words, it was bad in very different places than the movies I've seen recently.

OK, so without spoiling anything, this is a movie about broken women in the predatory city of New York taking comfort in their relationship. There is a twist, too, but it was almost inconsequential. Prepare yourselves for three acts of people being put in situations where they feel things, but don't talk about them, then they start talking about them, then finally they act on them, in a very weird way. So if you are not into life drama, you won't like the film. The acting was very good, though, the scenes felt natural and the only part where I felt the story was falling apart was at the very end. The actresses were beautiful and their characters fresh and complex.

What made the film boring was the pacing, which was slow without actually being creepy. The difference is that a creepy slow pacing is climbing, however little, towards an unseen finale, but this was simply flat. You didn't know what to expect and neither the story or the almost non existent soundtrack hinted that something interesting was going to happen. And then when it finally did happen, it felt extraneous and unrelated to the rest of the film.

Bottom line: I applaud the effort and I imagine that no first effort in spite of established industry was ever going to be brilliant, but it was fresh and it was different and it was good where it mattered. I will now wait for the team to garner more support and learn from this experience and try again and do better.