Dawn_Assayas

It's the year of rutting apparently. Big name acclaimed directors are making B films - Refn's Only God Forgives and Shrader's The Canyons but the works are alive with cinematic life.

Let's not be snooty about the specifics of how a film was made or who is in it or who made it. If any of that influences your opinion, it is prejudice. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and watch the film and then form your opinion.

The script by noted misanthropist Bret Easton Ellis is actually pretty good as it lays out a web of lies and deceit that swirl amongst its compact and well defined set of characters. All are extremely vapid and soulless, all of these people have sold their souls, they are the so called "Hollywood" people that this film wanted to satirize and the film at least successfully nails the inhumanity or the disconnection that can entrenched in people when they suffer from ennui. Think Michangelo's L'Avventura but without a PHD degree.

At the center of this web, we have a genuinely sympathetic turn by Lindsay Lohan who gives a strong performance as a lost soul who at least had a shred of decency that the other characters lacked.

James Deen, the porn star, is actually used for his acting and delivers a dead eyes performance not unlike that of Christian Bale in American Psycho. He's another one of Ellis grade A psychos.

Perhaps surprisingly, another lead emerges in the film in the form of Nolan Funk who also gives a good performance as the other lost soul caught in this unwilling game of cat and mouse.

The direction is strong and the film is indeed well shot and credibly performed. There is a looseness about the enterprise that befits the picture and I am sure is entirely intentional. There is almost a reluctance in the film-making for tightness or neatness and perhaps a rigorous embrace of casualness that some people might mistake for amateurish film-making.

A tight and perhaps what is called an A picture could be made out of this - it would have higher production values and a bigger name cast, but that would be besides the point - THAT would have been ordinary. In its current form is the film truly what it wants to be, a completely non precious portrayal of an industry and culture in the grip of vapidity and mental shutdown.

The resolution of the script didn't quite please me but as the film stands, the film is competently made and absolutely worth your time.

I loved this film. This glorious film is moving and hilarious by turns as it narrates the misadventures of a troop of five aging American burlesque dancers(they are actual strippers all making their motion picture debut) and their acerbic manager (Amalric in perhaps the performance of his career) as they tour France with their risqué show.

The dialogue which includes English spoken around the 5 American performers and French for the rest of the characters is realistic and witty. The screenplay is very loose and allows for lots of digressing interludes which are endearing. There are many burlesque acts shown in full in the movie and they are very entertaining.

The movie is bawdy with the dancers often behaving in a loud crass way and of course there's plenty of nudity, on stage and off stage, but the entire film and its performances are just so genial and ingratiating that you can't help but have a good time at the cinemas.

ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.