Kiss Daddy Goodnight

I watched this on my betamax last night again. The opening credits and music is fuzzy and lo-rez, wholly impressionistic. I am not one for expensive special effects, nor demanding of a well-crafted story or skillful acting. This movie just gives me a warm feeling, and at some level I think that's all it sets out to do. Uma is scintillatingly beautiful, ala '88 makeup trend at the time. This was the first movie I ever saw her in - before she became known - and I fell in love with her androgynous look immediately. Buscemi shows up, as well as a great cameo by east village music master Arto Lindsay (Ambitious Lovers) as a cab driver. Everything looks exactly the way it did in NYC '88, down to the horribly trashy dive clubs. If you watch movies for a certain feeling, you'll enjoy this one. If you watch movies in order to wax poetic like a fluke critic, then move on to some Oscar list.

If you're an AVID Uma fan, or have interest in the New York No Wave scene in the 80's, than this flick is..... well..... just OK. You can see why Uma became a successful actress. In this film she had nothing to really do and she still pulls out a decent performance. Steve Buscemi makes a pretty depressing appearance as a washed up musician. Paul Dillons acting was absolutely horrible. Skronk guitarist, Arto Lindsay, makes a creepy cameo as well. The soundtrack is avant Gard and makes an awkward yet fitting mood to this "film". Overall, It's just amateur film-making with known actors, bad lighting and no real flow to the story.

....or "dreary thriller", maybe. You see, this flick begins like a low-key drama (some scenes, like Dillon's meeting with Buscemi, have a documentary-like feel that reminded me, believe or not, of Andy Warhol), then turns into a straight slasher thriller. Uma Thurman makes a promising acting debut, however - and am I wrong to believe that Dillon is Matt's identical twin? (He even acts like him). (*1/2)

This film is about a young and attractive woman who lures men and then rob them. She finds her own life is in danger when she ends up in the opposite end of the game.

Even considering that "Kiss Daddy Goodnight" was made twenty years ago, it still seemed more like a college film student effort. The camera work is terrible. There is no consideration into how to make the camera angles and presentation of scenes more interesting. Lighting is terrible. Scenes are either very dark or are poorly lit. I refer to a specific scene where William and Laura talk by the entrance of Laura's apartment. The source of lighting takes no consideration into where light should come from. They just use spotlight to shine onto the two characters' faces. The end result is rather laughable.

The plot could have been promising, but it is not engagingly told. There is simply no suspense or thrill. To sum up, "Kiss Daddy Goodnight" is rather disappointing. If it was not for Uma Thurman, this film would have found no viewers at all.

The only reason I rented this thing: it was the only item in the mystery section of my local video store I hadn't seen. Imagine a bunch of bananas. You choose the most appetizing looking one to begin, then the next most appetizing and so forth. When you get to the last banana, you now have in your hand the one you rejected every single time before, plus it's less fresh now. Do you even want to eat it? The movie is like the last banana. Having passed it over in favor of dozens of other choices over a period of years, I finally watched it and wished I hadn't. Ignore the ad copy. It promises suspense, cat-and-mouse intrigue, but don't all movies of this type make such claims and don't most largely fail to deliver? Well, this one delivers like Canada Post on Xmas, ie. never. There is no suspense, no character interest or visual interest whatsoever, just a shadowy murky look that a film school dropout might mistake for film noir if he wasn't paying very close attention. Uma looks great, of course, but she was 17 when she did this, her first feature, and lacked the experience necessary to light up the screen the way she did just a few years later in Henry and June and Pulp Fiction. Her character is indolent, passive and boring - a mixture of victim and victimizer but not a very rich or interesting mix. Her actions fail to shock when she commits crimes nor is she in any way sympathetic when she is herself in jeopardy. It's a thriller devoid of thrills. Recommended only for insomniacs looking for a quick cure.