Notes from Underground

I loved this movie. It is dark, but well acted and I thought quite hilarious (in a life isn't always so great--I wish I could do that kind of way). Henry Czerny possesses such an intensity, "victim" portrayal and convincing self-hatred; it is not difficult to understand why he acts as he does (even though the past wrongs done to him are vague).

Anyone who has experienced alienation from a group or hating who they are/what they were doing but couldn't stop the compulsion to cease their behavior, will be able to relate and appreciate the dark humor of this film.

I caught it on IFC years ago by accident and my sister and I were both so unexpectedly drawn to the film we could not turn the channel!

Do not walk, run to the video store and rent this movie. Whoever had the idea and courage to bring this vision to screen should have won big awards and big bucks. Special thanks to Sheryl Lee for a great performance.

This film portrays a side of humanity that is never explored by Hollywood because it doesn't make you feel good. Gary Walkow has directed and film for adults that offers a kind of redemption that comes from looking at hard truths.

He's either nuts to create such a movie in the middle of an industry that is busy turning out mindless fare for teen age boys or he's courageous to put out a film where good actors create a mirror that reveals the stain on our modern souls.

Look at the United States, we're becoming a nation of overweight dim wits from a steady diet of junk food and junk movies. Where are the writers and performers working to imagine ourselves into a better future, a stronger vision of who we are?

A handful of them created this film; honor their courage by viewing it.

Ignore the last user, this film is definitely worth the view. As a big Dostoevsky fan and film nerd I remember seeing this film listed on the line up for the Boston film festival and was immediately intrigued.

I'm very picky when it comes to adaptations of books I like, so I was pleasantly surprised with how well cast the film was. Czerny was a brilliant underground man and Lee (better known at that time from her Twin Peaks fame) was a perfect blend of hard and vulnerable. The only casting choice I was somewhat iffy on was Jon Favreau, who was just starting the "Swingers" hype, I just never pictured him to be the right age and sort for the role.

Adapting a book whose entire structure is the monologue ramblings of a conflicted character is not an easy task, but here the film is a perfect blend of snide voice over, action and still manages to convey the spirit of the novel.

I'll always remember the Boston Globe reviewer commenting that he never thought one could put Dostoevsky and comedy in the same thought, but somehow this film had. I agree, though I always knew Fyodor had has witty side.

All in all I was greatly saddened that the film never got a wide release after that, so I never saw it again, pity I'd have dragged all my literary minded friends to it.

When I saw this film, I was aware that it was a retelling of a Dostoyevky story but not one I had read it. I still found it a very enjoyable film, which held my attention the whole way.

The self-defeating, somewhat neurotic protagonist manages to mess up every opportunity of improving his life that comes his way but manages to do so from a position of either moral or intellectual superiority. He justifies logically all his disastrous decisions and questions the sanity of anything he does that is motivated by emotion. He can't see the point.

He vacillates constantly between rejecting everyone around him and craving their love, friendship or forgiveness. Having met the "hooker with a heart of gold" who tidies his flat and, uniquely in the film, shows him respect and love, he drives her away with brutality and insults. In a momentary spell of remorse, he searches for her in the rain-soaked streets and looking back on this act in his video diary asks: "Why did I look for her? If I had found her, I would just have got back with her and tormented her again"

The acting is excellent, the photography tight and claustrophobic, which suits the protagonists tiny world. The editing cuts between his direct contributions to video diary, historical narrative and his flights of fancy at various points. It DID make me want to read the book but I think the film a work that stands up well on its own.

I love this book. It was my bible for years from high school on. Notes From Underground (what happened to the *The*? My text versions always included it) was arguably the first truly modern psychological ontological existential novel, the forerunner to, among other things, Catcher in the Rye & many of Woody Allen's better works.

This movie, on the other hand, comes off as nothing more than a very lame imitation of a Steve Martin routine. The lead even looks like Steve Martin but the ancillary characters are barely cardboard in substance. What should have been wryly & universally satirical simply becomes high-school sophomoric.

A dreadful disappointment.