Artivels
Undescribable Perfection
Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Kinley
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
gifford86
Slow dancing to a '40s love tune, slow driving to a cemetery 25 years later. A stranger appears at the Shiva, tenderly offering condolences. Pearl's buttoned-down life precludes a relationship with this man. But he persists, with his warm Italian accent, to break down the barriers. Flowers, dinner for her whole family and his, an air-conditioner, a kiss shared while wading in a children's pool, lying beside her in bed to see if they "fit", all culminate in standing before a hippie-Jewish rabbi and a hippie-Catholic priest and saying "I do." In between, others in their lives have their share of problems. Little Sweetpea makes like Superman and tries to dare the Fates, relying on his dead grandfather to save him. Daughter number one, having lost a son, tries on a multitude of roles to survive. Daughter Bibi who hates her nickname, fights her fat battle and her mother battle. Grandma and friend fight each other but end up singing, "Moon Over Miami" together. It's a "happily ever after" movie. In real life there are no guarantees, but "Used People" shows us that, just, maybe, we can make our own happiness.
crhoads-1
This film generally took a pounding by critics despite winning some Golden Globe awards (and we all know how realistic Globe balloting is, right?) but I think this time the forest was hidden by the trees. Yeah, there have been better "quirkey family" movies, but it has become so unfortunately rare that an adult movie makes it to the screen that we should step back and at least enjoy the view. And that view holds some of the cinema legends of our time supported by future legend potentials. "Letting-go-to-move-on" movies are many. But this one gives it to you in different and very human ways. There's no guarantee that things will be easy. The air conditioner Joe (Mastroiani) gives Pearl (MacLaine) is new but doesn't work right away because..."Joe never used it...he just let it sit in the basement". Beginning again takes work; is not always easy; and is made all the more difficult when the "new" beginning is the one we should have initially taken all too long ago. When Pearl sifts through her dead husbands clothes you feel the certainty in her unhappy marriage as much as the certainty in her staying regardless. The others in the cast, from Jessica Tandy on down, are tales simply and often told, and would have been diminished if given more layered or complex characterizations. Here we again see that life's answers are simple. But if they were really that simple we'd all have them. It takes each other to find them before it's too late.
theladydragonfly
Admittedly, I LOVE films about relationships. Perhaps this is because I am a therapist.This film is not only about finding love, but also about waking up to love that is already there. The characters grow and change in this film and if it seems uneven, this may be why. When the character of Pearl tells us early on that she never did anything she wanted in life, you doubt her ability to break away from her old life, but break away she does, carrying her mother, daughters and grandchildren with her.This film has a happy ending, but it is not all neatly tucked away in pretty packages. If you like films that say something, try this one on for size. Films of similar flavor are "Wrestling Ernest Hemingway" "Harold and Maude" and "Moonstruck" .
niel
How bad could a movie be with such a cast? Well, used people is very bad! For one thing the charactors are all charicatures. Not that good actors can't play charactors that are not like themselves, they can. But such acting talent could not overcome stereotypes of New York Jews. Not only are their accents terrible but the dialog is awful too.
