Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

COMME UNE IMAGE / LOOK AT ME (2004)

Agnès Jaoui is a French actress who occasionally directs, to scripts from hubby Jean-Pierre Bacri. This one got a Cannes writing award and, ergo, the most Stateside attention. It’s another French Comedy of (Bad) Manners amongst the sort of low-level intellectual types you might click past on some book/chat show. Specifically, a damp, middle-age novelist and the unhappy/unwieldy daughter who’s so resigned to acting out toward the self-centered, narcissistic clan she lives with that she drives away a decent guy who’s trying to break thru her defense mechanisms. Nothing wrong with that set-up. And the milieu of writers at various stages of their careers, hangers-on, and (here’s something new) a voice teacher and some of her singing students, make you bend over backwards to give the film a chance. But after a while, you realize that everyone in the film is like that guy (or gal) at a party who's looking over your shoulder while talking to you, hoping to spot someone more interesting/more important/better connected to chat up. These opportunistic party-goers come in three varieties: Those who do it but feel bad about doing it; Those who do it without feeling bad about doing it; And those who do it without even realizing that they are doing it. If only Jaoui & Bacri knew that the real shits come out of the first category, the ones who ought to know better. And in a film entirely dependent upon wise & witty observation, this is a fatal blow to our involvement. Especially since Jaoui's lack of visual aptitude leaves the interiors dead on sight. Too bad, a lot of clever perfs go to waste.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: There are too many fine, contemporary French family dramedies going unseen. Olivier Assayas SUMMER HOURS/’08 is a good one to try.

No comments: