The Theory of the Leisure Class (2001) Poster

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2/10
what a mess
SnoopyStyle17 January 2004
It is unimaginable how this film won anything at a film festival. Apparently it did in the "New York International Independent Film Festival". I would hate to see the losers.

The dialogue is unsteady. The story is chaotic at best. It's hard to say whether the problem is the acting, or the lines the actors are forced to say. For an independent movie, the entire film seems fake and superficial. Do not waste you time.
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9/10
A good little treat
willowrose248 August 2010
As an avid movie collector myself, and a huge fan of indie films, this movie kept my attention and was interesting to watch. If you're the type that sits down to watch a movie to be entertained, this movie might, or might not, do it for you. But if you're the type that sits down to watch a movie because you're intrigued with everything that goes into making movies (not just the script, not just the acting and not just the way it looks on your screen. But the editing, the directing, the cinematography and so on) I think you'll find this one as quite the little treat.

It has a good mix of both dramatic moments and comical moments and the best part was how bizarre those moments came together. It's definitely not a dark comedy or even a "dramady". But rather it's more like a story about possible evilness with funny parts in it.

The actors in it did a brilliant job. I got caught up in the characters and it was well worth my time sitting to the very end!
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Commercialize Life (spoilers)
vertigo_1422 July 2004
Warning: Spoilers
The Theory of the Leisure Class is taken from a title from a book written in the 1960s about the extreme commercialization of life that would render everything trivial. This movie explores that theory in a very strange context, as the background for a murder mystery.

This movie is a very strange and low-budget film that seems kind of stupid at first. Two women are in a bar (...and wait till you hear the punchline), one is a reporter and the other one, Callie, is narrating a flashback, which becomes our story. Remember, that these are her version of the events.

Callie is a pretty sick woman who conspires to murder to her husband, convinced that he is fooling around on her, but never investigating her hurried assumptions. Her crime is pretty flawed, and she's not very good at covering up her tracks. But then again, it doesn't seem to matter.

The story is so odd, and at the same time, so eerie, because everyone around her is so jaded that it is like, despite the viciousness of her crime, no realizes how wacked out this woman is, or how dangerous she is. Everyone is so wrapped up in exactly nothing important, and it seems to be eating away at their brains.

As a pretext to the movie, you might want to read 'The Theory of the Liesure Class,' which as I recall, is not that long. It's not entirely surprising that this theory developed out of the 1960s, considering the writings of the school of Socialist thought of Adorno and Horkheimer were addressing this issue already by the 1930s (that commercializing life would be to trivialize everything). To mix it with a murder plot is quite interesting, and quite creepy considering it's all based on a true story.

Being that it is so low-budget and everything, there are some displeasing elements of the film. For one thing, everything is so damned dark, and often hard to hear as people enter that typical whisper mode of delivery. The acting isn't so fantastic, either, though you'll probably recognize a few familiar faces (i.e. Brad Renfro and Christopher MacDonald). It's not a movie for everyone.
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