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Reviews
Broken Flowers (2005)
A bit too informal
Dead Man is better.
Now that that's out of the way...Broken Flowers has a welcome low-key quality amidst today's increasingly hyper-kinetic, rapid-edit movies. And that's also the problem: the impromptu feel that puts the viewer at ease also makes the movie feel thrown together. (On this point, Jarmusch was unwise to admit to writing the script in only 2.5 weeks, because BF looks it, and therefore the feat is nothing to be proud of.) It didn't work completely in Coffee and Cigarettes, either, but at least BF is better than C&C. The only Jarmusch movie I've seen in which the quirks work very well is Dead Man.
Which brings up another complaint about BF: some of the "quirkiness" feels forced, like Don Johnston's neighbor, whose daughter Johnston has tea with, and who likes to play amateur detective after a smoke.
Sharon Stone's much-hyped performance is disappointing, mainly because it is not as good as Alexis Dziena's.
Thumbsucker (2005)
Amusing but not great
Thumbsucker almost makes a point.
It is worth seeing for Keanu Reeves' performance alone, as an orthodontist (!) saying lines like "Call upon your power animal." Aside from that merit, there is of course Kelli Garner, one of the more riveting women to appear in movies in recent years.
Unfortunately, Vince Vaughan is wasted and the coming-of-age aspects of the story are undistinguished and typical, and the subplot of the mother's crush on a TV star never quite clicks with the central story. Kelli Garner's character is actually underused, and her interactions with the protagonist brush and fizzle but never really collide to produce any compelling drama.
Domino (2005)
Worst movie I've seen
Even Tom Waits and Christopher Walken couldn't save this from being the worst movie I've ever seen.
Domino plays like the result of a chaotic meeting of a dozen producers. It can't hold a tone, because it never chooses one, and there are no satisfying juxtapositions, only clashes. It almost need not be said that Keira Knightley is not convincing as a tough guy, but there are bigger problems: the pretentious vibe, using a monotonous orange & green palette with everyone smoking cigarettes to look tough; the way-too-long running time; the forced elements that never click; the ludicrous and aloof Afghani subplot; the ludicrous and aloof 90210 subplot/references (comic relief?); the complete lack of satisfaction after viewing the movie...
I'll take a break and say some good things: Walken and Mena Suvari are fine, and even a bit funny. And Keira Knightley's breasts are lovely, except that they too are ruined as she is nauseatingly and all-too clearly portrayed as a sex object from the get-go.
Now that I'm back into negative, here's some more. They had the balls to make the nymphomaniac a Jew. Tom Waits' part is almost a complete waste of ability. (He needs to move out of California and get a better label so he won't need money this badly ever again.) The by-now-routine tactic of playing cheerful music over appalling violence doesn't even work at all, only making the viewer search for the tone.
If you put everything in the spice cabinet together, don't be surprised if it's not good.