different strokes... if you know what I mean

Rating: 1/10 (28 November 2002)

There seem to be a lot of people who like this movie. I won't argue taste, but different strokes for different folks, if you know what I mean. I won't claim to have better tastes than the average movie-watcher, but we have a group that meets every Thursday night to watch a movie and talk about it. Initially two people out of eight liked this movie, and one changed her opinion halfway through the discussion, Why are the people who do like this movie so vociferous? In my group, we all decided that it was pretentious because the filmmakers couldn't decide on what to say-- or even if they had anything to say at all. Most of us complained at some point during the movie about it's lack of authenticity. There were several points where we had to actually stop the movie to argue about whether it was worth continuing with. Again, I don't like to say i have better tastes than 90% of the rest of the country, but quite frankly, what is the appeal of this movie among IMDB viewers? Reviewers keep remarking on how much of a genius Richard Kelly is, how great the performances are, and how good the soundtrack is, but what is your basis of comparison? In my group, we finally decided the movie would appeal to persons under 23 years of age who were 6 or 7 years old and heard the music of the film through their older siblings' doors during playtime.