Choose Me

Plot synopsis:
After Mickey is released from a mental hospital, where his stories are perceived as lies, he goes back to Los Angeles in search of a woman named Eve. When he arrives at the bar that bears her name, he is immediately attracted to the new owner, a former call girl also named Eve. She tells Mickey she bought the bar after the old owner killed herself, "over some guy". The bar is a popular spot for patrons looking for one night stands as well as streetwalkers looking for potential johns. Although Eve is also attracted to Mickey, she refuses to commit to any one man, confessing to radio talk show host Dr. Nancy Love that she ruined too many marriages to have one of her own. That night Eve rebuffs Mickey's advances and sleeps with the bartender who has a crush on her, while avoiding the wealthy married man she's been having an affair with.
That same night, Dr. Nancy Love answered Eve's ad for a roommate to share her house, and moves in the next day. Nancy conceals her identity and begins to observe Eve's romantic entanglements even as she counsels Eve through her radio show. When Eve's married lover, Zack, calls looking for her, Nancy asks penetrating questions and begins dispensing relationship advice, despite the fact that she herself has been unable to maintain a successful relationship. Zack in turn resumes his pursuit of Eve, although his wife, Pearl, has begun to haunt Eve's bar hoping to catch him with her, unbeknownst to Eve.
Mickey comes back to the bar the next night when he is unable to pay for a bus ticket home to Las Vegas. Pearl asks his opinion of a poem, and when she argues his interpretation Mickey reveals that he taught poetry, as well as being a photographer and a former soldier. Eve is intrigued but cool, and Mickey leaves when Pearl offers to get him into a hot card game where he can get the money for a ticket home. When she drops him off, Mickey kisses Pearl and asks her to marry him, but she just laughs, calling him crazy, although she invites him to drop by her place, and gives him Eve's address and phone number. At the game Mickey wins big, earning the ire of Pearl's husband Zack. Zack warns Mickey not to come back, before he goes to meet Eve, but Eve in turn sends Zack away, telling him their affair is over.
Mickey goes to Pearl's apartment to crash, and when he wakes up begins taking pictures as she sleeps. She is just waking up when Zack walks in, still stinging from Eve's rejection, and he attacks Mickey, pulling a gun and taking back the money he lost. He slaps Pearl after Mickey runs out, assuming they slept together. It is implied that Zack frequently abuses Pearl emotionally and physically and perhaps she was hoping to catch her husband with Eve so she could finally have an excuse to divorce him.
Mickey calls Eve's house, and when Nancy answers pleads to come over and crash, hanging up before he realizes who she is. When he arrives Nancy tells him Eve isn't home, and while he is confused he welcomes the chance to bathe and eat when she allows him in. She snoops in his suitcase while he bathes, finding memorabilia showing the truth of his stories and travels. As he eats they talk about Eve, but sensing her loneliness he sweeps her into bed, then asks her to marry him and go with him to Las Vegas. Nancy laughs, but tells him she doesn't believe he's crazy. Then she tells him to leave before she goes to work.
Eve calls into Nancy's radio show from the office above her bar, torn between her attraction for Mickey and her fear of making another mistake. Nancy's post-coital euphoria overcomes her normal intellectual approach, and she encourages Eve to give in to, rather than resist, her feelings. So when Mickey comes looking for Eve that night, she is almost ready to give in when Zack appears and assaults Mickey again. Eve takes off while they are fighting, and when she gets home is suddenly confronted by Nancy, who tells her everything. Eve is devastated when Nancy proposes that they "share" Mickey's affection, and she tells Nancy she can have him, before rushing out.
Mickey goes back to Eve's house to recover his suitcase, and Zack finds him there and assaults him again. But Mickey prevails, recovering the money and leaving with his suitcase. He tries to cadge a ride to the bus station but spies Eve on the roof of the bar, and races up to see her. She pulls a gun and threatens to kill herself until he does the same; then she breaks down and they embrace.
Soon they are on a bus, on their way to Las Vegas, and when a fellow passenger asks if they are gambling, Eve says you could call it that - they've just been married.

Tags: absurd, psychedelic, neo noir, romantic, melodrama

Review:
The story is overloaded with allusion, and the actors all render brilliantly nuanced performances inside characters that bristle with sexual energy and conflict.Geneviève Bujold, as Dr. Nancy Love, is adept at giving radio talk show advice to her listeners, but cannot interact with people in real life.
Her vulnerability blossoms like a rose as she gets caught up in the lives of her new roommate and her lovers.Keith Carradine plays Mickey, who may or may not be a compulsive liar, but can often substantiate the wild boasts with which he regales anyone who will listen.
He is deviously seductive, literally, and his ability to weave truth and lies into a delicate web ensnares and at the same time repulses the women he meets.Lesley Ann Warren, as Eve, is a former hooker who owns a bar she just had to buy because it had been named for another Eve, who provides a connection to Mickey, maybe.
We want people to accept us as we present ourselves to them, but we demand of those we would care for that we see their inner selves.Rae Dawn Chong and John Larroquette head up a sterling supporting cast, but Bujold, Keith and Warren are dead solid perfect in their fragile and complex portrayals.
This is one of my all time favorite films, and if you notice that it has a decidedly Altmanesque feeling, it's because director Alan Rudolph was, in fact, an early protégé.
The scenes featuring Rae Dawn Chong aren't so special...(she's the weakest link)...but the scene where Bujold chats with Carradine after sex while getting dressed for work, the scenes with Dr. Love on the radio, the scene where Warren comes home from work to find that her roommate has stolen her boyfriend...these all have an immediate, bittersweet quality that's very haunting.
Twisted and weird yet it never exceeded my ability to believe.Too bad only 300 people ever saw this film.
Genevieve Bujold plays a radio relationship talker, Dr. Love.
Keith Carradine is a drifter who enters their lives...and things go barreling out of control.Very strange but great movie.
It's shot mostly at night in beautiful film noirish settings (look at all the smoke in the bar and at a card game).
Best of all is Bujold in a very difficult role--she has the play a sex radio therapist who is perfectly in control and a woman who has NO control over her life and loves.
Rae Dawn Chong is pretty good in a supporting role--love her apartment (check out the posters on the wall).
Patrick Bauchau is pretty bad in another supporting role--but not enough to destroy the movie.Direction by Alan Rudolph is great.
He bathes many scenes in red lights and I LOVE how the camera moves back and forth during a conversation between Bujold and Carradine.
The principal characters interact in simultaneously theatrical and believable fashions, and Genevieve Bujold as the crazy "Doctor Love" is simply irresistible.
If you like a film with continuous contrasts and quirky ensemble cast, this is the movie for you.
Good writers, production and cast, Nice year for this fast movie, set the path, so to speak..
A good Alan Rudolph movie.
I always liked Lesley Anne Warren who, along with Keith Carradine, Genevieve Bujold, Rae Dawn Chong and an early John Larrouquette provide some good performances.
If you're into character driven movies I think you'll like this one..
This movie holds a special place for me because I consider it to be my first "adult" film.
Genevieve Bujold and Lesley Ann Warren play them with style.Pepper it with characters make this movie a light treat.
What male viewer wouldn't want to be like the main protagonist, Keith Carradine's character?
The writer/director gets full marks for interesting characters and a story that twists and turns in on itself, but now comes the challenge of making it cohesive and comprehensible.
I feel the casting was very good, but the performances are often stilted, like what you might find in a high school production.
Alan Rudolph has a quirky sensibility that makes all his movies worth watching once, but the pieces usually seem not to fit quite right.
Lesley Ann Warren's usual metier is the TV movie, but it's hard to imagine someone better in this role.
when his films don't "work", which is a little better than half the time, it is like poor altman...the debts are too obvious and the deficits as well.
but when the mystical alchemy of such a loose, character-driven structure do come together, such as in this film, the result is peerless (even when one of the peers in question is altman, one of the best directors the world has ever produced).
choose me has a plot, rife with conicidence, fit for a screwball comedy but its tone, and the charcters in it, wander through it each in his/'her own romantic/personal reverie and the machinations of the plot seem less like a constructed device and more, as keith carradine's mickey states at on point, "just like a dream".carradine, genvieve bujold, lesley anne warren, patrick bachau and rae dawn chong populate this world, each sad, each lonely and each bearing a burden of loss and pain, meeting and making love, and attacking (sometimes violently) as if according to some inner romantic logic only they hear.
red neon, teddy pendergrass, rain-slicked streets at 2am, a first, unexpected kiss, old movie posters, tough guys bested by tougher guys, an unending cascade of full red, hair, a sudden gunshot and an ending as weird and uncertain as love itself followed by the smile of one who, against all logic succumbs to hope.
My mother loves Bob Hope monologues and says Jerry Vale has a beautiful voice.I'm not bringing this video over to my mom's house for movie night.
The dialogs are so direct, some of them are sharp as a knife, and a soundtrack full of soul and jazz complete this puzzle.The starring trio have true chemistry: Leslie Ann Warren and Genevieve Bujold (two of the most attractive women at the time of the movie) and charismatic Keith Carradine are just great.PS: Strangely enough none of the actors of "Choose me" are popular nowadays in Hollywood.
I loved it so much I sat through it twice that night, and came back a few nights later and sat through it twice again.This film works for me on so many levels I can't fully describe it, but I definitely identified (and still do, to be honest) with Keith Carradine's Mickey.
Chong and Bujold are appealing (especially the latter) and Leslie Ann Warren has never been better.Rudolph and Carradine have at least one connection, by the by--the both worked on "Nashville"..
Alan Rudolph's second best film (just after Welcome to L.A.) is a jazzy mood piece with romance, rhythm, superior acting and a driving force behind it.
Genevieve Bujold at her most vulnerable and intelligent, Leslie Ann Warren, with real sex appeal and moxy, Keith Carradine his most relaxed since Nashville, Rae Dawn Chong peppy, flirty, and valuable with T.P. music letting them all ride down that street of Eve's Bar.I don't know anyone who's seen this who didn't dig it.
And by that I mean not only are the cast good looking (remember John Larroquette as a young man?) but the entire film looks nice.
I suppose like most persons who access IMDb, sometimes I want simply to get some information on a movie, title or principal.
One was made by "budmassey" more than 4-1/2 years ago, and is probably one of the best reviews of a film - professional or amateur, lengthy or brief - I've ever seen.If anyone happens upon this one, please look at his.
I agree with him totally - and this film truly encompasses ALLUSION, NUANCE and SEXUAL ENERGY (without any prurient aspects for the latter) as well as any piece of entertainment, ever.Keith Carradine and Lesley Ann Warren are two of the most talented, interesting and engaging actors I've ever seen - and I have enjoyed each one's performance in any film or television production I've seen.Genevieve Bujold and all of the picture's remaining cast are also outstanding, and in addition to "budmassey"'s adjectives, I'd add that this film, throughout, is one of the most ENGROSSING you'll find..
This dark smoky film noir is one of those romantic bedroom farces where everyone ends up sleeping with each other at least once in their search for love and fulfillment, while a saxophone wails jazzy riffs in the background.Irony is in this movie's constant embrace.
Add postmodern touches like referential film posters at Pearl's place, the appearance of Ed Ruscha-famous ironic painter-and you've got Alan Rudolph's best picture.
Viewers who are fans of Titanic and made-for-the-masses, fat part of the bell curve movies are likely to miss the subtle, internal drama, the kind that adults experience, that is going on when there appears to be nothing going on in Choose Me.
I have seen this film several times over the last 18 years, and I found myself recommending it today.
Genevieve Bujold excels in a very complex performance, again, Lesley Ann Warren is quite touching and convincing as a tough-acting ex-prostitute who refuses to be a victim and Keith Carradine is perfect as the smooth-talking, smooth-acting center of attention.
The Highly-stylised sets, the caressing and dreamy music and the recurrent use of the radio as a medium for communication (which allows Rudolph to use the actors' voices to good effect in a number of situations) make this movie a truly original piece of work.
Although my wife really enjoys this movie, I have watched it with her on tape twice now and despite many people really loving this film, I can't stand it.Although the actors are good, somehow the dialogue and character behavior is almost always unnatural, the characters are unidimensional in that everything is about sex or some juvenile understanding of love, and it is very slowly paced, with long pauses between lines.
For these reasons, it seems like a porno movie minus the sex scenes.
If you enjoy it for whatever reason (the 1980s nostalgia or Teddy Pendergrass music are good reasons), great, but if you don't, don't think you are "not getting" anything..
It plays out like a poorly-directed student film, with the actors and actresses trying to portray complex people, and missing badly.
(In fact, the only person in this film who does a nice job is Keith Carradine.) Couple this with production values from a 1970's sitcom, and you have nothing less than two hours of your life lost forever..
The characters were mostly uninspired, broken, and sparsely developed; the plot was simple, boring, and overdone; the 'artsy' characteristics of the film weren't touching, clever, or interesting; and the cinematography wasn't appealing.I felt like I was thrust into a mid-80's MTV street dance video full of mentally-undeveloped, childishly-simple personas who couldn't believe they were who they are.
They include a radio host (Bujold,) an escaped mental patient (Carradine,) an owner of a nightclub (Warren,) her married lover (Patrick Bauchau,) and his bored wife (Chong.) All these characters cross paths constantly.
It makes this already boring movie even harder to watch.
I am a fan of Genevieve Bujold and try to see her films.
In one love scene, Geneviève Bujold is stiff as a bored, then for about 30 seconds she moved (I'm sure the director told her to do something, ANYTHING) followed by more stiffness.The movie seemed dated even for its time.
It was released in 1984, but seemed to be more like a 70s porn movie...without the sex..
one scene has two characters trying to talk, not quite able to say or even think what they want, with their halting words punctuated by a song on the car radio, "choose me choose me".one of my two or three all time favorites..
This movie, as surreal as it is, riffs on so many truths about men, women, sensual desire, and conflict between and within the sexes, that any thinking adult can't help but be drawn into the highly detailed set pieces.There were so many additional personal references in this film, that I wish everyone could share in the many shocks of recognition this gives me.
My first art house movie experience was seeing 'The King Of Hearts' at Vanderbilt University, where a young Genevieve Bujold melted my heart.
I once sat leaning against a tree on a hillside by the Nashville Speedway's parking lot at Fair Park, getting buzzed and watching Teddy Pendergrass conduct his mostly female audience like a God. They swayed, moaned, and shrieked on command, completely under his spell.I love this movie, and find something new to enjoy every time I watch it..
a little disconcerting to rate a movie#1 and I think top 10 lists are like.
It's veryantiromantic or anti hollywood romance tradition in its wisdom tosuggest that love isn't a matter of finding "the one"  as keithcarradine says in the movie "there might be plenty of other peoplewho would fit the bill but we're here and they're not" it's about 2people making a decision to lose it for each other .
I remember being one of only 20 people in the movie theatre watching this film upon it's release in 1984.
This, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated love stories ever filmed.
The movie has so many twists and turns that your neck feels as if your watching an excellent tennis match.Genevieve Bujold, one of my favorite actresses in the 1970's gives a tour de force performance.
She deserved a best actress nod, and in my opinion the Oscar for her performance.Lesley Ann Warren, one of the best actresses in the 1980's , was so good that you actually feel her angst and pain.
His performance deserved a supporting nomination.Lastly, John Larroquette is the biggest surprise of the film.
He deserved a supporting actor nomination for his amazingly tight performance.The critics should be tarred and feathered for ignoring this film.With this stated, director Alan Randolph knows what it is like to be ignored by both the critics and the academy.
When I watched Choose Me, I became instantly involved, but seeing this film gave me a secret hope that there existed an even greater love than I had yet known.
The film is based on three complex characters: Eve (Leslie Ann Warren), Mickey (Keith Carradine) and Nancy Love (Geneviève Bujold) whose love lives strangely intertwine, except they don't know it.
Dr. Nancy Love is a radio talk show host that gives relationship advice to her faithful listeners but her character demonstrates a clear inability to translate all that knowledge and genuine common sense into meaningful relationships with people in the real world.
One of the other greater attributes to this film is that the entire soundtrack is exquisitely done by Teddy Pendergrass and each and every song is smoothly seductive and lyrically evocative of the desperation of all three of the characters.
Some find love, some find that love isn't about staying in relationships that don't offer real connections outside other than temporal ones and some learn that in order to really live sometimes you just have to allow yourself to give in.I suppose what moved me most about Choose Me was its off-beat sensibility, passion and tenderness that the director, Alan Rudolph brought out of the actors and the storyline.
The last person stated they wanted the movie to never end.
What's that about?In this movie Genevieve Bujold is mousy and unattractive and has clothes and haircut like a boy.
just even MORE unattractive!Lesley Anne Warren, on the other hand, can act, is gorgeous, has a great figure, and can really wear clothes and walk in high heels - watching HER makes up for all the rest of the nonsense in this film!
Rudolph's earlier, 'Remember my Name', is actually a MUCH better film.
And in the midst of it, we have this hypnotizing creature both as the actress and the character, in fact one gets the feeling that the relationship between the woman and her character(s) is much like the relationship between Ann and Dr. Nancy Love.
Neurotic Nancy (superbly played by Genieve Bujold) gives advice to the lovelorn in Los Angeles over the airwaves of her popular radio program under the guise of husky-voiced talk radio host Dr. Anne Love.
Nancy rents a room from sultry bar owner Eve (a marvelous performance by Lesley Ann Warren), who doesn't know that Anne is Dr. Love.
The uniformly first-rate acting from a tip-top cast constitutes as another substantial plus: Bujold, Warren, and Carradine are all wonderful in the leads, with sterling support from Rae Dawn Chong as frustrated would-be poet Pearl Antoine, Patrick Bauchau as Pearl's smooth heel husband Zack, and John Larroquette as smitten bartender Billy Ace. One of the key pleasures of this smart and sophisticated adult entertainment is the clever, crazy and surprising ways the characters' lives continually intersect throughout the intricate and unpredictable narrative.
(Maybe that kind of sums up the film--a vague story fleshed out with some interesting characters.)  As I rewatched this film, it was like seeing it again for the first time.
(Alan Rudolph who wrote and directed the film and who also worked with Robert Altman on many of his films employs some of the same techniques Altman uses concerning multiple, interconnecting story lines and characters.
Then again, maybe it was Altman who was using Rudolph's techniques.))All the actors do a good job and it's good to see John Larroquette playing a serious role.
(Bujold plays the talk show host (who is incognito) and she moves in with Jennifer's Warren's character.
Warren's character calls Bujold's character on the phone for advice about her love life several times in the film they have several conversations throughout the film.
Too bad that Bujold is not a good enough actress to be able to handle two different accents in the film.)END OF SPOILER