In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.

Q: it may seem weird to begin a film about glam rock with a sequence that includes a spaceship , a green ovular pin , and the birth of oscar wilde , but if one really strains , they can see that perhaps maybe these connections are not half off .
wilde 's philosophy was that everyone should be true to their own human nature , and the result of his following this philosophy was that he was imprisoned , loosing his family and his career .
the glam rock movement in the early 70s in england had a similar take and came to a similar demise .
the main difference was by placing makeup on their face and acting out on their deepest fantasies and inquiries about life ( mostly dealing with androgony and sexuality ) , they became less and less like themselves and more and more like everyone else .
and that 's why the movement seemed to end as soon as it began .
it 's been said that todd haynes ' " velvet goldmine , " the film that chronicles what it was like to be a part of the movement , not only from those who experienced it but by those who created it , steals a lot from " citizen kane , " and that 's true .
in the film , a british journalist in the 80s , arthur stuart ( christian bale ) , is asked to go back and find out what happened to 70s glam rock star brian slade , a fictitious rock star , who faked his own death on stage , bringing the end not only to his career but to the entire glam rock movement .
structure - wise
, this totally steals from " kane , " not only from the set - up ( he interviews three people , and the story is a result of their flashbacks ) , but in other things , like the beginning ( death , then newsreel ) , and smaller details , like the bitter ex - friend in a wheelchair and the bitter ex - wife as a washed - up lounge singer , found in a bar after hours .
this is no " kane , " and it really does n't aspire to be : it does n't attempt to be the deep outlook of something gone like " kane " did , and it does n't really uncover anything poignant about humanity .
instead , it uses the flashbacks as a form of contrast between the magic that was the glam rock era and the boredom that was life after glam rock for those who were participants .
the 80s scenes are dry and deliriously melancholy , equipped with a performance by bale that is perhaps appropriately dull and unengaging .
but the 70s scenes are engaging , though , not to mention addictively campy .
they radiate with gorgeous cinematography
that nicely accentuates all the vibrant colors of the era , and a feel that 's so eerily lighthearted that when combined with the then - footage , they become not only a symbol of decadence , but of times when everything seemed so simple .
instead of creating the world the way it was , haynes paints their own world as if it were a narcotic fairy tale : the glam rock movement was full of so much freedom and liberation that after you 've experienced it , everything else seems so mundane .
there 's no outside world to speak of , secluding these people inside a protective globe that will eventually crack .
haynes focuses his story on the tale of blade and the other fictitious rock hero , curt wild , and their relationship that created , molded , and then brought down the movement , reducing everyone else who contributed to it as merely that - contributors .
blade - played with reserve by the pouty jonathan
rhys meyers - and wild - played with anarchic wildness by ewan mcgregor - are little more than thinly disguised recreations of david bowie and iggy pop , respectively , complete with the creation of a ziggy stardust persona named maxwell demon and the confirmation that the two rock stars may have
very well not only have been one - time partners in music , but also partners in bed .
through discussions with slade 's ex - manager cecil ( michael feast ) , ex - wife mandy ( toni collette , reinventing herself as an american blonde dish who fakes a british accent when with slade ) , and finally ex - partner wild , journalist stuart begins to remember his own experiences in the era , like his discovery of his rebelliousness cum conformity , including the moment when he began questioning his own sexuality ( when he opens up his first slade record , he finds a naked and green slade lying on a crimson blanket ) , and finally running away from home to be part of the london scene , finally resulting in leading a boring job in america .
haynes demonstrates that he 's quite the visual auteur , molding scenes that are like long heald breaths , such as a seemingly long sequence juxtaposing a slade / wild concert of them performing a brian eno cover , " baby 's on fire , " with scenes from a decadent drug party ; and the film 's most wow - inspiring sequence , the first concert scene of wild with his band , the ratttz , where mcgregor lets loose so much anarchic steam that his wild iggy - esuqe movements ( including stripping naked ) and screams that the film captures that perfect moment when one discovers a major talent , and another ( slade ) discovers his idle .
even the brief music videos , spoofs of bowie 's , have a rare visual flair that 's pure camp , and which would cause ken russell to drool .
the best sequence , though , may be the beginning , following the prelude , a sequence which acts as the middle ground for both the actual being of the movement and the post - movement era .
in it , stuart and his mates are going to the infamous slade concert where he fakes his own death , where he kills off his alter ego maxwell demon in what appears to be a real assasination , which brought about the end of the era in one swift fake bullet .
with brian eno 's famous " needle in the camel 's eye " playing in the background , the scene has a detached exhileration - the song does n't seem to be played in quite the same way the other songs are .
it has a distance that 's hard to put a finger on , and it seems to represent that all this is coming to a quick and sad ending , and when one sees slade in the dressing room before the show , docked in a silver frock with wings and blue hair , depressingly staring into the mirror , it comes off as a none - too - obvious prophecy of the finale in the beginning of the film .
this movie 's not so much about plot , but more about the way it is presented , making this one of those films which is classified as being " style over substance , " a statement which prompts many critics to line up for attack .
however , for the most part , the engaging part of this film is not the story but rather the way in which haynes creates this world , by using his sets , costumes , cinematography , and especially the music to play as characters in his film .
the music is especially notable .
the soundtrack , which is wall to wall , consists of old school glam rock tunes by the likes of brian eno , t - rex , and roxy music , as well as covers by slade 's band ( with vocals by thom yorke , and occasionally rhys meyers himself ) , and even newer music by shudder to think that sounds uncannily bowie - like .
the cast is rather impressive , but no one really walks away with the film , and no performances are extremely good .
although eddie izzard , as slade 's manager ( who challenges slade 's first manager to an arm - wrestling match to see who gets control of his career ) and michael feast as the first and tragic manager come off greatly , and collette and mcgregor have their moments , rhys meyers and bale are noticably sub - par , neither putting a lot of effort into their respective roles .
some of it is at fault with the actual construction of the film by haynes .
rhys meyers ' brian slade remains merely a metaphor for the glam rock era , dying when he turned into a retro - garbo , resorting to a life of salinger - ism , and found in the mid-70s to be lying around , sniffing coke off the ass of a party girl .
in fact , no one in this film is really seen as a person , rather than just as a symbol or composite of a type who thrived during the era .
bale 's character is an especially tough sell : bitter and depressed by flashbacks to his young adulthood , he 's not an extremely personal character , and his cliched experiences ( being hounded by the record store guys for buying a record put out by a " poof " ) never help us communicate with him .
nevertheless , rhys meyers and mcgregor have the excuses that their characters are not really characters but rather the results of an era that has left them , and others , bitter , part of which helps the film work , since this is a major piece of eye candy .
at the prime of the movie , they at least look the role of fashionable leaders - slade with his perpetually - changing , androgonys persona , and wild with his topless and unpredictable image , which clash and fuse into an unstable union .
their story - of how slade was so influenced by wild that he adapted it into a similar who - cares attitude crossed with camp - is engaging , without the personal background .
the story of stuart , though , is a tougher sell because he 's the everyman , and when you ca n't totally identify with the everyman , your story 's in slight trouble .
as a cultural rock piece , " velvet goldmine " is rather good , but it is merely good .
it never totally takes off , although it has moments where it absolutely flies
,
but then comes back down .
it 's really nothing more than
a bunch of really great moments , surrounded by material that could really be much better .
the beginning is captivating but slow , the middle is fantastic , and the ending is not only shallow but worse than that
, it drags ( the final half hour not only does it not bring the story to any real conclusion , it could probably stop at any point ) .
and did anyone really figure out what the mystery is that arthur unearths ?
it almost seems like there was no point in the entire investigation other than to unearth the past , which is commendable but
not totally so .
still , it does what the oliver stone pic " the doors " did n't do right , becoming very insightful to what happened , using the visual style to hit most of the right notes of contrast between what made the era so great to those who lived during it and
why after living through such an era that everything else seems half - assed ( i suppose the message is : " live life , but after you 've lived it , what else is the point when you 'll be forced to live with regretful memories ? " ) .
the really superb achievement of this film is that during its flashbacks , it successfully creates for the audience what it must have felt like to be in that era , but with the added perk of knowing the result of all that goes down .

A: P
****
Q: with the opening scene of a young couple in a van pulling up , loading their guns , kissing each other and uttering what sounds like " rock and roll !
"
( actually , it 's " lock and load " ) , you ca n't help thinking tarantino .
and of course with its storyline of a crazy girl and boy in love who turn to violent bank robbery , the film unapologetically takes its place alongside all those other films from bonnie & clyde to natural born killers .
but if most of those movies have their roots in pulp fiction , exploring a modern myth of the doomed rebels on the run , normal life takes a much more psychologically realistic look at the phenomenon .
" inspired by true events " -- we 've heard that one before , and yet in no other tale of violent couples has it seemed so solidly demonstrated . . .
or so strangely poignant .
for this is a story of real people whose lives take on a steadily unreal quality , who in their search for a normal life find themselves increasingly unhinged .
beginning with their final arrest , the film goes back to trace the relationship between chris ( luke perry ) , a policeman , and pam ( ashley judd ) , a factory worker .
they fall in love and marry , but pam 's increasingly erratic behaviour ( going on spending sprees , slashing herself with a knife after an argument ) begin to trouble the solid and stable chris .
when chris gets sacked , they find themselves heavily in debt and near breaking up .
then , chris begins to rob banks . . .
luke perry accomplishes the not - inconsiderable feat of making us nearly forget that he was ever in beverly hills 90210 or buffy the vampire slayer .
moustached , with a tough paternal look and yet a voice and eyes that suggest sadness verging on exasperation , he is perfectly cast as the long - suffering husband .
( it 's another of john mcnaughton 's coups of casting - against - type , after transforming robert de niro into nerd and bill murray into gangster in mad dog and glory ) .
but it is the character of pam who commands centrestage , and ashley judd rises to the challenge with great alternating currents of ferocity and tenderness , making pam into a fascinating yet often infuriating person .
if the performance falls short of greatness , however , it is perhaps because the role of the mad woman has been done so often before it is virtually a staple of cinema , whether it 's in betty blue , tom & viv or georgia .
as in those movies , there 's the danger that the performance seems mannered , a collection of screwy tics and tantrums designed for the oscar presentation piece .
judd does n't entirely avoid this pitfall , but pam 's ' craziness ' is best and most movingly presented in counterpoint to the more ' normal ' chris .
when pam reacts to her father - in - law 's death by showing up at the funeral in rollerblades and blaring headphones , chris ' face is the picture of pained restraint .
of course , it 's the question of what is ' normal ' that is asked in normal life .
mcnaughton constantly offers up the ironies of the aspirations for the average domestic life and its kinship with insanity .
it is the rational chris that loves guns ( " shooting is about precision , control " ) and the ' crazy ' pam that loves astronomy and yearns for a dog ( who is then called chaos -- " chaos and you and me . . .
we 're a real family " , she notes wryly ) .
it is chris ' methodical mind and his knowledge of police procedure that allows him to be such a successful bank robber ( his well - planned disguise as a bearded , roaring man of terror is another piece of method in madness ) .
in the carpark where he sets out for his first robbery , a huge sign on a shopping mall stands out in the background : " buy - more " -- the perfectly respectable consumption - crazy american dream that has driven pam to her extravagant purchases , and both of them into desperate situations .
it 's not a perfect film .
some of the dialogue is a touch too banal ( perhaps intentionally ? ) .
the use of the punk hardcore soundtrack in pam 's crazed scenes comes rather too close to making emotional disturbance seem glamourous and sexy an image which only detracts from the rest of the film .
indeed , as in mcnaughton 's seminal film henry : portrait of a serial killer , it is the avoidance of glamour or sensationalism , the denial of some of the standard thrills of the outlaw film genre
, that gives this determinedly unflashy , moving film its great strengths .
mcnaughton has filmed this story with a quiet , coolly ' realistic ' method that works far better than any nbk theatrics at unsettling the viewer .
the suburbs , with their miles of white - fenced houses and identikit malls , take on a sense of claustrophobic blankness .
in its very different way , this makes for as haunting a backdrop as the wide open spaces in terence malick 's badlands .
while pam shares the yearnings of malick 's heroes to escape from ordinary life , chris takes up crime precisely so that they can lead a ' normal life ' - their little house on the suburbs is financed by his violent robberies .
but these are dreams defined by , constrained by , and even doomed by , the limitations of the ' normal ' , conventional world .
pam 's final scene takes place at the edge of the suburbs , where wild bushes grow -- symbolically the frontier , the outer limits of her society , but also quite literally the end of the road , where there is nowhere left to go but to the final tragic denouement .
the flying inkpot 's rating system :
* wait for the video .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .

A: P
****
Q: your first clue that something is n't gon na be quite right
with the movie you 're about to see : it 's heavily christmas - themed and its release date is , oh , say , at the end of february .
your second clue that something is n't gon na be quite right
with the movie you 're about to see : charlize theron , one of the movie 's dubious stars , makes an appearance on the daily show in which , when asked if her new movie 's any good , she replies with the equivalent of a verbal sigh . . . assuring us that , yeah , it sure is a movie ,
all right !
and there 's some scenes like those you 'd expect to find in a movie , and there 's some action .
. .
and there 's other . . .
stuff .
. . too
. how to immediately grab my attention : open your movie with five dead guys in santa claus suits .
then show a caption reading " six days earlier . . .
"
ya know , i was honestly interested to find out what killed all those poor santas .
. . how to immediately lose my attention : follow your opening scene with a terminally dull nice - guys - who - don't - deserve - to - be - in - prison scene .
write a line for the one of prisoners like " i just want to go home and eat christmas dinner and watch some ball with my dad .
"
then , have ben affleck actually say that line , on film , and forget to leave it on the cutting room floor .
for good measure , throw in a poorly motivated prison riot and have affleck 's best buddy stabbed . . .
aw . . .
and just two days before his release , too .
already the cliches are piled on thick , and when it rains , it pours .
how to take my attention , dash it violently against the rocks , and make it so that i 'm contemplating my strategy for calling " shotgun " about an hour
before i know the credits will roll : deny your characters the ability to think .
have ben affleck , for some reason i 'll never understand , pretend he 's his dead prison buddy so that he can get his girlfriend , played by charlize theron .
have gary sinise show up and force the two of them to participate in a poorly planned casino heist .
the villains ' big idea ?
kidnap affleck because he used to be a security guard at the casino , force him to tell you where all the doors in the place are , then dress up in santa suits , create some " diversions " and rob the place .
on paper , it seems like the stuff of a potential caper comedy , but veteran director john frankenheimer wrongly picks up that piece of paper and thinks he 's looking at the makings for some sort of clever action - crime thriller .
it 's not like the man is n't capable . . .
far from it .
he 's the man responsible for classic political thrillers like the manchurian candidate and seven days in may .
he wowed me with some the most memorable car chases i 've ever seen in last year 's ronin .
but he 's certainly guilty of churning out some certifiable losers . . .
put reindeer games on the shelf of shame with his 1996 version of the island of dr .
moreau .
step one in making your movie as easily forgotten as possible : cast ben affleck in the role of the world 's most generic hero .
he gets no good one - liners , he does n't get to shoot or implode anything in new and interesting ways , and all we know about him is that he regrets his past as a car thief and wants a cup of hot chocolate and piece of pecan pie .
his name is rudy ( short for rudolph , in all likelihood .
see , it 's called reindeer games .
get it ?
get it ?
shut up . )
in the past , affleck has been at his best as a supporting actor , and reindeer games does nothing to further his viability as a leading man .
step two in making your movie as easily forgotten as possible : gary sinise 's villain dresses and looks like the most standard movie crook a filmmaker could have some up with .
he 's dirty and potty - mouthed
, he 's got long , scruffy hair and a goatee , and i fully expected him to walk out of the casino carrying sacks with giant dollar signs on them .
he 's also extremely inept
at what he does .
he thinks garish cowboy costumes and santa suits make acceptable disguises , and he trusts affleck 's character to pull through even after , time and time and time again , he tricks him and lies to him and nearly kills him .
but instead of tapping into the comic possibilities of this role , sinise seems to think he 's playing some sort of tough , smart , and smooth criminal mastermind , rather than the complete moron that was obviously written into the script .
[ on a side note , gary sinise wins this week 's " title !
" award , as he 's the one who gets to awkwardly cram the name of the movie into one of his lines early in the proceedings .
last week 's winner was natasha henstridge for the whole nine yards . ]
how to take your bad idea and make things worse : include two or three plot twists that , instead of making the apparently stupidity of the plan seem suddenly intelligent , make the plan seem even more ridiculous and unlikely .
this is a bad movie .
and what 's worse is that , except for a few moments near the not - so - stunning conclusion as the preposterous is replaced by the ludicrously preposterous , reindeer games never really gives us the satisfaction of being laughably bad . if they 'd done that much , at least i would have been entertained .

A:
N
****