instruction:
In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
question:
tom dicillo directs this superficial comedy about superficial people in superficial careers , all searching for deeper meaning .
however , they wo n't find much meaning in the real blonde , and not enough real humor , either .
joe ( matthew modine ) is a struggling actor , or he claims to be one , even though he has no credits under his belt .
his girlfriend , mary ( catherine keener ) has no pretensions about her career : she 's a makeup artist , working for the eccentric fashion photographer blair ( marlo thomas ) and supermodel of the month , sahara ( bridgette wilson ) .
sahara , who has acquired a new age spirituality from repeated viewing of the little mermaid , has an on - again , off - again relationship with joe 's best friend , bob ( maxwell caulfield ) .
however , bob has gotten his biggest break yet : a starring role on a soap opera opposite the beautiful kelly ( daryl hannah ) , who may be that illusive woman he 's always pursued : a real blonde .
there are some moments of good humor in the real blonde , but not enough .
the best stuff is in throwaway details in the background , such as sahara 's perfume ads : " depression -
it 's not just a state of mind " .
but to find humor in the superficiality of models and actors is to shoot fish in a barrel . and ,
unfortunately , the film 's forays outside the realm of comedy are pathetic .
take for example the film 's framing device of an old lady and her dog .
the story serves absolutely no purpose , makes little sense , and is completely tangential to the main plotlines of the movie .
matthew modine and catherine keener have the most sympathetic characters in the film , but they 're stuck in the most boring plotlines .
modine whines and complains and would be completely pathetic if he was matched against someone stronger than elizabeth berkley , who appears as another struggling actor .
keener 's character has a stronger edge , but the insult self - defense class ( taught by denis leary , no less ) she is stuck in makes little sense .
the movie 's running time is under two hours , but it seems like it is well over it .
there 's just not enough humor to speed things along , and not enough meaning to propel any drama .
answer:
N


question:
one never quite knows what one is going to get with a mamet film .
his american buffalo is a set - bound piece that has very little plot .
sometimes he will tell a story that really moves .
heist is mamet
doing his most entertaining work .
unlike his the spanish prisoner , there are no lapses in credibility .
heist is probably the best mamet thriller since house of games .
it is the kind of plot with which you are never sure who will double - cross whom , and frequently it is mamet double - crossing the viewer .
watching the film 's team getting around security the viewer is frequently asking himself either " what the heck are they doing ?
"
or " why did n't anybody think of that before ? " appropriately enough heist opens with a very clever jewelry store job .
it is so clever that one wonders if mamet really thinks up all these ideas himself or if he has help from professional magician and con expert ricky jay , now a regular actor in mamet films .
this is a robbery that works like a well - oiled machine .
there is just one problem and it is enough to get joe moore ( played by gene hackman ) filmed on a security camera .
now joe has to get out of the business .
it was coming time anyway .
joe 's team including bobby blane ( delroy lindo ) , fran moor ( rebecca pidgeon ) , and pinky pincus ( ricky jay ) is going to split up and go separate ways .
but crime boss bergman ( danny devito ) is pulling the strings
and he says that joe and his people have to manage one more robbery .
and he has to take along a young kid , the short- fused jimmy silk ( sam rockwell ) .
immediately it is obvious that there is more going on than meets the eye .
much of what distinguishes heist is mamet 's dialog .
remarkably it serves a double purpose .
the robbery team sounds at once very professional and at the same time it has mamet 's special feel for dialog
.
hackman has lines like " everybody needs money .
that 's why they call it money .
"
mamet 's timing is perfect in the direction but terrible in the production .
the plot is coincidentally a lot like the plot of the recent the score , which is , in fact , a very similar story .
both are good films , perhaps for some of the same reasons .
but at least on a high level they are much the same story .
the other problem with the timing of heist is that it involves airport security and clever ways to get around them .
i saw the film at the toronto international film festival on september 12 , 2001 .
that made the subject matter just a little too timely .
my understanding is that the release will be delayed .
my biggest problem with the film is that rebecca pidgeon 's acting at times seems very poor .
it is some kind of mamet trademark i do not understand to have women talk without inflection , as if they are just reading the words for the first time .
it is an irritation and distracts us from what is
otherwise a very good thriller .
it is one i rate an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale .
answer:
P


question:
the title is taken from the writings of ralph waldo emerson describing the life of a traveler as ' anywhere but here . ' there is n't one thing about this mother - daughter relationship melodrama that felt honest .
it relies on a contrived minor character to tell both mother and daughter
what was obvious to do in order to straighten out their dysfunctional lives , as for some reason they could n't figure it out for themselves .
if the film looks familiar , that is because " the slums of beverly hills ( 98 ) " went over the same ground but was fortunate to be more comical and perceptive due to alan arkin and natasha lyonne performances , in which they were fortunate to have a much sharper script to work with .
alvin sargent 's script was weak and annoyingly claustral
.
wayne wang 's ( " the joy luck club " ) inept direction made a weak script even weaker by his inability to tell the story unfolding without the voiceover relating what the action could n't convey .
pushy mother adele august ( susan sarandon )
forces her 14-year - old daughter ann ( natalie portman ) to leave a small midwestern burg to go cross - country with her to beverly hills .
the daughter resents her twice divorced , unstable but exotic , schoolteacher mother , bullying her to be an actress as a means of escaping a humdrum life .
the daqughter does n't even like the used gold mercedes mother buys to drive to lala land in and ca n't stand the beach boys records mom enjoys hearing on the car radio .
so it becomes a question of who knows best , as the ladies fight it out between them , until the predictable sweet ending comes in this yawner .
adele 's dream of greener pastures in beverly hills soon does n't look that good , as she lands a job in a slum school , has her precious car scratched by the unruly kids , and settles into a job she hates in order to financially survive .
daughter pines for small town wisconsin and her friends there .
during one of many arguments with her free - spirited mom , they go for ice cream and while mother is being ticketed , she runs away , only to be chased down by friendly traffic cop ( michael milhoan ) , who offers her wise counsel .
with the cop 's zen wisdom passed onto the daughter , she will survive living in many different addresses in beverly hills until she reaches 17 and then she plans to get way from mom by using her good grades to go to brown university instead of ucla . during their stay in beverly hills , she grows from feeling awkward in beverly hills high to immediately having many high school girlfriends and even a high school rich boy admirer-- a t .
s .
eliot ( corbin allred ) reader .
but the transition of her life into beverly hills had no feel of reality , as everything seemed staged and unemotional
.
when she learns her cousin benny ( shawn hatosy ) , who happens to be her best friend dies in a traffic accident back in wisconsin , she returns for the funeral and in those reunion scenes it was n't clearly shown why she wants to stay there , and for that matter , it was never made clear why the mother wants to leave so badly .
the film is one big battle of wills between mother and daughter over their dreams .
i guess what the filmmaker is trying to say , is that mom is a bad dreamer and the daughter is the observant one , able to recognize mother 's faults when not in growing pains and in need of parenting herself .
mother has a series of setbacks , like being dumped by her dream - boat dentist ( bochner )
she met on the beach , and witnessing her daughter mimic her whiny optimistic sayings when trying out for an acting part .
but mother learns that her daughter has grown - up and is independent and that she has to stop living her life through her .
she learns this when the same wise cop who told ann what to do , is about to ticket her and this time will remind the mother of the right thing to do .
this of course results in the corny ending , showing that mom 's heart was always in the right place , only she went about it in the wrong way .
this was just one of those films where you want to be anywhere but in the theater where this film is showing .
answer:

N