mccormicky
Highball Director: Noah BaumbachThis is a really good movie for people who have an off beat sense of humor. 3 parties take place; a birthday(for grumpy Felix) a Halloween(2 people dressed in the same giant lizard costume,confusion ensues hilariously) and a New Year's Eve(Rae Dawn Chong comes dressed as a cat,naturally) I'm pretty sure no one had heard of Noah Baumbach when this movie came out but now that the Squid and the Whale did so well for him, he's going to be working more(I hope) You should do yourself a favor and see this indie film, if only to hear the excellent music by LUNA in the interludes. Cameos: Ally Sheedy,Rae dawn Chong and Dean Wareham of LUNA.
kayewarr
It's an intricate piece of deeply disturbing fluff that hooked me at 3am on IFC and forced me to watch it over and over again. I want to marry Carlos Jacott just for being Felix. Look, I understand that some people have found this movie to be "pointless" and "frustrating", it's very hard for some people to let go of the need for traditional story structure and endless back story and meet cutes. Maybe you don't know people like those in the movie but I do and I hope to meet more of them. At the end of the day who would you rather hang out with: Felix or Federline? I thought so. Sometimes a little highbrow cynicism goes a long way and sometimes tuneless karaoke is more moving than that song they can't stop playing when they salute the exiting American Idols.
enigmann
There is so much here to praise, where to begin? Writing the equal of Woody Allen's sharpest urbanity. Story woven with understory interleaved with back-story. Non-stop desert-dry humor delivered with cutting but subtle irony. (E.G. the scene in which the subway girl at the Halloween party looks at Felix and says, "Are you always this funny?".) Acting so natural it could not have been acting.Photography and lighting primitive but perfect. Sound quality excellent. Editing expert and effective.Like a layer of transparent frosting, in nearly every scene the filmmaker smears mockery over the film itself and its characters. And yet, after being immersed in a seemingly non-stop train wreck of sarcasm which eventually mildly sprained my sense of humor, at the final scene I cried.Reality TV wishes it might maybe someday approach this level of authenticity.I will always cherish this film and those shining talents who created it.
dwpittelli
Ignore the blurb on the VHS box, the movie is not about a couple's hot parties with hip friends, it is about a couple's awful parties with jerk friends. Now, that might not be a bad thing -- in fact, I think it could be easier to make a good movie about bad parties than about good ones -- but the advertising is dishonest.Much worse, though, is the the pointless and boring character of the movie, which is about a bunch of stupid or verbally sadistic "friends" who mostly don't like each other. While I've known cliques that keep getting together despite frictions between some members, it's inconceivable that these people would keep getting together for these abusive and tedious holiday events. Also, the couples' relationships, which come and go between these parties, are unexplained and mostly unexplored, as are some individuals' character changes, and indeed, almost everything that doesn't happen at the parties themselves.
AD
