RavenGlamDVDCollector Betcha my bottom dollar (not that I have any) that Dominique Swain watched MY SO- CALLED LIFE. She channels Angela Chase in her movie GIRL (which I've only seen snippets of) and again, here in TART. She gives us teenage angst, a sense of desolation and despair, to perfection in this outing. And then there is Mischa, lovely as always, as the mean girl, and Bijou Phillips as the wild one.Problem is, what went into the mix, choice ingredients; but the cake turns out kinda bland. Many of the scenes are far-off, the entire movie is oddly distant. It could have been great, but whoever was at the helm, avoided that achievement skillfully.Is the movie true to real life, though? I have to concede, yeah. But real life is mostly about as interesting as closed circuit security monitoring on an uneventful day. The movie lacks zing. And please, if your idea of something controversial was the toilet + ice bucket scene, please keep it to yourself.The director also avoided a nude scene while delivering what the script described. The Bijou Phillips character was supposed to be dancing with her top off, instead it was filmed rather puritanically with just her jacket off. Yeah, that boy would rush out the way he did to go see a girl removing only her jacket. I'm pretty sure the script called for more, but bare flesh was circumvented (for whatever reason, lots of possibilities spring to mind).All in all, we the viewers, lost out on what could easily have been a much- better experience. This small-budget movie need not have cost much more in order for it to be great. Only a little bit more and it might have been something truly worthwhile. As it is, a weak botched attempt that only shows wasted potential.On their own, both Dominique and Mischa deserve much better scores. The vague lethargic storyline bogs them down completely. And the title of the movie would be off-putting to the intended audience, while the poster/box design hints at a sexy schoolgirl. Who is that on the poster/box anyway? Totally misleading.

Boba_Fett1138 Over the decades Hollywood has always continued to make movies that just send out bad and wrong messages, especially to young girls. in the early days it was; You won't be truly happy until you to get married as soon as possible, with the first guy that seems suitable enough and now days it's actually being quite the opposite and and to live life with sex, drugs and other stupid immature behavior and being popular should equal being happy. Seriously, that's the type of message that this movie sends out. Yeah I know, the movie probably attempted to tell the opposite thing but it failed miserable at that, due to it's incredibly stupid execution of it all.It's really a very pointless movie to watch. The movie does an incredible bad job at telling its story. The story seems to be about nothing really because it just isn't going anywhere with it. Was the main character supposed to go trough a big transition or something because if that was the case, I surely missed it. Perhaps it's trying to be one of those movies that just advertise being a random slice of life, following the story of just an average young girl, doing average young girl things. But if this was the case it surely failed even more miserably, since the story is just being filled with some very unlikely events and annoyingly stereo-typical characters. The movie its story doesn't really explain anything and even worse, it isn't going anywhere at all with it.The story of this movie seems to be about fitting in and just being the person that you are, without forcing yourself to be someone different, just to please your friends. I mean, I'm still guessing that this is what the story was all about, since this movie doesn't really send out this message at all. In the movie all of the characters do drugs and have sex, just for the sake of it and to impress and fit in with their so called friends. They even steal and cheat people, without thinking about the consequences or facing responsibilities for any of it. But the movie is not showing at all how you SHOULD live and deal with growing up and maturing. It doesn't set the right example for anything and it more or less just seems to tell the life-story of the movie its writer. No idea if this was truly the case but I'm willing to put some money on this. It's annoying how this movie doesn't reach any conclusions and it's annoying how it doesn't explain anything or go more into detail with certain things. It's being an emotionally bland and distant movie to watch, since all of the characters and their action just seem far too stupid and unrealistic to relate with as well. And seriously what was with its ending? Is everything suddenly supposed to be OK after that point for the main character? It just didn't made any sense and it only sort of wrapped up one issue the main character was dealing with.All of the characters are really stereotypes. There is a girl everybody seems to hate for no apparent reason, a very free-minded girl and the mother of the main character seems mad at her daughter all the time and doesn't seem to trust her and tries to deprive her of any kind of fun. These are just a couple of stereotypes out of the movie, that also don't make any sense, since the movie doesn't go any deeper into certain things and the movie doesn't flesh out its character properly enough. I can't really blame the actors, since I can't really say any one of them gave away a poor performances. The movie has actually some good young acting names attached to it but it makes you wonder if any of them had read the script for it in advance.It's also not a bad looking movie. I mean, it was an incredibly cheap one to make and it was also being first (and still only) directing job, so the movie does certainly deserve still some credit for that. Perhaps one day, if Christina Wayne is being give a different script to work with, not writing by herself, she might be capable of delivering a pretty good movie actually.It's a movie that gets more and more worse at it's progressing, since it isn't heading anywhere with its story and it doesn't ever reach any satisfying conclusions at all. It instead gets more and more stupid and its not being clear what the overall message and point of this movie is supposed to be.3/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

aimless-46 "Tart" is a good illustration of old the Yogi Berra saying: "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up someplace else". Writer/Director Christina Waye (in her first feature) has managed to make a $3 Million movie that ends up someplace else. "Tart" is either a coming of age story devoid of characters that a rational person can connect with, a black comedy without any humor, or a sexploitation movie without anything that is particularly sexy.Unlike the standard Swain film, "Tart" actually employed a competent and experienced production designer. Good enough to provide two extremely nice shots: the scene of Swain and Barton taking a bubble bath together and the scene of Swain in the park-featuring a nice montage of the "Alice in Wonderland" sculpture. The symbolism incorporated into these elements supports the possibility that Waye (despite the absence of a linear logic or unity of tone) actually has some visionary talent and aspirations for making a quality film. It is even possible that Waye was trying for a fusion of the somewhat expressionistic "Metropolitan" and the camp classic "Cruel Intentions" which also deal with the Manhattan upper class. There are many camera shots framed by windows and doors yet few tight shots of faces and eyes. The former technique hinting at symbolism and the latter at intentional distancing from the characters and their motivations. "Tart" seemed on the verge of veering into camp territory at least twice and would have been well advised to keep going in that direction. First there was the scene where they try to dump the seemingly deceased Swain into the garbage chute. Then there is the whole bit about her father being Jewish (played to the same extreme as Joel Grey dancing with the Jewish guerrilla in "Cabaret"). In her other films Swain's acting technique is to overwhelm each scene in which she appears (insert scenery chewing here) but in "Tart" she actually shows an ability to restrain herself. This is the best performance of her career. It also provides some clues about her physical deterioration from willowy super cute in "Girl" to hulking lumpy-faced in "Pumpkin". This transformation was about half-complete by the time she made "Tart"; so go the ravages of time. Mischa Barton ("Sixth Sense's" I feel better girl) and Lacey Chabet are excellent in supporting roles. The rest of the cast is simply horrible, although some of the blame for this should go to Waye's script and direction.

daxwithans If one is to watch this movie I suggest you get a group of friends and prepare to laugh. Though not intentionally meant to be funny, I would suppose, Tart is the funniest thing I have ever seen. If you like jokes about poop and strange men getting coke for kids you will love this movie. Mischa Barton is also in this movie and does a stunning performance. The catcher below the title should tickle your fancy enough to make you watch this, "Sex, Drugs, and Study Hall" If you haven't already seen Tart then you best get out there right now and rent it, and if you have, well join the club of fully satisfied costumers.