12.06.2007
FFWD Can't Make Up It's Mind about WAOM
I just read a review in FFWD about "Walk All Over Me" that complained about the plot leaving its "study of the dominatrix world" and turning into "a fumbling caper." The reviewer was disappointed that the film didn't live up to its "potential of exploring a sexy master-and-apprentice relationship"... um, yeah but that's not what the movie is about. Maybe that's what certain types of people would want a movie starring Tricia Helfer and Leelee Sobieski in dominatrix garb to be about, but thankfully it's a much better and more universally relatable story than some penthouse channel piece of trash that Lisha Hassanali apparently wanted to see.
Perhaps she should have read the FFWD article about the movie during the Calgary International Film Festival, where a much more discerning reviewer wrote: "Despite its dalliance in the world of S&M and the prerequisite violence of all indie-crime movies, the film isn't the lurid exploitation film the description evokes."
Thank you! Nor is it supposed to be lurid or exploitive.
If "Walk All Over Me" was an onion, the outer skin would be the dominatrix layer. (And I think we can all agree that it's a very attractive layer.) Peel that back and you've got a caper flick, with both the danger and the comedy of the classic capers and a bit of buddy movie thrown in. But at it's core, "Walk All Over Me" is a coming-of-age movie. The young woman in question, Alberta (played by Leelee Sobieski), just happens to come of age in a crime thriller laced with dark humour. But the whole dominatrix bit is largely a means of getting Alberta's journey started, the journey of a guileless woman beginning to find her confidence.
So how is it that a published film reviewer is unable to comprehend that the dominatrix subplot is a METAPHOR for a young woman learning how to take control of her own life? Yes, it's a metaphor that happens to add humour and spice, but it's still a metaphor. Do you know what a metaphor is, Lisha? Here, this might help: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Perhaps she should have read the FFWD article about the movie during the Calgary International Film Festival, where a much more discerning reviewer wrote: "Despite its dalliance in the world of S&M and the prerequisite violence of all indie-crime movies, the film isn't the lurid exploitation film the description evokes."
Thank you! Nor is it supposed to be lurid or exploitive.
If "Walk All Over Me" was an onion, the outer skin would be the dominatrix layer. (And I think we can all agree that it's a very attractive layer.) Peel that back and you've got a caper flick, with both the danger and the comedy of the classic capers and a bit of buddy movie thrown in. But at it's core, "Walk All Over Me" is a coming-of-age movie. The young woman in question, Alberta (played by Leelee Sobieski), just happens to come of age in a crime thriller laced with dark humour. But the whole dominatrix bit is largely a means of getting Alberta's journey started, the journey of a guileless woman beginning to find her confidence.
So how is it that a published film reviewer is unable to comprehend that the dominatrix subplot is a METAPHOR for a young woman learning how to take control of her own life? Yes, it's a metaphor that happens to add humour and spice, but it's still a metaphor. Do you know what a metaphor is, Lisha? Here, this might help: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
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