TER General Board

Anyone see "Center of the World"?
EcstacyinLA 27 Reviews 5509 reads
posted

I was going to go see it when it was playing in Santa Monica but I never made it.  Now I am thinking about buying it on DVD.  Is it worth it?  I've attached a description below:

Description
IN THEATRES: APRIL 20, 2001 (LIMITED)

Wayne Wang, although known for his personal drama about Chinese-American life, EAT A BOWL OF TEA, and the Hollywood equivalent, THE JOY LUCK CLUB, has always harbored a fascination with the depiction of sex in the movies. The director remarked,
"In college I loved movies like LAST TANGO IN PARIS." Here, in his first digital video feature, he provides, like Bertolucci, a raw and unflinching look at love, sex and money. Working with a script he developed with Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster, he tells
the story of Richard (Peter Sarsgaard), a wealthy dot-com computer engineer who hires Florence (Molly Parker), a dancer at a strip club, to spend three days with him in Las Vegas. She provides a contract limiting her duties to a nightly erotic show, but with no actual sex. But as they develop real feelings for each other both of them are confused about the meaning that sex would have. Richard thinks it will make her his girlfriend, Florence thinks it will make her a prostitute. While this story line may seem borrowed from the comedy PRETTY WOMAN, this is a serious, intelligent film. It's intriguing script is enhanced by the visceral immediacy of the digital video photography. Overall, CENTER OF THE WORLD is an exploration of the politics and emotions that are tied to the struggle between men, women, sex, and money. The script was written by Wang, Auster, and Hustvedt but it is credited to Ellen Wong, a pseudonym that encompasses their collective work.

Saw it with my wife in a theatre and would give it a thumb's down. As far as sexuality, a limp cock.  Nothing to reccomend about it. Premise was interesting, but downhill from there.

Mathesar5073 reads

They have 63 reviews of this film at the moment. The two reviewers I trust most are James Berardinelli, who gives it 2/4, and Roger Ebert, who gives 3.5/4.

I haven't seen it myself, but when Berardinelli and Ebert disagree as widely as they do on this one it usually means it is a film where there is no general consensus and you should read the reviews carefully before deciding whether or not to spend your money. (Some films are like some providers -- YMMV.)

... I didn;t realize this until I rented "Requiem for a Dream" -- completely cut-up. They are also known for inserting ads INTO the films.

One example of this is the latest verion of "The Haunting" (the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones - a HORRIBLE flick BTW). In one scene, the "students" go to play a video. From waht I read on Roger Ebert's website, in the theatrical version, the video boxes are black and without labels. In the "BLOCKBU$TER" version, the boxes have been digitally re-touched to show our heroes watching movies that were rented from BLOCKBU$TER... and this is just a few of MANY edits and alterations that have been made by them. Oh, BTW, I have no affiliation to Ebert or any other industry people, I'm just a guy who likes good film.

Also: I heard "The Center of the World" was just okay...

Later,

Mannray

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