Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
"Pleasantville" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 01/26/2012
A pair of teens are transported into the world of a black and white 50s sitcom where their presence has some profound effects. On the surface, Pleasantville is just another fluffy, wish fulfillment fantasy, but lurking beneath is some pretty smart and funny social commentary. Somewhat in the vein of Tim Burton's work, it examines the "suburban dream" of middle America, still clung to by many right-wing conservatives nicely represented by J. T. Walsh as "Big Bob" and his fascistic Chamber Of Commerce. He is the one to rally the middle class, white males of the community to try and preserve the status quo once the emancipated inhabitants of Pleasantville become the enemy, branded as "coloreds" in this 50s "utopia" that is completely devoid of black faces. The rest of the cast are equally …
Rating of
4/4
Lost in the Garden of Eden?
jkownacki - wrote on 11/22/2007
Director Gary Ross really nails the complexities, hypocrisies and core values of American life in this underrated debut tale of life, love and the trouble with choice.
Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play teenage siblings who, through a glitch in the division between reality and TV, find themselves trapped in a fictional '50s suburban sitcom world. Instead of wasting this premise on cheap jokes about the difference between modern and recent society, Ross injects an incendiary concept into the mix: what happens when a town that's designed to operate under a complete absence of independent thought is exposed to the forbidden fruit of free will?
When Maguire (via logic) and Witherspoon (via lust) challenge the simplistic belief systems of the "one-dimensional" citizens of …
