| JUDY BERLIN |
 1999 - USADirector:
Eric Mendelsohn - Reviewed by Frankie  One of the characters in Judy Berlin describes a movie he is planning to
make. It's going to be about the town he grew up in, and it's not going to
have a plot. All of the people, their actions, and all of the things in the
town will make up the movie, and they will be interesting just because they
exist in real life. This is quite an ambitious plan for a feature film. It's
what director Eric Mendelsohn does with his marvelous little black and white
movie.
Plotlines are very loose in Judy Berlin, and indeed the characters' actions are sometimes meaningless, but they are always interesting. The entire movie is so surreal that it will captivate you, and might even make you think. On the day of a solar eclipse, Judy Berlin (Edie Falco from The Sopranos) a geeky, but good-hearted woman with braces is planning to leave for Los Angeles to become an actress. She meets old high school crush David Gold (Aaron Harnick) and the two spend the day looking back and forward at the past, present, and future. David's mother Alice (the late Madeline Kahn in her last performance) roams her home street with her housekeeper pretending to be an astronaut during the eclipse. Judy's mother Sue (Barbara Barrie) is a preschool teacher watching the eclipse with her students. Earlier, she gets frightened by a sweet former preschool teacher who is losing her memory. Sue also seems interested in David's father Arthur, even though he's married. All of the character's are in some way related, and their plights (whether large or small) make for one of the most fascinating, entertaining, and best pictures of the year. While others will dislike the movie, possibly because it isn't really about anything, (and they're right), I really felt drawn to the characters' situations. The superb screenplay written by director Mendelsohn really propels this movie. It captures those strange moments of life--when you're on your edge, or someone surprises you--and finds humor in them. Indeed the movie seems sprinkled with some type of sweetness that is almost nonexistent in modern day film. Hopefully video will be a place for this movie to blossom. It's really a shame though because black and white suits the big screen best. The contrast of colors in the images (attempted or not) is striking. A large group of stills from the film would make a stunning collection of black and white photography. Every one of the actors does a marvelous job. There is so much talent in the performers, that it's just one of the many reasons to see this movie two or three times. Judy Berlin is an honestly endearing film that transports us to a mix between a real and fantasy world. I can't quite explain it, but this movie struck such a chord with me that I'm ready to name it one of the best pictures of the year. This movie about nothing, is certainly something. Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail said, "All of these little nothings have meant more to me than all the somethings before." If she were describing this movie, she would be very, very right. |
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