dailies

Come on folks, this is Bret Easton Ellis for crying out loud. How often do you get a chance to see his stuff on the screen? On a few movie screens, for all too short a run, and great photography projected on film, not digital? This is the End of the California Dream Palace, enjoy it while you can.

Like any writer who gets final cut on his own film, he leaves in excess baggage (e.g. Tim storyline) that a savvy producer/director would have tossed, but who cares? This stubborn, eccentric film is absolutely worth seeing.

When it opened in Boston, they needed prompting to put it up on the digital show times board, so this is not a film that's getting a lot of push on its theatrical release.

If you love Warhol, you've got to see this for yourself or die wondering how bad it was. Guy Pierce tries hard but is too gaunt to be fleshy waxy Warhol. It's frustrating to see Jimmy Fallon in the same flick and realize he probably could have done a nuanced Warhol himself. Mostly good cast is dealt outrageously homophobic script that pits mincing villain Warhol against studly hero Dylan. Give me a break. Much more fun than sitting through the movie is reading all the posts on IMDb from the true believers, most of whom are better informed than the director of this thing. Typical of the sleaziness is the scenes of Warhol going to confession. Gee, no worries about being sued over that invented dialogue, huh? Warhol got the point when he titled Edie's epic "Poor Little Rich Girl." Trying to make Sedgwick's American tragedy Warhol's fault is silly and slanderous.

This just ran at MoMA's extraordinary survey of films from the Japan Film Institute, and it was one of the best in the series. A real eye opener--previous commenters nailed it. Definitely makes you want to explore the director's other work. Fits in that uniquely Japanese genre of the whodunnit where the process of detection requires travel throughout the country and specifics of local cultures and habits--so the travelogue is half the fascination. Getting a young Ken Takakura plus Rentaro Mikuni in the same picture is extra added bonus. If you like later films of this type such as *Castle of Sand* or *Vengeance Is Mine*, you'll like this one.