Safe (1995) [VHS]
![Safe (1995) [VHS]](/images/Safe-1995-VHS-6303900798-L.jpg)
|
Our Price: $24.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $10.99 (click here) Category: VHS Video See more movie releases |
|---|
Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
VHS Movie Reviews of Safe (1995) [VHS]
Movie Review: In my top ten for the 90s
Summary: 5 Stars
Haynes' style in this film reminds me very much of Kubrick -- the static long shots, the deliberate, gradual pace, the startling and unexpected cut to black at the end. It gets under your skin and stays there. Moore, the best actress of her generation, has never been better (although you should see "Vanya on 42nd Street" for more of her range). I respect Haynes for respecting me enough to let me decide how to interpret what he shows me. Great movie. (By the way, someone earlier wrote, "Todd Haynes is an amazing director (and he's gay of course!)." I'm still trying to decipher that one. (Haynes is also Caucasian--does that also make him an amazing director?)Movie Review: Beautifully subtle and poignant
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably director Todd Haynes's least-known film, and probably his masterpiece. Like JEANNE DIEHLMANN..., the Chantal Ackerman which inspired it, SAFE moves at an incredibly slow pace for its first half to take you into the dreamlike world of its protagonist, a beautiful Los Angeles housewife with almost nothing to do. As you become accustomed to her rhythms, her mounting attacks from (what she believes to be) environmental hazards assume the dimensions of major catastrophes. There is a sequence where Julianne Moore goes into one of these attacks at a shower for a friend--while holding a child on her lap--that is one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever seen in a film, even though it culminates in little more than a nosebleed.Is the heroine simply hysterical? Are there real environmental poisons at work devastating her body? Or is she reacting against a world that seems to have no place for her even while it pretends to value her highly for her beauty and her wealth? The film offers no easy answers, although it moves to a conclusion of the heroine at a dinner party (and then before a mirror) that will absolutely break your heart. Moore's performance may be the single best before a camera in the Nineties--she's really that good.
Movie Review: too subtle (!)
Summary: 3 Stars
Before I saw this movie, I didn't think I'd ever use the phrase "too subtle." And this movie is EXTREMELY subtle. Generally, that's a good thing--I love, especially in the beginning, how everything seems to be all right until you actually pay closer attention and realize that it's really not. However, in the latter half of the movie, the director seemed almost to be hiding from the plot, veering it in two different directions--on the one hand, Wrenwood is very cult-like, and the main character gets increasingly drawn in. On the other hand, she is getting increasingly isolated even within this isolated place. I expected the ending to be completely devastating in my depiction of her collapse and (self-)destruction. Instead, it cut off before she really got there. After discussing this with a friend for a while, we decided that in fact the end did imply that she would continue to get worse until the ending I expected would 'happen'. However, I have to say, the subtlety of the ending left me unsatisfied.Movie Review: Safe
Summary: 5 Stars
This is such a remarkable movie. Julianne Moore plays Carol White in one of her best roles ever. Though Julianne's character does not talk a lot throughout the movie, she proved that an actress can be very emotional and convincing while just sitting blankly in front of a mirror or on a couch. Her character is living the American dream until she starts to develope some symptons that appear to have no connection. That is until she learns about an illness that has to do with environmental fumes that cause certain people to become very ill. She got a bleedy nose from a perm, and started seizuring after walking into a building that was being fumigated for bugs. Her solution: Go to a remote center to live where it is safe and clean in the air. There, she learns more about this illness and more about herself. She almost undergoes a self-transformation. She becomes more aware of the slightest things. And the ending proves that not all endings are perfect and happy. Julianne Moore did a spectacular job on this role and I cannot think of anyone better to play it that her. This is really a very emotional movie and will (and has) make some people cry from pity. This should be part of all movie collections at your house. It's a truly moving movie.Movie Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
Todd Haynes, who earlier made a film about Karen Carpenter that used nothing but barbie dolls, sets this story in 1988 Los Angeles with a woman (Juliana Moore) who is "allergic to the 20th century." The film opens with Moore and her husband making love, but the brutality of the man's thrusts and the bored expression on her face reveals her alienation from her life. This is later reinforced throughout the first half of the film, when we see her with her friends and family. Finally, unable to combat her psychosomatic illness, she withdraws to a retreat in New Mexico run by a subtly tyrannical new-age leader. The results are disturbing and bewildering, and Moore gives the performance of a lifetime. Safe works as documentary, satire and allegory all at once.