DVD Review: ‘Powder Blue’
by Christian TotoIt’s a cinch to see why actors like Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker and Jessica Biel signed up for the gritty drama “Powder Blue,” out this week on DVD. The film lets them wallow in bleak, bleary-eyed scenarios, the sort of heightened reality that acting school monologues are made of.
It’s even easier to see why “Blue” shot straight to DVD.
The film goes the “Crash” route, a trail that, more often than not, gets most screenwriters hopelessly lost. Jessica Biel famously sheds her top to play Rose, a single mother and stripper who goes by the name Scarlett on stage. What, Rose wasn’t strippery enough?
Her son is in a coma and it’s all she can do to make ends meet while keeping her cretinous boss (Patrick Swayze, enlivening a very silly role) at arm’s length. She’s less wary of Jack (Ray Liotta), a new strip club customer who doesn’t seem very interested in watching her doff her clothes. We also meet Charlie (Forest Whitaker) a man whose personal grief has left him suicidal. Charlie meets un-cute with a waitress (Lisa Kudrow), but he’s too numb to respond to her advances. He doesn’t need a Friend. He needs a shrink – or a more fully realized character to play.
Finally, there’s Qwerty Doolittle (Eddie Redmayne), and no, that’s not a typo. He works in a funeral home and has trouble with the ladies. Naturally, the characters’ lives intersect in dramatically draining ways while the steroid-enhanced soundtrack strains to make us care.
To be fair, Biel’s performance here should send a flare up to other filmmakers that she’s more than just a pretty face … and legs … and fill-in-the-blank. She’s a stripper with a heart of gold until someone looks at her cross, but she gives the film its most fully dimensional performance.
Writer/director Timothy Linh Buih has ambition to burn, dabbling in dream-like sequences and a dollop of magic realism. But he doesn’t have the chops to pull it off. The characters feel emotionally malnourished, and the final 20 minutes finds each bonding in ways that strain credulity.
Biel’s eagerly awaited Mr. Skin moment wasn’t enough to earn “Powder Blue” a theatrical release, and the film’s convoluted dramatics ensured its path to DVD.
Christian Toto is a contributing reporter for The Washington Times, MovieMaker Magazine and boxoffice.com. He blogs about film at whatwouldtotowatch.com
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33 Comments
[...] Go here to see the original: DVD Review: ‘Powder Blue’ [...]
I don't advocate piracy, but I figure the only two reasons to see this film will make their way onto the internet in clip form before too long. I do wish Swayze well. He did a great job with The Beast.
Hahahaha…….Out of all the movies to review you chose this one? Admit it. You watched it for Jessica Biel's Titties. Just be honest with us dude, its ok.
Did anyone read the interview where Biel whined about how hard it was for her to get good roles because she's cursed with beauty? Poor baby.
I've read numerous reviews and haven't yet read anything favorable about this movie. Again proving that Hollywood has more money than good ideas well executed.
You ANIMAL!
Good point but.
Christian, you're right that "Powder Blue" is a dreadful movie. But your (hopefully feigned) confusion as to why a woman would use a fake name for her stripper identity is (some, I suppose, might say "charmingly") naive. So I hope you're kidding.
Anyhow, she didn't need this dopey film to prove her thespic bonafides. She's fine in "The Illusionist" and better than fine in "Easy Virtue." Someone (her agent, I guess) must have convinced her that this was her own "21 Grams." Which is a pretty dreadful movie in itself…
jeez, this sounds just terrific.
Aw, cripes! Hasn't ANYONE inside Hollywood moved past puberty? If I see one more stupid film with the sophomoric, navel-gazing whininess of 'Powder Blue', I will barf. I mean, these people are the most totally self-indulgent jerks I've ever met.
Look, I know the old Hollywood was infantile in many ways – but there is one crucial difference between old Hollywood and the new. The main purpose of old Hollywood was to get the audience to look at their films – but the new only wants the audience to look at THEM.
I was jesting about the stripper name …
And frankly I'm curious about any movie with big stars that goes straight to video. And yes, I find Biel fetching. I'm only human.
I had two pole dancer roommates who lived next door to me in an apartment complex years ago. Unbelievably hot 21-23 y/o chicks, and mind crushingly stupid. One night some drunk "patrons" followed them home, cased their pad, and robbed them when they went out for their night on the town. They scored thousands in cash. I actually got a good look at the guys, and told the police investigator that I could ID the guys easy. He rolled his eyes and gave me a classic in-the-ear aside: "They're strippers. They get what they ask for." LOL!
I love stripper names. I'm about to age myself (even more than usual). There was a famous strip club on the Sunset Strip back in the sixties (it may still be there for all I know). During the 1964 Presidential election the two headliners at the club were named "Lindy Buns Johnson" and Goldie Barewater." They were at least as interesting as the election. Goldie said that "extremism in the pursuit of vice is a virtue." If the joint is still there, maybe Biel could get a job.
Murdock, If you want to pirate it, here it is: http://www.watch-movies-links.net/movies/powder_b...
Dunno how good any of the copies will be, but good enough I guess to see if you want to watch more of it. I think I will def pass.
Anoth Caro, I did, and laughed my rear off. Puhleeze. Scar Jo and Char Theron are just 2 of the actresses way more talented and better looking. She sounds like a bitc#.
LH,
I love that name, Goldie Barewater! Now there's some strippers with creativity. I am guessing they just don't make 'em like they used to.
Jessica's 27. She's made some bad choices in her career, and, "Not many more shopping days 'till Christmas" – to borrow from Jack Nicholson – as far as her hot chick days are concerned. I wish her the best, but most hot hollywood stars don't age like fine wine, if you catch my drift. In ten years time, we'll probably be asking, "Jessica who?" Like Maryam d'Abo and Margaux Hemmingway. Hot in their time, but that time's past.
Thanks, Butler. I'll have to look through that later.
And Angelina Jolie hasn't exactly been starving for work… I hear marginally talented actresses use this excuse all the time. Do they honestly think they're hotter than the successful actresses? Talk about delusional…
Sounds like one of them thar 'Important" filims. Once in a while Hollywood combines 'important' with 'watchable'.
I recently bought several of the 'anti-Bush/anti-Iraq/anti-America' DVDS of movies which Failed at the box office over the last couple of years. I was neither entertained or enlightened. I paid discount prices, still to much, but I've done my part to keep the eeevil plastic out of landfills. I made a difference.
Another single mom turned stripper? A story line that's grown old.
Demi Moore played that role HOW many yrs ago? She looked pretty hot doing it, too. I remember Rumer was very small then, and she is the same age as my daughter, 21 now, so it's been a while. Totally O/T, but has anyone seen the pic of Demi from her Twitter acct where she posted herself at the dentist? She had to have one of her front teeth replaced, (they're not real), and so she is sitting their without a front tooth. I am not sure if she is brave for doing this, or just looks nutty. I try not to look at her too hard, I am afraid I will have an urge to join their Obama pledge cult. LOL.
I won't read anything funnier than this for a month or so.
I give Jessica credit for continuing to try. She really wants to be taken seriously. Sadly, from the reviews I have read of these "serious" movies she's in, the verdict is usually the same – she's just not that good.
Oscars are stupid — they go to whoever is the most "it" girl or guy, not the best performance and often the actors and actresses are forgotten by fans and producers almost immediately after winning.
Marisa Tomei?
Biel, if she was smart, would take comic roles, and hone her craft to be the funny girl who can get the laugh. Even better if she moved from TV to movies pursuing comic roles. Almost no actresses around can be funny because they're more concerned with looking hot than getting the laugh.
The larger question is why did this movie, a Mr. Skin moment (haha) not even get to theaters? Answer: because in a Recession/Depression, audiences want fun not Hollywood navel-gazing and "gritty/depressing" stuff. Not even a naked Jessica Biel can offset that. Piracy of course reduces DVD sales to not much, along with ruthless Depression price cutting. I see DVDs on sale at the Supermarket for $5. Yeah they're older.
But winners are movies that are broad and accessible, like Taken or Up or Iron Man. Losers are navel-gazing niche stuff. And how much longer can Hollywood play with other people's money to make them?
I give her high marks for effort. She has four pictures in preproduction and it appears they won't all make it to theaters. It's a tough business even for a beauty with some talent.
Biel was pretty good as a teen actress in Ulee's Gold. Of course, Peter Fonda makes everyone look good. Sadly she's known more for her tabloid fodder relationships, physique (she's a gym rat) and her comment about being too beautiful for roles.
Hey – stealing is stealing. For the cop to blow off taking the report "because they're strippers" is inexcusable. I'll bet that, sooner or later, the mooks who robbed these girls will escalate to home invasion – beating and raping the female victims after robbing them and trashing their homes. What's the cop going to say then? "They were strippers/hookers – they deserved it"?
"…most hot hollywood stars don't age like fine wine" – no they don't! Most of them age like milk. I can't count all of the hot actresses from twenty or more years ago that look downright scary today.
you had me at "Biel sheds her top ". See even the words I omitted have been oblitterated from my memory. That one line has probably done more to up the viewship of this so called film than any other comment or review.
Hear hear. Seeing her in her underwear was the best reason to subject oneself to the painful mess of "Chuck and Larry".
Hey, just the facts. I made no judgement, unless you call "LOL!" a judgement. Remember, I saw the investigators, walked over of my own volition, and offered to help. I was trying to be the good guy. They evidently didn't think my eyewitness info was worth pursuing. Not my fault. I thought the cop's reaction was inappropriate, but it did make me laugh. He was obviously very jaded.
"Peter Fonda makes everyone look good. "
LOL! He did just that in 3:10 to Yuma.
beil is so over at this point.
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