Masterful Movie

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

If this were a student film, I would understand, but it's not. The director takes a pseudonym because, well at least I believe, because it's an experiment gone very wrong. I'll make a list1. The lighting, blunt, bullying, washout. It's almost unnerving to watch as if a science fiction.2. No story served with a never ending plate of hit or miss bon mots. I call it self-indulgent. I won't lie to you and say there aren't flashes of wit and charm... there are, but I find that this film is very much like what it shows: a person who tries too hard and has you cornered at a party.3. The set... it's soooo dark. Why? Do you want me to have a nervous breakdown instead of laughing which is the intent I assume.4. Noah Bambaugh has made me laugh a lot in his other films. All the while, I felt that he had the potential to go off the rails into the realm of pretentiousness, banal, insufferable New York upper east/west side intellectual hipster dreck. In the previous films he created memorable, earnest characters and a plot. Not this time... without story you are left with nothing.

After eight years of working in the film industry and a life time of watching them, I've finally found the worst film to date. This movie was horrible for a multitude a reasons. I've checked the directors background and saw that is was not his first. This came as a surprise to me considering the number of amature mistakes that I found, just after the first couple minutes. Not only was the lighting, acting, (outside of Eric Stoltz) and story line well below sub par, but the set was one of the worst dressed sets that I've ever seen. You might think that I'm nit picking a bit, but then again isn't that saying something within itself.

Ignore the blurb on the VHS box, the movie is not about a couple's hot parties with hip friends, it is about a couple's awful parties with jerk friends. Now, that might not be a bad thing -- in fact, I think it could be easier to make a good movie about bad parties than about good ones -- but the advertising is dishonest.Much worse, though, is the the pointless and boring character of the movie, which is about a bunch of stupid or verbally sadistic "friends" who mostly don't like each other. While I've known cliques that keep getting together despite frictions between some members, it's inconceivable that these people would keep getting together for these abusive and tedious holiday events. Also, the couples' relationships, which come and go between these parties, are unexplained and mostly unexplored, as are some individuals' character changes, and indeed, almost everything that doesn't happen at the parties themselves.

It's a nice surprise to see so many famous names get together for a (very) low budget film like this (the end credits celebrate its being filmed in just six days). Even nicer than that is the incredibly witty dialogue and situations that are so perfectly satirized at a party. This film follows a group of couples (and the permutations therein) and their friends at three parties- a housewarming, Hallowe'en, and New Years. You've been to one of these parties. You know these people. There's the insufferable prick that keeps getting invited, theres the Grudge between two guys, there's the ex-girlfriend dating someone else now... etc. It's a BRILLIANTLY funny movie, and there it gets funnier each time you watch it- too many of them go over your head the first time round.