This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
... View MoreThis is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
... View MoreThe tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
... View MoreGreat movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
... View MoreEven when I was young, I never was fixated on 'fame,' or popularity based solely on superficial things. As Marilyn Monroe said in her last interview (slightly paraphrased), 'fame is fickle, I've had it, and it's passed me by.'She knew the studios used her - to fill a type, a slot; sexy, dumb blonde.' But Marilyn wanted to show she was so much more.I grew up in the entertainment business, and it never excited me. Some of those I knew, or met, who were 'famous,' were mean, vain, callow. Being a kid, I saw this popularity game starting to happen as I approached teen-hood.I always thought looks are transient, and one second, you have them, but, who knows - a car crash, or you get old - for a woman, that's 40 - and then...Some of the most beautiful women I always thought, had it in them - they'd lived, and they'd seen it, and have Had grown wiser. The smart ones played the game back. The others, well... Who knows.But, of the 'famous,' it's only a very select few. I was always captivated by other qualities, and even when I was little, Ms. Oliver made such an impression. This was before the Internet, so, there was really know if others felt the same,and, honestly, I didn't care, as she was acting for me. I'm sure every other person who saw her felt the same.Her iconic role in Star Trek, is - for me a lot more than surface. She portrayed a woman, who even though she looked beautiful to those who saw her, it was illusory, and I felt it - her insecurity, her need for approval, because, as Vina, she was validated by her appearance.There was such a gentleness to her, and her voice, it quavered, but, not with the 'sex- kitten' quality. Her voice gently prodded, and said; 'please, don't hurt me, because if you don't believe this, I can't survive.'It broke my heart, then, and even thinking now, I'm tearing up.That was an actor. Someone who I felt lived and breathed, because I know she felt it, without question. Just because the screen would go dark, I felt whoever Ms. Oliver was, she - and Vina, her character - lived on.I worked in the entertainment business, and fame still never impressed me. As time went on, the media's need for more faces became ever-more rapacious, first, with cable, then the Internet, and on, and on.Instead of looking to 'groom' someone, it was as if these (usually young) actors were young chicks, and they looked at them solely on the basis of if they'd develop into a good chicken. Nothing more.I'd see/hear more and more young people say they wanted to be 'famous,' but, if I ever asked; famous? For what? The question was irrelevant.They see fame as the sole goal of approval.It saddens me.I was happy to find out - only as 'recently' as the mid 80's more things about Ms. Oliver which made me love her even more; I heard how she was not just a 'plane-flyer,' but, it was a deep passion. I also found out she'd passed away.I came across this documentary a few months ago purely by accident, and it couldn't have been more serendipitous.To see that she was so valued by those she'd worked with, and knew in her personal life, that they made this stunning, loving documentary about a person, a real flesh and blood one.I had my best friend (who passed away a few years ago) tell me about working with her, and even though my friend could drip venom, as she talked about Susan, it was with admiration. My friend had come up through Hollywood by being discovered at a young age by a famous director, and from then on her life was unreality. Working with Ms. Oliver showed my friend that you don't need anyone but yourself to love, because, as the saying forgoes, if you can't love yourself, you can't love anyone. I'm so happy this film was made. For anyone who wants to learn about self-confidence, and believing in yourself, and not have yourself validated, as so many unfortunately do, by fawning fake sycophants, watch this. I wish every young girl, young woman, and young boys, and whoever else felt or feels this plastic need to be 'beautiful,' , or has a 'stage mother,' who's (usually morbidly obese), who tries to live trough them, and turn them into some 'beauty queen.'See this, because true beauty can only come from within oneself.I won't say anything more about this woman's life, than how touched I was - still am - how this woman I never had the privilege of meeting touched me. I know I'm not alone, as the simple fact this wonderful story was told, and all the people who helped - either by participating, or helping fund it, this is a very rare incidence of someone truly special.Wherever you are now, Susan, thank you, you've had such an impact on so many., I know you're gentle twilight dream dust, which pass into many of us who see you, in so many wonderful ways. I always knew - even when I was a very little boy, you were a very special person, and I'm glad I at least still get to share seeing your on my screen.
... View MoreI just finished watching this film. It's amazing! And that's not just because of how it tell's Susan Oliver's story (in great detail with love, respect, and honesty) but how it shows us how Hollywood worked during that time period... and the effect this had on people, especially someone who was her own person first and not willing to play by the rules every step of the way.Susan Oliver left a large body of work... only some of which I've seen. I own the "Route 66" series DVDs, so I think I'll start with her multiple appearances there. As this film shows, she could play many different types of characters. I look forward to seeing many more of those performances.This film made me both want to see her at work more and wish she had lived to benefit from the chance to meet her fans today. She's be a huge hit at the celebrity autograph shows! Susan Oliver was only 58 when she died... truly gone too soon.
... View MoreI was fortunate enough to see this film at one of its limited theatrical showings.I have seen Susan Oliver in many films and television shows over the years, but I knew vary little about her. "The Green Girl" brought the person behind the roles to life for me.She was as accomplished off screen as she was on, and it's tragic that she has not been acknowledged for all that she did. The unwillingness of many of the well-known actors with whom she worked to provide interviews for this film only serves to underscore that fact.Despite that absence, George A. Pappy, Jr. and Amy Glickman Brown have managed to produce a very compelling story of Ms. Oliver's life and career. I know that I will be watching it again on video more than once.
... View MoreA good documentary with the most clips of Susan Oliver's career that will ever be assembled. As such it is also a valuable overview of the early days of television. However, several problems come up that call into question the resources and abilities of the filmmakers. The chief one is a lack of interviews or reflections from significant television and film industry peers. Ms. Oliver worked with scores of top-level actors, many of whom are still with us, yet none deigned to be in this documentary, despite almost certainly being asked. Especially curious is the absence of Jerry Lewis, with whom she made several movies and was clearly a friend who offered to pay her hospital bills at the end. We are left with heavy screen time given to lesser-known performers, some of whom didn't even know she was a pilot, undermining their own credentials as intimates. The one notable exception was David Hedison, although even he is hardly a household name. The film also heavily relies on lesser-known Hollywood writers, production people, and friends, many of whom are posed with their books (and sometimes artwork), offering plenty of praise but little real insight into Ms. Oliver's life and work. While famous people don't necessarily a good documentary make, their complete absence from this film undermines both the claims of Susan Oliver's importance to the industry and the professional credentials of the filmmakers...to say nothing of seriously hurting the film's chances of garnering mainstream interest. The documentary also makes no attempt to put any of Ms. Oliver's work or life into perspective, by use of a narrator or any analytical framework. The film is an endless series of TV and movie clips and talking head testimonials...there is no over-arching voice to bring it all together and offer up any kind of summation on who Susan Oliver was and why she might be important and worth remembering. Details about her personal life, especially her puzzling romantic liaisons and the obviously complicated relationship with her famous astrologer mother, are given a quick once-over. We are only given hints as to whom she may have had relationships with, and while privacy is always sacrosanct, a documentary that doesn't at least attempt to delineate the home life of its subject becomes more a curriculum vitae than a true story of a person. One can't help but feel the filmmakers kept things light in an effort to do honor to Ms. Oliver. That they did, but the documentary finally leaves one with the same feeling one has about Susan Oliver's career: it was oddly incomplete, and less than it should have been.
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