The Virgin Suicides

Such a pleasure to watch the freshman effort after the sophomore effort. If I'd seen the freshman effort first, I may not have seen the second film. Actually that's doubtful based on the hype surrounding Lost in Translation, and besides this first film has the glimmerings of that ambience that made people fall in love with the second film. While the story (all 5 girls in one family in 1970s Southeast Michigan kill themselves for no apparent reasons) doesn't have all the elements needed to make this a complete experience -- i.e., where are the "boys" now? exactly how are the parents strict to begin with? are all the girls virgins in the end? why does it matter if they are or are not? does Trip end up where he does because of his feelings for Lux? -- the mood of the film sucks you in. Part of that can be credited to Sofia's brother, Roman Coppola who was second unit director on the film. All those in-between shots that enhance the mood of the film are at least halfway due to his talent. However, the MVP award goes to James Woods, whom I have always admired but never liked as an actor. I've never seen him play a schlub before, in this case a spaced-out math teacher who has no idea how to raise 5 daughters, and he was as I've never seen him: funny! Another actor I've always admired but never loved on screen is Kirsten Dunst, but she is perfect as the sexy Lux, as perfect as Josh Hartnett is as Trip. In fact, probably my favorite scene in the entire movie is Trip's walk down the school corridor, not because he's gorgeous to look at, which he is, but because in most films you watch girls sashaying past guys. Sofia had the balls to perform a gender flip here and it's easily the most guffaw-inducing scene in the whole film.

year: 1999
length: 97 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159097/combined