Popular reviews

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★½

  Wild to think that Hollywood was barely 15 years old when this all happened and it was already completely dead inside.

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★ 3

  A movie so haunted by anxiety of failure one almost forget it is set in a sailing trip among some very powerful people, although the separation between setting and feeling is part of what gives it power. The overall choreography of action is handle with great care by Bogdanovich who brings to the movie an understanding that exists far beyond its Hollywood gossip surface and he gets some very strong performances, particular from Hermann and Dunst who consisted shift from multiple roles as the game of powers inside the boat take turns.

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  Review by Jesse Snoddon ★★★★ 5

  "You ever eaten a seagull, Tom?"

  Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst) and William Randolph Hearst (Edward Herrmann) host a birthday party on Hearst's yacht for movie mogul Thomas Ince (Cary Elwes), whose career is on a cold streak. 

  Bogdanovich puts a lot of moving pieces on the board here. Charlie Chaplin (Eddie Izzard) is trying to reignite a fling and steal Davies away. A paranoid Hearst gets rattled by the increasing boldness of the two. And Thomas Ince thinks he can use the affair for leverage and to curry favour from Hearst. These elements alone are enough to anchor the film, but it also touches on some additional interesting themes. Davies wants to cut loose and do comedy, and is sick…

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  Review by petestavsf ★★★½

  charlie chaplin comedor de casadas

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  Review by 📀 Cammmalot 📀 ★★★ 2

  Cinematic Time Capsule
  2001 Marathon - Film #101

  ”Welcome to Hollywood...
  a land just off the coast of the planet earth”

  A 1924 birthday bash aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht ends in tragedy

  What starts out as the cat’s pajamas with the likes of Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Tilly and Eddie Izzard recreating the upstairs of Gosford Park on a boat, soon takes a major tonal shift that bogs down the yacht and leaves viewers feeling as bored and depressed as a soaking-wet cat.

  On the plus side Kirsten Dunst is adorable as Marion Davies and the ripping ’20’s soundtrack reminded me that It’s been way too long since I’ve danced a good Charleston.

  ”If you start anything I’ll throw you and your smirk overboard”

  
  Cinematic Time Capsule - 2001 Ranked

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  Review by Will Sloan

  I watched the first half of Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon and, exhausted, switched over to this modest late-period comeback attempt. It's a lot less flashy - almost as visually basic as the TV movies he was cranking out around this time. The style matches the mellow tempo, cynical story, and wry, sad tone. I suspect that a younger Bogdanovich tackling this material would have brought a lot of the sorts of Wellesian visual flourishes he brought to Nickelodeon, but this is by the Bogdanovich who was chewed up and spat out by Hollywood.

  Good performances all around. I like Robert Downey Jr.'s wide-eyed immigrant Chaplin, but I also really like Eddie Izzard's smug bastard Chaplin who fucks.

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  Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★½

  First viewing: April 2002
  First rating: 3/10

  Second viewing: January 2022
  Second rating: 7/10

  “I, too, look like a fool. Yet it's so much fun that none of us can stop.”

  I remember absolutely hating The Cat's Meow when it came out. I remember being familiar with the incident beforehand. Rewatching it, I can see that the film's strength lies in taking a position and creating a strong story, despite the fact that nobody knows what really happened.

  “Partnerships of any kind are based on two things: trust and sharing.”

  The film opens and closes with credits in the most horrible font. Perhaps that can be forgiven, but 20 years later and it's still an eyesore. Still, the costumes are…

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  Review by Gentry ★★★ 2

  “I don’t want anybody laughing at Marion.”

  Rebuffing predatory Charlie Chaplin, the movie. I do wonder if Bogdanovich had seen the same year’s TCM produced documentary, Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies, because a lot of The Cat’s Meow seems determined to right many of those same wrongs regarding Davies’ career. Namely, correcting the myths that she was an untalented actress and gold digger who never truly loved W.R. Hearst. These myths came to fruition after the release of Citizen Kane, when Davies had already retired from acting, and at a time when her movies were infrequently shown. You can understand how they persisted for so many decades, but now that her films can be easily seen,…

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  Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★

  absolutely fascinating to watch this the same day as a Charlie Chaplin film. the ways its melancholy builds and ripples throughout history really resonated, benefited by Bogdanovich constantly aware that he’s filming a ghost story, an elegiac look at people and culture that barely existed once and have now slipped away, remembered only through celluloid and rumour. it doesn’t really matter that there’s a murder or that there’s a cover up, the boat was doomed from the second it set sail, with all its inhabitants doomed to a form of purgatory forever. has one of my favourite performances of Kirsten Dunst’s, who conveys the subtle despair of knowing the right thing to do but not having the strength to do…

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★

  Peter Bogdanovich really can't seem to get enough of classic Hollywood history, but I think that's also what makes his films so entertaining because you can really feel his passion for that era shining all the way through.

  If anything, I think that The Cat's Meow is also proof that Peter Bogdanovich is incapable of making a tribute film to that very era that doesn't look aesthetically pleasing at the very least - because it's just too clear that he's letting these influences decide how everything will unfold. And for a film all about one of the most famous Hollywood murder cases, it also unfolds as if it were a mystery film set within that same era, which makes everything even better.

  In many ways, it feels almost like it's unfolding as if the mystery continually writes itself, and it's just a blast from start to finish.

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  Review by moon . • ☽︎ ◌ ⋆ ˖ · ★★★

  é tão satisfatório assistir um filme em que a kirsten dunst interpreta uma solteirona apaixonada nos anos 20

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  Review by Watch-it-Pal 👻 ★★★

  If/when im in a tense situation,im just gonna yell “CHARLESTON!’’ And hope it all works out.