Hurlyburly Review
by Bob Bloom (cbloom AT iquest DOT net)February 25th, 1999
Hurlyburly" (1998) 1/2 star out of 4. Starring Sean Penn, Robin Wright Penn, Kevin Spacey, Garry Shandling, Chazz Palminteri, Meg Ryan and Anna Paquin.
I was taught if you can't say anything nice about something, keep your mouth shut.
But that would be doing a disservice to anyone who is thinking of seeing this sorry excuse for a motion picture.
On stage, David Rabe's play may be fascinating, but as a film "Hurlyburly" is an excruiating two hours of self-absorbed narcissists doing nothing but whining, crying, cursing and babbling about life, drugs, sex, money and friendship.
It's all pretentious nonsense as these Hollywood losers snort cocaine, drink, screw and continually blab about nothing. This movie makes an episode of "Seinfeld" look like Chekov.
Even though it is fascinating watching Sean Penn seem to self-destruct, his brave performance (which he had done earlier on stage) cannot save this tiresome tirade of banalities.
Never has such a fine cast, which includes Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright Penn, Chazz Palminteri, Garry Shandling and Anna Paquin, been forced to try to do so much with so little.
Even the stunt casting of Meg Ryan as a hooker cannot keep this leaden vehicle afloat.
Some will say that I'm a cretin because David Rabe is one of our finest playwrights. Perhaps. But if being a cretin means applauding "Hurlyburly," then just consider me an uneducated lout who cannot appreciate high art.
Just remember, though, I told you so.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or
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Carol Bloom of Bloom Ink Publishing Professionals
3312 Indian Rock Lane West Lafayette, IN 47906-1203
765-497-9320 fax 765-497-3112 [email protected]
Committed to Lifelong Learning through Effective Communication
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
