rank these three great Miramax movies from the mid-90s

Fresh
Heavenly Creatures
Exotica

i rank the one i've heard of top even though it's not very good.

Haven't seen Fresh, and haven't seen the other two in years. I'd go:

Heavenly Creatures
Exotica

http://bauergriffinonline.com/bfm_gallery/2010/05/weinstein%20berry/post_image/post_image-100520Z6_WEINSTEIN_B-GR_05.jpg

okay, this is damn hard. love all 3 of these, and they each work very differently, so it's hard to rank them in any sensible fashion. maybe it's cheating, but...

1) heavenly creatures
2) fresh tied w/ exotica

Oh, Fresh, definitely. A really good movie from the '90s whose existence I seem to constantly forget. Like Zero Effect.

I don't think that I've seen the other two but I LOVE Heavenly Creatures.

I'm going to have to check out Zero Effect

I just saw Heavenly Creattures for the first time today! The ending was really wrenching!

Just watched it again on YouTube. It really is. The whole story is fascinating. You know one of them eventually became a famous writer, right?

Yeah. Wild, ain't it? Her dad went on to spearhead England's hydrogen bomb program too (which seems as fitting a commentary on modernism as anything)(at least to me...)

You should really watch Fresh, ENBB.

the story is fascinating but, really, is the film that good? i seem to remember lots of superfluous fantasy scenes getting on the way of the actually interesting parts.

yup, that's how i remember it.

liked exotica at the time, kinda doubt the egoyan stuff holds up that well now

love the fantasy scenes in heavenly creatures. don't think it would be half so successful if it cared less about the girls' shared fantasy life.

i wonder, too, whether the 80s egoyan i once loved would hold up over time. last two i saw were chloe (horrid) and the sweet hereafter (surprisingly good).

Yeah, but I feel like the fascinating unique stuff redeems the stuff I didn't have so much use for (talking lifesized clay statuettes)...I like the fact that you can see Jackson's slasher roots clearly in the movie, and the kinetic energy does in fact give the emo stuff real teeth. I actually cried at the end.

Chloe was horrid? :(

Exotica is almost as good as Sweet Hereafter. I think Egoyan got a bad rap with American critics who were perfectly fine with using words like 'pretentious' and 'chilly' and 'soulless' as euphemisms for 'Canadian'.

chloe definitely has good points. it's clever, sharply photographed and incisive about the relationship between hypocrisy and desire. it seems to trust its audience's intellect and builds suspense effectively. otoh, it's often stilted (neeson, mostly) and the ending blows. honestly, if the last 10 minutes had been different, i probably would have liked it a lot. moore and seyfried are both excellent.

Heavenly Creatures - amazing
Fresh - amazing, but doesn't have a claymation orson welles in it
never seen Exotic so that goes on the bottom

heavenly creatures is just awesome, so moving, so creative, so much compassion for its subjects

i though exotica was straight up stupid when i saw it (i was a teenager i think?), everyone talks like a dr. katz episode and none of it makes any sense or really matters. iirc.

never heard of fresh.

heavenly creatures>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>fresh>>exotica

^delta post

Fresh is basically like The Wire if Avon Barksdale was brought down by one of his 12-year-old runners instead of the police. It's been a while, so I don't know how well it holds up, but I remember liking it a lot at the time.

Or there's Amazon's summary: "A boy is a good student and responsible and a runner for a drug lord."

Couldn't stand Exotica; really enjoyed the other two.

fresh is alright, there's a "grittiness" to it that's a bit corny (the wire's pessimism was never this silly). for overwrought 90s inner city blues dramas w/ sam jackson i'll probably turn to 187 (where the "grittiness" damn near descends into camp). i'd put something like clockers way above it (and clockers disappointed me). still, it had a good plot and a great great soundtrack. exotica i remember mainly for raising the possibility that they really do just put leonard cohen's i'm your man on repeat in canadian strip clubs.

I thought the only corny notes that were hit were by N'Bushe Wright (whose character was almost campy in her self-pitying); I guess growing up in a small farming village allows me to think inner-city dramas are more authentic than they are. But yeah I think Fresh's strengths are plot and characterization.

I'm posting from my smartphone right now, so I'm not gonna go into an elaborate defense of Exotica right this moment, but I just watched it again a few days ago, and I thought it held up well...

xpost

Ohhhhh, thank you for reminding me of Clockers. I loved the book and meant to check out that movie forever ago.

Also, ENBB: Exotica has Elias Koteas in it...

Also, balls otm in that watching Exotica has made me want to listen to I'm Your Man for the first time in almost a decade...

Rank these awful Miramax films from the mid-90s:

Kids
Chasing Amy
The Crow

(I tried to watch The Crow the other night and had trouble staying awake (which is a silver lining in a way I guess?))

LOL. I had a friend from college who kept referring to The Crow as "the best of all of the 'cult' films"

there was another Miramax movie I really wanted to see at the time; it was called "Muriel's Wedding" Was that worth anything?

muriel's wedding is excellent, though sort of crushing

of these movies i've only seen exotica, which i liked a lot.

Muriel's Wedding is one of my all-time favorites.

Never saw Fresh. Exotica was a personal fave at the time and I hope it doesn't remain out of print.

exotica was my favorite movie as well for a long time. fresh I've never heard of. heavenly creatures is good. so exotica wins. it's out of print? I have the dvd (and all egoyan films on dvd actually, through ararat anyway).

I just bought a used copy of Exotica for seven dollars, I think, last week on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Exotica-Mia-Kirshner/dp/6305428107/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308201476&sr=8-2

i'd go for the "collectible". it's only 35 bucks!

none of the Miramax DVDs seem to have any features though :(

I guess I'm really saying I wish Criterion could/would release it (with an appropriate cover for the first time ever).

I can get behind that; all three of these

It took me this long to remember that I actually have seen Exotica...and it left next to no impression on me whatsoever, I guess.

Contenderizer otm re fantasy scenes in Heavenly Creatures. Fantasy scene haters itt are clearly wrong.

Oh mym Elias Koteas in in Exotica! That is reason enough for me to watch it tbh.

heavenly creatures is one of the best movies ever

fresh is p good, havent seen exotica

i saw Fresh but remember very little about it. i do believe i left thinking it was just ok. somehow i don't think i've ever even heard of the other two. weird.

but Zero Effect mentioned upthread is dope and i highly recommend it.

Rank these awful Miramax films from the mid-90s:

Kids
Chasing Amy
The Crow

Ranked thusly:
1) Kids is pretty bad but I would rank it first because it at least has a few of Harmony Korine's Werner-Herzog-by-way-of-American-white-trash-surrealism moments. Also it was the first time I ever saw Chloe Sevigny and I *heart* her, she is great. First time I saw this film I was in an emotionally raw state and it hit a little too close to the bone.

2) The Crow - I know I saw this (too many goths in SF meant someone was eventually gonna drag me to see this), and yet I remember next to nothing about it. In fact, the only thing I remember about this entire franchise is Iggy Pop uttering the insult "bird dick" in the second movie.

3) Chasing Amy - never seen this whole thing, as Kevin Smith is the worst American filmmaker to ever be given a serious budget. also he is fat and wears jorts.

kevin smith is the most worthless director ever, for sure.

I ever saw Chloe Sevigny and I *heart* her

:(

I hate her.

aw, come on. malrats is okay.

i love mallrats

I did mushrooms right after I saw Kids...and that was...a bad idea.

mallrats even. malrats is probably some french thing.

heavenly creatures is amazing. much, much better than mallrats, tbf.

chasing amy might be my least favorite movie of the 90s and i'm including reality bites and everything

muriel's wedding is definitely the best of the 90s miramax movies mentioned on this thread so far.

I swear the k smith discussion happens like at least every two months on ilx.

X post - no way! I like m's wedding but heavenly creatures is amazing.

gotta admit i havent seen heavenly creatures since it came out. kinda tainted by association for me in that it was loved by college associates who loved it and other "arty" things of the period like you know the luhrman romeo and juliet.

i not-so-secretly dig the luhrman R&J

it gave us "lovefool" so i cant hate entirely

kids>>>>>>>>>the crow>>>>...>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>...>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>chasing amy

I was sooo bummed when I thought this was going to turn into a Kevin Smith thread

exotica
heavenly creatures
fresh

i remember muriel's wedding being really depressing

I haven't seen any of these movies since the '90s, but Heavenly Creatures was definitely my favorite. Fresh was all right. I had to check if I'd even seen Exotica -- looks like I saw it in college, but I don't remember a thing about it.