Note: Spoilers follow for Now and Then.
Now and Then is a good, but not great, coming-of-age
story about young ladies. I don’t know their exact ages, because I’m not knowledgeable
about when girls experience puberty, but it’s basically like a female-focused
version of The Sandlot, or Stand By Me, or seemingly dozens of
other guy movies. Now and Then is
different from the stereotypical 1980s teen dramas (mostly starring Molly
Ringwald) because there is way more of a focus on the relationships between the
friends, as opposed to Much Strife about a boy.
Surprisingly,
the movie sits at 19
percent on Rotten Tomatoes, although 82 percent of the people who watched
it liked it. Ebert gave the film two stars,
praising the work of the young actresses while pretty much savaging everything
else.
Reading his
review, I’d say it analyzes Now and Then pretty
much on the nose. (It’s like he did it for a living, or something.) The
storytelling device of the film – that it’s all a big flashback with some
narration by grown-up Demi Moore – is kind of hokey. It only seems to exist to
allow for four established actresses – Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O’Donnell
and Rita Wilson – to be on the movie’s masthead, since their total screen time
is about 15 lackluster minutes.
The real
stars of the movie are the young versions of the adults – Christina Ricci
(Roberta), Thora Birch (Teeny), Gaby Hoffmann (Samantha) and Ashleigh Aston
Moore (Chrissy). Hoffmann and Birch are especially strong, which probably isn’t
all that surprising to y’all reading this, given that you know how their future
movie careers turned out. Moore is the only one who stayed relatively unknown –
According to Wikipedia,
she stopped acting in 1997, and unfortunately died in 2007 at the age of 26.
Now and Then is at its best when it’s
just showing interactions between the young actresses. The inevitable comparison
in this regard is Stand By Me, but
unfortunately as Ebert’s review highlights, the chats aren’t as effective in
this movie because of the heavy-handed narration, the “flashback” method of the
film, and some really hokey plot elements. You know, stuff like the gals
stealing the guys’ clothing when they skinny-dipped, and a séance gone wrong,
and just stealing plot points from Home
Alone, of all things.
If you’re looking
for a great, female-focused coming of age story, well, this isn’t it. Gilmore Girls is still the end-all,
be-all for that sort of media. Still, I found it entertaining enough for its
90-minute run time. Just focus on the youngsters performances, and laugh at the
Dark and Edgy Demi Moore. If you’re feeling nostalgic, Huffington Post has a then-and-now
slideshow for Now and Then.
Want to support Steve’s blogging? Then
purchase something via the Amazon clickthru link for Your Parents Basement, Steve’s other
project! To read all of Steve’s past Inexplicable Movie Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable TV Reviews, click here! For Inexplicable Video Game Reviews, click here! And for Inexplicable Book Reviews, go here!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Try not to be too much of an ass, unless completely necessary. You are subject to tyrannical moderation.