Watch Sweetie For Free

Really Surprised!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fantastic!

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

I am currently avoiding writing for my writing job and writing this review instead. But before that I went out to get coffee. I considered going to a tiny spot tucked on a small street whose proprietor routinely stands outside on a nearby thoroughfare highfiving pedestrians in the morning; this sort of prosocial behavior normally repulses me but the owner's desperation to ensure the survival of his assuredly moribund business has me charmed. Unfortunately for him, it's quite warm today so instead I went to the much nearer french bakery with its trompe l'oeil wallpaper meant to resemble bookshelves. While waiting for the elevator back up to my refrigerated office, a woman yelled into her phone "I can't hear you, you are stuttering" to some poor soul, and a man in a fedora complained about "crippled tourists," in line before him at Starbucks. I watched Sweetie on the recommendation of a friend infuriated by Breaking the Waves; she had in turn received this recommendation from a high school friend of mine who I introduced to weed, and who then lived in Korea for too many years. Sweetie could have been weirder. At first, it seemed ready to be very weird. Main character Kay gets her tea leaves read alongside her psychic's aphasic son. A wide shot of a work lunch room is suddenly interrupted by the shrieking of an employee as she dives toward her friend's newly appearing engagement ring. Kay flips out over the particularly dreary leaves of a tree her boyfriend has decided to plant smack dab in the center of their driveway. Sadly, most of the film's oddities are eventually subdued by a fairly neat and orderly story, which even provides a nice family backdrop to explain away the quirks of sisters Kay and Sweetie. Loose ends are tied up. I would still recommend watching this for its striking visual palette and the fact that the aforementioned psychic's spastic son is never explained.

First of all, I loved how this film was wholly unapologetic. It feels like the work of someone who's done what they wanted, without compromise. Still, this is not without its merits and problems. While the film stands out as odd and, as such, interesting without knowing more about it, I feel that it could have gained by using more traditional work on the plot, a little like Wim Wenders did on "Paris, Texas", or by Gus van Sant's "Paranoid Park", which are both odd films where the somewhat straightforward plots worked wonders without taking away from the unusual contents. Having said that, this film is filled with wonderful, everyday, never-before-seen imagery with wonderful human beings, a fresh view of presenting a film, photography where the object of a shot is rarely in the center of the image and a storyline that goes a bit all over the place - thank Bog for that. All in all: recommendable, and gets better as the film progresses.

Australian filmmaker Jane Campion's unorthodox daydream of family ties will likely infuriate more people than it pleases, defeating expectations as easily as it defies casual analysis. Describing it in any detail would only spoil the joy of discovery, for both the story and the idiosyncratic style of the film itself, which turns an already cockeyed domestic melodrama (introducing the oddball in-laws of an estranged young couple) into a sometimes grotesque but strangely compassionate portrait of sad, eccentric people living on the fringes of Down Under society.Campion challenges the viewer's perception of what is or isn't real, using a portentous, artfully composed visual scheme, emphasizing in every shot her eye for geometry and deadpan comic detail. And then, mid-way through the story, along comes Sweetie herself to upset all the symmetry. Her younger sister calls her "a dark force"; her father treats her (affectionately) as the child she'll always be to him; and her mother, out of exasperation, simply walks away from all the subsequent turmoil. In a nutshell, Sweetie is the loose cannon in every family closet, and as played by newcomer Geneviève Lemon she's one of the more obscene and compelling characters ever to crash a movie scenario. Her story is, by turns, tender, pathetic, amusing, ominous, totally unique, and just plain weird.

"Sweetie" (Australian, 1989): Jane Campion is one of my favorite "newer" film makers. (See "An Angel at my Table" if you like this one!) She has a unique vision on life, and most every aspect of the film is hers - from concept and writing to the directing. Although the production values have a low-budget look, the stories are so good, and so powerful, you quickly overlook this weakness. "Sweetie" is the story of Kay, a highly neurotic young woman who is totally uncomfortable with the "everyday" world. Because of a tea leaf reading, she makes decisions that will greatly affect hers and others lives. Yep, she seems close to crazy. THEN her sister arrives - Sweetie, with a mystery man. Nope, things weren't crazy before… but NOW they are. They couldn't get crazier now. Then their parents come into the picture.