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Human Nature

Human Nature

List Price: $19.97
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Planet of Patricia Arquette Naked
Review: I rented this movie recently betting that the many talented individuals involved would deliver an unusual and thought provoking movie. I was not disappointed. I think "Human Nature" is worth seeing. The movie follows the characters through a complex maze of human desire and repulsion, ultimately delivering an ending which is although not idyllic, truthful nonetheless.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Worst Movie
Review: If there was a 0 star for a reating this movie would get it would get it. This movie is stupider than Kung Pow. This stupid movie isn't worth your time. You could easily just like watch any other movie for less price for this one.You won't even want to get this one for your collection. The people run around naked and there is way to much sex for a so called VIRGIN that is 32 years old. Ain't that sad. The man is a table manners freak and the chick is nuts. She instist on thinking she is a beast or animal and the other beast animal thing is crazy and to interested in woman even though he seeing his teacher and assistant having sex all the time when his teacher already has a girlfriend. Please take my advice and don't buy this movie it's a waist of money. If you have to see it rent it, not buy it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointment
Review: If you want to see this film because you loved "Being John Malkovich" you will almost certainly be disappointed. The two films are not of the same quality, they are not even in the same range of quality.

I think Charlie Kaufman is one of the most important writers writing screenplays today, and everything I've read of his (from "Being John Malkovich" to "Adaptation") had been superb, but "Human Nature" simply did not translate well from page to screen.

And I can't say that it is necessarily all Michael Gondry's fault in his direction. While, I think part of the problem is that Gondry didn't "get" the screenplay, part of the problem is that this was Kaufman's first script and while entertaining on the page, when put on screen, without the humorous writing style and Kaufman's cynical voice ... well, the filmable elements simply don't hold together.

Wait for "Adaptation" or "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," both of which promise to be better. They could hardly be worse.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's only "Human Nature"
Review: Men raised as apes. Mannered mice. Women with bad body hair days. Don't expect anything halfway normal in the ironically-titled "Human Nature," the first collaboration between the brilliant Michel Gondry and even more brilliant Charlie Kaufman. Forget style above substance -- this is a thinking man's comedy, quirky and utterly hilarious.

It opens with a dead man, a convicted woman, and a genteel simian-man all speaking of their pasts: Lila (Patricia Arquette) became horribly hirsute when she was a teen -- by twenty, she was "Queen Kong" in a sideshow. Miserable, she retreated to the woods and became a reknowned nature writer. During electrolysis treatment some years later, a nurse offers to set her up with a desperate guy: Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins), a manners-obsessed scientist who is teaching them to white mice.

One day in the woods, Lila and Nathan come across a feral young man they call Puff (Rhys Ifans) -- as explained early on, Puff's father thought he was an ape, and raised his son accordingly. Now Puff is being taught the ways of humanity, as Lila tries to preserve the more primitive things about human beings -- and a warped love triangle results.

Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman recently collaborated on the wonderful, poignant "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," so it's not surprising that their first joint film was also excellent. It's the sort of film that can't be easily pegged as one thing or another -- part comedy, part satire, part blinking question mark. Is it human nature to be naked and free, to be civilized and uptight, or does it lie somewhere in the middle? Are we just animals in clothes, or do humans have something more... or less? "Human Nature" doesn't answer all these questions, but it does make you think about them.

Michel Gondry's quirky style -- he directed some of Bjork's best music videos -- suits this equally quirky movie. He keeps the movie jumping quickly from scene to scene, moving fast enough that you never get bored. And he seems like a kind of directorial minimalist (the afterlife is a white room with a white table and white mist). At other times, he takes slapstick to new heights, lightening up the cerebral tone of the comedy.

The surreal flashbacks and oddball comedy (like Ifans wearing a shock collar) give "Human Nature" cinematic style. But the characters are what really fill up the screen -- Arquette does an excellent job as the tormented Lila, particularly during a beautiful musical number in the woods. Rhys Ifans is even better, whether it's as an uncivilized ape-man, or as an eloquent, rather dapper ape-man.

Dorky scientists, civilized simians and hairy women sound like an idiotic basis for a movie, but Kaufman and Gondry transform it into a smart, strange comedy. Definitely not to be missed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: djlibra?? Spell check?
Review: Question the first review based on how poorly it is written. This seems like a poor person in which to take advise. I asked myself why more original movies like this are not released, and that person is the answer. Comparing it to "Kung Pow"? If you didn't know that movie was going to be stupid before watching it, then stop considering yourself a good source for reviews.

The movie is quirky and original. If you like that--you will like this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Human Nature Is Funny and Strange; So Is This Movie
Review: Remember "Being John Malkovich"? Charlie Kaufman, who wrote that strange movie, is the writer of "Human Nature," a strange but very intelligent film. This time the task of director is handed to Michel Gondry from France, famous for his music video clips made for Bjork ("Human Behavior" and others). But don't be put off by his profile because Gondry wisely avoids any flashy techiniques you might associate his MTV profile with. In fact, his fashion often seems very orthodox.

"Human Nature," Kaufman's newest produced film, deals with four persons trapped in a maze of love, or sexual desire (call it human nature) ... so to speak. As is the case with "Being John Malkovich," Kaufman's style easily defies our ready-made concept of movies, so I just tell you what you see. Tim Robbins (one of his best turn) is a scientist who spends his time trying to teach proper table manners to white mice. A nature writer Patricia Arquette, hairiest woman in the movie history, falls in love with him. Meanwhile, somewhere in the forest, a grown-up man (Rhys Ifans of "Notting Hill"), who believes that he is an ape, is found, and the Tim immediately got interested. He contemplates: "Let's educate him as a human." Well, after naming him "Puff," with a help of an electric collar and some nude photos, Dr. Robbins tries to 'cure' Puff of his nasty, die-hard habits of showing 'human nature' or sexual desire, explicitly in the public.

While the experiment proceeds, love relations got complicated as a famale assistant Gabrielle (played by wonderful Miranda Otto, seen in "Thin Red Line" and "What Lies Beneath," with too obvious French accent) is involved. The love triangle gets more confused after eventual inclusion of Puff, who slowly starts to change himself from an ape-like man with long beard -- Rhys Ifans at first looks like "It's" man of Monty Python shows -- and ... guess the rest of it for yourself. Anyway, Kaufman's creative power does not belong to the traditional sense of storytelling, and we know it.

Just like "Being John Malkovich," "Human Nature" is full of brilliant ideas, but the whole touch of the film is less outlandish than the other. Actually, you may say some scenes are direct parody of methods used in classic Hollywood films, and some scenes, especailly opening ten minutes, even remind you of films such as "American Beauty" and "A Life Less Ordinary." By saying that, I do not mean the lack of originality; rather, the director Gondry is cleverly challenging us with unique skills shown in these film, deftly using them to his purpose.

And the most amusing thing about "Human Nature" is its ever-changing relationships of love between four characters, among which Puff's sadly too human nature plays the most prominent role. The process of Puff's "education" contains funny, but very poignant moments, and what we laughed at loud in "American Pie" (my favorite) we see in a completely different light. At same time, the film mocks American values very slyly. See, for example, how Tim Robbin's scientist is easily captivated by a phoney French Gabrielle with dubious accent (and don't miss the quick change of her French 'room decoration'!!). Also of note are Robert Forster and Mary Kay Place's forster parents, whose dead-pan humor leaves us great impression in spite of their brief screen time.

This off-beat film probably ends too neatly after many elements are thrown in the film, but I didn't feel the film is confused. I admit "Human Nature" may not draw a lot of critical or commercial attention; it is a shame, though, because it is a very clever film, and even if it is not totally coherent or logical, it at least gives us fresh and powerful talent upcoming in this industry. For that only, it should be called something, something precious.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Charlie Kaufman shares his thoughts on "Human Nature"
Review: There is a point to what happens in "Human Nature," but the key things to remember are that (a) the point will never be made explicitly and (b) the point is up to the beholder. So if you need your points clearly and sharply made, then this film written by Charlie Kaufman is gong to befuddle you as much as anything he has ever written. Since that includes "Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," that would be a lot of befuddlement.

This film begins with the revelation that Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins) is dead, courtesy of a small round bullet hole in his forehead, and somewhere in the afterlife in a room where everything is white. In prison is Lila Jute (Patricia Arquette), and testifying before some Congressional committee is a nattily dressed but strangely bearded man named Puff (Rhys Ifans). Apparently there are issues about being "sorry" that this film will explain, but first we have to get up to speed on how this strange collection of characters came to be strange.

When Lila was 12 years old her hormones caused hair to grow all over her body. Tired of being "Queen Kong" in a side show she goes off into the wild, writes a best selling book with a disparaging view of humanity, and, tired of shaving all over all the time, uses the money to have electrolysis to try and remove her hair. Louise (Rosie Perez), who is doing the electrolysis, thinks she knows a guy who would be perfect for Lila. This would be Nathan.

Nathan is a scientist. As a boy he was taught the importance of table manners by his mother (Mary Kay Place) and father (Robert Forster). Failure to use the right fork for eating his salad meant the young boy was sent to his room without supper. So it is not surprising that today he is busy teaching a pair of white mice table manners. As he explains to Lila, if he can teach table manners to white mice, then he can teach table manners to human beings, which would result in ushering in a golden age of good manners and civility. Helping him in his lab work is the apparently smitten Gabrielle (Miranda Otto), who has decided the best way to come on to Nathan is to use a fake French accent. Despite never having learned the correct film to use from either the wild or the dinner scene in "Titanic," Lila and Nathan begin to go out together. The key to understanding Nathan is to know his simple mantra: "Remember, when in doubt, you should never do what you truly want to do."

One day Lila and Nathan are out in the wood and they come up the feral creature that they bring back to civilization to study. Gabrielle gets the honor of naming the creature and picks "Puff." Nathan goes is not only to teach him about the silverware in a formal dinner setting but all other aspects of high culture. He also wants to stop Puff from humping slide projections of sexy women, and in all of these endeavors uses the same shock aversion therapy that has worked so well with the two white mice (who do the best scene stealing by mice since the original "Babe"). But while Nathan is turning Puff from the Naked Ape into a sophisticated, debonair, man about town, he is torn between Gabrielle and Lila. As for Puff, he would pretty much like to have whoever is left.

I would say that there are competing love triangles in "Human Nature" except that I am pretty sure Lila is the only one capable of love rather than lust. But, of course, what these characters do is not as important as why they do it. The problem is that since the characters do not seem to know why they are doing what they are doing, that makes it a bit difficult for us. Nathan is always a step behind and Gabrielle goes whichever way the wind is blowing. Lila is the most honest of the bunch, which means she is doomed, and Puff is caught in all of the middles of the circumstances developed in the film. Puff also gets most of the good lines, from pointing out at the start that being raised by a man who thinks he is an ape is pretty much the same as actually being raised by apes to his recognition of a stage that exists before a beloved teacher takes a student from crayons to perfume.

I missed this film when it was first released but checked it out because I discovered after watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" that there was a movie scripted by Charlie Kaufman that I had missed. Certainly "Human Nature" is the least of the films that I have mentioned here, but it is still indicative of the creative quirkiness that has made Kaufman's reputation. I like films that make me think, even if I am not sure I am necessarily thinking what the film intends for me to be thinking in the end. What I do know in this case is that the joke in "Human Nature" is on human beings, but then that usually is the case when you bring nature into the equation.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: genius movie
Review: this great movie show in a very ironic way the story about us "human beings".
the acters are great and as the movie start you will not feel bored.
recomend movie
shay

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Human is as Human Does
Review: This is, as usual, an amazing script by Kaufman. I wouldn't rank it as high as Eternal Sunshine...but I would rank it above Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

If you want to see a film that operates as a piece of art, this film is for you. Kaufman's quirky characters are wonderful & wonderfully played by this great cast.

If you don't want to think while watching a film, I recommend running away & watching some silly action film or teen comedy.

And be prepared for hairy naked women!

Great Film!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Human is as Human Does
Review: This is, as usual, an amazing script by Kaufman. I wouldn't rank it as high as Eternal Sunshine...but I would rank it above Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

If you want to see a film that operates as a piece of art, this film is for you. Kaufman's quirky characters are wonderful & wonderfully played by this great cast.

If you don't want to think while watching a film, I recommend running away & watching some silly action film or teen comedy.

And be prepared for hairy naked women!

Great Film!


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