Rating: 
Summary: A Cinema Verite "No Exit"
Review: What initially seems to be a voyeuristic expose of Jackie O's seedy and pathetic relations, slowly evolves into a sometimes hilarious, often touching expression of our worst existential nightmare. Big Edie and Little Edie rattle around their claptrap mansion in the Hamptons "soiling their own nest" (much like the cats who rule the house and the racoons that prowl the attic). They love and hate each other. They long to escape their freak show, co-dependent existence, but they really can't--physically or emotionally. They rehash their regrets and hang onto their deferred and hopeless dreams. And through it all they try to make sense of their strange little lives--just like us. A truly amazing film.
Rating:
Summary: A Brialliant Film About Two Staunch Characters
Review: Whatever anyone says, this is not a film about the degradation of high society or the underbelly it's ashamed of. To label it as such demeans the Beales, dismisses them, relegates them a heap of mere eccentrics, renders them caricatures. If 'Grey Gardens' is a tragedy or cautionary tale, its moral points to society's abadonment of, and disdain for, the free spirit. This is an overlying circumstance to the film, though, and not its most important facet.Central to its absolute brilliance are the Beales themselves, women who may be unconventional, but are certainly not crazy. Here, one finds a mother-daughter relationship more complex, more emotionally alive and resonant than anything Tennessee Williams could have ever imagined. And it falls out effortlessly. A great documentary, unlike wildlife photography, always follows a plot. Normally, an event imposes a plot, or the film is force-fit by its filmakers to arc along a certain trajectory. 'Grey Gardens,' on the other hand, has relatively little action, yet by the time its denouement arrives, the entire narrative has laid itself bare and is as palpable and exciting as any fabrication. Yet it's real. A one-two punch. Only in something so unscripted can you really feel the impact of such moments as Little Edie's misterpretation of Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (which, in fact IS a poem about regret) or Big Edie's line, "When are you gonna learn, Edie? You're in this world, you're not out of the world?" (perfectly ironic). The film is an opportunity for Big and Little Edie to rehash their lives, to tell their stories, and they relish the chance. The conflict (layers upon layers of it) derives from each attempting to tell her own story as she remembers it, or as she would have liked it to be. Naturally, they contradict each other, and what plays out is a shake-down, a reckoning, the leveling of memory to its composite dust, reality. Anyone who criticizes the film as exploitative of its subjects clearly doesn't observe the mutual affection between the Beales and the Maysles, and doesn't recognize how thrilled the women are to make a record of their lives. The movie may be uncomfortable to watch, but whose untempered emotions *wouldn't* makes us squirm? Outside of society, the Beales aren't reigned in by a need to appear as anything other than what they are. If at times they go over the top in representing themselves, who can blame them? One cannot dismiss how eloquently they often express themselves. Their candor, charm, and wit are always forefront. I first saw 'Grey Gardens' several years ago, thanks to a roommate who owned a very grainy, very sub-par bootleg. How wonderful that it's finally been given a treatment it deserves. The DVD transfer is excellent, and the extras (particularly the priceless interview snippets between Little Edie and Kathryn Graham) are treasures. Bottom line, 'Grey Gardens' is an immensely complex portrait of two women and their relationship to one another. Whether they are at each others throats or presenting a uniform front against a society they feel has abused them, the Beales absolutely shine. After seeing it a dozen times at least, I am still digesting it
Rating:
Summary: Grey Gardens filled with golden
Review: When I first layed my eye's on Grey Gardens I was completely
enthralled by these women and their condition ,they have an real perspective of the situation they have placed themselves in yet they are dignafide and seemingly comfortable with it .
I found these women charming yet sad and lost , but couldn't help but see the humor in their predicament .
I fully recomend this film to anyone interested in the human condition .
This film should embraced and cherished .
| 
