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The Intern

The Intern

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Clueless at a fashion magazine
Review: As I watched this movie, it seemed really familiar to me. Half way through, it struck me... I've seen it before, only at the time it was called Clueless. The "behind the scenes" looks at a fashion magazine were pretty entertaining and I applaud any indy film that's able to generate a good buzz for itself, but not enough for me to insist that all of my friends go out and rent Intern. They've already seen Clueless too.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Give It A Break
Review: Bad reviews abound for this straight-to-video feature - lot's of ugly sniping about the fashion business, gay stereotypes, superficiality, etc. But, please, let's get real here. Not every movie has to have deep subtext and meaning - especially not movies about the fashion business. Written and executive produced by Jill Kopelman, (daughter of the owner of the House of Chanel) and Caroline Doyle, the inside jokes and cameos run rampant in a movie that just misses being very clever. With a dreary romantic comedy subplot, Dominique Swain, most notable for *Lolita*, plays Jocelyn, an intern at *Skirt* magazine, who becomes involved in fashion espionage. A very thin premise, to be sure, with a John Waters-ish feel to it, but with a breathless E! TV approach to fashion and comedy. Also like a John Waters film, *Intern* depends heavily on onscreen slapstick and cameo performances- though since it's not John Waters, of course, we miss seeing Patty Hearst. Peggy Lipton is a pleasant surprise as Fashion Editor, Roxanne Rochet, a typical fashion victim, given to such statements as "Forget the herbal wrap - I want a Himalayan rejuvenation lichen-berry acid peel." She and her staff are complete caricatures of fashionistas (they are devoting nine pages of their current issue to making wheelchairs the chic accessory), but they are right on the money - especially Leilani Bishop as the vacuous, self-absorbed supermodel, and David Deblinger as the queeny art director. Paulina Porizkova, Anna Thompson, and comedienne Kathy Griffin are a little one-dimensional, but funny as well. Joan Rivers is Joan Rivers, and that's all we need to say about that. As stated earlier, it's not a particularly deep movie, but to paraphrase Karl Lagerfeld, fashion is not the same thing as feeding the hungry and curing the ill.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disapointing Vehicle for Dominique
Review: Beware if you are a fan of Dominique Swain! I think she is a lovely actress with a hopefully bright future. I found her disturbingly seductive in Lolita. She was achingly sexy as the anguished teen daughter in face-off. This is a cute little movie full of cameos by famous models actresses and largely grotesque fashion types who should be advised to remain behind their ironing boards in the future. Joan Rivers mugs in as a formerly recognizable victim of the plastic surgeon's knife. Dominique is all ingenue in this farce and to her credit she tries to hold up the thin plot. The "musical" spots are of the crappy musical theater outtake variety.Imagine a Saturday Night live spoof of the genre. If you don't cringe at these you have no sense of taste. The movie is also rife with emaciated looking models and former models overacting (Paulina), gratuitous cameos (Gwyneth) and a host of gay attitude fashion guys of the "look honey!" bitchy type. All this is palatable compared to the actual quality of the cinematography and lighting. Whoever the jerk-off was who did this travesty of a job ought to be drummed out of the biz. The film looks like it was filmed in Sponge Bob land under a blue-green haze. In a film like this the lighting should be bright, crisp, and sharp with the textures of the actors and actresses warm and accessible. As a random example remember how Claire Forlani was lit to a sharp but lovely luminous glow in Meet Joe Black? Here you have nothing but a wretched murky soup. The movie quality looks like the Groove Tube under a Marijuana haze. We do digital video in our lab. We see a lot of movies. Each of my co-workers were appalled at the quality of the visuals here and the disastous musical sequences. Save your money for a better Dominique Swain movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dominique Swain in a wonderful romantic comedy of the......
Review: Hell Iterns have to go thru...this is a very intertaining film about a iterns rise for respect, a career and for the love she wants to see the beauty in her.....
love this movie....

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: S.O.S.
Review: Honesty...sincerity....back to the front! Don't want to be negative about this comedy movie, because however good or bad it is... it has the positive and kind nature. But speaking from the very inside of myself... the whole picture is quite frustrating. The reason is the ordinarity of it. The plot is more predictable and Hollywoodish it can ever get to be. It misses any smart and interesting twists that the other work of Director Lange is full with. I would understand the ordinarity if it was the sarcastic parody of it, but it is mostly not.

My highlights:

- Some music spots...

- Amazing energy of a gay friend of the main character: David Deblinger

- Dumb fashion guy touching the rose and saying: "Pink." and - No doubt, the main character: Dominique Swain.

Her way of dealing with the movie is enjoying acting whatever it takes.

However, I am deadly sure that 100% fans of her acting, and personality, and sometimes just looks are DYING to see her blossom in the unique, smart, complex: "GOOD" movies!

So she can share her talent with more people on the world, and make lots of money! :)

...therefore S.O.S stands for " Save Our Swain!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very enjoyable movie
Review: I bought this movie because I am smitten by Paulina Porizkova who plays the shoe editor for "Skirt" magazine. She was the Estee Lauder model for about 7 years. Gwyneth Paltrow has a cameo role as well. I am also smitten by her. I have been reading fashion magazines for years and, for a while was a photographer, and know about models. In fact, I knew a model like Resin.

The movie has this very enjoyable musical production number just after the start. It is reminiscent of the old MGM musicals. Then we are introduced to the staff of "Skirt" by Jocelyn, the intern. She is played very well by Dominique Swain. All the staff of "Skirt" are played 'over the top' like some members of the rag trade.

Peggy Lipton who plays the editor in chief was a pleasant surprise to me. I last saw her as Julie, the gorgeous blond dolly cop in "The Mod Squad" TV series. Now she has black hair and is a very attractive sophisticated lady. Joan Rivers is, as usual excellent in her role.There are the cameos of the fashion famous especially Andre Leon Talley (actually Editor at Large of Vogue). The thing that really adds to this movie is the story about the spy. I did not suspect who the spy turned out to be. The movie is well scripted - a plus these days when there are movies being made with excellent special effects but bad scripts. The editing is tight which makes the film move fast with no dead spots.

A credit to Michael Lange for his first feature movie. He has being doing a lot of TV including the "X-Files" and should get a lot more feature work.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very enjoyable movie
Review: I bought this movie because I am smitten by Paulina Porizkova who plays the shoe editor for "Skirt" magazine. She was the Estee Lauder model for about 7 years. Gwyneth Paltrow has a cameo role as well. I am also smitten by her. I have been reading fashion magazines for years and, for a while was a photographer, and know about models. In fact, I knew a model like Resin.

The movie has this very enjoyable musical production number just after the start. It is reminiscent of the old MGM musicals. Then we are introduced to the staff of "Skirt" by Jocelyn, the intern. She is played very well by Dominique Swain. All the staff of "Skirt" are played 'over the top' like some members of the rag trade.

Peggy Lipton who plays the editor in chief was a pleasant surprise to me. I last saw her as Julie, the gorgeous blond dolly cop in "The Mod Squad" TV series. Now she has black hair and is a very attractive sophisticated lady. Joan Rivers is, as usual excellent in her role.There are the cameos of the fashion famous especially Andre Leon Talley (actually Editor at Large of Vogue). The thing that really adds to this movie is the story about the spy. I did not suspect who the spy turned out to be. The movie is well scripted - a plus these days when there are movies being made with excellent special effects but bad scripts. The editing is tight which makes the film move fast with no dead spots.

A credit to Michael Lange for his first feature movie. He has being doing a lot of TV including the "X-Files" and should get a lot more feature work.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Can a movie be disappointing without being bad?
Review: I can't really say much was "bad" about this movie. It was good for what it was. Sadly, I was just expecting so much more from it.

I bought this movie because I have been quite impressed with Dominique Swain in her last several rolls. Indeed I wrote a glowing review of the film Girl, a movie where I felt Ms Swain grew as much as an actress as her character did as a woman. Furthermore, Swain has always impressed me be it her initial starring role in the remake of Lolita to her smaller supporting role in Face/Off.

Sadly, the Intern fails to showcase that talent. Swain does not put in a poor performance, but she doesn;t seem to be working in the role either. She seems to coast through it. There are moments when I felt as though she would lose herself in Jocelyn (the intern) as she had lost herself in Andrea(her character in Girl) previously, and for perhaps a split second, maybe she did, but for most of the film she performs like a High School senior with dual 800 SAT scores in an intro to algebra class. The part is so simple for her that she doesn't have to work for it, and this seems to come through in the character.

One must also look at the films other two notable "stars" Kathy Griffitn and Joan Rivers.

Griffin actually provides the best performance of the cast and well she should as the part she was cast in seems tailor-made for her trademark style of humor. She provides a bit of 1-dimensional sarcasm aimed at the fashion world in which the film takes place. Her delivery combined to the script provide just the right touch of sarcastic humor. Any more would have annoyed the audience and detracted from the film, any less would have slowed down the film and called attention to the mediocre portrayal of other characters.

Joan Rivers on the other hand also plays a somewhat exagerrated version of herself (if that is even possible).. Sadly her character is so weak and her portrayal so obvious that she all but gives away the plot of the rest of the film in her first scene. I will refrain from mentioning her further now to keep from spoiling the film myself.

The story is a simple one. Almost too simple. There are too many obviously perfect situations set up. At the risk of giving a small spoiler, Jocelyn's love interest Paul (portrayed by Ben Pullen) is predestined from his first appearance when another character tells us that he is the only heterosexual male in the film. In perhaps the saddest moment in the film, Swain looks into the camera and says "He's straight?" and nearly begins to drool right then and there.

That said, the story isn't so simplistic as to not be enjoyable. The film presents a cute little love story with a mystery subplot that the viewer can be sure will all be tied up in a bow in 90 short minutes. Perhaps it is accomplishing everything that it intended to accomplish; providing the viewer with a mild amusing hour and a half to fill a Sunday evening. Sadly I was hoping for so much more.

One final word of caution. The film opens with an absolutely ridiculous musical number. Just sit tight and bide your time. It will end soon and never be mentioned again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: its cute
Review: I don't know what everyone is on about, that this movie is bad. Ok, it may only be for a limited crowd-fashion people and people who follow that world, but I thought it was really cute.
Dominique Swain plays the "pathetic lowly intern" really well, and Ben Pullen as the love interest is really cute. They play well together.
The supporting cast is exactly the sort of people I'd expect to find at a fashion magazine. Considering some of the divas present in fashion, those people seem to underplay. Severely.
I'd say to the critics-give this movie another chance. Its not Citizen Kane. Maybe Citizen Kane for the fashion set.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: funny movie...
Review: i just bought intern and watched it for the first time and found it very funny. the best part of the movie was probably all of the celebrity/fashionista cameos. phillip bloch, simon doonan, kevyn aucoin (ahh!)...it made the movie that much more interesting. and who could forget andre leon talley, who was just fabulous! the story was rather predictable, but it was still a cute sorta girl meets guy, girl wins guy kinda story. if i have one quip about the movie it is the horrible, horrible, horrible dubbing job! it was driving me crazy towards the end because it was VERY noticable that the sounds were coming out at a rate that was nowhere near the rate of the film. it was just very weird.


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