Nailed

Rating:
Summary: See This Movie...
Review: Being a teenage boy I never thought of Rachel Blanchard as the sexy vixen. After seeing her in a erotic scene with Brad Rowe I can think of her differently. The looks on their faces are great and just listen to the sounds she makes. It's just too bad that Brad didn't remove his hands from her chest. I also think that Brad Rowe is hot. He was great in Body Shots and he looked really hot in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss.

Rating:
Summary: An Overlooked Gem
Review: This film, "Nailed", is one of those great (yet sad) examples today of a film that is worthy of major theatrical/commercial attention being brushed aside to the direct-to-video category so the major distributors and multiplex chains can make more room for popcorn, action fare. It is hardly a "B-Movie", but rather, is a smart, funny, touching character study that, had it been made 25-30 years ago, would probably be considered a minor masterpiece.

It tells the story of Jeff (Brad Rowe), a young aspiring screenwriter whose brief, torrid affair with an extremely troubled young woman (Rachel Blanchard) leads to permanent, lasting consequences in the form of an unplanned baby. This causes much distress in Jeff's close-knit, Jewish-Italian family in NYC, especially his well-meaning, but overbearing father (Harvey Keitel,as always, in a brilliant performance), who is the patriarch of this tight clan. Yet, at every obstacle, Jeff faces his responsibilities dead-on (a true rarity these days!). Jeff, ultimately must learn to take care of his child and deal, simultaneously, with his family's objections. The film is really about unconditional love and resposibility even when neither are convenient.

Debut writer-director Joel Silverman does a fabulous job of telling a sensitive story from a rare, male perspective. And his fluid, overlapping editing-style keeps the film moving and provides a lot of the film's comic relief. The performances are all excellent, and I liked the film's style and heart. In the end, it's examination of parental love and fatherhood reminds us that our children are us and, as much as we may try and fight it, we are our parents,too.

Rating:
Summary: Rushed decisions
Review: This is a slow-moving drama that covers an ever-present phenomenom that occurs with increasing rapidity in the present age: what to do when you have an unexpected pregnancy with someone you barely know.

The story centers on a bachelor who has a fling with an emotionally unstable, aloof, prone-to-flip-out but attractive blonde. It does not take long before she gets pregnant, accidently.

The balance of the film deals with the obvious but painful question "Where do we go from here?" His proud family wants her to get an abortion and then for him to ditch her. He wants to do the honorable thing and see it thru. She is bereft of any familial support at all and bounces from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other instantaneously.

Harvey Keitel is terrific as a compassionate, caring but somewhat domineering father. He loves his son, but his heart is broken in that his first grandson and daughter-in-law may be the result of impulsive decisions.

To complicate matters even more, given that she has had so little to cling on to in her life, she invests her decision-making process into the flawed machinery of astrology. In other words, she is as flakey as flakey gets.

For myself, I have never thought much about the abortion issue one way or the other. Quite simply put, it has never effected my personal life.

However, in seeing this film I could for the 1st time see it as a pivotal and painful decision - regardless of which direction one chose to go. This is a well-done film and becomes increasingly relevant as a warning to people who are apt not to think before crossing the sexual threshold with people whom they hardly know.

Rating:
Summary: Rushed decisions
Review: This is a slow-moving drama that covers an ever-present phenomenom that occurs with increasing rapidity in the present age: what to do when you have an unexpected pregnancy with someone you barely know.

The story centers on a bachelor who has a fling with an emotionally unstable, aloof, prone-to-flip-out but attractive blonde. It does not take long before she gets pregnant, accidently.

The balance of the film deals with the obvious but painful question "Where do we go from here?" His proud family wants her to get an abortion and then for him to ditch her. He wants to do the honorable thing and see it thru. She is bereft of any familial support at all and bounces from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other instantaneously.

Harvey Keitel is terrific as a compassionate, caring but somewhat domineering father. He loves his son, but his heart is broken in that his first grandson and daughter-in-law may be the result of impulsive decisions.

To complicate matters even more, given that she has had so little to cling on to in her life, she invests her decision-making process into the flawed machinery of astrology. In other words, she is as flakey as flakey gets.

For myself, I have never thought much about the abortion issue one way or the other. Quite simply put, it has never effected my personal life.

However, in seeing this film I could for the 1st time see it as a pivotal and painful decision - regardless of which direction one chose to go. This is a well-done film and becomes increasingly relevant as a warning to people who are apt not to think before crossing the sexual threshold with people whom they hardly know.

Rating:
Summary: Immaturity, irresponsibility......lost compass
Review: This movie is about a young man who is very irresponsible. He fools around and he and his "night stand" chose to abort the baby. His next "conquest" is a beautiful, depending on taste, and unstable young woman. This time, yes, he is also behaving irresponsibly. And, also, this time his "one nighter" gets pregnant. This time, he choses responsibility; he wants to keep the baby.

Complications follow. The young woman does not have a grounded family history; his family is not accepting the situation; and in the end, he ends with the baby.

I believe it was Joyce Elders that mentioned self pleasure as the safe way to prevent and avoid complications. Well, deep down inside an individual's thinking he or she must deeply believe that responsibility is the utmost rule to follow. Forget about the hormones. People who allow their hormones to guide them are deaing with major complications, such as STDs, even the most deadly form, the ones that kill; others are, if anything, lucky to have avoided any; still others may chose to finally stop taking risks, life risks.

Forget about Dr. Elders and all the nonsense. Learn and take greater responsibilty for one's behaviors, all behaviors. Wait for the right person and the right time; otherwise, one will complicate one's lives and that of others.