Home Fries isn't a bad movie, but it did seem to be overrated by the critics. It seems that adding a bit of a dark vibe into any kind of interpersonal situation makes a critic sometimes reflexively jump and shout-- Realism! Art! Well, avoiding a spoiler here, I hope, let me say that clever writing and directing can sometimes result in clichéd movies. I think it does here. The film smacks of string pulling, and attempted button pushing. That is, I felt as if the movie's makers were employing devices and schemata designed to evoke a response in me, rather than somehow letting the characters, the story, the movie itself unfold and tell its own story. Thus, the whole of Home Fries came across as a little wooden and fake; it was unsatisfying for me. I wasn't enrolled in most of it, and to the extent I did involve myself here and there, it was rather unpleasant. And I swear-- I really like the cast in other things. They're great actors, but simply came a cropper here. I gave it a 5.
Review of Home Fries
Home Fries
(1998)
Overrated. It's actually wooden and clichéd, and artificially dark.
24 August 1999