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Since
December 1, 2000 |
AKA "Pokerface" ... in selected foreign countries. |
Follow the Bitch wins critical praise!
"Considerable humor and passion."
-Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times"Stone is like a younger, hipper Woody Allen!"
-E Online
"Illuminating ... well worth your time."
Eric Layton
Entertainment TodayFOUR STARS
"Funny, touching, totally entertaining!"-Fred Saxon
KUSI TV"Well written and entertaining."
-Stuart Halperin
Hollywood Online"Clever comedy dexterously handled"
Variety
Dennis Harvey
From Daily Variety (Fri., April 3)
Follow the Bitch gets surprising mileage out of what sounds like a one-joke situation at best: Lone woman invades the boys' poker night. While it treads basically familiar battle-of-the-sexes terrain, clever comedy dexterously handled by first-time helmer Julian Stone manages to walk that walk with relaxed good humor and enough complications to hold attention. Pic opens today at Laemmle's Monica.
Six 30-is guys gather each Friday for all-night poker, a practice that over time has acquired no end of attendant rituals and superstitions. First sign that tonight will be different arrives when Andy (Dion Luther) announces he's getting married - news pleasantly received by all save Bill (Ray Porter, a blocked writer whose many frustrations tend to spill out in sarcastic bile. Women rate high on his complaint list, so the arrival of Andy's co-worker Liz (Melissa Lechner) as an extra player further exacerbates tension. Liz is a cool customer, she also plays a wicked game. Naturally, she and host Bill lock horns right away.
Telephone calls, kitchen gossip between hands and briefly glimpsed subsidiary characters help sustain several amusing subplots. Data-desperate Karl (David Teitelbaum) develops a crush on the pizza delivery girl, which finds sweet eventual resolution. Andy is discomfited by the discovery that Gordon (Thomas Napier) and Ty (Mike Cudlitz) are carrying on secret affairs with each other's girlfriends. Sixth poker pal Blake (Matt foyer) arrives late, "in character" - he's an actor rehearsing in the role of Henry Kissinger for a play. Most of these threads are worked out deftly in Stone's screenplay, though final potential-romance détente between head-butting Liz and Bill sounds a conventional turnabout note.
Pic barely strays outside Bill's apartment, smooth, resourceful lensing and editing make that constriction easy to take. Per's are agreeably polished on down the line. A further plus is Dan Davis' jazzy, bemused score. Rather harsh title is the name of a particular poker game.