Hey folks, Harry here with the most fashion-sensed gal the world has ever seen. The coordinates every outfit with the films she sets out to see... literally bleeding off the screen as an extension of the production design... Now she's sasshaying her way on the page with this, her look at BANDITS... She had so much fun with this flick that she called me up immediately upon returning to her lab to bioengineer superflies, telling me that she nearly pissed herself laughing during this... So whether or not Otto enjoyed it, one CuhRazzzzy Fashion-sensed femme had a blast... Here ya goes...
Hey Harry.
Sat in the Alamo this afternoon bleeding orange…between bludgeonings, I caught a glimpse of an advertisement for Bandits sneak preview. I know nothing about pigskin, however…that #18 from Oklahoma is a sneaky motherfucker...he was better than Nate. And the ladies confabulating in the powder room afterward all agreed that Major shouldn’t have been on the bench. Brutal. Debacle.
Walking out, I definitely needed some cheer. Checked the Chronicle for location of Bandits. Passes available at a Harley place….cool. But not for tonight. Damn.
Hurrah! An alternate location! The rice-rocket made it with time to spare. Applied fresh gloss, mussed my hair and ambled over to the ticket window. Hi. I’m here for Bandits. When’s the next show….7:30. Alright. Bandits. Cate, Bruce, Billy Bob…oh cool. Gloria Crenshaw is the costume designer.
My first impression of Bruce’s character…he looks like a smooth version of Lenny from Laverne & Shirley, and Billy Bob is kind of a Barney Fife-y hypochondriac although each smolders in his role as one half of Kate’s idea of a perfect man.
Cate is Kate in the movie, she’s luminous as ever and I’d absolutely die for her wardrobe…not to mention the shoes. Especially the last pair. The blues and greens magnificently accent her scintillating hair and porcelain skin.
Actually, the guys also display a certain degree of sartorial splendor…especially with the plaid motif. And the hats. Hats galore…this film is a haberdashers wet dream.
The palette used was well-textured, almost 3D at times.
Oh my god, I laughed so hard during this movie, Like when Kate says to Terry, "I’m feeling quite fragile at the moment, I don’t think I should be alone."
Heeeeeeee. Having been there….it’s nice to be able to laugh. I was glad to hear Tanita Tekiram tonight. The soundtrack took me back….
SPOILER WARNING************Don’t read any further if you’re anti-spoilers
*****************HUGE SPOILERS FOR PURISTS**************************
The story is that of a pair of bank robbers who come to be known as the Sleepover Bandits by a crime show called Criminals at Large. We start at the end in a way, Terry and Joe are trapped in a bank…we get information via the ‘Criminals at Large’ host covering the situation. We then flash back to the beginning of this particular run… at Oregon State prison where Joe decides he’s had quite enough prison time, thank you very much and in a frenzied, ingenuous manner, manages to escape unscathed with Terry who is freaking out in a perfectly normal neurotic way...as they trundle through suburbia in their getaway machine.
They stop a woman, "Ma’am we need to borrow your car"…she’s confused and lets them have it. (Joe is a smooth criminal after all, completely disarming) "Ma’am, don’t forget your purse" Joe adds…Terry points out quite rightly that they’re conspicuous is prison attire…they’re soon decked out in natty threads after an evening planning their future in a swing on the porch of a teenager’s house. OH, this scene is classic…the boy thinks he might try t o be a badass or something, and Bruce, I mean Joe, gives him a demonstration and a bit of advice. He’s just gritty, suave and irresistible in this…even with the crazy hair…
Terry is the straight man, the brains…the one who exercises nervous restraint.
They pick up Harvey…a nice guy…wants to be a stuntman…Joe’s cousin. And we’re off. The first sleepover is a riot, actually all of them are. But the wife and kids…no, the boy was obnoxious…the girl in the scene actually caused the lady sitting next to me to choke on her coke…(momentarily, she’s alright)….
So they get away…when we meet Kate, she’s dancing in her kitchen…a poignant few moments follow that reveal the skeleton beneath the shell of her marriage. ahem.
Moving on. She meets Terry, sort of…ok well she pretty much crashes into him, he attempts to get her car, and ends up just riding along, convinced he’s suffering a concussion and is no shape to drive anyway. One thing leads to another after Kate and Joe meet…Later though…Kate discovers an attraction for Terry… I’ve never really seen him as legitimately sexy…but…ok…this was believable…it was the pedicure scene that won me over finally.
What’s a girl to do? One of my favorite scenes: was when Joe and Terry are having it out about Kate…she interrupts. They want her to choose, and she responds "What if I don’t want to choose?" while her fiery scarlet mane is whirling in a halo around her angelic, torn visage. Being men, each wants her for himself…this puts a kink in their plans…and we’re not even into the third act!
This isn’t a movie about big explosions and gratuitous violence…and I wasn’t disappointed. The various bank people and policemen, the pundit…each performance came off balanced…ok, for a little while I wasn’t ‘with’ Harvey…he was hamming it up, but that is exactly what his character was supposed to be doing, so that did work, in retrospect. Stylistically this film covered quite a bit of ground, but the tones felt right. I really enjoyed my time with the bandits. I’ll be back opening weekend with the crowds.
I don’t know if this was intended as a post-post-modern empowerment statement, BUT…I say, why shouldn’t a girl be able to have her cake and eat it too? With warm milk or a whiskey...
Hope you’re mending well.
Saffron
(Official Member Of Harry's Harem)
