GamerTab
That was an excellent one.
Greenes
Please don't spend money on this.
BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
Celia
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Katerina Robertovla
This is simply one of the most superb little films around. I'm always surprised when people have never heard of it. This film really capitalizes on the chemistry between Guy Pearce and Lili Taylor. I've liked many of the films Pearce has made, "Memento," "L.A. Confidential," etc. but "Slipping-down" life is in my opinion his best. He's a natural. One of the best working actors today. I just wish he were in more films like this one.I'm looking forward to seeing "Jack Irish." I saw him recently in "Hateship, Loveship" and he was simply terrific. The real downer in the film was Kristen Wiig, who was supremely awful. She was the antithesis of good acting. For the life of me I can't figure out how people can cast a supremely good actor like Guy Pearce next to the flat, boring, expressionless Kristen Wiig. I can't believe she continues to get acting jobs when she's so utterly boring. Okay, enough ranting.Watch and enjoy "A Slipping-down Life."
kerribowan
I just saw this on Sundance channel.Although there were some super korny things about it... I loved it.This was also my intro to Guy Pearce. Whoa man! That is why I google'd it why I am here actually. That man is hot and has more stage presence then I've felt in a long time.I also LOVE Lilly.Okay, my two cents.p.s So now this freakin' site is telling me I need to have more lines for this review to post. WTF??Anyway... let's see if this works...
ThrownMuse
Evie (Lili Taylor) is a quiet and seemingly simplistic small-town girl living in a small town becomes obsessed with an ostensibly "deep" local rock musician (Guy Pearce). After carving his name into her forehead at one of his shows, she becomes his #1 fan, good luck charm, and lover. Lili Taylor is an exceptional actress and gives a fine performance with what she is given to work with here. The supporting cast also stands out, especially Sara Rue and Shawnee Smith. Unfortunately, the story is completely absurd. The dialogue is painful at times, and you have to wonder whether Evie is trying to be comedic or if she really is that stupid. While the music is good and written by respectable songwriters, the trailer clearly states: "featuring actor/musician Guy Pearce." You have been warned. My Rating: 4/10.
Dilip Barman
Tonight I watched "A Slipping-Down Life", Toni Kalem's film based on Anne Tyler's 1970 novel by the same name. It was originally released at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, but just released commercially in May 2004. I saw this with a friend on the spur of the moment, not knowing anything about it, when the film we went to see was sold out.The film takes place in a sleepy small town in North Carolina around 1962 or 1963 (based on the music we hear on the radio). Naive Evie (Lili Taylor), who lost her mother at childbirth, lives with her father (Tom Bower). She hears musician Drumstring "Drum" Casey (Guy Pearce) on the radio, is drawn to his ego and voice, and seeks him out at his performances. Other women flirt with Drum, but shy Evie can only take a quick photograph of him and then in a strange (and, I found, hard to believe) act, carve his last name on her forehead with broken glass. The story is of their relationship to each other and to life in their small town, where they fear nothing changes and their existence or non-existence is hardly noticed.I didn't enjoy the film. I couldn't understand where it was going, and found the utter simplicity of Evie unrealistic. I found Drum to be rather wooden and two-dimensional as in fact I found many of the characters. The only characters commanding any admiration were the gentle father who seemed to indulge Evie, their gutsy housekeeper, Clotelia (Irma P. Hall), who told it like it was (reminding me just a bit of Dilsey in William Faulker's novel, "The Sound and the Fury"), and Evie's loyal friend, hairdresser Violet (Sara Rue).I wondered about the raucous music of Drum's band, which seemed to me at least a 15-year anachronism in the early 1960s. I didn't find the editing to make a dull, uninspiring, and "so what" story anything but even more dull. Of course, my comments could be attributed to my unfamiliarity with Anne Tyler's novels or lack of attention to slow, sleepy, small-town southern culture (though I enjoyed the 1989 film, "Steel Magnolias"). --Dilip June 15, 2004