Thoughts on Sweet Jane
-The lowdown: Jane (Samantha Mathis) is a drug addicted stripper (and hooker, because they're one in the same, evidentally). After ODing, she finds out she is HIV positive. While leaving the hospital, she is followed by Tony (Long-Haired Teenage Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an orphan (or something) who (quasi-spoiler alert) has AIDS. From his dad. Ouch.-Anyway, they bond and shit, she goes cold turkey and he starts coughing up blood, and she goes to the set of some artsy porno (in a motel, duh), where the film-school director wants her to channel Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion.
-She runs off before anything goes down, and during the subsequent withdrawel scene, the camera goes into the shadowy, claustrophobic angles of the same film. That's not to say this is some brilliantly choreographed cinematography, but it was an interesting parallel.
-Right. Otherwise, the camera work is shit, very TV-movie, and the movie itself is reactionary, hysterically grabbing you by the shoulders and screaming 'THESE PEOPLE ARE FREAKING HOPELESS, YOU BASTARD! AIDS IS BAD! THINK ABOUT THE CHIIIIIIILLLLLLDDDDDDRRRREEEEN!' Or something to that effect.
-Most of the time, it's pretty campy, sometimes it borders on gritty (ahem), a lot of the time it's schmaltzy, and occasionally delves into truely affecting.
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