Celeste in the City (2004)
Small town girl Celeste Blodgett moves from Bangor, Maine to Manhattan when she gets a job with the New York Examiner, but hears there it's only fact checking, with little prospects for real journalism. Her welcoming young flat neighbor Kyle Halley in an interior designer, who helps her to give her apartment a make-over. At a party she learns her cousin is gay and goes by the new name Dana Harrison; he promises to teach her the city way with a fashionable image transformation, which succeeds with the help of various gay friends. Now she's ready for social life, hoping to impress her boss, reputedly womanizing magazine section editor Mitch Tanzer. He accepts to read her work, but says he can't use it because it's unethical given their personal relationship- then she finds reality is different.
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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.
Sick Product of a Sick System
Beautiful, moving film.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Simple small town girl Celeste Blodgett (Majandra Delfino) moves from Banger, Maine to New York City. She's a recent college graduate with a job at the New York Examiner. Her only local contact is gay cousin Harrison Blodgett (Nicholas Brendon) who uses new name Dana. She believes her interior designer neighbor Kyle Halley (Ethan Embry) is gay due to her hometown friend's opinions about all interior designers being gay. Her entry level fact checker job sucks. Her hero is reporter Lauren Rawley-Simms who has an on-and-off relationship with magazine editor Mitch Tanzer. Dana and his glam squad give her a makeover while Kyle gives her apartment a different makeover.This is cheap. It's doing the Toronto for New York thing. It's fake 90's New York. The story is formulaic. The title suggests a take on Sex in the City. Majandra does the ugly duckling thing with glasses and transitions into the swan easily. There are no surprises. The humor isn't that funny. Debbie Gibson does have a small role as one of Dana's friends.
I disagree with some of the comments made by Chris Winston. I agree that some of the Celestes's cousin Dana's gay friends could have been left out of the movie. I also think that Debbie Gibson could have been left out. As for leaving out her cousin and/or the fact that he is gay I disagree with. I know that this is an ABC Family Channel movie but changing Dana's sexual orientation and lifestyle I feel the movie would have lost something especially in the makeover scenes. I think that Chris has to realize that homosexuality is all around us. In New york where Celeste moves there is a very large gay and lesbian population. This is something/ a lifestyle that Celeste is unfamiliar with -being from a small town in Maine. She is supposed to be a little shocked when she meets her cousin and some of his friends and also realizes that she is in a gay club. I also think in the scenes at the skate boarding park- when Celeste and Kyle make up and kiss-the gay "groupies" on the park bench in the background could have been left out.Over all I really liked the movie(an no I am not a lesbian).
This is the funniest movie ABC family has shown in years! I truly loved it. I hope more comedies of this caliber will be aired on that channel. Ethan Embry was great for the role of Kyle, in his past work in other comedies, he has shown his ability to make people laugh and fall for his natural charm. Apart from good casting, the humor of the movie itself was refreshing. The plot was light and amusing, making the movie fun and enjoyable to watch after a long day. Nazemian and Schraft have clearly demonstrated their talent for writing light and ironic comedy, I look forward to seeing what they come with next. Now that they have proved themselves in this genre, I am eager to see their more serious and creative work. I'm sure we won't be disappointed.
Anytime I see a movie about a small town girl moving to New York, I have got to check it out. I just finished watching Celeste in the City and was disturbed by irritating stereotypes about the gay community AND women. First of all, why is it assumed that the "gay" friend knows ALL of the fashion/trends and "snap to it, girl" dialogs? The stereotype is disgusting and needs to stop! Also, the only way she can get ahead in NYC is to get a makeover?! I definitely beg to differ! I mean, what does that say about women that we are immediately about something as soon as we show some cleavage and have a short skirt! Ridiculous. I could see what the movie was trying to do, by trying to make it "cutsey" with a small town girl fall in love and make in the big city, but we really need to cool it with the stereotypes and assumptions that are hurting diversity -be it the gay community, race/ethnicity and women!