Charlotte Sometimes (2002)

Load of rubbish!!

Great Film overall

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Oh man, I hate movies that try soooo hard to be "indie films," like so many that popped up in the 90's (all forgotten, and none of them actually good, that I can remember).This one is all about characters but has no heart whatsoever. It's empty. Pointless. Contrived. It's only concern is *looking* like an indie movie.I was intrigued at first. But as the movie wore on, it was obvious there was nothing below the surface. I could almost see the director off to the side a great big "I'm so intellectual" look on his face. He ain't no Ang Lee, though, sorry. My suspicions were confirmed when watching the extras on the DVD. Every feature had a smug, self-congratulatory tone.And, honestly, anything Roger Ebert endorses these days is worth avoiding at all cost.I wouldn't be so hard on a movie like this if it wasn't such a sham, and if the creators weren't so high on themselves, totally neglecting the audience that has to sit through this CRAP.Take the honest comments about this movie to heart (not the ones that are probably from people affiliated with this movie in some way) and spare yourself the wasted time and effort of watching this self-indulgent "indie masterpiece." Rent Fassbinder's "Ali: Fear Eat Soul" instead to see what a real masterpiece of simple film-making is.

Not for those with short attention spans, this movie builds its characters slowly and methodically, with attention to telling visual detail and realistic dialog. Nevertheless, it's a very sexy movie, though not in a lurid sense. Even its most melodramatic elements are so well-grounded that nothing comes off gimmicky or cheap, and its shot-on-video photography is utilized intelligently and intuitively, with a surprisingly broad pallet of colors and textures. With such an overall understated tone, it's easy, on first viewing, to not notice the movie's technical suppleness. Forget the ethnic makeup of its cast, or its low-budget market niche. This is a masterpiece of character study and adept film-making.

very moving, if you have ever dated an asian girl you will be able to relate to this movie. The rating on the movie is bogus it's just one person giving it a low rating over and over again. Different people will have different takes on the movie, my friend and I couldn't really agree on the plot so your past experiences will color how you see this film.

spoilers ahead:at the time of this film's release, we can't get away from the stereotypes. so the director/writer/actors are trying to recognize the stereotypes and make a movie that's aware of them. whether you think he's trying to perpetrate a myth that asian men can't get laid (byler is quick to point out that matt westmore is half asian) or explode it would probably be a matter of your temperament.byler doesn't do anything new with film grammar, or words. however, he's made something that he wanted to make (he said as much when I asked at a q&a session), so good or bad, we saw what he visualized inside his head.I think the essential problem with the film is that byler needs to improve his technique -- he's got a story to tell here, he just doesn't tell it very clearly. sure, sometimes ambiguity is the aim, but in this film's case, "wistful" and "wry" can be misinterpreted.charlotte sometimes is worth watching, but it's nothing new.