 "Funny, Erotic, & Endlessly Enjoyable" | 2004-10-21 |
| - Reviewed By varonelo |
| I've learned to accept Almodovar as he has (ahem) matured & gotten serious. He is my favorite director so I support all his progressions. However! I'm deeply & irrevocably in love with the movie Kika, its colors, its actors, its characters, its music, its dialogue, its spell. Having watched it as much as I have, I've analyzed scenes & themes that otherwise would have escaped a one time viewing only. For example, notice how Ramon kneels in front of three women, for different purposes. First the model in the opening credits as he photographs her in bed. Next, he kneels in front of his dead mother as he opens her blouse to reveal her wound. Finally, in front of Kika as he makes love to her. The posters throughout the film hint at the action to take place in the future scenes. The dialogue is hilarious beyond belief & is not all translated or not translated acurately in the subtitles. If you are an Almodovar fan, you owe it to yourself to study Spanish & brush up on Castillian regionalisms to get the fully, mordant sinuousness of the dialogue. Kika is a black comedy & must be enjoyed as such, otherwise one would not laugh at the bizarre costumes, the multiple deaths, the rape as much-needed outlet for the retarded ex-porn star, the fickleness of love, the unfaitfulness throughout. Finally, I suspect that public taste or America's increasing discomfort with black comedy when its applied to rape, is delaying or preventing the rerelease of Kika on dvd. Its available in Brazil, but, of course not with English subtitles. |
| |
| ""In my own dirty and silent way, I loved you."" | 2004-04-14 |
| - Reviewed By displacedhuman |
| "Kika" (Veronique Forque) is a bubbly beautician who has a poor history with men ("I always get the weirdos"). She lives with photographer Ramon who has a few kinky habits. Ramon has never forgotten his mother's suicide, and he has mixed feelings about his sinister step-father (Peter Coyote). Ramon's ex-girlfriend, Andrea Scarface (Victoria Abril) is the bizarre former psychologist-turned-tabloid-crime-TV-host who continues to show a morbid interest in Ramon's life. "Kika" is probably Almodovar's most misunderstood film. When I saw it in the cinema, many people left during the controversial rape sequence, and I read several professional reviews criticizing this scene. This scene, however, is essential to the film's message. The character of Andrea Scarface exploits tragedy with no respect for the privacy of the victim--the crime against the individual becomes nothing next to the sensationalistic exploitation of the crime converted to entertainment to be enjoyed by the masses. That said, Almodovar fans should enjoy the darkly comic "Kika" but those fresh to Almodovar should start somewhere else. Guileless, chatterbox Kika is one of Almodovar's greatest characters. Terrible things happen to her, but she remains basically unscarred by events. As with most of Almodovar films, his female characters are more interesting than the males. The darkly malevolent Andrea Scarface--with her fantastic costumes--is a perfect foil for Kika's perpetually sunny disposition. But there are many great minor characters in the film--there's Kika's devoted maid, Juana ("I want to be a prison matron") who would like to be more than just a domestic servant, and Paul Bazzo ("stop drooling on me")--ex-adult film star and prisoner who escapes during a self-flagellation ceremony. Kika is a wild story--dark, wickedly funny, and kinky. Lots of nudity--this film is not for the easily offended--displacedhuman |
| |
| "Very funny movie [5]" | 2003-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By johnmosley3 |
| This is a very funny movie. The characters are very rich. The actors and actresses does a great job. This is one fascinating movie appropriate for all ages. The interaction between all the characters are fantastic and very interesting. I highly recommended it. |
| |
| "Very funny movie [4]" | 2003-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By johnmosley3 |
| This is a very funny movie. The characters are very rich. The actors and actresses does a great job. This is one fascinating movie appropriate for all ages. The interaction between all the characters are fantastic and very interesting. I highly recommended it. |
| |
| "Very funny movie [3]" | 2003-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By johnmosley3 |
| This is a very funny movie. The characters are very rich. The actors and actresses does a great job. This is one fascinating movie appropriate for all ages. The interaction between all the characters are fantastic and very interesting. I highly recommended it. |
| |
| "challenging every step of the way" | 2000-09-24 |
| - Reviewed By cybertt |
| Kika, surely a girl who just wants to have fun, a make up artist with little fluffy clouds for brains. She attempts to pursaude her class of student make up girls to attend to the corpse of a client's mother. None will take the job, and the film drifts off into a tale of what happened to her when she took on the same type of task in the past. All in all not a lot to recommend it for Kika from the ensuing yarn, but a great and very dark comedy for us, which slaps you around the face like a wet fish. You'll roar with laughter at a rape scene (excuse me?)! You'll crease up at the death scenes. If hetro, you'll probably find the big blonde woman very sexy (she's a man by the way, the directors boyfriend). Even the director's mum gets a part, and merrily announces that she's in the film because otherwise she'd never see her son (Pedro Almodovar). On the surface this film would seem to be about as unpolitically correct as any you're likely to watch, and one of its great functions is to disturb and upset the very people who should applaud it. For indeed it is a fierce commentary on the state of the media, journalism and macho sexism. Women seem to get the joke, new men cringe and look away. Buy and enjoy. |
| |
 "Almodovar-Misogynist or 'female director'?" | |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Kika sets up its audience in a manner that few films could achieve. Initially slated by critics for its shocking content and genre, this film breaks all the rules with its apparent trivilisation of the rape of its main protagonist. Veronica Forque carries of the part of Kika wonderfully but is somewhat undershadowed at times by the powerful performance of Victoria Abril, in Gautier rubber suit...and loving it! The strong female cast and the touching realisation that Juana, Rossy de Palma, has a love so strong for Kika she is willing to give herself to the rapist, her brother!, in order to protect her, causes a confusion in the message Almodovar is trying to relay to his audience. This contrast of apparent exploitation of main female characters and yet the strength of their presence throughout the film, makes this an interesting study of the question of Almodovar as mysogonist. One to watch, if not for the moral implications, then for a look at kitsch at its best! |
| |
Expedited Available
