PLOT
Pop star Mariah Carey plays Billie Frank, a shy, young mixed-race girl who is sent away by her alcoholic mother at a very early age. At an orphanage, she befriends Louise (Da Brat) and Roxanne (Tia Texada). Flash forward to 1983. Billie and her friends are spotted by a record producer, Timothy Walker (Terrence Howard), who wants them to sing backup for his latest pop-music discovery. But when super DJ Dice (Max Beesley) hears Billie's incredible voice, he makes a shady deal with Timothy to get her out of that dead-end situation. Soon, Billie and Dice are making hits inside the studio, and falling in love outside of it. Eventually, the pressure of her newfound celebrity puts too heavy a strain on Billie, forcing her to decide what it is she really wants from Dice, and what she wants for herself.CAST
| Mariah Carey | ...... | Billie Frank |
| Max Beesley | ...... | Julian Dice |
| Da Brat | ...... | Louise |
| Tia Texada | ...... | Roxanne |
| Valarie Pettiford | ...... | Lillian Frank |
| Terrence Howard | ...... | Timothy Walker |
| Dorian Harewood | ...... | Guy Richardson |
| Grant Nickalls | ...... | Jack Bridges |
| Eric Benét | ...... | Rafael |
| Padma Lakshmi | ...... | Julian Dice |
| Ann Magnuson | ...... | Sylk |
| Isabel Gomes | ...... | Young Billie |
CREW
Directed byVondie Curtis-Hall
Writing credits
Cheryl L. West (story)
Kate Lanier (screenplay)
PRESS REVIEWS
AMAZON.COM
Despite box-office failure and the highly publicized fatigue of its star at the time of its fall 2001 release, Glitter is a surprisingly effective vehicle for pop diva Mariah Carey, who will delight her many fans in her appealing screen debut. The standard rags-to-riches plot unfolds with the predictability of falling dominoes, but there's simple, infectious charm in Carey's portrayal of Billie Frank, an urban thrush who's discovered by ace club DJ Dice (Max Beesley) and rises to stadium-filling stardom in the post-disco New York of 1983. One hoary subplot works (Billie's quest for her long-lost mother) and another doesn't (Dice's debt to a threatening rival), while Carey plays a variant of herself with a gentle blend of vulnerability and good-girl fortitude. With a bright supporting cast and a stellar soundtrack, this movie didn't deserve the bad rap it got, and like her determined yet delicate character, Carey emerges unscathed despite considerable odds against her. --Jeff Shannon
NEW YORK TIMES
All that ''Glitter'' is not gold.By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
In fact, ''Glitter,'' the pop star Mariah Carey's feature film debut, is mostly dross, an unintentionally hilarious compendium of time-tested cinematic clichés that illustrates the chasm between hopeful imitation and successful duplication.
In the role of Billie Frank, Ms. Carey, filmed mostly to focus attention on her gleaming white smile and the amplitude of a bosom accented by tight or low-cut tops, is simply inadequate as an actress to the relatively undemanding emotional range of the story.
Directed by Vondie Curtis Hall from a screenplay by Kate Lanier, whose credits include the Tina Turner musical biography, ''What's Love Got To Do With It?,'' ''Glitter'' never approaches its objective: to be a heart-tugging tale of a rags-to-pop-royalty climb made poignant by love and loss.
Throughout a screening in a Times Square theater the other night, the audience erupted repeatedly into laughter at scenes intended to carry emotional weight, and the only sight that roused the onlookers to applause was the World Trade Center, visible in one of the many fleeting, swirling overheard views of New York City that seem intended to invest this listless flop with sorely needed glamour and excitement.
Musically, the only crowds excited by the singing in this film, for which Ms. Carey also takes a credit as the executive music director and a co-writer of several songs, are the extras who appear in its raves and in a climactic Madison Square Garden performance and who, presumably, were paid in some form for expressing their enthusiasm.
The best number in the film, the smoky, melancholy ''Lillie's Blue,'' written by Ms. Carey, James Harris III and Terry Lewis, is rendered by Valarie Pettiford while the extended opening credits are rolling. Ms. Pettiford portrays Billie's mother, Lillian Frank, whose singing performance in a nondescript bar sets the plot rolling when she summons her talented little girl (Isabel Gomes as the young Billie) to join her at the mike.
Later, at the door of his town house, Billie's dad, peeling off some $100 bills as conscience money, makes it clear that he wants no part of either Lillian or the angelic Billie, and when Lillian's careless smoking habits burn mother and child out of their home, Lillian has to surrender Billie to the welfare authorities. The separation is a traumatizing event that the audience is asked to believe colors Billie's life in the years to come.
Clutching her marmalade-color cat, Whiskers -- whose sudden reappearance later in the film, perhaps by then at the age of 200 in cat years, gives ''Glitter'' its biggest unintended laugh -- Billie enters the modern equivalent of a Dickensian orphanage.
The film then jumps to 1983, when a grown-up Billie, now portrayed by Ms. Carey, is singing backup with her childhood pals and current roommates, Louise (Da Brat) and Roxanne (Tia Texada), for a beauteous no-talent, Sylk (Padma Lakshmi), who is managed by the slick Timothy Walker (Terrence Howard).
No fool, Walker uses Billie's voice to ghost for Sylk's on a recording, but a shrewd young disc jockey and producer, Dice (Max Beesley), quickly spots the ruse.
Pursuing Billie, he promises: stick with me, and you'll be singing in Madison Square Garden.
Before she knows it, Billie has a contract with a big-time label and is having her image shaped by a couple of publicity agents and a video director who stop just short of suggesting that they were slipped into the script by Mel Brooks as a practical joke.
In addition, Billie, haunted by the loss of the mother she dreams of finding once more, overcomes her problems with trust and beds down with Dice.
But as Billie's career waxes, Dice's wanes; and unbeknownst to Billie, Timothy Walker wants $100,000 that Dice promised him for surrendering her contract as a backup singer.
Trouble of the sort that feeds the tabloids, where Ms. Carey's emotional difficulties have been recorded in recent months, is waiting to happen.
Unfortunately, in ''Glitter,'' Billie's plight evokes only derisive laughter.
''Glitter'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes some crude language appropriate to its characters and a sex scene, shown through slats, that made the audience laugh.
MAGES
Movie Poster . Movie Stills . Premiere . Studio Pictures . Screen Captures
MOVIE POSTER
MOVIE STILLS
PREMIERE
STUDIO PICTURES
SCREEN CAPTURES
WISE GIRLS (2002)
WiseGirls" is Mariah's second movie after "Glitter", in which she played one of the leading roles. A character-based comedy that paired Mariah Carey with Mira Sorvino and earned good notices and a standing ovation at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, "WiseGirls" landed on cable television rather than gaining wide distribution in theaters.
Welcome to the MariahDaily.com "WiseGirls" movie page.
"WiseGirls" is Mariah's second movie after "Glitter", in which she played one of the leading roles. The movie was shot in the early summer of 2001 while Mariah was still making the final touches to the "Glitter" movie, its soundtrack and the promotion for the single "Loverboy".
A character-based comedy that paired Mariah Carey with Mira Sorvino and earned good notices and a standing ovation at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, "WiseGirls" landed on cable television rather than gaining wide distribution in theaters.
Mariah tells the New York Post, "That made me see how good an experience movies can be. When we showed it at Sundance, we got a standing ovation. Too bad nobody remembers the good movie, they just remember the great debacle. Sean Penn came up to me at a party after Sundance and told me he saw and enjoyed 'Wisegirls,' and not to give up just because of one bad movie. I was thrilled. You can't get better praise and advice in the movie business."
WiseGirls" is Mariah's second movie after "Glitter", in which she played one of the leading roles. A character-based comedy that paired Mariah Carey with Mira Sorvino and earned good notices and a standing ovation at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, "WiseGirls" landed on cable television rather than gaining wide distribution in theaters.
Welcome to the MariahDaily.com "WiseGirls" movie page.
"WiseGirls" is Mariah's second movie after "Glitter", in which she played one of the leading roles. The movie was shot in the early summer of 2001 while Mariah was still making the final touches to the "Glitter" movie, its soundtrack and the promotion for the single "Loverboy".
A character-based comedy that paired Mariah Carey with Mira Sorvino and earned good notices and a standing ovation at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, "WiseGirls" landed on cable television rather than gaining wide distribution in theaters.
Mariah tells the New York Post, "That made me see how good an experience movies can be. When we showed it at Sundance, we got a standing ovation. Too bad nobody remembers the good movie, they just remember the great debacle. Sean Penn came up to me at a party after Sundance and told me he saw and enjoyed 'Wisegirls,' and not to give up just because of one bad movie. I was thrilled. You can't get better praise and advice in the movie business."
PLOT
David Anspaugh's mix of female bonding and mob drama, Wisegirls concerns a trio of waitresses. Meg (Oscar winner Mira Sorvino), wise-talking Raychel (Mariah Carey), and wannabe dancer Kate (Paul Thomas Anderson regular Melora Walters) grow close while working at an Italian restaurant. After saving a man's life at the eatery thanks to her time in medical school, Meg begins to realize that the establishment is mob-controlled. Soon she must hide the dead body of her boss (whose "whacking" she indirectly caused). Eventually, Meg discovers secrets about her two friends and is forced to risk her life in order to gain information on the mobsters. This mix of gangster film and female bonding screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
~ Perry Seibert,
All Movie Guide
David Anspaugh
Written by
John Meadows
REVIEWS
Hollywood Reporter
By Kirk Honeycutt, January 15, 2002
~ Perry Seibert,
All Movie Guide
CAST
| Mira Sorvino | ...... | Meg Kennedy |
| Mariah Carey | ...... | Raychel |
| Melora Walters | ...... | Kate |
| Arthur J. Nascarella | ...... | Mr. Santalino |
| Saul Stein | ...... | Umberto |
| Joseph Siravo | ...... | Gio Esposito |
| Christian Maelen | ...... | Frankie Santalino |
| Anthony Alessandro | ...... | Lorenzo |
| Louis Di Bianco | ...... | Deluca |
| Noam Jenkins | ...... | Garcia |
| Jeremiah Sparks | ...... | Detective Levine |
| Dax Ravina | ...... | Tony |
CREW
Directed byDavid Anspaugh
Written by
John Meadows
REVIEWS
Hollywood Reporter
By Kirk Honeycutt, January 15, 2002
Comedy and crime melodrama blend smoothly in David Anspaugh's "Wisegirls," a female buddy movie about three waitresses at an Italian restaurant on Staten Island. This is a movie that could almost be a play because the action seldom leaves this crowded diner, with its hardworking staff and testosterone-revved wiseguys trying to relax with food and alcohol. Working from a tight, well-balanced screenplay by John Meadows, Anspaugh goes for a lively surface but one with a strong emotional undertow.
With Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey and Melora Walters starring, this is a crime movie that also is a "chick flick." Lions Gate has not finalized its domestic release plans, but the upside potential is promising. Indeed, "Wisegirls" is almost too commercially slick for the Sundance festival.
Sorvino gives a spirited performance as Meg, a former medical student fleeing a tragic past. She moves in with her ailing grandmother on the Island and takes a job at a restaurant more mobbed up than the three "Godfather" movies combined. Her comrades-in-arms are Carey's gregarious but hardened Raychel, who dares the mobsters to get cute with her, and Walters' Kate, who like Meg has escaped Manhattan but still dreams of an acting career.
The story moves from easy comedy about the perils of on-the-job training to the intertwining of the women's lives as they bond to form a united front at the male-dominated eatery.
Gradually, Meg realizes that her mere presence at such an establishment compromises her ethics and might get her in trouble with the law. Then the owner (Arthur J. Nascarella), who has grown fond of a waitress from whom he can get free medical advice, drops hints of the matrimonial availability of his cocky, dangerous son (Christian Maelen). As Meg struggles with these issues, she is witness to a murder.
The piece plays as well as it does thanks in large measure to Anspaugh's three lead actresses. One anticipates a strong performance from Sorvino, especially in a role written with some depth, and she doesn't disappoint. Following rave reviews for her drug addict in "Magnolia," Walters too delivers predictably stellar work as a woman whose complexities emerge gradually.
But who knew about Carey? Those scathing notices for "Glitter" will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel. She's a don't-mess-with-me woman who develops a joyous sense of family in friendship with her fellow waitresses.
Linda Burton's restaurant set works terrifically, and Johnny E. Jensen's camera glides effortlessly through its large, well-lit interiors. "Wisegirls" can't help suffering a bit from overfamiliarity; we've been in this restaurant in too many movies already. But Anspaugh and his actors bring enough vigor to the enterprise that the film comes off as a well-done genre piece rather than yesterday's leftovers.
Fox News
By Roger Friedman, January 14, 2002
Mariah Carey may have found her calling at last in films. Instead of carrying a movie as a heroine, she actually excels at being a tough-talking barroom girl, sort of a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium.
Let's put it this way: If Cheers were ever made into a feature film, Carey would be hands-down the best choice to play Carla.
In David Anspaugh's extremely misguided mob movie Wise Girls, Carey is third to Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters. She doesn't have responsibility for the whole movie, and this time — as opposed to the god-awful Glitter - it works.
Carey looks relaxed and comfortable as she plays a savvy waitress in an upscale Staten Island mob joint. Even though she tends to wear skimpy outfits as usual, her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs. She shows good comedic timing in places where you wouldn't expect her to get it right.
Unfortunately, Wise Girls is really awful, a terrible mob stereotype movie that pales considerably next to The Sopranos. And The Godfather? Fuggeddaboutit.
I don't understand what's happened to Mira Sorvino, or how she picks these turkeys. One after another, her choices of films are atrocious. All this after a much-deserved Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite back in 1995.
Sorvino's dad spoke out about Italian-American stereotyping in films, and certainly this movie - which raises just about every crude Mafia reference it can think of - is guilty of just that. Nearly every word out of Carey's mouth is the f-word.
Still, Mariah may have found her forte with Wise Girls, and now it's her handlers' turn to find more roles like this - wisecracking, world-weary, street-savvy people.
And no, Carey doesn't sing in the film, although there's quite a big soundtrack. That's just as well - there are no distractions for her here.
With Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey and Melora Walters starring, this is a crime movie that also is a "chick flick." Lions Gate has not finalized its domestic release plans, but the upside potential is promising. Indeed, "Wisegirls" is almost too commercially slick for the Sundance festival.
Sorvino gives a spirited performance as Meg, a former medical student fleeing a tragic past. She moves in with her ailing grandmother on the Island and takes a job at a restaurant more mobbed up than the three "Godfather" movies combined. Her comrades-in-arms are Carey's gregarious but hardened Raychel, who dares the mobsters to get cute with her, and Walters' Kate, who like Meg has escaped Manhattan but still dreams of an acting career.
The story moves from easy comedy about the perils of on-the-job training to the intertwining of the women's lives as they bond to form a united front at the male-dominated eatery.
Gradually, Meg realizes that her mere presence at such an establishment compromises her ethics and might get her in trouble with the law. Then the owner (Arthur J. Nascarella), who has grown fond of a waitress from whom he can get free medical advice, drops hints of the matrimonial availability of his cocky, dangerous son (Christian Maelen). As Meg struggles with these issues, she is witness to a murder.
The piece plays as well as it does thanks in large measure to Anspaugh's three lead actresses. One anticipates a strong performance from Sorvino, especially in a role written with some depth, and she doesn't disappoint. Following rave reviews for her drug addict in "Magnolia," Walters too delivers predictably stellar work as a woman whose complexities emerge gradually.
But who knew about Carey? Those scathing notices for "Glitter" will be a forgotten memory for the singer once people warm up to Raychel. She's a don't-mess-with-me woman who develops a joyous sense of family in friendship with her fellow waitresses.
Linda Burton's restaurant set works terrifically, and Johnny E. Jensen's camera glides effortlessly through its large, well-lit interiors. "Wisegirls" can't help suffering a bit from overfamiliarity; we've been in this restaurant in too many movies already. But Anspaugh and his actors bring enough vigor to the enterprise that the film comes off as a well-done genre piece rather than yesterday's leftovers.
Fox News
By Roger Friedman, January 14, 2002
Mariah Carey may have found her calling at last in films. Instead of carrying a movie as a heroine, she actually excels at being a tough-talking barroom girl, sort of a Thelma Ritter for the new millennium.
Let's put it this way: If Cheers were ever made into a feature film, Carey would be hands-down the best choice to play Carla.
In David Anspaugh's extremely misguided mob movie Wise Girls, Carey is third to Mira Sorvino and Melora Walters. She doesn't have responsibility for the whole movie, and this time — as opposed to the god-awful Glitter - it works.
Carey looks relaxed and comfortable as she plays a savvy waitress in an upscale Staten Island mob joint. Even though she tends to wear skimpy outfits as usual, her line delivery is sharp and she manages to get the right laughs. She shows good comedic timing in places where you wouldn't expect her to get it right.
Unfortunately, Wise Girls is really awful, a terrible mob stereotype movie that pales considerably next to The Sopranos. And The Godfather? Fuggeddaboutit.
I don't understand what's happened to Mira Sorvino, or how she picks these turkeys. One after another, her choices of films are atrocious. All this after a much-deserved Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite back in 1995.
Sorvino's dad spoke out about Italian-American stereotyping in films, and certainly this movie - which raises just about every crude Mafia reference it can think of - is guilty of just that. Nearly every word out of Carey's mouth is the f-word.
Still, Mariah may have found her forte with Wise Girls, and now it's her handlers' turn to find more roles like this - wisecracking, world-weary, street-savvy people.
And no, Carey doesn't sing in the film, although there's quite a big soundtrack. That's just as well - there are no distractions for her here.
MOVIE POSTER AND STILLS 
PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2002
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment