Impressions....

Richard Linklater's often overlooked independent film, Tape... his work of art, Waking Life was released in theaters a week after Tape, overpowering the small title so greatly.. it virutaly disapeared... and there is reason why... Tape really isn't all that great... of its 90 minutes length the last 15 minutes are close to noteworthy.. and to understand those 15 minutes you must have seen the first 75.. it did surprise me how the ending still lingers in my mind relabeling the film as "good"... but its really not.. the ending simply masks your memory of the beginning and middle...

Tape takes place over the elasped time of the movie in a sinle apartment room rented out by Vince ( played by Ethan Hawke )... he is in town for his old high buddy, Jon's ( played by some guy ) film showing at the local film festivel which takes place in their home town... at the begining, you know nothing... you have no idea whats going on, and no idea what to expect... and from the scripted dialogue they never tell you anything directly... Vince and Jon dance around the subject of conversation back and forth so many times, you don't know what you want to know anymore....

The conversion solidifies onto Vince's highschool girlfriend Amy ( played by the weird-looking Uma Thurman ) ... the love between Amy and the two exploded at their senior graduation party, 10 years ago and none of them have really spoken to each other since then... throughout the course of 10 years things have changed, and other have stayed the same... although this is supposed to be some reality simulation, it could not be more scripted... if real people talked this way, we wouldn't have any working relationships in this country... if you were to look at the script, over half the dialogue must be questions.. everything said sounds like "what do you think i'm thinking..".. i know what i'm thinking.. back to the rental store with you...

- Dyre - 10.01.02