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[REVIEWS
> JANE WHITE IS SICK & TWISTED]
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| 01/31/2002 |
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| Is
Jane White Sick & Twisted? |
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Reviewed by Sue Limsukonth
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| Ever feel like life should be more like a
half-hour situation comedy complete with the laugh track
but without the commercials? Want to take a pop culture
roller coaster ride? See "Jane White is Sick & Twisted."
Director David Michael Latt enlists some fairly well-known
folks from sitcom and pop culture history like The Brady
Bunch's Maureen McCormick and The Wonder Years' Alley
Mills, not to mention a cameo by The Mamas & The Papas
songbird Michelle Phillips, to partake in this odder-than-oddball
project. |
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| "Jane White" is a skin-deep farce that compels you
to suspend your disbelief much in the same way you suspend
disbelief when watching, say, "Jerry Springer." But "Jerry
Springer" is absurd because it keeps you guessing where
the real people end and the acting begins. "Jane White"
is written to be absurd. Kim Little (who also happens
to be Latt's wife) plays Jane, a television junkie who
cannot distinguish between reality and the artifice of
the small screen. Jane believes that over-the-top, tabloid
talk show host Gerry (modeled after none other than Springer)
is actually her real father. She plots to "reunite" with
her imagined father by appearing as a guest on his show.
She impersonates a drag queen prostitute and even makes
herself available for a potential alien abduction to get
a spot on the show. In the end, however, things just don't
seem to pan out like they do on television. |
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| At its heart, "Jane White" is an homage of sorts to
classic and not-so-classic television shows. Latt offers
up almost two hours of references to this two-dimensional
world that is such a comfortable place to visit when not
working, sleeping or driving somewhere. The cast is heavily
populated with television actors playing stereotypical
television characters. Little who shows her versatility
as Jane, appeared on "Diagnosis: Murder." There is Jane's
wholesome, yet agoraphobic American mother superbly played
by "The Wonder Years'" Alley Mill. Another "Wonder Years"
alum, Danica McKellar, appears as a white trashy talk
show guest. |
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| The enjoyable supporting cast is filled with oddball
caricatures that seemed to have stumbled in off of some
John Waters soundstage: a buck-tooth delivery boy and
a flaming drag queen motel receptionist among the most
memorable. |
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| "Jane White" relies heavily on the television
conventions it lampoons to build a framework for Jane's
misadventures. There is the tabloid television talk show,
the cardboard domesticity of Jane's family life and a
flirtation with alien abduction reminiscent of X-Files
and that old proto-tabloid gem "In Search Of." (Remember
that one? Hosted by Leonard Nimoy?) |
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Watching "Jane White" is like watching an
old episode of "I Love Lucy." Lucy makes some bone-headed
mistake that proves disastrous, yet unindelible. In the
end, there is a happy ending and a sense of closure and
no harm is done. "Jane White" is as light-hearted and
daffy as any "I Love Lucy" episode, and parodies while
celebrating television as a medium filled with happy endings.
What's wrong with happy endings anyway?.jpg) |
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Now
in theatrical release
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| NOW PLAYING in theaters on the midnight circuit,
check the official website for showing info.: |
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