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16 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Best Films Ever, 2 September 2004
10/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

Squashed by the Carpenter estate this film is all but impossible to see. I think it has less to do with "unauthorized" use of Carpenter songs then the fact that Karen's family comes across as monsters and largely responsible for her death.

Quite simply this film is a kick in the face, a punch to the gut and utterly heartbreaking. Despite the fact that the film is told with "Barbies" this film moves you to tears. We watch as she is manipulated in to performing and pushed ever onward with little or no control of her life. This is cross cut with scenes of the time period and with information about her condition. The entire film is scored with the music of the Carpenters as well as the other hits of the period. You will be moved.

If you want to see great film making or great story telling find this film and see it. 10 out of 10.

Frankly this film should be seen by more people then those dogged enough to search it out since despite the tragedy it could be someone's ray of hope out of the darkness.

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
More than lives up to its cult reputation, 26 June 2006
Author: el-mno-p from Newcastle, England

I've been wanting to see this for years and, thanks to the miracle of the internet, I finally did, last night. Granted, the audio and visual quality of the film were absolutely atrocious, having probably been uploaded from a billionth-generation bootleg. But that doesn't mean I didn't see it! There were definitely images on my screen, and sound coming out of my speakers.

Anyway. Since I have a guilty fascination with the music of The Carpenters (I say "fascination" because I'm not quite ready to admit that I like it yet. I'm getting there step-by-step, but it's a slow process), the opening bars of 'Superstar' after the attention-grabber of an opening soothed me into a receptive mood, perfectly evoking nostalgia for the period of early-1970s America. Considering I wasn't there, I'd consider that an effective opening.

Then, we get our first glimpse of the infamous Barbie dolls. In case you didn't know, Haynes made this film with Barbie dolls in all of the major roles. He had wonderful sets built for the dolls, including the Carpenter family home, recording studios, record company offices and so on. I know what you're thinking, but it actually doesn't look stupid. Karen's life story is played out through highly-stylized scenes, and while the dolls may add a layer of detachment to the story, the detail in their expressions, particularly the Karen doll, which was gradually filed down to reflect Karen's fatal struggle with anorexia, is at times remarkable.

There's a soap opera feel to the whole film, and Haynes' love of melodrama makes itself evident in the characterizations provided by the voice actors and also in the incidental music. Haynes favours an elaborate approach to editing and direction, inter-cutting the main narrative with documentary-style interludes, almost in a parody of the form, and inserts of found footage, flashbacks and fantasy/dream sequences, occasionally overlaying text in order to add an authorial commentary on Karen's life and eating disorders in general.

Richard Carpenter didn't have the film banned solely for unauthorized use of the Carpenters' music. In the film, he is shown as a domineering, oppressive influence on his sister (not to mention Haynes' coy insinuation of homosexuality), who, along with his and Karen's parents, are portrayed as having greatly contributed to Karen's illness. This emphasizes Karen's famous purity, but how much of it is actually true is something only the Carpenter family know for sure. The film is most certainly in Karen's camp, and sets her up as a martyr of sorts in the battle to liberate women from dumbfounded media expectations. It's a shame that the film had to be banned, because it puts across its message in an original, dazzling fashion and is a genuine one-off in the annals of cinema, as far as I'm aware.

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
A great, if currently illegal, short film., 19 September 1998
10/10
Author: androx from New York, New York

A marvelous film made by Todd Haynes, a Brown University student at the time, later the director of "Poison" and the brilliant, hypnotic "Safe" (1995), "Superstar" details the rise and fall of Karen Carpenter entirely through an inspired formal devise: Carpenter, her brother Richard, family, and friends are all "portrayed" by Barbie dolls. The film is not merely about fame or anorexia (the disease of which Carpenter died), but conjures the suburban California of the 1970's, indeed the whole plastic experience of America and American pop culture (of which, of course, The Carpenters and Barbie dolls are most certainly a part). The sincere lite-rock of The Carpenters is juxtaposed with the emptiness and powerful sorrow of these "people"; the film isn't merely a satire--it's deeply touching in a way that many "human stories" fail to be. Upon its appearance, the film became a minor cause celebre in hip, arty New York circles; unfortunately, when Richard Carpenter, proprietor of The Carpenters' music (who doesn't exactly come across as a hero in the film), got wind of it, he called his lawyers. The fact of the matter is that Haynes and his producers never cleared the use of the music--the film was never intended to be shown for profit. Simply, though, there is no film without the music. The still-standing cease-and-desist order prevents the film from being distributed in any form; I saw a third- or fourth-generation copy on video, and it was still better than virtually anything I saw that year. "Superstar" is worth seeking out; it's genuinely (and I rarely use this word) inspiring.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Brilliance and barbie dolls, 6 July 2003
Author: Trevor Bather (rannofxcid@hotmail.com) from Delaware

I found out about this movie in the 50 greatest cult films issue of Entertainment Weekly. It sounded like a funny, semi-serious biography of Karen Carpenter, whose music I do happen to enjoy. When I finally watched it, I realized that the movie was a very serious and in depth look at anorexia. It's haunting, brilliant, moving, and touching. I had never seen the life of an anorexic person played out so well as by that barbie doll. It's a shame that this film has not been widely distributed, because it's a darn fine movie that is very educational.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Weirdly affecting, 29 September 2003
Author: acidxian from Haddonfield, IL

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A lot of people praise this film, and it's definitely not something you're likely to forget, although for me this is a mixed bag. The device of using Barbie dolls to depict the Karen Carpenter story makes "Superstar" a little frustrating to watch at times. The reality of Karen's situation, as well as the fact that she was a ubiquitous public figure and very easily recognized, makes for an affecting experience, but this same story has also been told many other times in countless "movie of the week" formats (with other diseases or afflictions substituting for anorexia). I also wonder about how accurate the film is in telling Karen's true story. I can't help but think that much of it is speculation about what could have happened to Karen Carpenter, but that it isn't necessarily the whole truth. Either way, the film draws some very clear conclusions about the impetus for Karen's anorexia, mainly an overbearing family life and the professional pressures that came with her successful career--pressures that, if the film is to be believed, were made even worse by the demanding nature of her brother, Richard Carpenter.

The movie does bring out some psychology about the nature of anorexia, but I fail to see how this could be considered a "serious" study of the disease. The use of Barbie dolls as characters, as well as the deliberately tabloid presentation of the film, seem to lead the intent far from the serious and into the realm of the absurd. Ironically (or not, depending on the director's intention), the real weight that this short film carries comes from the combination of Karen's tragic story with the sound of her own voice in the many sentimental Carpenters songs that are included on the soundtrack. It is the very emotional manipulation that the Carpenters specialized in that makes the difference here, too.

What is remarkable about "Superstar" is how much impact it does have, as well as the scathing criticism of the phony 70s "squeaky clean" image that sprang up in contrast to the gritty social and political movements of the era. It is also a film molded in the morbid tradition of a genre that I like to refer to as the "70s doom" film, movies that were intended to shock the viewer with graphic depictions of atrocities they had only heard whispers of, usually accompanied by melodramatic cues. The opening scene is an ominous point-of-view shot as Karen's mother walks through her house to find Karen's lifeless body collapsed on the floor, accompanied by horror movie music and sound effects. The portrait that it does paint of Karen as a victimized pawn manipulated by her family and record executives is a powerful one, especially in the way that Karen struggles in vain to gain control of her life.

Definitely interesting viewing, although the over-the-top elements of the piece seem intended to deliberately shock the viewer in a more superficial way. Make sure to look for the Barbie doll that stands in for Dionne Warwick. Classick!

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent, 1 May 2002
Author: jpm242 from New York, NY

I recently saw Superstar in an art class of mine, having heard about the film for over ten years. I had been dying to get my hands on a copy, and was extremely excited about seeing it. It surpassed every expectation I had. I can't imagine the story being done any other way with Barbie dolls. When "Karen" is talking about how she feels fat, one can't help but look at the irony that she is being played by a stick thin Barbie but still insists she's fat--just as Karen couldn't see that in real life. Not preachy or cheesy at all, the "dolls" manage to inject more humanity in the film than actors could. One of the most beautiful, poignant shots ever is in Superstar--Karen Carpenter, alone in the studio, singing a very sad song as the camera pans up and the lights grow dim, the only visible thing her shining face and her echoing, melancholy voice. Do whatever you have to do to see this!!

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Bizarre, yet fascinating, 3 April 2005
5/10
Author: overby from Western Kentucky

When I first heard of a Karen Carpenter movie acted out by Barbie dolls, I thought, "Yeah, right." Actually, it's not half-bad, revealing the ugly side of brother Richard and their parents. It's a shame the movie has been only available through the underground, though, as it portrays the heart-breaking effects of anorexia through clinical narration, montage, and pop culture to great effect. The use of dolls is actually ingenious, as we come to see how Karen was manipulated by her family, her record company, and society to conform to unattainable perfection. Although banned by numerous lawsuits, this film is available through alternative resources. If you look hard enough, you can find it.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Sublimely Brilliant and Subversive, 7 September 2004
9/10
Author: addisonma

Unexplainably brilliant. You have to see it to believe it, really.

Understandably suppressed by Richard--I won't spoil it for you--it is at turns hiariously bitchy, grotesque, tender, and cruel. At the same time, it elevates the subject matter, leaving this viewer with a much deeper sense of appreciation for the Karen. I laughed at them, and it made my like both of them more.

The story is dramatized through carefully and minutely constructed sets populated by Barbie dolls clothed in carefully crafted period clothes. Karen's descent into anorexia is represented through whittling down the face and arms of the Barbie doll that portrays her, which has an effect both hilarious and disturbing.

All in all, it feels so much like a "real" documentary, I can't tell you that it isn't. It's treatment of the subject of annorexia and it's effect on Karen's life is at once silly and serious.

I saw it on DVD. The box had next to nothing printed on it. It was obviously bootlegged from somewhere, but the print I saw had good quality audio and visual.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A Wicked Tour de Force, 13 February 2003
10/10
Author: ilikeimdb from Arlington, VA USA

Great technique; so well done, paced, scripted; great inventive cut-aways that steal from the best movie cinematography. A low-low budget over-the-top tribute that never fails to deeply touch the Ex-Lax within us all. Poor Karen died but Barbie lives on in white bread heaven. I'm sure the Carpenter family, esp. Richard, is furious with the director to this day.

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Richard and Mattel aren't amused at the honesty of anorexia., 25 February 2002
9/10
Author: Frederic E. Kahler (fredk_us@yahoo.com) from Las Vegas, formerly of Seattle

Part 1: An important film by one of the few AIDS-awareness directors. All of Todd Haynes' films/stories symbolize the alienation, decay, and whenever possible, rebirth, of the gay man vis-a-vis AIDS. We've lost so many to AIDS, and although today the horror slumbers often, the story here is just as gripping. Combining the details of Karen Carpenter's existence with his motif/approach, Haynes tells us a lot about the suffering, solitude, and emotional blackmail that comes with that yearn for success. I am amused that most film critics stuck to the surface story and paid lip service to Karen Carpenter's ordeal as a girl in a nuclear family bubble. Civil sympathy is a bit of a bore.

Richard and Mattel, the creators of Barbie, have blocked the film's availability; all prints are legally supposed to have been destroyed. Richard blocks it because of the usage of the Carpenters' music, which ought to be public domain anyway!. Mattel blocks it because of the usage of Barbie dolls for all the characters and the overt implication that plastic existence has drastic consequences.

It's amusing and then gripping the overlays of text, music upon music, narrative, darkness, and camera pans that punctuate the film. But the surface story -- Karen lost in her own world of hopeless perfection as envisioned by her domineering mother, Agnes Carpenter -- is a fine one as it depicts a cultural shift from Vietnam's horror to Nixon's false-father stability. (The Carpenters were invited to perform for the President at the White House.) Wholesomeness, in Haynes' tale, requires grit, profanity, endless self-subterfuge and a propensity for collapse. That A&M Records is seen to be malevolent cannot be Karen's reason for self-starvation. That the rest of the rock world is living it up while Carpenters sweat it out in the studio cannot be the reason either. And yet the reason for her illness, like the bird attacks in Hitchcock's 1963 thriller, is never disclosed -- as if it could be, and Haynes shows us his chains of reasoning and events and all we can do is marvel at the Edgar Allen Poe Barbie Dolls and Karen's gradual transformation into Munch visual madness.

Todd Haynes takes liberties with what happened, but usually only as a convenience; it all comes through and through regardless: the family's accidental discovery that Karen could sing like nobody else; the switch from laxatives to syrup of ipecac and vomiting; the allegations that Richard Carpenter has always been homosexual.

Word-of-mouth will get you a copy of the film, which only benefits from the acres of great music the duo produced. Karen Carpenter is dead, like so many other against illness and massive ignorance. Haynes' paean to her strength and helplessness, her soulful gloom and snatches of love, transforms the viewer, who is pressed to create his or her own Barbie-format epic!

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