Raving (2007) User Reviews

Great movie

[aliasgal · 8/10 · 31 August 2007]

I'm surprised by the bad reviews here.

For a 20 minute short, I'm quite impressed by the story. It's meant to be a glimpse into a day of the lives of the two characters, a turning point, and it does this extremely well. I was moved by the characters and it certainly takes talent to do that in such a limited time frame. I particularly enjoyed the fact that certain details of the movie were not 'spelled out' for the viewer, instead the audience is able to use its intelligence to imagine the lives of the characters before they were brought to their current point.

I'd be even more awesome if it became a 2 hour movie.

I hope Julia continues to write and direct!

Good Short Film

[ocreel · 7/10 · 18 May 2007]

I viewed this film and then read the comments. I was surprised by the bad comments. I thought(as an ordinary film viewer)that it was an enjoyable short film. I enjoyed the acting - which was absolutely not as bad as the other reviewers thought. I think Zooey Deschanel has a great future as an actor with the right film. Bill Irwin is an accomplished actor. This part may not have been the right one for him.

I would think that developing two characters in less than twenty minutes is at most impossible. This film is simply a slice of life--and I believe it accomplished that task. Having worked in New York City for seven years early in my business career helped my appreciation of this slice of life.

Interesting Character Study

[ForCenturies · 7/10 · 19 September 2007]

This is obviously the writing and directing debut of the extremely talented actress, Julia Stiles. Now, when I first heard about this film, I was intrigued because I didn't see Ms Stiles as a writer or director, but we now live in an age where we can achieve anything we want and knock off criticism for the choices we assume best for us, and obviously, her choice to write and direct "Raving" was an assumption well made.

This film is a very interesting character study, something that I did not know it would be. Coming from ELLE Magazine, I thought this would be something we see every day with your E! news and your Paris Hiltons, whether this dress is hot or not or whether it's Dulce or Gucci or whatever, the fashion does take somewhat of a back seat as Zooey and Bill really make their characters their own and really bring them to life, especially Zooey, really getting into the whole lying and taking money thing to party all night.

I do have some criticism about the writing, however. It is unclear whether Bill Irwin's character has some sort of mental disorder, and whether his character is actually the father of Zooey's character (which I thought made some sort of sense). The film became slightly confusing towards the end with him getting the dress dry cleaned and then all of a sudden she is singing (wearing the dress of course) with a full band behind her, and it isn't clear whether he is watching her or not, or even why the ending is happening at all, even though I do love to hear Zooey sing, she has an amazing voice. One other thing I didn't understand is the whole place where Bill Irwin's character worked, with the cards and all that, but I don't really see that as a heavy plot point, the heaviest plot point is their meeting in the café, obviously.

But as a writing and directing debut, Julia does a fantastic job behind the camera just as she does on camera. I just hope ELLE weren't breathing down Julia's neck whilst writing the script and filming the film, because that would a) ruin the creativity the writer has with the film and b) explain the confusing ending.

Look, it is a character study, and character studies aren't movies your just watch once, think of and then move on, character studies are exactly that: studies of characters, and you must study this over and over to get every crevice of the story out, but on one viewing, it forms good albeit confusing entertainment.

Do not try and build this film up for yourself hype-wise, but it isn't the train wreck people make it out to be. Just watch and observe these two quirky and interesting characters that Julia has decided to focus on in a city full of 8 million people.

Surreal

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Raving (2007)

*** (out of 4)

A troubled young woman (Zooey Deschanel) and a lonely middle-aged man (Bill Irwin) meets in a cafe and soon their secrets start to come out. The story is a little hit and miss here but Stiles shows some nice directorial touches and the two actors come across very well. It's never quite clear what issues are going on until the very end and even then it doesn't come over as any big shock but the acting keeps this short moving well. Stiles does a good job building up the two characters but a tighter screenplay would have helped.

it really wasn't that bad

[brownstones19 · 7/10 · 31 July 2008]

The short film wasn't bad...but it wasn't great... I liked both main characters... but it all seemed pretty underdeveloped, but then again it was a 20 minute film so there isn't much room for deep, deep characters...so for twenty minutes, and for it being Julia Stiles first time directing, and writing (if I'm not mistaken) it was okay...just testing the water.

There isn't much more to say that is was a cute/sad film cute: Zooey Deschanel's character and the sad: Bill Irwin's character...but I still despite somewhat liking the short I still felt a bit out of the loop...like what is up with Zooey's character why is she putting on a show for money, and where does it go, and where the hell does she live...and what happened to Bill's wife I'm pretty sure she passed, but how long ago...and the ending it was nice but why was she singing the song at the end...maybe my questions are dumb but hey I felt kind of in & out of the story. And also I had to write more because they want about 10 lines so my original comment ended after the word water.

Reviews?

[phillipdaniels · 10/10 · 1 June 2007]

I can't believe the reviews I've read. As far as character development, it needs nothing more. The 23 minutes of film was sufficient to understand the lifestyles of each main character.

Zooey exemplified confidence, greed, understanding, as well as compassion. I think that is kind of difficult to depict , in the magnitude she did, in a short amount of time. For Mr. Noodle, he was confusing at first, but his character is where the title comes in to play.

Despite the age difference their chemistry was great. I wish we were able to see another 60 minutes of this fine direction.

A slice of life in New York

[lastliberal · 8/10 · 27 January 2008]

Being a fan of Julia Stiles (The Bourne trilogy, The Omen, The Business of Strangers), I was curious to see her first effort at writing and directing. I was not disappointed.

Bill Irwin (Across the Universe) and Zooey Deschanel (Bridge to Terabithia, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) were both fascinating as flawed individuals whose past is a shadow to us, and who chance encounter brings about profound changes. There is so much here that a full length feature is worth making.

Head over to iTunes and download your copy to see a great first film by a great star.

Poorly executed

[uberlegitimate · 1/10 · 10 May 2007]

I'm well aware that a short film gives little room for character development, but the key to a GREAT short film is when the director and writer develop the plot and characters fully in their limited time span. The same is true for short fiction. It takes someone truly talented to do this correctly. Julia Stiles has not. The audience is given no valid reason why they should care about either of the two main characters, who each have their share of issues. There is no logical progression in their relationship. Basically, it was a very frustrating 20 minutes.

I found Zooey Deschanel to be charming and she did well with her material. Bill Irwin's character is obviously meant to be played as a walking shell of a man, but his acting fell flat and was unconvincing.

All in all, this was a failed attempt at something that could have been a compelling portrait of a young New Yorker, a down-and-out business man, and the city they lived in. Instead, we're given a film that feels as if it was done on a whim with no care put into who these characters are.

Nice.

[schwestersingstar · 8/10 · 8 May 2023]

I watched it because I was intrested in Julia Stiles as a director/writer. I haven't seen Paloma (the web series on WIGS) that she also wrote for and directed so this was my first film with her as a director and writer. I was very pleased with how the movie was shot and filmed, I thought the writing was sharp and well thought of. The movie in itself, since it's only 20 minutes feels a tiny bit rushed towards the end but other than that I don't see whats the problem for everybody leaving bad reviews... The story of course isn't a live changing one but considering this as Julia Stiles first writing/directing credit I don't understand why people have to be so harsh. Not everything you do as a well known person needs or actually can be the best work you ever done and of course there will be better shortfilms done by people that have done this since forever ? I don't understand why a young actress isn't allowed to try out stuff without being bashed for not creating the most relevant piece of work ever. This movie is as another reviewer said a solid character study shot in very clever well thought way with intelligent dialogue and you can clearly see the choices that have been made artisticly. Zooey Dechanel does a great job as well and all in all this is a nice SHORT FILM showing a piece out of the many many different faces of New York City live.

So I don't know what's there to complain about. 8/10.

amazingly bad

[zebedia · 1/10 · 24 April 2007]

This is an historically interesting short-- it might be the very worst short ever made. Julia Styles should be quite angry with her manager and/or agent for not stopping her from doing this piece of monkey feces.

She should also thank her celebrity for getting this piece of garbage noticed. I think she was on Regis and Kelly this morning hawking it. She explained that the work was based on an experience she had walking around New York City, where someone came up to her crying asking for money to get home. (She, not being very smart, believed this classic con, and gave the girl a bunch of cash.-- wow.) That's essentially the story for this short. I would tell you the rest but I would fall asleep doing so, or I might become injured mentally, in recapping how poor the acting, writing and directing is in this piece.