Kissing on the Mouth-Latest Classic Movie Reviews-Spout

CineVegas: Finally, Lillian and ...
by Karina in Karina on SpoutBlog

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"FINALLY, LILLIAN AND DAN Trailer Finally, Lillian and Dan comes to CineVegas almost a full year after its first and only significant public screening, as part of the M-word heavy Summer 2007 Independents Week series at Harvard Film Archives. It’s a find, a definite cousin of the work being made in the Bronstein household––as with Frownland, the mumbling here is so stylized and disturbed that it’s like a precision bomb against the twee subtelties explored by other contemporary filmmakers––it’s more like Tourettescore. But there’s also a tenderness here, and lofty aesthetic ambitions underpinned with authentic melancholy. It’s a heartbreaker. Lillian, a twenty-something whose lovely face is weighted down with permanent post-crying jag bags, lives with her grandmother and answers phone for some kind of businessman. When her apparently married boss asks her out via lengthy dissertation on the possibilities of urban social life (”There are restaurants, and bars, that people go to…”), s ... " [More]

CineVegas: Finally, Lillian and ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. [What do you think?]
"FINALLY, LILLIAN AND DAN Trailer Finally, Lillian and Dan comes to CineVegas almost a full year after its first and only significant public screening, as part of the M-word heavy Summer 2007 Independents Week series at Harvard Film Archives. It’s a find, a definite cousin of the work being made in the Bronstein household––as with Frownland, the mumbling here is so stylized and disturbed that it’s like a precision bomb against the twee subtelties explored by other contemporary filmmakers––it’s more like Tourettescore. But there’s also a tenderness here, and lofty aesthetic ambitions underpinned with authentic melancholy. It’s a heartbreaker. Lillian, a twenty-something whose lovely face is weighted down with permanent post-crying jag bags, lives with her grandmother and answers phone for some kind of businessman. When her apparently married boss asks her out via lengthy dissertation on the possibilities of urban social life (”There are restaurants, and bars, that people go to…”), s ... " [More]

Pillow sex
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"When I was getting the trailer up for Joe Swanberg’s Butterknife yesterday, I noticed our ad network had placed a banner for Dear Pillow (just released on DVD) on SpoutBlog. It felt serendipitous considering Dear Pillow and Swanberg’s Kissing on the Mouth were often cited together when they came out because of their frank treatment of sex. (Director Brian Poyser and Joe Swanberg are also friends who collaborated on Grammy’s, a short film included on the Dear Pillow DVD.) I get excited to see a film, which two years ago I thought was too edgy to be seen outside a festival, getting a shot at an audience. However, my first reaction was disappointment to see the film’s marketers exploiting the T&A strategy. In a movie with no gratuitous sex scenes, Dear Pillow’s mock porn mag cover and “UNRATED” label heavily hint that it does. The “gratuitous sex” takes place in conversations between a teenage boy and two adults shockingly comfortable with talking about all things intercourse. Althoug ... " [More]

Joe Swanberg and Spout
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"It’s no secret Karina and I have been advocates of Joe Swanberg’s films since his debut, Kissing on the Mouth, hit festivals two years ago. In light of the recent debate about conflict of interest in the film blog community, I think it’s a good time to clarify our relationship as critics/fans versus the sponsorship/distributor ventures we’ve been getting into, most recently with Butterknife. For Spout, some may say it’s a conflict of interest for a company employing ardent supporters writing about Swanberg to then distribute his work online, as if our support has been engineered for two years to help Butterknife. So, before the record is even bent, I’ll set it straight. We have felt since seeing Kissing on the Mouth that Joe is a filmmaker to watch. Trying to spread the word about his movies is what we do. There was no talk of distributing his work until recently. That said, after Spout’s promotion of Four Eyed Monsters in June, Joe contacted me and said he had an idea for a web se ... " [More]

Mumblecore, Shmumblecore
by paul in paul on spout.com

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"I like the films coming from Swanberg, Duplass, Bujalski, et al mentioned in Kristin’s Mumblecore post. Kevin and I watched Joe Swanberg’s new film, Hannah Takes the Stairs at SXSW and I had the same response to it I’ve had to his other films (LOL, Kissing on the Mouth). I didn’t leave the theater riding on one emotion. I left talking about all the brilliant little gems, the pieces that are more relevant in his films than the whole. As Kristin put it, the films are a series moments so acutely portraying people trying to communicate. As far as labeling this family of film–and the friendships growing between the filmmakers–as a “movement.” Well, I bristle at the idea. What is it about coining a movement that (in this case before these filmmakers even reach the age of thirty) we find comforting? Does it somehow validate watching films which individually may confuse us? Now that they’re grouped together, like the French New Wave, are we now able to analyze them? Where as before, we jus ... " [More]

Pillow sex
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"When I was getting the trailer up for Joe Swanberg’s Butterknife yesterday, I noticed our ad network had placed a banner for Dear Pillow (just released on DVD) on SpoutBlog. It felt serendipitous considering Dear Pillow and Swanberg’s Kissing on the Mouth were often cited together when they came out because of their frank treatment of sex. (Director Brian Poyser and Joe Swanberg are also friends who collaborated on Grammy’s, a short film included on the Dear Pillow DVD.) I get excited to see a film, which two years ago I thought was too edgy to be seen outside a festival, getting a shot at an audience. However, my first reaction was disappointment to see the film’s marketers exploiting the T&A strategy. In a movie with no gratuitous sex scenes, Dear Pillow’s mock porn mag cover and “UNRATED” label heavily hint that it does. The “gratuitous sex” takes place in conversations between a teenage boy and two adults shockingly comfortable with talking about all things intercourse. Althoug ... " [More]

Joe Swanberg and Spout
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"It’s no secret Karina and I have been advocates of Joe Swanberg’s films since his debut, Kissing on the Mouth, hit festivals two years ago. In light of the recent debate about conflict of interest in the film blog community, I think it’s a good time to clarify our relationship as critics/fans versus the sponsorship/distributor ventures we’ve been getting into, most recently with Butterknife. For Spout, some may say it’s a conflict of interest for a company employing ardent supporters writing about Swanberg to then distribute his work online, as if our support has been engineered for two years to help Butterknife. So, before the record is even bent, I’ll set it straight. We have felt since seeing Kissing on the Mouth that Joe is a filmmaker to watch. Trying to spread the word about his movies is what we do. There was no talk of distributing his work until recently. That said, after Spout’s promotion of Four Eyed Monsters in June, Joe contacted me and said he had an idea for a web se ... " [More]

Hannah Takes the Box Office
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"More news from the front lines of The New Talkies coming soon, but here’s a tidbit for the capitalists: Chris Wells, who starred in and co-wrote LOL and who now works at the IFC Center, told me before the 6:05 PM screening of Hannah Takes the Stairs that in the film’s first three shows, it had already made enough money to cover the budget of Joe Swanberg’s first film, Kissing on the Mouth. I caught up with Chris again later in the evening, at which point he told me that not only had the 8:00 PM Hannah show sold out, but Swanberg’s third film had, in its first day of release, grossed more the budgets of his first two features combined. If you know anything about Joe, you know that we’re not talking about millions of dollars here, but I still think it’s impressive evidence that the DIY model doesn’t have to be an economic disaster. More mumblemania to come… Originally posted on:Spoutblog " [More]

Dentler Takes the Stairs: Mark ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"If you read a lot of film blogs, you might have noticed a virus going around called Dentler Takes the Stairs. It’s all the brainchild of Matt Dentler, who is like the P.T. Barnum of the SXSW Film Festival, and who, by being the first person to program movies like Kissing on the Mouth and Dance Party, USA, has played a huge role in legitimizing this wave of no-budget American indie filmmaking over the past few years. Dentler conducted interviews with the major players in Hannah Takes the Stairs (the Joe Swanberg drama starring Greta Gerwig and filmmakers Mark Duplass, Andrew Bujalski, Kent Osbourne, Ry Russo-Young and Todd Rohal), and asked a number of us film bloggers to each broadcast one of these interviews on our blogs. Matt asked me to carry the interview with Mark Duplass, and of course, I complied. I reviewed The Duplass Brothers’ The Puffy Chair, which Mark starred in and co-wrote, in 2005 after seeing the film both at SXSW and the Chicago International Film Festival. At the ... " [More]

Swangberg's first time
by analogzombie in analogzombie Blog

liked it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"Joe Swanberg is, without a doubt, a very gifted new film maker. As a part of the unfortunately dubbed Mumblecore movement, he creates ultra low budget films that touch on very personal and small stories. Kissing on the Mouth is very poignant in that almost everyone can relate to the mixed up, and often embarrassing, post-college sex scene.What is immediately striking about the film, besides the barebones aesthetic, is the sexual frankness Swanberg brings to the picture. Sex is shown for all its non-glory and absurdity. I'm not sure if this is a stylistic choice or if the director is using this as a means to attract attention to his first film. What I am sure of is that, at least for me, his scene of self-masturbation in the shower, complete with climax moment action is more than I want to see. It's not because I'm a prude or I think it goes against the theme of the film, it's just because, as a talented film maker, I know I'll see much more of Swanberg in the ye ... " [More]

Kissing on the Mouth (2005)

Rent it, watch it, find it

Reviews and discussions

Community ratings

Other opinions