Anywhere but Here (1999)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie was filmed in 1999 and in it they were drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee and eating donuts but there was no Dunkin Donuts in the entire west coast untill 14 to 15 years later totally messed up. Great movie

Adele August (Susan Sarandon) is the flighty mother to exasperated 14 year old Ann (Natalie Portman). Ann actually like her stepfather Ted but Adele leaves her boring husband in Wisconsin for the bright sunshine of Beverly Hills. Adele gets a job at a rundown school and spends their money frivolously. Ann can't wait to leave her mother. There's also a cop who has two pivotal scenes where he comes in with just the right advice.Sarandon is playing a manic mother character. Portman is lovely and a frustrated teenager. These are good building blocks for some family drama. However the movie doesn't really build anything compelling with these amazing pieces. The plot, it there is one, is a random series of aimless snippets. Their story goes nowhere for a long stretches of this movie. It's the same situation over and over again. Nevertheless, there are those two beautiful building blocks at the end of the day. It probably needs a third and some dramatic construction.

I purchased this because it is an Ashley Johnson, her around age 15, the year before What Women Want. She only has a small part in this, a friend of the lead teen, but is on screen maybe four times. Those bits are nice, to me. A big plus is that Heather DeLoach, Ermengarde in A Little Princess 1995, is also in that group of friends. For me, this DVD is essential. * Spoiler * Further than that I have problems. The lead actress, Susan Saradon as Adele, plays someone tied up in knots to be at near baby level, the more obvious main story as how disastrous that is for her teenage daughter and for herself and for society. My DVD sleeve calls this funny and touching but I find that PR blurb to be missing the point and doing down Adele and Ann both, by that. This is a comedy to the extent that Brazil - 1985 or 28 Days – 2000 are. Of recent dvds I have seen, I find The Quiet and The Chumscrubber to be much more approachable in how they deal with this sort of thing. I can watch them more than once. Except there is still a need for some to follow the approach of this particular feature. There are other, less blatant, story lines and the photo shown early on is just as relevant as the mum's chains. * So. For me this is an essential DVD. But it only has ten minutes that I will want to watch often and this is scattered through the feature. The parts with the friends and parts that can give that some context.

This movie was a great one. Their relationship was a bit rocky, but in the end, Ann realized what greatness her mother really had. Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman were the right actresses for the job. :) They really portrayed a real "family". Not this fairy-tale "wish that was my family" kind of family. They were actually like today's families...with extreme relativity with the moving and mother-daughter struggles and diversity. I loved it...especially the ending when they realized how much both of them meant to each other. It made me wanna grab my mom!!! (who was sitting right beside me at the time...so i actually did...haha!)