Celeste in the City (2004)
Small town girl Celeste Blodgett moves from Bangor, Maine to Manhattan when she gets a job with the New York Examiner, but hears there it's only fact checking, with little prospects for real journalism. Her welcoming young flat neighbor Kyle Halley in an interior designer, who helps her to give her apartment a make-over. At a party she learns her cousin is gay and goes by the new name Dana Harrison; he promises to teach her the city way with a fashionable image transformation, which succeeds with the help of various gay friends. Now she's ready for social life, hoping to impress her boss, reputedly womanizing magazine section editor Mitch Tanzer. He accepts to read her work, but says he can't use it because it's unethical given their personal relationship- then she finds reality is different.
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I love this movie so much
Purely Joyful Movie!
Fresh and Exciting
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Simple small town girl Celeste Blodgett (Majandra Delfino) moves from Banger, Maine to New York City. She's a recent college graduate with a job at the New York Examiner. Her only local contact is gay cousin Harrison Blodgett (Nicholas Brendon) who uses new name Dana. She believes her interior designer neighbor Kyle Halley (Ethan Embry) is gay due to her hometown friend's opinions about all interior designers being gay. Her entry level fact checker job sucks. Her hero is reporter Lauren Rawley-Simms who has an on-and-off relationship with magazine editor Mitch Tanzer. Dana and his glam squad give her a makeover while Kyle gives her apartment a different makeover.This is cheap. It's doing the Toronto for New York thing. It's fake 90's New York. The story is formulaic. The title suggests a take on Sex in the City. Majandra does the ugly duckling thing with glasses and transitions into the swan easily. There are no surprises. The humor isn't that funny. Debbie Gibson does have a small role as one of Dana's friends.
This is the funniest movie ABC family has shown in years! I truly loved it. I hope more comedies of this caliber will be aired on that channel. Ethan Embry was great for the role of Kyle, in his past work in other comedies, he has shown his ability to make people laugh and fall for his natural charm. Apart from good casting, the humor of the movie itself was refreshing. The plot was light and amusing, making the movie fun and enjoyable to watch after a long day. Nazemian and Schraft have clearly demonstrated their talent for writing light and ironic comedy, I look forward to seeing what they come with next. Now that they have proved themselves in this genre, I am eager to see their more serious and creative work. I'm sure we won't be disappointed.
Anytime I see a movie about a small town girl moving to New York, I have got to check it out. I just finished watching Celeste in the City and was disturbed by irritating stereotypes about the gay community AND women. First of all, why is it assumed that the "gay" friend knows ALL of the fashion/trends and "snap to it, girl" dialogs? The stereotype is disgusting and needs to stop! Also, the only way she can get ahead in NYC is to get a makeover?! I definitely beg to differ! I mean, what does that say about women that we are immediately about something as soon as we show some cleavage and have a short skirt! Ridiculous. I could see what the movie was trying to do, by trying to make it "cutsey" with a small town girl fall in love and make in the big city, but we really need to cool it with the stereotypes and assumptions that are hurting diversity -be it the gay community, race/ethnicity and women!
Imagine Carrie Bradshaw before she met the gals and learned to walk in her manolos. Well thats probably what this movie set out to do. Since it is ABC Family you can expect to see nothing more than Grade C fluff. Yet another case of the pretty, ugly girl ala Majandra Delfino in glasses. Did we learn nothing from the genre spoof "Not Another Teen Movie"? The biggest problem with this movie is the blatant stereotypical gay "CHARACTERS". Just what the world needs to see is some more gay CLOWNS on TV. I look forward to a time when gay characters will be given a little more depth than to simply yell "You Go Girl" every now and then. I say shame on ABC Family--next time they should try and get some input from real living, breathing homosexuals before they put on a gay minstrel show.