Julian Po (1997)

What makes it different from others?

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

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is the kind of film you can only sit through after midnight whilst flicking incoherently through the channels. That is how i came upon such a strange film, one which i could not stop watching, despite the efforts of the oncoming dawn light telling me to. Slater plays his role very well as the confused outsider, a role that the audience can only find themselves joining him in, and Tunney's performance as the attractive girl who wants to run away from home is also well performed. All in all, this is a good film to sit through only if you are in an open minded mood, if you are feeling at all skeptical, leave it on the shelf.

I've only seen this movie once, so my interpretation might be a little off, but it seemed to me to be an allegory of the price of fame, how famous people, in American popular culture in particular, are often driven to suicide. Of course there are a few holes in my theory: Julian never sought fame himself, but the relentless media attention (the group of children who followed him around), the riches and free stuff he received, and the boredom of a small town (representing America in general) has nothing better to do than make a celebrity out of an ordinary person. And finally, the callousness of the people when they drive him to suicide sums up the allegory.Forgive my interpretation if it's wrong... but those were just my ideas.

I can't believe the tone of the external reviews linked to this entry...these guys didn't get this film at all!!! What in god's name did the bozos expect from a film adapted from a novel in French by an author of obvious Eastern European descent? "Julian Po" is a fable, folks, about life and death and all the states in between. It's funny and sad and bewildering and tragicomic in the way good European fiction can be and even good American fiction rarely is. It's beautifully cast with people from some of my favorite TV series, from "West Wing" to "Homicide" to "Remember WENN" and from some damn good films such as "Fargo" and "Kill Bill". It also has Christian Slater's best performance since "Heathers" and manages to be "quirky" in a way different from those generic indie films that equate quirkiness with quality. It IS a little slow, because it moves at the pace of life, but this allows it time to fill each moment with the stuff of life. It misses being great because it doesn't have the final twist that takes it beyond our expectations, but it is nonetheless the best surprise I've come across in several years -- a genuine small, unheralded, lost gem. Please don't read too much about it before you see it. Judge for yourself, with your heart and your head. This film should appeal to both parts of your anatomy.

The beginning of this movie was good. It started to get really dumb after he told the people he wanted to kill himself. I think if I came from a little town like that I would be offended after seeing this movie. They made a lot of these people look dumb and crazy. How could these people have so little to do that they follow him around all day. A lot of times these people were telling him ways to kill himself like they were urging him to do it. How can so many people have little respect for other people? I also think they could have made a much better ending for this movie. There were some good parts to this movie also. Some people might like it, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.