★★★½ The Notorious Bettie Page

[Gino: 2.5, TwoShoes: 4.0]

Gino says: "First, I will say this is an affectionate 2.5, so I'm glad Twoshoes rated it higher. The film looked very nice (and I'm not just taking about Gretchen Mol here). The black and white was nice, but the film particularly shined when they switched to color, because they deliberately shot it so it would look like sort of 50s tehcnicolor, and that worked so well, I was surprised. The acting was fine all around. I guess my beef with the film was that it was either not the most effective bio-pic of an interesting person or a very well done bio-pic of an uninteresting person. My guess is the later, but either way would not make a great film. I couldn't quite grasp the idea of a high school salutatorian who was so naive that she didn't know the seediness that she was getting into. Maybe that is how it was for real, but I couldn't grasp it. It wasn't enough to say that this was a really pure-hearted person who had been repeatedtly abused in life and that made her this way. Or maybe it is, I dunno. I think a less straightforward approach could have made a great film: I.e. one that put her inside the larger context of bondage fetishes or alternately, make the story about her rebirth in Christianity. I.e. if I am to see someone be born-again on film, I want to feel part of that.

But all in all, not a bad film, and clearly Twoshoes like it more."