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      Variety

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      Reviews 25% 100+ Ratings Audience Score A repressed young woman develops a fascination for pornography and voyeurism while selling tickets to adult movies. Read More Read Less Now in Theaters Now Playing Buy Tickets

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      Variety

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      Audience Reviews

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      Petros T It mostly runs on the mysterious vibe and messaging yet falls short. The sequences where Christine follows Louie around are intriguing, though they're dragged out and repeated enough to lose some of their power by the end. And that's probably the film's biggest detriment: it's largely nerveless, doubtlessly overlong and overall rather boring. On the bright side, the acting is good, there are some funny bits (Jose works as the comic relief), and even the ridiculously abrupt finale is justifiable. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Sex, sleaze, and corruption served up feminist style in early 80s New York and ... Asbery Park. Our heroine finds herself drawn to porn and corruption because of her last-chance job as a ticket clerk in an adult movie theater back when there was such a thing. It attracts notice because of its feminist tone and take on unlikely themes for a woman especially at that time. But its effect is dulled by confusing and overly long diversions - such as our heroine reciting a complete pornographic story to her boyfriend while he plays a pinball machine and drinks beer for the duration. Johnny C. sez come for the feminist psychology and stay for the sleaze. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Bette Gordon is great at capturing those private moments in public spaces and personal moments in private spaces. She really lets the action play out and keeps the frame wonderfully engaged without significant cutting around. There is always tension, there is always something going on. Everything was insanely interesting and charged with thriller like intensity without the falsity. What a way to end the movie, with an unfulfilled promise, the way porn ends, with all fantasy and no physical resolution or satisfaction. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Variety is an important film for many reasons. It explores detachment, boredom, and voyeurism in ways rarely shown in a movie. The story centers around Christine (Sandy McLeod) taking a job selling tickets at a NYC porn theater, and how her life is slowly transformed by the people, environment, and culture as a whole. Lesser films have mined similar territory by focusing on women "unlocking their sexual desires" and invariably deteriorating into soft core titillation. Variety ends up closer to Susan Seidelman's Smithereens or Desperately Seeking Susan than late night cable fare. Slapping the term "feminist" on a film can be frustratingly non-specific, but Variety is told from a certain "feminine" point of view, and how a woman can feel and act when placed in a certain situation. Christine is operating on instinct and impulse; letting the new world around her change how she interfaces with her old life and how she views herself. Fascinating not only for the stark NY/NJ street scenes circa 1983, but how the director Bette Gordon reveals a character study of someone whose actions some of us may not relate to, but whose willingness to give into self-exploration wherever that road may lead is thought provoking nonetheless. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member Worst movies ever (ranked from most boring to least boring): 1. variety 2. water world 3. battlefield earth 'nuff said Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

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      Peter Bradshaw Guardian A flawed but fascinating critique of the male gaze, the porn gaze, and the luxurious ordeal of guilty voyeurism. Rated: 4/5 Aug 8, 2023 Full Review Cindy Patton Gay Community News (Boston) Complex and disturbing. May 12, 2022 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Bette Gordon's independent psychological thriller, written by Kathy Acker, is a stunning proto-feminist noir experiment set in the sex shops of 1983 Times Square. Rated: A May 1, 2013 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com A signifcant feminist indie about sexual difference, desire, and gaze. Rated: B+ May 15, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A repressed young woman develops a fascination for pornography and voyeurism while selling tickets to adult movies.
      Director
      Bette Gordon
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Mar 8, 1985, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 25, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 40m
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