Average Rating:
Rating: - A Delightful Screwball Comedy!!
Funny plot and sub-plots throughout not to mention catchy tunes by fabulous drags! Wheeler has a real sense of colour, contrast in depicting every scene and emotion, enabling the viewer to feel and be a part of the whole journey in the movie. She wickedly reconstructs the stereotypes into something that we can laugh with the characters but not feel offended in any way. All too often we're slammed with gay movies that almost always have sad, depressing plots and endings, or preachy and political lines throughout, like it's an obligatory premise to making a gay movie or something! But, Wheeler shows us that gay-related movies can be funny and have a happy ending, too!! Laugh-out-loud comedic situations, i.e. the mother (played excellently and totally uproarious by the scrumptious Wendy Crewson)discovering various sex toys in horror yet doesn't mind "having a go" at 'em if you know what I mean, the oddball but utterly hilarious attraction between the bookkeeper and the transsexual friend, the bookkeeper's facetious reaction towards the Customs' threats of confiscating her books, the instant clique between the mother and the transsexual, the list goes on!! Great performances by new and veteran actors alike. Even though the movie kinda centres around the 2 youngsters, Kim and Maggie, but it is the supporting cast, played exquisitely well by the gang of talented actors from start to finish that makes this movie a repeat watch and definitely a highly recommended one!!
Rating: - Better Than Chocolate between...
I give this movie five out of five stars. Although it moves rather quickly you can't help being hook. Twenty minutes of the movie has past and Maggie, 19, not-quite-out, college dropout, and working at Ten Percent bookstore (no it's not a discount store) meets Kim, a nomadic artist, butch but sweet and romance starts. There's a scene that will leave many people exploring the arts.Within the first twenty minutes, Maggie meets and falls in love with vivacious Kim, helps her conservative lesbian boss fight customs who seem to be trying to put her out of business. Oh, don't forget Maggie has to find a place to live, because her newly divorce mother, Lila is moving in with her along with sibling, Paul, neither who know that Maggie's been living in a bookstore since she quite law school, and she's gay! Couple this with her omisexual co-worker, and transgender friend, Judy, who has love and parent issues of her/his own, and you've got a great story. I almost cracked up when Lila goes..."Kim do you have a boyfriend?" and Kim replies, "No...Funny that!" Everyone seems to be in on the joke, but Lila who replies, "What's wrong with boys?" Maggie's fighting off an uncontrollable need for laughter and the audience does too. Wendy Crewson as Lila is an added addition to this romantic comedy. All said in done, I wonder what it's like to live in that world. Definitely never a dull experience. This is a must see regardless of your lifestyle.
Rating: - A deliciously sweet romantic comedy!!!
Canadian director Anne Wheeler's "Better than Chocolate" is a wonderful movie about gay women, but it is also moderately about larger issues, such as liberation and acceptance. Maggie, a sweetly innocent clerk at a lesbian bookstore appropriately called 10% Books, meets intimidating butch Kim one afternoon. After Kim's van is towed away, they move in together faster than you can say "What the hell are you thinking?" Unfortunately, Maggie's mother Lila and her teenage brother move in that same night, thanks to Lila's nasty divorce. What really complicates matters is that Maggie hasn't come out to her mother yet, and even when she tries, Lila tries to avoid the subject, like she knows what's coming and doesn't want to hear it. (Haven't we all been there?) Interwoven with this is a dramatic subplot about Judy, a male to female transsexual who's in love with the bookstore's owner Frances, who is always freaking out because custom's officers are holding a list of books she has ordered, claiming the books are obscene and cannot be sold. The end result is a sweet romantic comedy with a hint of drama, which realistically portraits the problems faced by the lesbian community and how not everyone is willing to accept them. A powerful scene has Judy harassed by another woman for using the ladies room, because she is a man. The woman attacks Judy and begins beating her with a purse, splashing her drink in Judy's face. This was a tragic and powerful moment that really affected me, making me realize how unaccepting people can be of anything that is slightly different. It is moments like this that really make the movie so much better than other lesbian films. The title "Better than Chocolate" does not refer to sex, but to love, which Lila is convinced she will never find again now that her husband has admitted he's been screwing his partner's wife for more than a year. Since love is doubtful and sex seems out of the question, Lila has turned to chocolate instead. This is a great movie that really makes you think. It's wonderfully witty, surprisingly charming, and incredibly funny. It's the feel-good-movie of the year that just so happens to be about lesbians. This is highly recommended...is it better than chocolate? Who knows. But it's one [heck] of a great movie!!!
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