Denise Calls Up (1996)
77 %
Reviews Counted: 22 Fresh: 17 Rotten:5 Average Rating: 6.4/10
Runtime: 80 mins
Synopsis: Director/writer Hal Selwen has fashioned an ingenious film from the use of one simple device: all the dialogue takes place on the phone. This little trick not only forces a great deal of free-wheeling conversation and witty asides, but it also serves as an overarching metaphor for romance in... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Alanna Ubach, Tim Daly, Dana Wheeler, Aida Turturro, Liev Schreiber
Director: Hal Salwen
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Reviews
A minor but quirkily charming comedy about alientaion, love, and folly that reflects the zeitgeist in terms of AIDS and modern technology.
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06/19/06
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01/26/06
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05/20/03
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10/17/02
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Salwen has captured and properly identified a very particular modern American species. His emergence as a filmmaker is a true event.
10/16/02
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At only 80 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, but slight though it may be, it knows how to create constant smiles.
02/14/01
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As witty as this film is, Salwen can't get around the fact that a movie about people who don't meet saddles a director with a lot of scenes focusing on one person talking to no one but a piece of machinery.
01/01/00
Yes, the movie is a bunch of skits, all right. But in the end it sketches the more elaborate portrait of funny people who don't realize how funny they really are.
01/01/00
The conceit of having everyone talk together almost exclusively by cell phone wears out its welcome by the halfway mark.
01/01/00
The film is never really funny-ha-ha, but it never bores the viewer at all thanks to Hal Salwen's direction.
01/01/00
Too slight to be a cautionary fable and not light enough to merit the term 'goofy caper.' But it sits in an enjoyable place of its own.
01/01/00
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Might have been more effective if the writer/director had taken the time to create characters imbued with more than token traces of humanity.
01/01/00
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