Brilliant and touching

As Good As It Gets

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a good movie. I don't understand its mediocre rating. Karpovsky is excellent and not afraid to make himself unlikeable. That takes guts, especially since he plays a voice of reason in Girls. I hope he gets more roles, because he's good. The female lead is also willing to play a non-evil, but equally unlikeable, character. Good acting all around. And the subject matter is a lot more important than what we are invited to watch in standard Hollywood fare. This movie is really worth watching.

This is a low budget film that looks at obsession. It follows a geeky scientist who has a one night stand with a colleague and develops a deep and dangerous obsession with her. It is hard to pigeon hole this film- it's more drama than thriller and to be honest not a lot happens. However the acting is decent and I found it a believable account of unrequited love. Rubberneck won't appeal to everyone and many will find it too boring ( my wife did) but I found it strangely compelling, mainly I think due to the creepily realistic portrayal of the scientist by Alex Karpovsky. A film that's worth checking out for those that like indie films.

I understand that it's a trailer's job to sell a movie, but when the trailer grossly misrepresents the movie it is hard to get over one's initial feelings of irritation. The trailer for Rubberneck is intriguing and looks a lot creepier than your usual stalker flick: the emotions seem to run deeper, the entanglements more intimate --- it appears there's a lot here.There is, just not what you'd expect since...it's not really a stalker flick. Rubberneck's story is supposedly based on a true crime case, and that's very plausible to believe once you've seen it. All the action develops very slowly, with a lot of nuance given to character development and back-story. When the violence does occur, it's shockingly sudden and will definitely knock you off balance if you aren't ready for it.The problem lies after that climax, which comes about midway through the film. From that point on, there's a feeling that there should be more somehow...but again, if we can believe the "true events" caption, it probably was a pretty predictable denouement.Even though Karpovsky is coming into his own as a director (his "Red Flag" was similarly competent yet quiet), his strength is still his acting ability and he channels a lot of interesting shadings into his character of Paul. He seems ordinary enough when we first see him, but slowly his patina of banality falls away to reveal a very wounded, sick person beneath, but never one you overtly villianize. And Jaimie Ray Newman gives much resonance to the character of Danielle, his one-night-stand love crush. Her character isn't particularly likable or sympathetic, but she is written and rendered realistically.If you can get past your expectations, Rubberneck is a very intense character piece that will stay with you for sometime. It is subtle, and not really a thriller by any definition, regardless of how it's categorized.