Search - Bad Manners (1998) DVD on DVD

Who's Afraid of...the $50 bill?

Skye | Plano, TX United States | 09/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Another awesome film in the "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" style. It is one of those rare films in which each actor is perfect for their role.

The acting and dialogue are independent theater caliber.

The main characters are two professors who are married to each other, the wife's old flame, the old flame's girlfriend, and a $50 bill...let the games begin!

"

Siskel & Ebert Gave it Two Thumbs Up!

Gandalf | U.S.A | 05/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A musicologist and his new girlfriend have dinner at the home of a married couple, one of whom is the musicologist's old lover. Games of deception and intrigue follow as small mistakes blossom into arguments and deceits, while a new computer program may or may not have uncovered a fascinating secret. A bitterly funny look at academic jealousy and power in relationships."

Interesting and Tense, but hardly Virgina Wolfe

william logal | Dallas, TX USA | 04/27/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this on a lazy Saturday afternoon, lucky enough to catch it on cable by accident just as it began. I would imagine the V.Wolfe comparisons are drawn from the way the author has these four volatile main characters never completely answer the all important questions. Words are spoken, sexual tensions and (possible?) liasons occur, pressing questions arise, but as in the best of Shakespearen drama, the "truth" is always at best an opinion of the audience. For those interested in tidy endings that kill most Hollywood scripts nowadays, it ain't here. And that's what makes this a great watch. As in V.Wlofe, the four main characters personalites are slowly exposed through interaction, sometimes brutal interaction, with each other. It's a fly on the wall view of social pleasantries falling away to be replaced by raw emotions. While I thoroughly enjoyed the script, my most negative comments are reserved for the sometimes, and somewhat "Alan Alda" esque feel to the film. A certain phony-1980's-middle-age-Alda-smugness often drips from both male leads. While it could be partly from the fact that they play their parts to well (too intellectuall and macho depleted), the parts alternatly could have been played to the same violent confrontational tone that rears its head so often in V.Wolfe.
All in all, though, a memorable and non-disposable watch."