Review of Strike!

Strike! (1998)
8/10
underrated little gem!
13 September 2018
According to David Kehr's review (which is posted on Letterboxd if you want to find it), he referred to this movie sort of literally as "homework" since, once it got wrested by the clutches of (sigh, fine, "alleged") rapist Harvey Weinstein and Miramax - and why they even greenlit this in the first place is sort of a mystery to me , producer Deutchman (a film professor at Columbia) posted notices all over the place for people to go see it... Well, anyway, if this is homework I wish I could do more of it!

This is a fun and peppy and completely up-with-women AND perhaps more importantly outside of Hillary Clinton (for what it's worth) is the most up-with-women-as-political-heroes comedy that isnt funny LOL like as it is amusing and consistently clever. I could see someone not liking it on the whole because of how broad and big some of the gags go for, but what this filmmaker was going for - having this teen sex comedy (here PG13 I believe) set in that same just-before-fall63-spring64 period when everything changed and can thus join the company of little films like National Lampoon's Animal House and American Graffiti but for girls - was a more than valid idea, and the movie has a lot to say about systemic patriarchal structures as far as economy and social placement in life go. Not to mention all of the major performances from Dunst, Redgrave, Matarazzo and especially Hoffmann who is really the protagonist amid the ensemble, are all having a great time.

... Oh, and try as he might, Vincent Karthiezer is still only giving his second most obvious character/performance here (this before of course Connor on Angel cemented #1 for him). If nothing else, it may be the ultimate sign of success that Weinstein's name is not Executive Producer on the film.
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