Tart

Tart is very tart and definitely gets a Check Plus. It is so cautionary and nothing's funny in this world.

The lead is a female Bart Simpson who goes to a post-Montessori school in Manhattan. Sometimes, watching The Simpsons, it feels good to run with the Bartman. Then like the weather in New England, it changes and becomes a case of "speak for yourself, Bart."

This movie is like a prequel to NYPD Blue; where do the jerks come from, who sit on the couch at the precinct house and piss off Detective Sifowicz, pouring sawdust into the underfunded engine of the city's peace of mind? Maybe the viewer wants to know, maybe the viewer would like to see what is happening in these cases, without losing his or her sense of credulity.

As far as the pressure of this movie's world and the varying degrees of disproportionate behaviour, the movie seems to be saying "Maybe you can deal with this,...and maybe you should."

The production value is Marisa Tomei-Elaine Benes and R.E.M.'s artwork; autumn pastels, beige and gray and spotless apartments, lots of black and white, it seems permanent, and grim in a beautiful way, until one realizes it is just like a cup of tea, no Budweiser, no epiphanies, just repeated discomfort and exposure, until the movie ends up sitting waiting for a detective. And like NYPD Blue, the message seems to be "try not to worry....too much."



This film resembles The Tempest, The Virgin Suicides and The 7-Ups (a crime thriller starring Roy Scheider). As is the case with Korean movies about females in high school, the production value of the video cover is inversely prportional to the quality of the movie. Available at Netflix' Watch Now; here is Netflix' description of the movie:

Cat Storm (Dominique Swain) is a teenager trying to survive life at an all-girls private school in New York City. She and her best friend, Delilah (Bijou Phillips), have constant run-ins with the school, their parents and their classmates. Cat and Delilah are outsiders, until one day, by chance, Cat makes it into the in crowd and ends up dating William (Brad Renfro), who's handsome, popular and has a knack for trouble.