Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

leveller0@yahoo.com It's very interesting that the most positive review for this film is written by someone who used to work in the same industry. But it makes sense, because to anyone else this film is just mind-numbingly dull. It's basically about a man who is diagnosed with lung cancer and so hides it from everyone and continues his usual life of hookers and drugs. Its best redeeming feature is that it is short so you don't waste too much of your life.Ivan is played by a decent actor, but quite a few of the others seem like amateurs. Being shot with a hand-held camera just compounds that feeling, although it's different I guess. This film was so dull, that for the first time, IMDb has said my comments were too brief even though I can't think of what else to say.

barfly99 Loosely based on Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilych' this searing indictment of Hollywood must be one of the most under-appreciated films of the last ten years.Danny Huston plays Ivan Beckman, a typically sleazy, coke-snorting Tinseltown agent who is forced to confront the emptiness of his life when he learns that he is dying of cancer. Amongst the many people with whom he is surrounded but cannot confide in are hotshot director Danny McTeague (James Merendino), gun-toting homophobic mega-star Don West (Peter Weller), and Ivan's girlfriend, Charlotte (Lisa Enos), who may or may not be using him to further her own ambitions.IVANS XTC. actually begins with the news of Ivan's death, and apart from the first 15 minutes or so the story is told in flashback. This works superbly because we immediately discover just how meaningless Ivan's life and career really were. Nobody really gave a damn about him (nor does anyone believe for a minute that he died of cancer rather than a cocaine OD), and his death merely serves as an inconvenience to those involved in the film project he was trying to get started (West and McTeague even have the insensitivity to confront each other in the middle of Ivan's funeral service!).When Ivan learns of his cancer he tries to binge his way to redemption through drink, drugs, and women, but there is none to be found. Nothing can ease his physical or emotional pain. He can't even find an image of beauty or happiness in his head - everything he can think of is "shit". Ivan was already a victim even before the cancer took hold.Many films have successfully attacked the excessive yet soulless Hollywood machine in recent years e.g THE PLAYER and SWIMMING WITH SHARKS, but IVAN's XTC. is perhaps even better (British writer-director Bernard Rose drew from many of his own bitter experiences). The film is shot entirely on DV (with oddly effective use of Wagner as musical accompaniment!) and this gives it a documentary-style realism (you really feel you're in the back of that limo with West as he snorts coke off Charlotte's leg). It is also to the film-makers' credit that no punches are pulled when it comes to conveying exactly what Ivan's cancer is doing to him (the visceral last reel is not for the squeamish).The performances are first-rate all round, but Huston is especially brilliant and should have had an Oscar nomination. Although Ivan is an unpleasant individual - and Rose never dresses him up to be anything but - Huston manages to elicit the viewer's sympathy simply by demonstrating Ivan's ever more desperate need for something to fill the complete void that is his quickly fading life. As far as the 'terminal illness' genre goes this film is ultimately far more moving than blatantly manipulative stuff like TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and MY LIFE precisely because there is absolutely no on-screen sentimentality whatsoever. Ivan's one moment of true tenderness comes not with Charlotte or with any of his friends or family... but with a nurse he doesn't even know. The glorious closing shot is surely one the best in recent film-making history.This is a disturbing film that is at times difficult to watch. Yet at the same time it is so perceptive and involving that one feels it actually deserves several viewings. Highly recommended.

mach1ne This film is amazing. It begins by introducing a whole bunch of characters, including Danny Huston, none of whom have any redeeming features - scenes are frequently uncomfortable to the point of being cringe-inducing. It's when you realise that what everyone in the film is talking about is absolutely nothing or incredibly superficial to say the least is when you realise that what you're feeling is that there ARE no characters as such - they may as well be dead. They have nothing to say and when they do it's absolute worthless tosh. They are essentially characterless "characters". It's therefore impossible to feel any affinity, compassion or even empathy with anyone in the film - hence one's discomfort during viewing. And it's from this point of utter lifelessness that the film grows into one the most truly and deeply ALIVE films I've ever seen. Like one of those moments when you realise what you are when the clouds around your soul have been stripped off and you get a glimpse of your self. And it's pretty hard to put into words, but just like the guy from London who wrote the first review, my girlfriend and I were so stunned and emotionally moved into silence we didn't speak or rather just couldn't find WORDS that could justify what we'd just seen. I came out, sat in the foyer, said "what the f**k happened there?" and proceeded to smoke a cigarette knowing fine well I couldn't smoke there. (In light of the film, I think I just thought that stupid little humans' rules were often so pathetically insignificant they were laughable!) We were both absolutely amazed. But my advice is, of course, to see it yourself. Because after all, these are just words too.

simonveksner Rare to find a film with this much heart and integrity, especially one about the 'insider' world of Hollywood.Brilliant performances too. And humour.The death of Ivan Beckman is the most moving death I've ever seen on celluloid. And the guy's a Hollywood agent!Some really fresh touches in the way it's directed as well.