Otto Preminger has given this tale [from Marjorie Kellogg's novel] of a trio of handicapped, scarred, emotionally and psychologically marred humans a somewhat bland mounting to miss the poetics inherent in the tale.
Otto Preminger has given this tale [from Marjorie Kellogg’s novel] of a trio of handicapped, scarred, emotionally and psychologically marred humans a somewhat bland mounting to miss the poetics inherent in the tale.
Liza Minnelli is Junie Moon, who has had acid poured over her face and arm by a perverted date when she laughs at him for making her undress in a cemetery for weird kicks. Robert Moore is a young man brought up by a queer (Leonard Frey) and wounded in an accident on a hunting trip with a friend at whom he made a pass. Ken Howard had been sent to homes as retarded.
They’ve met in the hospital and, being orphans in a sense, decide to live together afterwards. Moore is the brains, Minnelli the heart and spunk, and Howard the apparent breadwinner.
Pic reaches for such symbols as blacks being also handicapped in the social system, with the apparently gay cripple having his first woman via a lovely intellectual black girl (beautifully played by Emily Yancy).
Popular on Variety
All this is well mounted and lensed but sans the right dramatic flourishes to get human depth, melodramatic gusto or humane symbolism into the right focus.
Jump to CommentsTell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon
More from Variety
Korea Box Office: ‘I, the Executioner’ Achieves $50 Million Total as ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ Makes Second Place Debut
What Lionsgate’s Partnership Deal With Runway Means
Korea Box Office: ‘Executioner’ Reigns as ‘Transformers One’ Makes Second Place Debut
Netflix Unveils Korean Film Slate, Including First Animated Feature, for 2025 at Busan
How YouTube and Netflix Copied Each Other’s Homework
Neom and KOFIC to Launch Training Initiative as Korea, Saudi Arabia Look to Strengthen Ties – Busan ACFM
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Kamala Harris Cracks Open a Miller High Life With Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Disney World, Universal Orlando Theme Park to Close as Florida Braces for Hurricane Milton
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
‘Joker 2’ Director Says Arthur Fleck Was Never Joker: ‘He's an Unwitting Icon’ and Joker Is ‘This Idea That Gotham People Put on Him…
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9mhneFjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmislaG5brnEZquhmaRixrDBjKWmr51dorJuttSnoJ5lnaS8r3mQa2dpbGJnfnR%2Fjg%3D%3D