Female Perversions

Evelyn is an attractive woman, she believes herself a beautiful one. She inappropriately wonders through a shop while trying on a revealing piece of underwear, but the only one available is a disinterested octogenarian. She is a competent attorney, yet she represents herself as a premier legal strategist. Her credit card is rejected while making the simplest of purchases, she drive's a SAAB 900 Turbo-the whole thing is perfect.

Further insight to Evelyn's internal monsters are seen though the film's portrayal of her sister, Madelyn-the good soul to Evelyn's evil one. She has chosen a more bohemian existence, and calms her internal monsters through adventures in kleptomania.

Let's recap: Driven woman, faux life, dysfunctional family, bad credit cards, soon to be made a judge (with no one to tell, and no one who cares). There is only one place left for her to go.

To a deeply invested lesbian encounter. Where else can she go? Her entire life as it stands is moments from implosion. The realization that the new lawyer entering her firm (her `replacement') is prettier (Paulina Porizkova, no less), smarter, and likely more stable further pushes Evelyn to the inevitable.

Wonderfully cast with Amy Madigan (as the sister), Karen Sillas (as the Doctor/Lesbian love interest), and Clancy Brown (as the boyfriend) in a rarely seen beefcake role. Throw in Frances Fisher and Laila Robins for good measure.

Must for all art film fans. Highly recommended for the more mainstream tastes who like a small distraction now and then.


Female Perversions   August 14, 2001
Linn Baxter (Ft. McCoy, Florida USA)
7 out of 13 found this review helpful

At times it was very hard to follow, but I believe that is actually what the writer intended. It was entertaining and of good quality. Not really my cup of tea. I like a more upbeat storyline.


Sex, but Weird!   September 6, 2004
R. A Rubin (Eastern, PA United States)
7 out of 13 found this review helpful

My readers should know that I do not read the reviews in Netflix or Amazon before I write my reviews. Be assured that I am giving you my opinion. This often puts me at odds with film critics around the world.

Female Perversions can't have it two ways. If Freud didn't understand women, then don't use his interpretations of how women are women. I'm a Freudian and appreciate smart insight, which Susan Streitfeld provides in analytical dream sequences. I found the dreams uninspired however as cinema. I found both straight sex and lesbian action in this film weirdly unsexy. I'm sure an audience of Lesbians or Feminists or both were wowed by near-pornographic sequences - my heart's all-aflutter.

The scene with the three women and the 13 year old was the most interesting for me probably for all the wrong reasons. The stripper is showing career woman, future judge, Tilda Swinton how to shake booty to lure and dominate men. The stripper's sister has no luck with men. She's kind of a Betty Crocker wanna be with nesting desperations. Betty Crocker's daughter is thirteen and hates being a woman. She mutilates herself for thrills. But so does affirmative action lawyer woman. This part reminded me of the film, Blue Velvet. The smart women mingle with the trailer park trash to share tips on menstruation.

Amy Madigan is Tilda's kleptomaniac sister. She's an egg head that steals panties, so she can have an orgasm. Then there's the scene where naked little sisters cause a stir with daddy because Tilda defecates in the tub. Ouch! This one is personal for the director. Sometimes you have to step back a little. The audience has to have a drink.



Tilda Swinton is the simply the best   February 11, 2006
Mikus Aurellius
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I would have to disagree with some of the other review comments made earlier. Tilda is great for the role and played it well. Her ability to weave in a sense of believability, eroticism, sensual distress, neurotic behaviour, and breath-taking beauty ties the movie together like no other actress could have done.




.   January 15, 2000
6 out of 13 found this review helpful

I give this movie real credit for the potency with which it portrays the psychological difficulties and dangers of being a woman in a society that prefers its women to be magazine-clipped dolls of aesthetic perfection, even as it criticizes itself for this. The neurotic hallucinations are quite affecting at times, and Eve is a fascinating character. However, although effective in these ways, this *is* a very pretentious-feeling film; and although I sympathize with intelligent feminism readily enough, this is very much a "feminist" film -- and any piece of art that is so directly interwined with a social movement, even if that social movement is a valid one, can only be so entertaining in my eyes, as I am not a fan of films that are clearly preaching, and are overly preoccupied with their own social agenda.