howie73 This must be one of the most underrated films of all time. I first saw this in 1997 after seeing Heavenly Creatures, a film which many critics have found superior to Fun. However, I found Fun far more impressive than Heavenly Creatures. The acting, camera-work and score are on target. Moving between black and white camera-work to signify the present predicament of its two protagonists, Hilary (Alicia Witt) and Bonnie (Renée Humphrey) in a detention center, and lurid color (the past), the film expertly entangles the viewer in the labyrinthine world of these two murderers. The director manages to portray both girls sympathetically at times only to pull the rug towards the end where the horrific murder is shown. The anti-linear structure is quite ingenious because it never allows the audience to feel superior or all-knowing in our view of the girls. But the horrific reality of the murder makes us question what we have already seen. This is by far Rafal Zielinski best work and proof he could rise above the lowbrow trash he made in the 80s.

tedg Spoilers herein.Regular readers of my comments will know how rare it is that care about an actor, but how redheads have been used fascinates me. And Alicia Witt so captured "Dune" and "Leibestraum" that I had to sit up and remark out loud to strangers.So I have been interested in her work. Some of it has been just showing up, some has actually used her as an icon because of Dune.This (and arguably "Mona Lisa") is the only place she has been called upon to act. She shows the degree of commitment and controlled abandon that marks the great ones. I was impressed with what she did here. She must have really given some bad readings to have not gotten parts after this. Or possibly there is another reason.At any rate, this is good. The story is structured in a clever way as well, though not particularly novel. We have a (magazine) documentary embedded in a (film) documentary. The "reality" is in flashback, and the intelligent core of the predecessor play deals with constructed reality. The director is lost. He doesn't quite know how to create and exploit the nesting of stories. And he lets Alicia get away with too much jumping and not enough internal focus. The game-parlor collage is trite.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.

dahmer-5 This film just blew me away. The tale of two teenage girls who are devoted to each other and conspire to murder an elderly woman was chilling.The presentation of the film was realistic and honest. It's use of flashbacks and black and white photography, gave the film a stark and detached feel, yet enabled us to emphasise with the main protaganists, authority figures and victims.The acting by the two leads; Alicia Witt and Renee Humpherey was superb, thoroughly deserving of the joint best actress award they won at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. An extrordinary representation of todays lost and misguided youth, in a society that is floundering in it's own judgements; beliefs and failure to acknowledge the truth. 9/10.

Spidey-13 The film is split between flashbacks of a certain day and black and white scenes of the two girls in a detention centre. By seeing this we know the girls have committed a crime and we watch to find out what they did. We find out that the two girls never knew each other before the day they did what they did. They were loners who had never really had a friend before and they just connected. On this day the girls knocked on an old woman's door saying that one of them was ill and they needed to use the phone. Then they killed the old woman. They went back to one of the girls' houses and discussed doing it again the next day, as no one could ever know who killed the old lady. They get caught and don't have the chance to commit another crime. In the detention centre the girls are being kept apart because they bring out the worst in each other but by now they love each other and can't live without each other.The film is very similar to the excellent `Heavenly Creatures' but deserves to be recognised in its own light. I rate it 10/10.