Click to read the article
Look (2007)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:21
Rotten:14
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Though Adam Rifkin’s voyeuristic film sometimes feels like only a clever gimmick, it's for the most part a compelling thriller with political overtones.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis:
The Post 9/11 world has forever changed the notion of privacy. There are now approximately 30 million surveillance cameras in the United States generating more than 4 billion hours of footage every...
The Post 9/11 world has forever changed the notion of privacy. There are now approximately 30 million surveillance cameras in the United States generating more than 4 billion hours of footage every week. And the numbers are growing. The average American is now captured over 200 times a day, in department stores, gas stations, changing rooms, even public bathrooms. No one is spared from the relentless, unblinking eye of the cameras that are hidden in every nook and cranny of day-to-day life.
Shot entirely from the point of view of the security cameras. Adam Rifkin’s Look follows several interweaving, story lines over the course of a random week in a random city. Lookis a film about the things that people do when they don’t know they’re being watched.
Based on the premise that everyone has secrets, Look takes us on a voyeuristic journey into the most personal parts of ordinary people’s lives. Everyone is guilty of selective deception. We all hide aspects our lives from those around us. It might be as benign as picking your nose in an empty elevator or perhaps something much darker. Look poses the question: Are we always alone when we think we are?
A high school English teacher tries his best to be a decent husband, a department store floor manager uses the warehouse for more than just storage, a Mini-Mart clerk has big dreams, a lawyer struggles with a sexual dilemma and sociopathic brothers ruin the day of random strangers they come in contact with. Look tells five private stories which unfold before the prying eye of the covert camera to chilling effect.
Look around you and wonder…who is watching? --© Captured Films
[More]
Starring: Rhys Coiro, Hayes MacArthur, Giuseppe Andrews, Spencer Redford
Starring: Rhys Coiro, Hayes MacArthur, Giuseppe Andrews, Spencer Redford, Heather Hogan, Jennifer Fontaine, Jamie McShane
Director: Adam Rifkin
Director: Adam Rifkin
Screenwriter: Adam Rifkin
Producer: Brad Wyman, Barry Schuler
Composer: BT
Studio: Captured Films
Reviews for Look
Look isn't processing, critiquing, or even warning; in the end, it's just recording.
The whole thing feels so heavily scripted that it brings down the overarching impact. The misguided route raises the question of what kind of juicy stories might be produced by the real thing.
Beginning and ending his film with a strip tease, Rifkin suggests some leering adolescent who's gotten his hands on a pair of X-ray glasses and sees nothing but randy, flatulent fools in his midst.
By the end, you're ready to call for the abolition of video surveillance, if only so that you can stop watching all these irritating characters.
Not much is what you get with this bargain-basement attempt at Altman. It has 'direct to video' written all over it
Look, an unsettling, rudely funny but not entirely credible feature by the writer and director Adam Rifkin, is an ensemble narrative for the age of public surveillance.
With its emphasis on its interweaving stories, the movie offers no commentary on the phenomenon of increasingly pried-apart privacy, positive or negative.
The thread binding these unrelated folks is a common disconnect between public facades and private conduct, though the notion that people aren't always who they appear to be is hardly some sort of revelation about society or human behavior.
If the idea is that we're always being watched, why does it seem that in this movie, no one's really paying attention?
Rifkin has a cynical view of human behavior and he plays it for cheap titillation and bleak humor, which is mean-spirited at best and glib at worst.
There are some funny moments, plus occasional nudity and sex, but the joke quickly wears off. What might have worked as a half-hour TV show doesn't suit itself to a feature-length film.
This could have amounted to nothing more than a clever trick, but it's much more than that.
Like Short Cuts absent Altman's metaphysical heft, Look is an oddly compelling little film.
Latest News for Look
December 13, 2007:
Critical Consensus: I Am Legend All Over the Map, Chipmunks Hits Sour Note
This week at the movies, we've got the last man on earth (I Am Legend, starring Will Smith), Alvin, Simon, and Theodore (Alvin and the Chipmunks, starring Jason Lee), and mommy... More...
November 29, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 67% 67% | Public Enemies |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 95% 95% | The Cove |
| 85% 85% | World's Greatest Dad |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Around The Network
- Look at Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh Links
Featured

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.



Top Critic

