It doesn't help that first-time screenwriter/director Nick Guthe created such a superficial group of characters. Few, if any, seem believable or are interesting enough to care about.
Mini's First Time (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Synopsis: As MINI'S FIRST TIME begins, teenaged Mini's (Nikki Reed) life with neglectful mom Diane (Carrie-Anne Moss) has reached breaking point. Fed up with Diane's insatiable appetite for sex and alcohol, Mini decides to grab life by the lapels, and ventures out to try as many new experiences as she... As MINI'S FIRST TIME begins, teenaged Mini's (Nikki Reed) life with neglectful mom Diane (Carrie-Anne Moss) has reached breaking point. Fed up with Diane's insatiable appetite for sex and alcohol, Mini decides to grab life by the lapels, and ventures out to try as many new experiences as she can. Her first challenge presents itself when she decides to become a call girl. Vamping it up, the young girl takes on the role of an embittered seductress, but runs into trouble when her second client is none other than her stepfather, Martin (Alec Baldwin). The film then takes a surprising twist, with Mini and Martin indulging in a passionate affair and plotting to get rid of Diane, for whom they both have a deep-seated hatred. Writer/Director Nick Guthe laces his story with dark humor, pulling impressive performances out of Reed and Baldwin. Guthe's movie is essentially a commentary on the power of the predatory teenage seductress and the pathetic nature of the men who are so easily wrapped around the little fingers of characters like Mini. Reed, who was so impressive in THIRTEEN, Catherine Hardwicke's much darker exploration of teenage sexuality, is framed as a Lolita-style character who only has to don a bikini to set male tongues wagging, and she takes to the role with a delicious gleam in her eye, easily becoming the star of the show. The film is stylishly shot, with plenty of film noir conventions, and the characters often mirror the cast other intelligent teen flicks such as HEATHERS and Don Roos's HAPPY ENDINGS. But ultimately, MINI'S FIRST TIME is a well executed and wickedly funny tale that keeps viewers guessing right up to its unexpected climax. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Nikki Reed, Luke Wilson, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jeff Goldblum
Reviews
The characters in Mini are played by fine performers (Alec Baldwin, Jeff Goldblum, Carrie-Anne Moss), but they're still one-note.
A lethal joyride through the debauched lifestyles of L.A.'s glamour-industry elite.
Mini’s First Time is a down-and-dirty exercise in depravity and debauchery; in other words, just the kind of plot that gets us to turn off the TV and head for the multiplex -- blue states and red states alike.
Much of the film reeks of decadence and new money-the snazzy cars and clothes and the boxy, minimalist modern stone and glass interiors that are as cold as the characters themselves.
Touches fleetingly on an interesting phenomenon — namely, the manner in which a father’s advances simultaneously disgust and enthrall his teenage stepdaughter.
Mini is a wonderful character, and she’s the villain you simply can’t help but root for, watching the dominoes fall where they must, and lets these yuppies self-destruct.
Trashy but fun, Mini's First Time is like one of those paperback books you might take to the beach. You don't brag about having read it, but you enjoy every page.
A deliciously evil black comedy that's sure to elicit lots of shameful giggles throughout.
Mini's First Time is delectably vulgar for 20 minutes or so, almost too bad to be true, but it soon loses its cheap-thrills appeal.
Pitch-black and bound to offend anyone who's not on its wavelength, Nick Guthe's entertainingly slick debut is a mordantly funny slice of lust, crime and sleaze life set in the world of L.A.'s industry elite.
The director has created a stylish spoof filled with some razor-sharp dialogue and truly wild, original moments.
Mini's First Time is not about taking an honest look at adolescence. It's not even really about teens, or high-school life, or upper-class marriages. What it's about is an unpleasantly pervy adult male view of teenage girls.
Surrounded by all these pros, Reed more than holds her own: She has so much integrity about being amoral that she keeps the audience dangling between disgust and admiration.
Mini has a cleverly devious wrap-around ending, but you have been warned: It's twisted.
The swirl of bad girl shenanigans, Hollywood satire and noir-ish melodrama in Mini's First Time that was intended to make for an icy cocktail of prurience and moral insight tastes more like freezer burn instead.
It's a bad, preposterous and horrifyingly cliched black comedy about a girl gone wicked.
Guthe is so anxious to show us what a larcenous tramp Mini is that he never shows us any other sides to her. We have her pegged from the get-go, even if no one in the movie does.
Mini's First Time is Bret Easton Ellis territory with palm trees, explored by smarmy blunderers.
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