Slums of Beverly Hills
Encyclopedia
The Slums of Beverly Hills is a 1998
motion picture
, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins
. Its hero is a teenage girl struggling to grow up in a lower-middle-class family that moves every few months in the late 1970s.
The film stars Natasha Lyonne
, Alan Arkin
, Marisa Tomei
, David Krumholtz
, Kevin Corrigan
, Jessica Walter
, and Carl Reiner
.
The film barely earned its budget, and thus is not considered a box-office
success. It received mixed to positive reviews. It gradually became a cult classic
.
salesman at a time when sales of small foreign cars such as Honda
s and Toyotas are booming while those of large American vehicles are flat or falling.
Vivian's wealthy Uncle Mickey regularly sends the family money to help them survive. When Mickey's 29-year-old daughter Rita runs away from a rehab facility, Murray offers her shelter if Mickey will pay for a plush apartment. Vivian must babysit her adult cousin, making sure she gets to nursing school and avoids pills and booze. But Vivian has her own problems: she's curious about sex, likes an older neighbor kid (Eliot), has inherited her mother's ample breasts, and wants a family that doesn't embarrass her.
Vivian's older brother Ben aspires to a show business career, while her dad aspires to feminine companionship but won't give in to a wealthy lady-friend's desire that he send his kids back East to live with his estranged wife. Vivian's younger brother Rickey simply aspires to get attention.
Vivian and Rita become close and speak sometimes in an invented language which sounds like gibberish
. Vivian learns that Rita has no desire to go to nursing school and also has no clue as to what to do with her life. Murray attempts to cover up Rita's lack of progress at nursing school, when Mickey asks for progress reports. Eventually, Mickey, frustrated at having to support his brother's family and also learning of their deception concerning his daughter, explodes during a meeting between the two families, telling Murray he's tired of sending them money. Depressed and dejected, Murray once again packs the kids into his car and they take off. In an attempt to cheer her father up, Vivian suggests that the family stop for steak for breakfast—a ritual regularly shared by the family as a means of cheering themselves up.
According to Box Office Mojo, Slums of Beverly Hills earned a total of $5,502,773 in the domestic box office. On its opening weekend it garnered $125,561.
1998 in film
-Events:* February 14 - Sharon Stone marries Phil Bronstein.* Former child star Gary Coleman is charged with assaulting a young female bus driver at a California shopping mall.-Top grossing films:...
motion picture
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins
Tamara Jenkins
Tamara Jenkins is an American screenwriter, actress and director. She is best known for her two feature films, Slums of Beverly Hills and The Savages .-Early life:...
. Its hero is a teenage girl struggling to grow up in a lower-middle-class family that moves every few months in the late 1970s.
The film stars Natasha Lyonne
Natasha Lyonne
-Early life:Lyonne was born Natasha Braunstein in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant, and Aaron Braunstein, a native of Brooklyn who worked as a boxing promoter. Lyonne grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household...
, Alan Arkin
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
, Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
, David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz
David Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
, Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
, Jessica Walter
Jessica Walter
Jessica Walter is an American actress, known for the films Play Misty for Me, Grand Prix, and for her role as Lucille Bluth on the sitcom Arrested Development...
, and Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
.
The film barely earned its budget, and thus is not considered a box-office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
success. It received mixed to positive reviews. It gradually became a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
.
Plot
Vivian Abromowitz's family are penniless nomads, moving from one cheap apartment to another in Beverly Hills, so that Vivian and her brothers can attend the city's prestigious schools. The family father is father Murray, a divorced 65-year-old who refuses to retire, working as an unsuccessful OldsmobileOldsmobile
Oldsmobile was a brand of American automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors. It was founded by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In its 107-year history, it produced 35.2 million cars, including at least 14 million built at its Lansing, Michigan factory...
salesman at a time when sales of small foreign cars such as Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
s and Toyotas are booming while those of large American vehicles are flat or falling.
Vivian's wealthy Uncle Mickey regularly sends the family money to help them survive. When Mickey's 29-year-old daughter Rita runs away from a rehab facility, Murray offers her shelter if Mickey will pay for a plush apartment. Vivian must babysit her adult cousin, making sure she gets to nursing school and avoids pills and booze. But Vivian has her own problems: she's curious about sex, likes an older neighbor kid (Eliot), has inherited her mother's ample breasts, and wants a family that doesn't embarrass her.
Vivian's older brother Ben aspires to a show business career, while her dad aspires to feminine companionship but won't give in to a wealthy lady-friend's desire that he send his kids back East to live with his estranged wife. Vivian's younger brother Rickey simply aspires to get attention.
Vivian and Rita become close and speak sometimes in an invented language which sounds like gibberish
Gibberish (language game)
Gibberish is a language game or secret language similar to Pig Latin that is played in the United States, Canada and Northern Ireland. Similar games are played in many other countries...
. Vivian learns that Rita has no desire to go to nursing school and also has no clue as to what to do with her life. Murray attempts to cover up Rita's lack of progress at nursing school, when Mickey asks for progress reports. Eventually, Mickey, frustrated at having to support his brother's family and also learning of their deception concerning his daughter, explodes during a meeting between the two families, telling Murray he's tired of sending them money. Depressed and dejected, Murray once again packs the kids into his car and they take off. In an attempt to cheer her father up, Vivian suggests that the family stop for steak for breakfast—a ritual regularly shared by the family as a means of cheering themselves up.
Cast
- Natasha LyonneNatasha Lyonne-Early life:Lyonne was born Natasha Braunstein in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant, and Aaron Braunstein, a native of Brooklyn who worked as a boxing promoter. Lyonne grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household...
as Vivian Abromowitz - Alan ArkinAlan ArkinAlan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
as Murray Samuel Ambromowitz - Marisa TomeiMarisa TomeiMarisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
as Rita Abromowitz - Kevin CorriganKevin CorriganKevin Fitzgerald Corrigan is an American actor who has appeared mostly in independent films and television since the 1990s.-Life and career:Corrigan was born in The Bronx, New York to an Irish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother...
as Eliot Arenson - David KrumholtzDavid KrumholtzDavid Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
as Ben Abromowitz - Eli MarienthalEli MarienthalEli David Marienthal is an American former child actor.-Personal life:Marienthal was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Marienthal, who manufactures bags made of organically grown cotton, and Joseph Cross, a journalist. Marienthal is Jewish and has two siblings, actors Harley Cross...
as Rickey Abromowitz - Carl ReinerCarl ReinerCarl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
as Mickey Abromomwitz, Murray's brother - Rita MorenoRita MorenoRita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
as Belle Abromowitz, Mickey's wife
Box office
Box officeAccording to Box Office Mojo, Slums of Beverly Hills earned a total of $5,502,773 in the domestic box office. On its opening weekend it garnered $125,561.
Critical Reception
The movie received positive to mixed reviews from critics. The design of the seventies, the humor and the acting have been described as "dead-on."- Roger EbertRoger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
on lead actress Natasha Lyonne: "Lyonne has the film's most important role, and is the key to the comedy. She does a good job of looking incredulous, and there's a lot in her life to be incredulous about. She also has a nice pragmatic approach to sexuality, as in a scene where she consults a plastic surgeon about on-the-spot breast reduction." He also said: "...But basically I enjoyed Slums of Beverly Hills--for the wisecracking, for the family squabbles, for the notion of squatters who stake a claim in a Beverly Hills where money, after all, is not the only currency." (He awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars)
- San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reviewer Ruthe Stein stated: "While touching on serious issues such as loss, this coming-of-age story is first and foremost a comedy, and a hilarious one at that. It never strains to be funny. The humor derives from the deadpan responses of family members to circumstances beyond their control." She also stated, "...Set in the mid-'70s, 'Slums' gets the period right, from the burnt orange shag carpet on the floor of the family's temporary digs to the dorky clothes and extreme hairstyles. Even the saleslady who sells Vivian her first bra has the overly made-up look of the time. The Abramowitzes' behavior when they go out to eat -- complaining about the service and that there's too much salt in the food -- may seem to border on a Jewish stereotype. But it's also dead-on".
- On Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the movie is currently certified 'Fresh' as being "Warm, real, and hilarious."
Accolades
Nominations- ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film in a Crossover Role (Rita MorenoRita MorenoRita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....
)
- American Comedy Awards, USA for Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture (Marisa TomeiMarisa TomeiMarisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Following her work on As The World Turns, Tomei came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987...
)
- Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Most Promising Actress (Natasha LyonneNatasha Lyonne-Early life:Lyonne was born Natasha Braunstein in Manhattan, New York City, the daughter of Yvette Lyonne, a product licensing consultant, and Aaron Braunstein, a native of Brooklyn who worked as a boxing promoter. Lyonne grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household...
)
- Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Feature: Tamara Jenkins (director); Michael Nozik (producer); Stan Wlodkowski (producer); and Best First Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins)
- Teen Choice Awards for Film - Breakout Performance (Natasha Lyonne) and Film - Funniest Scene
- YoungStar Awards for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy Film (Eli MarienthalEli MarienthalEli David Marienthal is an American former child actor.-Personal life:Marienthal was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Marienthal, who manufactures bags made of organically grown cotton, and Joseph Cross, a journalist. Marienthal is Jewish and has two siblings, actors Harley Cross...
)
Soundtrack
- Give Up The Funk - ParliamentParliament (band)Parliament was a funk band most prominent during the 1970s. It and its sister act Funkadelic, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
- I'd Love To Change The World - Ten Years AfterTen Years AfterTen Years After is an English blues-rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart...
- Shambala - Three Dog NightThree Dog NightThree Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
- Up The Escalator - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...
- A Fool In Love - Ike And Tina Turner
- Papa Loves Mambo - Perry ComoPerry ComoPierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
- You And Your Folks, Me And My Folks - FunkadelicFunkadelicFunkadelic was an American band most prominent during the 1970s. The band and its sister act Parliament, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
- Measuring Up - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...
- Before The Next Teardrop - Freddie Fender
- Luck Be A Lady - David KrumholtzDavid KrumholtzDavid Krumholtz is an American actor best known for playing Professor Charlie Eppes in the television series Numb3rs. He appeared as Seth Goldstein in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and its two sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas...
- Let Your Love Flow - The Bellamy Brothers
- Escalator - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...
- Your Perverted Arms - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...
- Rita - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...
- We're Nomads - Rolfe KentRolfe KentRolfe R. Kent is a British film score composer.Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, then graduated in Psychology from the University of Leeds in 1986...