Release Date:
Friday, November 2, 2001
The second experimental film to come out this year from director Richard Linklater (the other being his animated Waking Life), Tape is adapted from a stage play and shot on digital cameras. Its like watching a bootleg tape from someone who smuggled a camcorder into an off-broadway theater. We appreciate the advancement of digital cameras, and we applaud their use in independent movies (cheaper equipment means more opportunity), but that doesnt excuse the complete lack of technique on display here. Linklater swings the camera around like your drunk uncle at last years summer BBQ. If that doesnt nauseate you then the smug acting of Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Hawke will. A little pretentious, a little tedious, and very unnecessary, Tape had us wishing we had just shelled out to see the play.