neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Anything But Love
	Robert Cary Isabel Rose, Andrew McCarthy, Cameron Bancroft, Alix Korey, Eartha Kitt, Ilana Levine 2002		You can almost see Isabel Rose and Robert Cary working on their script for "Anything But Love" and saying to each other, like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in a bygone MGM musical, "We can put on this show ourselves!" And Rose and Cary did rustle up enough cash to make "Anything But Love," a plucky but flawed indie film starring Rose and directed by Cary. It's a retro-spirited nod to the Technicolor baubles of the '40s and '50s that had Leslie Caron, Rita Hayworth or Audrey Hepburn caught up in romance. A winsome redhead with a pleasant singing voice, Rose portrays Billie, a struggling cabaret chanteuse who idolizes legendary Hollywood divas, embraces thrift-store glamour and is at home cooing the standards. Performing in a dingy New York airport lounge, she imagines herself in vintage musicals. She takes up with her high-school crush (Cameron Bancroft), a corporate lawyer who wants her to remake herself as acceptable wife material. She'd be better off with the scruffy pianist (Andrew McCarthy) who "gets" her. The love triangle dangles. Billie's alky mom goes on a bender. Eartha Kitt even shows up as herself. Walking the line between fervent and campy, Rose and Cary lose their footing. They do give it their all, though.