WiseGirls

WiseGirls is a 2002 crime drama film directed by David Anspaugh and starring Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey and Melora Walters. The film was produced by Lions Gate Films, Leading Pictures and Intermedia Films. The story centers around Meg Kennedy (Mira Sorvino), a medical school dropout who gets a part time job as a waitresses working at an Italian restaurant in New York City. Befriending other waitresses, Kate (Melora Walters) and Raychel (Mariah Carey), Meg slowly learns that the restaurant is run by mobsters as she delves deeper into their dangerous world. The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and was released later that year on HBO and Cinemax with international distribution managed by Intermedia Films. Upon release, the film received generally mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the plot twists, themes and the performances of the cast, particularly Carey, but criticism for its directing, tone and overuse of mafia stereotypes.

Returning from Missouri as a medical school dropout, Meg Kennedy (Mira Sorvino) moves to Staten Island, New York City, staying with her grandmother due to not having found a place for herself. With the recommendation of Mrs. Saladino, a woman who looks after Meg's grandmother, Meg takes work at an Italian restaurant, run by Gio Esposito (Joseph Siravo). At first, Meg makes mistakes and fails to live up to Esposito's expectations. However, she soon proves her worth by saving the life of a restaurant patron from a gunshot wound. Meg becomes a well known waitress by the restaurant's customers and saves enough money from her tips to buy her own apartment. Meg befriends two other waitresses including Kate (Melora Walters), who aspires to be a Broadway star, and Raychel (Mariah Carey), an outspoken, brassy woman. The three become close friends making a pact to meet once a year at a particular bar. Meg also opens up to them about recent loss of her fiancé. Despite this, Meg becomes aware that the restaurant is not only mob owned, but also a front for drug dealing operations of which Raychel and possibly Kate appear to be aware. Struggling to pull her life together, Meg finds it harder to accept monetary tokens from restaurant owner Mr. Santalino (Arthur J. Nascarella), while also fending off the romantic attentions of his son, Frankie (Christian Maelen). Things come to a breaking point when Esposito drunkenly punches Meg in the face. Mr. Santalino and Frankie kills Esposito while Meg watches in horror. Frankie forces Meg at gunpoint to cut Esposito's body up into little pieces so they can dispose of his body in a meat grinder. Meg later tells Kate everything that happened and lets her know that she plans on leaving town. Kate tries to stop her but in the process reveals that she is actually an undercover police officer and that she had recorded everything Meg said. The police then tap Meg's necklace and put her back undercover at the restaurant, hoping that Mr. Santalino or Frankie will confess to the murder of Esposito. That night, during her shift, Meg pretends to have a headache and goes to get an aspirin from Frankie but fails to get a confession from him. Meg tries to warn Raychel, who was promoted to manager, to get out of the restaurant before the police come but is interrupted by Frankie and his drinking friends. Meg later sees Mr. Santalino, and gets a confession out of him. Meg thanks him for his heroics and he subsequently promises to do what he did to Esposito to any other man who lays a finger on her. However, in the process, Mr. Santalino notices Kate watching and he rips Meg's necklace off, horrified at her betrayal. In a gun fight, Kate shoots Frankie dead while she is also shot. Meg attempts to save Kate's life but Mr. Santalino drags her away and attempts to shoot her. Before he can do so, Raychel shoots him dead but she is consequently arrested. Meg tries to use a knife to save Kate's lungs from filling up with blood, but is ultimately shot by Kate's partner, Garcia, who consequently realises that Meg was saving her. A year later, Raychel lays flowers at Meg's gravestone. Kate, who survived thanks to Meg, visits Raychel at the bar the friends made a pact to meet every year. Kate lets Raychel know that she was the reason she got off on probation. Kate then reveals Meg, who is alive and well and Meg jokes that she'd have to kill Raychel if she told her how she survived. The three friends share a drink together and express their adoration for each other.

In 1999, American singer Mariah Carey began working on a film and soundtrack project titled All That Glitters and signed a $100 million deal with Virgin Records. The film was retitled as Glitter and production began in 2000. This film was produced by Lions Gate Films, Leading Pictures and Intermedia Films. Promotion and production for Glitter and WiseGirls respectively came to a halt and both films received a "publicity boost".</blockquote>

In an interview, Anthony Esposito, a producer of WiseGirls, noted that "when he spent time with Carey during the WiseGirls shoot, it was clear she had been pushing herself to the limit. After a day of shooting on the film, he says Carey would often just keep on working into the night". Carey subsequently parted ways with Virgin Records.

During production for WiseGirls, rumours surfaced of a feud and physical altercation between Carey and Mira Sorvino, the lead actress of the film. A People article which had quoted WiseGirls producer Billy Blake, stated that the two had "wrestled to the floor". In 2018, Sorvino confirmed on Twitter that Carey did "throw a salt shaker over [her] head" but there was "no wrestling or physical contact".

For WiseGirls, Carey appeared on MTV Italy and Entertainment Tonight among other channels to promote the film. Anspaugh, Carey, Sorvino and Melora Walters were present at the film's world premiere at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. The film was released on HBO and Cinemax. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 9 reviews. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stated, "It's a good film not a classic, but odd, entertaining and authentic". Variety reviewer David Rooney remarked that the film was "directed with very conventional efficiency by David Anspaugh" and that "the drama's script keeps enough surprises up its sleeve to remain entertaining. Its themes of female bonding and friendship suggest a theatrical target of young women, with a more solid afterlife in ancillary". He went on to sat that "WiseGirls can't help suffering a bit from over familiarity [ ] but Anspaugh and his actors bring enough vigor to the enterprise that the film comes off as a well done genre piece " and that the film "raises just about every crude Mafia reference it can think of [ ] Nearly every word out of Carey's mouth is the f word".

[[File:Mariah Carey in Holland, April 1 1998 cropped. jpg|thumb|150px|upright|Mariah Carey (pictured) received more praise from critics for her role as Raychel than for her role as Billie Frank in the 2001 film, Glitter. His biggest praise was for Carey saying "by far the most engaging performance [was] Carey, giving trash talking, husky voiced Raychel plenty of heart as well as chutzpah and sexy attitude". In an interview, Carey noted that it was working with Sorvino and Walters which helped her get through filming saying,

<blockquote>This experience was so great and just to have these two amazing actresses working with me and David Anspaugh [director] creating an environment that allowed me to create a character and to allow me to go deep into myself and to do something different and explore a different side of my creativity and I would love to try to continue to do projects that are unexpected like this. Nobody's expecting this.