1995

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December 4, 2008

Dolores Claiborne

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1995, crime, drama, entertainment, movies, mystery, thrillers, trailers | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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dolores-claiborne

Yet another Stephen King novel gets the movie treatment with 1995’s Dolores Claiborne. A film revolving around themes of justice and abuse, this Taylor Hackford-directed flick has all of the punch and weight of a made-for-TV movie. As average as it gets, Dolores Claiborne would be almost entirely insignificant were it not for a pair of good performances from Kathy Bates and Christopher Plummer.

Bates is the titular character, a middle-aged domestic servant living in King’s standard coastal fishing town somewhere in Maine. The set-up is analogous to what we usually get out of his novels, as the town is small and most everyone knows one another rather well. Claiborne, we learn, is suspected of murdering her elderly employer (Judy Parfitt) and detective John Mackey (Plummer) is trying to collar her for the crime. Mackey also suspects Claiborne to be guilty of murdering her husband many years ago.

Selena St. George (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is Dolores’ daughter. She is, of course, a journalist living in New York. She heads to see her mother after learning of the case against her and begins to try to unravel the mystery of her father’s death. Selena discovers that she has been mentally blocking out portions of her childhood and that the truth of her father’s death may not be what she assumed it was. A series of flashbacks reveals a life of sexual and physical abuse and cover-ups.

This tale differs from many in the King library in that it doesn’t involve anything supernatural. It is dreadful, without question, as the patterns of abuse circulating through Selena’s family are terrifying. Selena takes up drinking and pops pills to control herself. She’s a mess and she doesn’t quite understand why until she returns to her childhood home. We are shown the architecture of her internal struggle through flashbacks, including a disturbing scene in which young Selena tries to kill herself with a fragmented Christmas ornament.

Dolores is the real core of the story, though, and Selena is our entrance point. Bates plays her well, showing her stuff with a spunky portrayal that blurs reality and imagination. She imposes a sense of mistrust without hammering the easy focal points or overdoing it.

Leigh is adequate as Selena, although she overacts at times and some lines sound stilted coming from her incredibly young-looking lips. So trapped in youth is Jennifer Jason Leigh that she more strictly resembles a teenager than a grown woman and a successful journalist whose claim to fame is a Nixon interview. Regardless, she is who she is and it simply doesn’t quite work.

There is really nothing about Dolores Claiborne as a film that resonates all that profoundly. It is a simple human drama couched in the terror of abuse. Director Hackford is inconspicuous but barely present, adding no sense of style to any shots and choosing a flat, opaque approach to the scenes. The Maine town isn’t given much character and most of the events take place in flashback form or within Claiborne’s bleak, featureless home. There is no texture to the story or to the location and, as such, we simply aren’t there with the characters living out these situations.

The use of flashbacks is also ineffectual, as the main thread of the story becomes lost. One flashback carries for quite some time, as Hackford appears to have little command over including every detail in this comparatively simplistic story. And a subplot involving Selena and her boss feels tacked on.

Overall, Dolores Claiborne isn’t a must-see but it isn’t a loss either. The performances from Bates and Plummer are good, but both have more gripping roles to offer. Bates is unquestionably more interesting in another King adaptation, Misery, and Plummer is wonderful almost anywhere he can be found. In essence, Dolores Claiborne feels like a mystery movie made for television. It lacks punch, essence, and style.

3.8/10

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March 25, 2008

The Crossing Guard

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1995, drama, entertainment, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , , |
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The Crossing Guard

Sean Penn directs the 1995 independent film The Crossing Guard, a tale about revenge and its crippling effects on the lives of people. Penn as an actor can often be pretty far up his own backside and he’s really no different as a director. His films tend to have an all-too-serious gait to them, which can be problematic when the plotlines venture into the absurd. The Crossing Guard ventures into the absurd for its final climactic moments and Penn’s pompously solemn direction does it no favours whatsoever.

Jack Nicholson stars as Freddy Gale. He is an alcoholic and is living under the burden of the passing of his daughter some five years ago. His daughter was killed by a drunk driver named, for some reason, John Booth (David Morse). Booth is getting out of jail in a day or so and Freddy eagerly awaits his release. Freddy informs his ex-wife, Mary (Anjelica Huston), that he intends to kill Booth. Mary throws Freddy out of her home again and he goes back to his life of hookers, strip clubs, drinking, and jewellery. When Booth is released, Freddy is confronted with the full force of his vengeance and eventually comes to realize the power of redemption, forgiveness, and compassion.

On paper, the plot is stimulating. It’s made all the more interesting by the idea that Booth has become a relatively well-adjusted citizen who feels remorse and is intensely sorry for what he has done. Morse plays him with a certain discreet range, allowing the viewer to gain a connection with Booth and to see beyond his dreadful mistake. The film gives the audience time to absolve Booth while pointing out that Freddy is not taking the same path as the rest of us. Instead of seeing Booth in a new light, Freddy is clouded by wrath and alcohol. The haze that has become his life is interfering with his interpretation of reality and, as such, he functions only for retribution.

The problem here is by and large related to two things: Jack Nicholson’s performance and Sean Penn’s direction. Starting with the former, Nicholson is simply the wrong choice for the role of Freddy. He looks aged (sorry, Jack), but he does not look weary or angry. Nicholson does not play Freddy like an alcoholic or like a man filled with rage. The performance is uneven, certainly, but it appears to be uneven in all of the wrong places. The subtle keys are missing and Nicholson simply moves Freddy along at two speeds throughout the film. As such, Freddy lacks the texture that such an interesting character should have. Instead, Nicholson seems forced into the role that would have very likely been suited for somebody else.

Penn’s direction leaves a lot to be desired. There are too many side trips, for one, that distract from the core focus of the film. Penn’s desire to develop things leads to an overdevelopment, as shots linger too long on unrelated pieces and camera appears to weirdly venture towards focal points that don’t exist. Because of this, The Crossing Guard feels crowded and thins out significantly. The filming and direction of the final sequence in which Booth and Freddy have their little “chase” is forced and blasts through the attempts at providing a provoking narrative.

In effect, the direction serves to bury the theme a little too well. While vengeance is certainly on the mind of Freddy and certainly appears to be the motivator here, the actual theme of the film is that of self-destructiveness. Freddy’s suffering is the focal point, by and large, and some scenes remain to hint at that but most distract from it. The idea of the standoff, for example, does little to further Freddy’s self-destructiveness and instead develops a formulaic point of reference. The film is simply too packed with these sorts of convoluted references to work all that well.

In the end, The Crossing Guard becomes very bland under the weight of Penn’s attempt to direct the story. A simpler approach would have worked better and a more understated performer would have capitalized on the real themes of the movie better than Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is a fine actor, to be sure, but this role seems built for someone else. Because of the crucial nature of the character of Freddy, the choice of performer is critical. Because the choice of performer seemed forced and the direction seemed overbearing, The Crossing Guard suffers.

3/10

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February 3, 2008

Showgirls

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1995, drama, entertainment, movies, trailers | Tags: , , , , , |
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Showgirls

Showgirls is one of the sleaziest films ever made this side of the adult film industry. So incredibly slimy is this film that it becomes a guilty pleasure on just about every level. Director Paul Verhoeven, the guy behind RoboCop and Basic Instinct, is at it again with his sensory attacks in 1995’s Showgirls. Known for being incredibly seedy and grimy, Verhoeven’s penchant for exposing all that is disturbing and disquieting about the human condition is on display in his usual over-the-top way in Showgirls. The film is a veritable soap opera of depravity, nudity, and bad dancing. Almost legendary in its cult status, Showgirls is better than it should be on many levels and is certainly no ordinary character study.

Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley from Saved by the Bell fame as Nomi Malone, a temperamental and mysterious drifter who hitchhikes to Las Vegas. She arrives but is instantly robbed. After recovering from her robbery by making friends with a seamstress, Molly (Gina Ravera), Nomi moves in with her new friend and starts a job as a stripper. One fateful night, Nomi accompanies Molly to Molly’s workplace, the stage show “Goddess” at the Stardust in Vegas. Nomi becomes instantly enthralled with the production and meets the show’s star, Cristal Conners (Gina Gershon). Cristal and her boyfriend, Zack (Kyle MacLachlan), take a liking to Nomi after seeing her dance at the nightclub and the wheels are put in motion for Nomi to become a part of “Goddess” and become famous. The rest of the film follows the rise and fall of Nomi Malone as she stoops low to get high in the brutal world of Las Vegas show business.

Showgirls was controversial upon its release and earned the NC-17 rating. The film approaches themes of rape, lesbianism, and interracial relationships, which apparently were still notable in the mid-1990s. The film’s approaches to the themes were decidedly obnoxious, as the film’s famous rape scene is ridiculously over-the-top and intolerable and the approaches to other sensitive subject matter are equally odd. Showgirls appears to be wrapped up in the fantasies of writer Joe Eszterhas, who also penned Basic Instinct. Like kids in a candy store, Eszterhas and Verhoeven unleash a world of vibrant garish reality on audiences and the film feels like a gauche trip down the Las Vegas strip. Thinking about the ostentatious lights of the city, however, one can’t help but spot instantaneous parallels to the tawdriness of it all.

Because of this, Showgirls is actually an effective film. Berkley overacts every single scene like a logically pissed-off woman coming from a knotty life. She snaps at every gesture of benevolence, yet unwisely and candidly accepts offers from strangers like a peripatetic vain film heroine from the 1930s. Berkley’s Nomi is one of perplexing dichotomy, stumbling through the Las Vegas lifestyle munching cheeseburgers and searching for dignity in what is admittedly a much undignified existence. She’s a lost soul in a sea of lost souls and her job as a performer is to appear even more flawed than the most flawed of all. Berkley, in my view, accomplishes this by overacting and overreacting to just about everything that goes on around her. Unlike Anne Hathaway in Havoc, Berkley’s jump to maturity and pretension isn’t as daft or abrupt.

Showgirls is pure smut, no doubt about it. What makes it work as smut is its unabashed love for itself and its ability to know that it’s smutty and keep on powering right through the trash. There is no insight here, no innate message to the madness. Instead, Showgirls capitalizes on the theme brought to us in All About Eve: there will always be somebody behind you to push you down the stairs. Much like Anne Baxter’s taste for blood in All About Eve, Berkley’s taste for blood is very similar and she goes to incredible lengths to achieve it. In a world where nudity and sex has lost all meaning, Showgirls capitalizes on that element by bringing us an overdose of breasts and wonky sex scenes, almost lampooning the ridiculous nature of it all. The idea of having a pool lit up by palm tree cut-out lights while REAL palm trees stand behind it is the perfect encapsulation of the ideas within Showgirls. Everything fake is real again and everything tasteless is somehow the ideal formula for success.

Showgirls is a film that can be examined, picked apart, looked at under a microscope, and pieced together again. It is a film so in love with its own ideal and its own obnoxiousness that its DVD release featured a gaudy box set that featured a deck of cards, shot glasses, and a lap dance instructional DVD hosted by real strippers. The film’s self-awareness comes into play here and a quick perusal through the Amazon reviews of the DVD box set truly exposes the true nature of the film: people are having a great time watching this filth. So, if grime and luridness is your thing, you’ll probably love Showgirls. It’s not particularly titillating, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

7/10

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September 4, 2007

Clueless

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1995, comedy, entertainment, trailers | Tags: , , , , , |
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Clueless

I remember the cultural impact that Clueless had back in the day, 1995 (just two years before I graduated high school), and decided to have a look at this comedy again last night. What a treat it was! Directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Clueless is probably the most intelligent “teen” comedy ever made and is packed with so much wit and natural comedy that it’s hard to fathom at times. Using natural talents to fill out the cast and a brilliant script written by Heckerling, Clueless is the genius sum of its parts and adds up to a wonderfully comic experience with heart and soul.

Heckerling’s script is essentially a reworking and a restyling of Jane Austen’s “Emma.” Austen’s work was tweaked somewhat and then taken to upscale Beverly Hills to match the social settings from the Austen work with a modern point of view. This was done so as to not lose the original class impact of the tale. As the character in Austen’s piece, Emma Woodhouse, is described as being “handsome, clever, and rich” but also rather spoiled, so too should Heckerling’s lead character represent the same basic social aspects. Beverly Hills, thus, represents the perfect backdrop to this comic tale. And so it goes.

Alicia Silverstone, who at the time wasn’t much more than an Aerosmith video vixen, stars as the lead character Cher. Cher is a spoiled little rich girl from Beverly Hills, but she also has a great deal of heart and wants to help her fellow students. Cher is content with her world of shopping and friendship, but she also longs to make an impact and prove herself as more than that. She wants to be seen as more of an intellectual and more of a do-gooder, which resonates perfectly with the film’s mid-90s time-line. Her altruistic ex-stepbrother Josh, played by Paul Rudd, is partially responsible for being the catalyst to Cher’s desire to prove herself to be different, as he prefers to know what’s going on in the world whereas Cher prefers to watch “Beavis and Butthead.” Classic stuff, really.

Cher takes to matching up two lonely high school teachers and is just reflecting on her good deed when along comes a new student, played here by Brittany Murphy. The new student, Tai, is in desperate need of a makeover so Cher and her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) get started on transforming the grunge girl into a high school hottie. Things go awry when Cher’s plan works a little too well and Tai gets a little too popular and, as an unfortunate side effect, a little too mean. Tai becomes more popular than Cher after a series of events and Cher must decide how she will continue to live her high school life. Meanwhile, Cher experiences a series of romantic mishaps to flesh out her character’s unfortunate luck as of late. She eventually ends up making a few character transformation and the quintessential Hollywood ending comes about just in time for the end credits.

Clueless worked so well as an influential teen comedy that it spawned the use of language from the film, including the invention of several terms and the adoption of a great deal of the slang language that had previously just worked the fringes of teen life. Heckerling’s use of language is what makes this film work wonderfully, as she transforms Austen’s incredible linguistic talent into a modern tale that works on its own right and develops a quirky and remarkable way of speaking for the characters that resonates deeply on many levels. Any writer will appreciate what Heckerling has done here. The evolution of what is known as “Valspeak”, which refers to a way of speaking for so-called “Valley girls”, into the language of Clueless is a beautiful thing for anyone interested in how trends surface and naturally dissipate.

Clueless, in respect to its use of language as the driving force behind the plot, remains a fascinating look at life that effectively transcends its genre and its time period. The dialogue and characters are as effective today as they were over ten years ago, which makes Clueless a timeless comedy in ways that many other comic “classics” aren’t. Silverstone and company ably perform their roles and the supporting cast is genius, complete with stereotypical characters that never abandon their type and never cop out to script variations at seemingly random intervals. What we’re left with is a complete, complex and totally awesome look at high school life through the eyes of Cher Horowitz.

8/10

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August 9, 2007

Before Sunrise

Posted by Jordan Richardson under 1995, comedy, drama, entertainment, romance | Tags: , , , |
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 Before Sunrise
Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused) directs Before Sunrise, the 1995 romantic drama driven heavily by strong dialogue and compelling characters. Linklater wrote the film after having a similar experience to the characters in the film, as he met a woman named Amy and spent the night talking as they walked through the streets of Philadelphia. Before Sunrise is not an average, predictable noisy romantic comedy. It is a patient and compelling film that resonates long after the viewing and carries continuous weight because of the philosophical repercussions of the actions of the characters and because of the tender resolve of the two protagonists.

The plot is simple enough. The film follows a young man named Jesse, played here by Ethan Hawke, as he is on his way to Vienna to catch a flight home after a break-up that has taken a significant emotional toll on him. He is on a train when he meets a young French woman named Celine, played here by Julie Delpy. She is on her way back to Paris to attend school after having spent time with her grandmother in Budapest. The pair meet and have a conversation for some time on the train, after which Jesse convinces Celine to spend an evening with him as he wanders around Vienna before his flight in the morning. Celine agrees to spend more time with Jesse, so the pair spend the evening walking through the streets of Vienna.

Before Sunrise is comprised of a great deal of discussion. Jesse and Celine discuss philosophy, love, religion, and general life beliefs and ideas throughout their evening together. Celine and Jesse are very different characters in some ways, but in many foundational ways they want the same things out of life. The differences are exposed with Linklater’s beautiful script, as the two characters start to slowly abandon previously held truths in order to be together and in order to abandon themselves to love and the hope of a new relationship with one another. They spend early portions of the film decrying modern notions of relationships and standard elements of romance, but by the time the film draws to a close they agree to meet again and fall victim to the trappings of romantic love.

The film is beautifully shot and Linklater doesn’t invade the screen or crowd his characters. There are no real “supporting” characters within the film, rather Vienna serves as a suitable backdrop for the situations within Before Sunrise. Linklater shoots widely, giving us a broad sense of texture from the scenes. He demonstrates how the characters and the people add life to certain backdrops and then, in the closing shots of the film, shows the same locations where Celine and Jesse interacted without the same life of love from the characters. Linklater uses music beautifully as well, allowing the sounds and songs of the streets of Vienna to serve as a soundtrack and letting his two characters interact with the music of the streets in unique and very human ways. Each time we hear music in the film, save for a few examples, it derives from somewhere potent instead of from some esoteric voice in the director’s head.

The characters drive the film forward with their words, not with their actions, and the visual palette that naturally progresses from such earnest discussion is more illuminating than any backstory, flashback or loud segment would have ever been. Instead, Linklater and his actors give us solid tenderness and real tangible power with their words. They talk like real people and the words flow from one scene into the next like a work of fine art, allowing the various hidden elements of the characters to unfold naturally and organically. The truth to the narrative is in the truth to the characters, not in this gaudy hidden guiding light of where a scene should go and how a scene should be constructed. Linklater’s direction is so natural and so nearly absent that Hawke and Delpy feel like normative people simply strolling through Vienna at night. Because of this, we get to know the characters out of pure strength of will and not out of powerful force of film. It is a beautiful experience of a film that allows us to watch growth, love and passion without feeling like a voyeur.

Before Sunrise is a truly rare treat and a true marvel of a film. It feels almost improvisational in its grace and entirely natural in its dialogue, bringing the audience along for the ride of a lifetime without an ounce of CGI or screwball attempts at comedy. Instead, everything about Before Sunrise is a natural flow of energy from the terrific actors and from one of the finest scripts in film history. This film is a true gem, a classic and a film more than worthy of its incredible 100% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes. In an age of such divisiveness and despair, it’s nice to see true human drama unfold and characters that aren’t afraid of the natural human contradiction within.

10/10