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Film Clips
FEBRUARY 1, 1999:
 AT FIRST SIGHT. It's not a romantic comedy, it's not a
horror film, it's that mutant that lives somewhere in between.
It's in that special place where grown men dress like clowns and
mothers form better bonds with their daughters by dying. This
time the couple consists of the uncharismatic Virgil (Val Kilmer),
a blind man, and Amy (Mira Sorvino), his true love. She finds
a miracle cure that allows him to regain his vision, and they
hit many obstacles, such as maudlin music, Kilmer's distractingly
huge capped teeth, and bad dialogue. ("So this is what beautiful
looks like.") But when all is said and done, all those Coca-Cola
product placements Virgil can see don't mean a darn thing. Of
course not, because the best kind of seeing is not done with the
eyes, but with the heart. Please, take my word for it and stay
away from this genre-bending freak show.--Higgins
GLORIA. What a great movie: Gena Rowlands, as a fading
gangster moll, hooks up with a cute kid who's fleeing the same
gangsters. While this Little Miss Marker idea may seem
trite, Rowlands overwhelms every scene, completely engaging the
viewer with each raised eyebrow and wrinkled lip. John Cassavetes
quirky directing doesn't hurt, either, and while this is a much
more "mainstream" movie than Cassavetes' earlier work,
it still retains his improvisational sensibility and singular
camera style. Oh, wait a minute, this isn't that movie...it's
a lousy remake with Sharon Stone struggling to fill Gena Rowlands
shoes and Sydney Lumet's cowardly and conservative directorial
style dumbing down the more challenging Cassavetes approach. Damn.
--DiGiovanna
HI-LO COUNTRY. This boys-and-their-cattle film is a Cormac
McCarthy-esque (the sweet McCarthy of The Crossing, not
the twisted McCarthy of Blood Meridian) look at two men
(Woody Harrelson and Billy Crudup) who return from WWII to their
ranch lands and try to live a cowboy life that's fading into the
world of corporate farming. While the story is a bit obvious and
melodramatic (they're both in love with the same woman, who's
married to the factotum of the evil proto-corporate rancher),
Harrelson's performance is strong enough to hold attention. He's
just such a weird actor, playing an odd cross between his mass-murderer
role from Natural Born Killers and sweet, lovable "Woody"
from Cheers, that it's always interesting to watch his
wild mood swings and enormously overstated facial expressions.
Unfortunately, the female characters are treated like window dressing,
denied much in the way of screen time or good dialogue. In the
end, the cowboys themselves come across as less sexist than the
filmmakers, in that they make some effort to understand the women
they are attracted to and who are attracted to them. It's too
bad that director Stephen Frears and writer Walon Green don't
share this interest in women's inner lives, and can only give
us a beautifully photographed, slow and sad buddy film, which,
while not without rewards, could have been much richer in exploring
the relationships it backgrounds against the red skies and grasslands
of the Southwest. --DiGiovanna
IN DREAMS. It may be kind of early in the year to commit,
but my nomination for the best filmic wig of 1999 goes to the
one atop Robert Downey Jr.'s scalp. Sure, some will say it's bad,
even evil, but I cheer you on, brave little soldier. When Vivian
(Downey) wears this ambitious rug, it makes him want to rid us
of bad child actors and, more importantly, expose the false ideal
of the bourgeois family. Vivian enters career mom Claire's (Annette
Bening) head via her dreams and updates her on his latest murderous
adventures. Feeling her class status threatened, Claire attempts
to track him down so she can destroy his revolutionary thinking
and quit wearing the Communist reds he clothes her in in her
nightmares. It's nice to see an arty horror film, but it usually
helps to have more sympathy for the protagonist than the antagonist's
wig. This latest effort from Neil Jordan (The Crying Game)
is at the very least beautiful to watch. --Higgins
SPIKE AND MIKE'S SICK & TWISTED. I don't know what
your definition of sick and twisted happens to be, but mine definitely
doesn't include farting, masturbation and O.J. Simpson jokes.
The warning before the screening stated that smuggling alcohol
into the theater was against the law, but it really should have
mandated we all consume large quantities of caffeine. The two
South Park shorts were fun, but the only other highlights--"How
to Use a Tampon" (a dancing tampon!) and "Karate Dick
Boys" (karate boys with big dicks!)--were unfortunately too
short and unparalleled. The rest relied upon lame punch lines
and mostly uninspired animation. The crowd was definitely ready
for raunch, but all it got was sore booty. For a really good time,
skip the festival and go spend that $7 on some good, old-fashioned
porn videos. Maybe Spike and Mike, who claim to bring us "all
the really cool shit you can't see on TV," will get the idea
that good animation doesn't have to be lumped into some meaningless
category, and perhaps it's time to retire the "sick and twisted"
criterion. --Higgins
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