Carlito-7 Reviews

Magnolia (1999)

Art does not exist without discipline

[3 January 2000]

The career of Orson Welles was one reminder of this. That of

Paul Thomas (excuse me, "P.T.") Anderson is shaping up to be

another. Were there great performances and effective moments? Of

course, with a cast like this and 190 minutes for them to emote.

Ultimately, though, what does it build to? What is the reward

for sitting for over three hours? What does the audience learn

about life, the human condition, the world around them? The

director's observations don't seem like they've come from life

experience, they seem to have been derived from watching a lot

of television. This movie, at its heart, is nothing but cliches.

To me, that in a nutshell is why "Short Cuts" (the obvious,

painfully self-conscious inspiration) is a vastly superior piece

of

Happiness (1998)

What was the point?

[17 October 1998]

Can anyone tell me why they think Todd Solondz felt compelled to make this movie? It's not entertaining (unless you're a confirmed sadist). He clearly hates these characters, does not feel any sympathy for them at all (as opposed to John Waters, who tells stories about equally screwed up people but with affection for them). None of it felt remotely genuine or based on life experience in any way - completely contrived. Sitting there watching these pathetic characters being humiliated made me think the entire reason for this movie's being was to give Todd Solondz an outlet for the worst things he could imagine putting people through. Who is Joy Jordan if not Dawn Wiener (from "Welcome to the Dollhouse") grown up? What is the audience intended to take away from this film? That life sucks? What a narrow, reductive view of the world. If Solondz is an artist, where is the insight, the resonance, the beauty that the art of film is supposed to contain? This guy is the hope of independent film?

See the Sea (1997)

Catch it while you can

[10/10 · 8 October 1998]

This is flat out brilliant film-making - right up there with Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Ford, or anyone else you can name. It functions on multiple levels, the simplest of which is as a thriller which will keep you on edge for 52 minutes - and stays with you a long time after. It's done in a traditional French style - minimal dialogue, almost no music (1 pivotal scene), maximum use of visuals to tell story. The director doesn't need to tell the audience where to go emotionally with heavy handed music cues or dialogue - he knows exactly where he's taking us and lets the images speak for themselves. It's ironic that French films are sometimes thought of as pretentious, because this film is made so simply and fluidly. I heard it said that the best way to tell a story is to get out of its way and let it tell itself. I'd put this one in my top twenty of all time.

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

Paid $2.50 and still felt cheated

[8 October 1998]

If I had a time machine I would go back to UCLA circa 1985 and shoot Shane Black as he got in his car to go to CAA with his draft of "Lethal Weapon." Or at least take away his word processor.

Pecker (1998)

John Waters does it again

[27 September 1998]

Nobody does it like John Waters - he's the best thing American movies have going. Not quite as funny as "Serial Mom" (that would be something!), but it still had me laughing out loud through most of it. Once upon a time, I guess his humor was shocking - probably when Kenneth Starr and Bill Clinton were still in law school. Now it's just funny. How many movies can get away with suggesting drug abuse and fellatio with an 8 year old character? Hats off to John.

Ronin (1998)

Gee, they wrecked some really expensive cars

[27 September 1998]

Lackluster in every detail save the car chases, which are well done but stand out more for destructiveness than originality. De Niro, Stellan, Reno & co. make tired, cliched dialogue sound better than it has a right to, but it's still hackneyed and repetitive. Story is incomprehensible and characters are thinly sketched at best. (DeNiro and co. are skilled enough to suggest characters where none exist in the script, but even that only goes so far.) I challenge anyone who sees this film to adequately answer these questions: WHO are these people, WHAT on earth are they after, WHY do they do the things they do (aside from that it's an action movie and people will be screaming for their money back if the requisite number of people aren't killed and expensive property remains intact.) One thing sums it up: the whole movie, this crew of "Ronin" are chasing after a certain something - none of them know exactly what it is. By the end, they still don't know what it is, and neither do we - and I couldn't have cared less. I'd call it "The Dukes of Hazzard go to France", but that show had Roscoe P. Coltrane and Boss Hogg - genuine characters with motivation. Whole movie has a tired, 70s feeling in the pace and look of the photography. One note of respect: no digital effects. All the mayhem is more or less "real."

P.S. I'll say one thing, they didn't skimp on the cars they trashed. An early 90s BMW M5 is obliterated, a brand new looking sedan with 18" rims they call an Audi S8 gets banged up, and a variety of Opels, Citroens, and Peugeots take it on the chin as well. Also a number of innocent bystanders are shown getting shot, run over, and incinerated, which might have been tolerable if we understood and believed in the righteousness of the heroes' mission. But we don't.

A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (1998)

Can you say "Z-z-z" en Francais?

[27 September 1998]

A total bore. Starts well, with a French boy being adopted into the household of an expatriate American novelist and his family, and the conflict this creates with his daughter, who's about the same age. Then, after about 15-20 minutes, all tension in the film just drains away. Sitting through the last 1/2 hour of this was the toughest stretch of time I've spent in a theater in the last year. A movie so tasteful and well-mannered you'll want to scream.

Rush Hour (1998)

Jackie deserves better

[27 September 1998]

Weak, weak, weak script. Jackie Chan is given nothing to do, not even any decent fights. American directors don't know how to stage or cut fights - they put the camera in too close and they cut too often. Any of Jackie's HK stuff puts this to shame from an action standpoint. For the first time, you're not even sure it's him doing the stunts! (And the stuff up in the rafters of the L.A. Convention Center is obvious digital compositing.) Chris Tucker seemed restrained, also - in order to be funny, he needs to be let loose, with profane dialogue that isn't afraid to offend. His lines here are timid - he gets most of his laughs by bugging his eyes. And why'd they give Elizabeth Pena such a lousy hairstyle?

Permanent Midnight (1998)

Worth it for Ben Stiller

[27 September 1998]

Not bad, though not particularly memorable or resonant. So-so script with terse, witty dialogue - David Veloz never wants for a good one-liner. I was never bored, but it would be an overstatement to say I cared about the character Jerry Stahl, either. It's hard to imagine, though, anyone bringing him to life more fully or entertainingly than Ben Stiller. He is compulsively watchable, and without him I think this one might've been DOA. I guess it boils down to this: Is it just me, or is a guy who scores prime writing jobs and prime women while he's a hopeless smack addict inherently unsympathetic? (And the impression I get from the writing and casting is that we are very much meant to feel in some way for Jerry.)

Without Limits (1998)

Real life, only better

[27 September 1998]

Steve Prefontaine could only have hoped for a life as dramatically well summed as the one presented here. Could any real person be as blithely assured and self-possessed as Pre's depicted by Billy Crudup and Robert Towne? I liked it a lot, but it's a long way from Towne's super-cynical 70s sensibility (The Last Detail, Chinatown, Shampoo) - not a criticism, just an observation. Have heard rumblings from critical press and others that Towne's finally caught the 90s "Just think positive and it'll all be O.K." bandwagon. Gorgeous to look at - if only life looked like a Conrad Hall-shot film. Interesting how in the '72 Olympic race sequence they intercut Crudup with footage of Pre running the real-life race.