Wild Side (1995)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Donald Cammell

Writers (WGA):

China Kong (written by) &
Donald Cammell (written by)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

It's Not About Sex, It's About Power!

Plot:

While Bruno is an international money mover and influence peddler and Virginia is his very beautiful wife...

Plot Keywords:

FBI | Bank | Call Girl | Undercover | Humor

Cast

Anne Heche	...	Alex Lee / Johanna
Christopher Walken	...	Bruno Buckingham
Joan Chen	...	Virginia Chow
Steven Bauer	...	Tony
Allen Garfield	...	Dan Rackman
Adam Novak	...	Lyle Litvak
Zion	...	Hiro Sakamoto
Richard Palmer	...	Cop Driver
Randy Crowder	...	Federal Agent
Marcus Aurelius	...	Agent James Reed
Michael Rose	...	Agent Morse Jaeger
Lewis Arquette	...	The Chief
Rolando De La Maza	...	Steward
Candace Kita	...	Lotus Ita (as Candace Camille Bender)
Ian Johnson	...	Philip Hamlyn

Also Known As:

All the Way (Philippines: English title)
The Wild Side (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

96 min | UK:111 min (director's cut)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Singapore:(Banned) | Germany:18 (video premiere) | Portugal:M/18 (video premiere) | UK:18 | USA:R | Philippines:R-18 | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Long Beach, California, USA

Company:

Channel Four Films

Quotes:

Bruno Buckingham: Let him fly, let her fly, let 'em all fly!

Movie Connections:

References Performance (1970)

Soundtrack:

Mariachi and Soda

Weird Christopher Walken and a great score make for an edgy and atmospheric film

It's addictive, once you get into it - Christopher Walken's Bruno uckingham - a multimillionaire money-launderer - is dangerous and unpredictable.

A casual sexual encounter between him and call girl Alex, played by Ann Heche, develops into a love triangle, or rectangle if you include Walken's obnoxious and predatory driver, played by Steven Bauer. The driver turns out to be working undercover. Walken's wife/girlfriend arrives on the scene and you have a passionate all female sexual encounter between her and the Ann Heche, who is also leading a double life.

But there's a scam going on - Bruno Buckingham plans to disrupt the banking system with a computer virus and use the opportunity to transfer millions of dollars of ill-gained funds. A sting is planned by the police, but will it be successful?

A simple plot, but complex encounters between various characters, captured on a hand-held camera, and with the beautiful and haunting background music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, make for a highly intriguing and watchable film, if you like this sort of thing (I do). I loved the momentary flashbacks of sex scenes in the character's head as she's in the office. A little bit quirky, like the films of director Nicholas Roeg.

Christopher Walken is remarkable, with his menacing and almost other-worldly on-screen presence. Ann Heche is captivating, and the love scenes between her and Buckingham's wife/lover, played by Virginia Chow, are quite passionate, and have the quality of a real encounter.

If you're expecting a simple dénouement, don't. As in real life things aren't cut and dry, though the ending is satisfying.