Reviews
Left Luggage (1998)
Film with Heart
Interesting examination of various human strategies for dealing with loss, whether the death of loved ones or the extermination of entire people's as in the Holocaust. Film has lots of heart, but may be a little pat in its approach. Two Jewish families in Antwerp deal badly with catastrophe. One tries to flee from everything Jewish into pure secular modernism. This leaves such an emptiness, that the head of the family doesn't know why he spends all his time combing the city for the place where he buried some family odds and ends before being deported during the war. The other family clings madly to orthodox Judaism as their only port in the storm and cuts themselves off narrow-mindedly and angrily from all that is new and different. Wise Mr. Apple-something, observes the Jewish rituals; attends synagogue devoutly, but is not too put off by a mini-skirt to show fondness and concern for the yearning soul inside.
So it's nice, OK?
The Ice Storm (1997)
Were the 70's Really that Bad?
Fascinating, how the culture's global assessment of the '70s seems to get more negative from year to year. As someone old enough to remember, I felt this film caught beautifully the special quality of the alienation between parents and children in those days; the anger of middle-aged women caught in old-style marriages that suddenly weren't working and the confusion of middle class men who were working hard to pay the bills, the way their fathers had told them they should, but were suddenly confronted with wives who wouldn't sleep with them anymore (or were sleeping with the neighbors) and children who wouldn't talk to them.
I think though, that with all the "reassessing" that's going on, there is a real danger that the tremendous energy and sheer frolicsome exuberance of those times may be forgotten. It's true that my family and nearly all my friends' families were more or less dysfunctional then. Still, I had a hell of a time. If I had a choice, I'd rather be depressed and lonely in the '70s when I could console myself by going to a friendly neighborhood orgy or anti-war demonstration (pick your poison) than in the '90s when people just lock themselves up at home and take Prozac until the darkness recedes sufficiently that they can face their computer screens again..
My Name Is Joe (1998)
Heavy Misery in Scotland
A bunch of unemployed, drug-addicted, alcoholic, incomprehensible (unless you're a Scot) Scots try to keep their heads above water by grasping at any straw. All the misery but little of the humor of "Trainspotting". One funny line. Visiting nurse to heroin addicted, street prostitute mom about baby son, "Have his testicles descended?" Answer: "What?" Repeat of the question: "Arrrrrrr 'is wee balls hangin' down alright?" "Oh. Yeah."
Male lead is a fine figure of a man. Female lead is not beautiful. He lies. She leaves. Another guy hangs himself. Misery misery misery. Fairly standard male friendship in adversity, guy-solidarity stuff generates some brief warmth before total darkness descends forever.
Boogie Nights (1997)
Losers Win Your Heart
A film that suffers from lack of plot and the nagging sense that it is not going anywhere, but excels as a character sketch of a group of struggling young people involved in the porn film industry in the 1980s who all suffer from that famous California malady, "Low self esteem". The movie generates a surprising amount of sympathy and even a kind of grudging respect for (some of) them. My favorite line occurs in a scene where Burt Reynolds, who has always worked with "professional" actors to shoot his porn flicks on celluloid, decides reluctantly to explore the possibilities of the new video medium and takes his leading actress, "Rollergirl" a blond who never takes off her skates even when she takes everything else off, out in a stretch limo to film her having sex with random volunteers picked up off the streets. This goes badly wrong when they pick up a snotty college boy who recognizes her as a high school classmate and tries to have sex with her without any of the usual (even in porn films) conversational preliminaries, and without paying any attention to suggestions from Mr Reynolds about taking his time and enjoying himself a bit. After a final indignant expostulation from Reynolds, "Hey, show a little respect, this is Rollergirl!" the college snot is unceremoniously dumped out of the car.
Well worth your time.
The Road to Wellville (1994)
Manipulative Therapy
Hilarious, for those of us who like to see the health mafia subjected to a little well-deserved ridicule. Anthony Hopkins gives the performance of his life as the toothy, fast talking, enema obsessed Dr. Kellogg -- inventor of cornflakes and God knows what other benefits to humanity. Bridget Fonda and Traci Lind are surprisingly adorable and sexy with their hair piled up on top of their heads like in photos of great grandmother.
Bracing alternative to the Currier and Ives view of late nineteenth century America. One learns that hype and passionate interest in any means of grabbing a fast buck are not brand new phenomena in our country.