Monday, May 18
Screenscene"Lawn Dogs"Directed by John DuiganStarring Mischa
Barton and Sam RockwellIt’s here. Winter is gone and spring has
come out to play. Time to pull out the gardening gloves. Let the
hired help (sometimes known as one’s children) yank out the ol’
gas-guzzling grass cutter and trim down those unkempt green lawns.
In the spirit of anyone who has gotten their hands dirty, director
John Duigan delivers his latest gritty drama, "Lawn Dogs."The film
revolves around Trent Burns (Sam Rockwell) and Devon Stockard
(Mischa Barton). Trent is a 21-year-old, working-class lawnmower to
the wealthy residents of the mythical Louisville suburb. Often
looked at as poor white trash by the locals, Trent is a victim of
their prejudice.Devon is the lonely 10-year-old girl whose family
has just moved to the neighborhood. Unlike her socially conscious
parents, Devon is without friends. Having surgical scars so
appalling that even her father won’t look at them, she is also
separate from the privileged pack, giving her an early taste of
prejudice in the world.Forming an unlikely friendship, the duo
finds that they share the same emotional and physical discomforts.
The relationship frightens her parents, and multiple antagonistic
characters arise to stop the pair from seeing each other. As a
blatant reminder of the growing class separation in America, the
director hopes that everyone will understand the involved moral
implications, but only succeeds in sending overly idealistic
messages. Despite the occasional moral preaching, this film offers
strong performances by its lead actors. Shining brighter than all
the rest is Barton. Thankfully, the writers of the film did not
make her character a typical, annoying brat who wears out her
welcome in the first few minutes. She is innocent yet
knowledgeable, withdrawn yet imaginative. Unfortunately, the film
suffers in its depiction of the upper-class residents. The
stereotypical characters, ranging from the lonely housewife to the
mean-spirited punk, are all found within the film. Complicating the
situation is the fantastical tale recalled by Devon, which attempts
to draw teary-eyed sentiment to the latter part of movie, but only
succeeds in creating feelings of utter confusion and eye-popping
bewilderment. The movie rides on the coattails of its main
characters, but in the end, the audience is left with nothing more
than a disheveled mess.Teron HideGrade: C"Plump Fiction"Directed by
Bob KoherrStarring Tommy Davidson, Paul Dinello and Julie
BrownSpoofs have been making people laugh since "Airplane" and
"Naked Gun," but in what was meant to be a humorous spoof on "Pulp
Fiction" and other recent independent movies, Bob Koherr’s "Plump
Fiction" is a film that makes you squirm every time another lousy
joke just doesn’t work. Tommy Davidson is Julius (counterpart to
Samuel Jackson’s Jules) and Paul Dinello is Jimmy (to John
Travolta’s Vincent). And together, they are two fast-talking bug
men working for Montello (Robert Costanzo), Los Angeles’ most
feared insect exterminator and strip-joint proprietor. One would
think that a spoof parodying "Pulp Fiction’s" two hit men as bug
exterminators might work. In fact, a lot of the different character
setups sound good.Jimmy has to show Montello’s wife Mimi (Julie
Brown), a good time while he is out of town on business. So they go
out to the Independent Cafe where the waiters and waitresses are
dressed as the stars of recent independent films. Along the way,
Jimmy and Mimi manage to come across the Reservoir Nuns and the
Natural Blonde Killers. It sounds like a funny idea, but but the
actors go too far over the top in their attempts at parody.Spoofs
usually supply immediate laughs, and in the right hands, they can
provide some amusing entertainment. But "Plump Fiction" is
down-right terrible. With a "Nell" character as the gimp and a
"Forrest Gump" parody as one of the restaurant robbers, shallow
parts don’t even follow through in their sole role as laugh
vehicles."Plump Fiction" will be playing with a short film called
"Swing Blade." The short plays as if it is a movie trailer about a
bunch of cool swingers who are trying to convince their friend that
he "is so money that he doesn’t even know it." But that friend is a
backwoods boy who is a spoof of the Billy Bob Thornton character
from Sling Blade. This three-minute-long cross between "Sling
Blade" and "Swingers" is funnier than the entire 85 minutes of
"Plump Fiction."Warren TesslerGrade: F
Mischa Barton stars as Devon, an injured girl ostracized from
her suburban
community in John Duigan’s "Lawn Dogs"