Friday, May 29, 1998
SCREENSCENE:
"Last Days of Disco"
Directed by Whit Stillman
Starring Chloee Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Mackenzie Astin and
Chris Eigeman
What a fantastic scene in "Last Days of Disco" when Alice
(played by the stunningly magnetic Chloee Sevigny) frames her dark
silhouette in her suitor’s door way, her precious figure grooving
lusciously to the soft retro tune of "More, More, More" as she
slowly starts sliding toward the bedroom which will occupy the rest
of her boogie night. The composition of the scene is so arousing
that director Whit Stillman now proves that he can even dazzle us
on a cinematic level.
But it’s still Stillman’s trademarks – the glib bantering, the
witty social critiques ("all recent college grads order vodka
tonics") and wonderfully intimate feel for personalities and
neighborhoods – which make "Last Days" a pleasure to watch from
first to last.
Admittedly, watching a Stillman film demands a certain amount of
an acquired taste. But like him or not, the cool thing about
Stillman is that he’s the voice of a community that no one else
makes films about: mildly neurotic preppy socialites trying to make
room for themselves in a world that largely won’t have them. (He
also directed "Barcelona," and his "Metropolitan" is a minor
masterpiece.) In the movie, someone calls the kids "yuppie scum"
when they’re all thrown out of a New York hot spot, to which an
offended Eigeman – a joyous study in cynical bastardom, as always –
responds, "For a group to exist, the people in it have to say that
they’re a part of it."
Yes, they keep coming back – a more successful venture, of
course, for Alice and her beautifully tactless friend Charlotte
(Beckinsale). But the prep boys do manage to hook up with the girls
inside, where they start downplaying the importance of group social
life and engage in "ferocious pairing off."
Astin plays a yuppy advertising executive who simply must get
into the club because he has clients to impress. One of his
clients, unfortunately, turns out to be an undercover federal
agent, and so the club’s drug playground is exposed, dousing the
era’s already dwindling disco inferno once and for all.
Tommy Nguyen
Grade: A-
"Hope Floats"
Directed by Forest Whitaker
Starring Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick Jr. and Gena Rowlands
In a time when movie screens are filled with giant lizards
destroying New York and blazing asteroids heading toward earth,
it’s nice to watch a quiet human drama. But it’d be nicer to watch
one with a story that developed in a logical fashion.
"Hope Floats" tells the story of Birdee Pruitt (Bullock), the
woman with the perfect life. She’s the former beauty queen with a
wonderful daughter and beautiful marriage to her high school
sweetheart. But after discovering on national TV that her husband
has been sleeping with her best friend, Birdee must rebuild her
life and learn the things that are of real importance.
With daughter in hand, Birdee returns home to the small town
she’s put behind her, complete with bitter old acquaintances and an
eccentric mother who’s decorated the house with stuffed
roadkill.
The film is supposed to follow Birdee’s growth as she learns to
float above adversity and regain her self-confidence. But "Hope
Floats" is overly ambitious in its attempt at poignancy, trying to
weave the themes of rediscovery, difficult family relationships and
overcoming hardship all into one emotional tale. Instead, the
elements are haphazardly inserted throughout the film.
The movie’s failure to genuinely move the audience is no fault
of its actors. Bullock gives her most heartfelt performance yet and
is genuinely believable as the loving mother of a 9-year-old. The
connection between Whitman and Bullock is equally realistic, from
the dramatic scenes to the little forehead kisses. And with her dry
remarks and biting advice, Rowlands is stellar as the tough-loving
mother.
While director Whitaker ("Waiting to Exhale") is good at drawing
out remarkable performances from his actors, he has a little
trouble telling the story. Birdee’s recovery and rediscovery does
not play out in a linear fashion, and the audience never really
sees her emotional progression.
So while the movie contains moving individual scenes and
touching moments, "Hope Floats" does not create the needed
impact.
Stephanie Sheh
Grade: B-
"Little Boy Blue"
Directed by Antonio Tibaldi
Starring Ryan Phillippe, John Savage, Shirley Knight and
Nastassja Kinski
"Little Boy Blue" is one of those silly attempts at American
Gothic, relentlessly overwrought in all of the genre’s cliched
battiness while not giving an ounce of respect for the quiet,
inexplicable nuances of atmosphere, ecstasy and grace which truly
mark the deliverance of this sort of imagination. ("Sling Blade"
wasn’t bad, but will we ever see anything like John Huston’s "Wise
Blood" again?)
Director Tibaldi confuses the requisite sense of mystery for
tawdry suspense, as we try to figure out why this 19-year-old
pitching sensation (Phillippe) chooses to hang around in the middle
of nowhere with a violently deranged, penile-crippled father
(Savage) who gets off from forcing his son to have sex with his own
mother (Kinski). Apparently, the boy loves his two younger brothers
so much that he can’t leave them, even though he’s been planning
for years to take off with his uptown sweetheart after high
school.
The movie then begins to reveal dark family secrets and whatnot,
as an oddball woman (Knight) comes to town wearing a dorky cowboy
hat and an attitude to match. She becomes a part of the movie’s
unintentionally laughable shoot-’em-up finale.
Within this stupid mess, at least there’s Phillippe ("I Know
What You Did Last Summer"), who commands a real attractive star
presence on the screen, but without all the self-aware glossiness
of a DiCaprio. His eyes have the same sensitive wavers that James
Dean had, and the young actor can be seen, almost exclusively
without a shirt on, in the upcoming "54."
Tommy Nguyen
Grade: C-