varunv-57277 Reviews

Colors (1988)

One of the first mainstream Hollywood films to showcase the LA gang scene & the various parties caught in its crosshairs

[7/10 · 8 November 2021]

Solidly entertaining & quite dated (by todays standards) hood drama that focuses more on the LAPD cops than on the gangs & barrios unlike later films in this sub-genre such as Boyz N the Hood & Menace 2 Society, & definitely the one that will irk modern day audiences the most. I liked the gritty realism of the first half hour & the quasi documentary style kind of lays a good foundation for introducing the various different Black & Latino gangs to the audience. As someone who is not so well versed about LA gang culture, this felt quite intriguing to me & I think that this was one of the earliest mainstream movies to have showcased this side of LA which has become all too common now in mainstream Hollywood crime flicks (David Ayer's almost entire filmography owes quite a lot to this). The story is nothing out of the ordinary but it has enough things going on to sustain interest which includes some cool car chases, a decent pace, some twists & turns that come into play in the latter half of the film & the overall authenticity of it all.

While I do think that Sean Penn has a tendency to overact in his roles, he is far more reined in & restrained here which I frankly did not expect given the role & the incendiary subject matter. Duvall is probably the greatest actor to have ever lived & if anyone has any doubts about that then one has to only watch his acting performance in the climax to dispel any such notions. I do wish though that Don Cheadle had a bigger role in this. He is suitably menacing but he almost seems like a secondary villain.

This was my first Dennis Hopper directed film & he demonstrated a good command over the car chases, action scenes & most of the performances. I am really excited to now check out his other more acclaimed films. Also accompanied by a terrific hip hop soundtrack & score by jazz legend Herbie Hancock (the highlight being the killer title cut by Ice T) & great nighttime photography by ace cinematographer Haskell Wexler.

Stuck (I) (2007)

A really nasty & surprisingly funny dark comedy thriller that proves that Gordon was a really solid filmmaker

[7/10 · 11 October 2021]

Imagine the attempted killing scene of the Tony Shaloub character in Pain & Gain stretched out to a full feature length film & you get Stuck. Based on a heinous true crime incident, this is a surprisingly funny & nasty black comedy thriller that often feels in tone like an exploitation flick as filtered through the lens of the Coen brothers.

We get some extremely unsavory characters who find themselves in exceedingly precarious situations. What makes the film feel fresh & unique is that it starts off as a gruesome thriller & it looks to be headed in that direction until it starts to add some increasingly bizarre & deliciously dark humor that really make the turn of events that much more amusing & shocking to bear witness to. Mena Suvari & Stephen Rea are brilliant in their respective roles especially Suvari who seems to be having a lot of fun in the role of the manipulative & selfish Brandi. Gordon's direction is similarly interesting & his choices are quite memorable. A hip hop song set to the images of an old age home, a really funny & awkward sex scene, a dog biting into an injured man's wounds & the funniest scene that involves a character mentioning of a deer crawling after getting accidentally hit which had me in splits. All of this is then topped off by a crazy climax set entirely inside a claustrophobic garage that perfectly conveys a sense of karmic retribution & effective social commentary about the plight of homeless people & society's apathy towards them.

This & Edmond just prove that Stuart Gordon(RIP) was an extremely versatile director whose films were much more than Lovecraft & Poe adaptations. Wish he had made more such films in his career.

Intimacy (2001)

An interesting albeit flawed erotic drama

[6/10 · 10 October 2021]

An interesting albeit flawed erotic drama that feels like a cross between Last Tango in Paris & Brief Encounter, but with none of the intensity of the former & none of the emotional resonance of the latter. The title is misleading as this film is more about a hollow & completely unemotional no strings attached sexual relationship between two lonely individuals. This then ultimately leads to one of the parties trying to seek something more than just quick sweaty sex & forge a more emotional connection with the other person. This as expected leads to further complications, the ramifications of which would go on to impact both their lives.

The film is quite drab in terms of it's settings playing out completely in shoddy looking flats, dull underground theaters & unappealing bars which is quite intentional given that the film is trying to be an anti romance. The characters look tired & drained out & even the sex is as unerotic as possible. The first hour sets the stage for intriguing things to come & I was curious to see where the film would head once our lead decides to get to know more about his fuck buddy. But the film takes a detour into somewhat bland & predictable territory once that happens. Still it is quite commendable that the sex is portrayed as realistically & authentically as possible. This is not titillation or provocative art porn but an honest look at depersonalized sex that does not seek to arouse.

Mark Rylance seems a bit miscast here in my opinion. He is a terrific actor but he seems somewhat too posh sounding for what is essentially a working class character. Someone like a Gary Oldman or a David Thewlis would have been perfect for this role instead. Kerry Fox fares better especially in the theater scenes, though her accent does slip into her NZ twang at times. Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew from the HP movies) is pretty much the highlight here as the cheated husband. His character pretty much plays to his strengths as an actor & he portrays it perfectly. The taxi scene in particular is a perfect demonstration of his skills.

I just wish that this film had more to deliver than what it did. The supporting characters which include a French bartender & a Scottish bum are amusing but completely superfluous to the movie & rather underdeveloped. I did not understand their role or significance here. Neither are some of the events as rationally played out as one might expect. One revelation in particular is not even shown or conveyed to the audience until it is just mentioned in passing.

To sum it up, this is a perfectly serviceable film but it does not break any new ground that had been mostly set by the 2 aforementioned movies it clearly seems to be influenced by.