Apparently, filmmaker David Dobkin was inspired to make this after seeing "Fargo." Despite never reaching the creative heights as the Coens' 1996 masterpiece, "Clay Pigeons," set in a small Montana town peopled with idiosyncratic characters, functions well as a unique independent film with bite and quirky oddness to spare.
Here's the deal- loser Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) is banging his best friend Earl (Gregory Sporleder's) white-trash girlfriend, Amanda (Georgina Cates). When Earl gets sick of being two-timed, he gets drunk and commits suicide in front of Clay, trying to frame him for his death.
This leads to a string of events that leave Clay totally shaken and out of his comfort zone, as bodies pile up, friendly serial killer Lester Long (played by Vince Vaughn, but don't let that run you off) befriends Clay, and acerbic FBI agent Agent Shelby (Jeanane Garofelo) is on the case.
For reasons I cannot fully explain, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and laughed throughout. Blame it on my crazy sense of humor. Blame it on my love of gratuitous film violence and insanity. But mostly, blame it on Tim Roth. Roth's manic, inspired portrayal of swishy, spasticated, neurotic bellhop "Ted" resulted in one of the most entertaining characters I've seen in a while.
Here's the deal- "Four Rooms" is a pseudo-anthology film featuring four segments written and directed by four filmmakers. Each segment follows Ted (Roth) through one insane New Year spent at a hotel and punctuated by violence, weird sexuality, and mutilation. Three of the segments are directed by filmmakers I'm not really familiar with, and the fourth is done by Tarantino.
I liked all of the stories in the film, but in different ways. I didn't really know what to make of the first one. A coven of witches staying at the hotel, played by prominent '90s icons such as Madonna and Lili Taylor, discover they need sperm to complete their witchy potion to bring the goddess Diana to life. And who else for the job but twitchy hotel bellboy Roth?
Despite a fairly small viewership, Bobcat Godtwait's pitch-black comedy
"God Bless America" has proved to be somewhat controversial since it's
release, which was no doubt what Goldtwait intended. Rumors abound about
it's 'glorification of violence,' 'tasteless content,' and so-called
'Liberal agenda.' So here I am to weigh in my two cents.
First of all, the allegation that the film is political propaganda is
pure bollocks. Despite the mockery of extreme right-wingers and
'Obama-as-Hitler' ridiculousness, "God Bless America" proves to be, like
it's protagonist Frank, largely politically neutral.
By the beginning of the film, Frank (Joel Murray) is enraged and
psychotically angry. Drinking and fantasizing about killing the
inconsiderately loud next-door couple and their baby does little to
quench his increasing blood lust.
...Mostly bloody. And when an armor-clad direct descendant of Ivan the Terrible shows up to hack and slash our beleaguered anti-heroes, borderline ridiculous.
In this pseudo-horror, pseudo-comedy, the pseudo-plot follows a thief named Ritchie (Stephen Dorff) who, when a jewel heist goes badly awry, pays a visit to his crime boss Mr. Groznyi (Sean Pertwee) who forces him, under duress, to pull off another crime.
Ritchie joins forces with sociopath Peter (Jamie Foreman) and his whimpering brother Yuri (Russell Smith) in a high-rise in Moscow, Russia. Their mission: to steal an expensive cross that once belonged to royalty.
No one ever wanted to watch a movie about a safe and simple jewel heist, however, and things get complicated -- fast. Although he is a thief, Ritchie has a moral code.
Peter, on the other hand, doesn't, and pretty soon a woman is dead and they have a cluster of hostages, among them shy pacifist Dmitry (Hugh O'Conor), attractive Anna (Jaime Murray), and a strange, religious group of women led by Sonya (Bronagh Gallagher).
When one of these people pulls a gun and it is revealed the entire floor is booby-trapped and policed by a madman, things get bloody. Although it has some funny moments, Botched dishes out sequence after comic sequence that simply doesn't work, among them the stolen sandwich, the pissing rat, and the scene where Dmitry is slapped.
On top of that Jaime Murray, as Anna, is mediocre at best and the idea that she would even consider hooking up with Ritchie is really pushing it. Stockholm Syndrome, anyone? The performance of Edward Baker-Duli as the mad slasher is exaggerated and uninteresting, like a role in a stage play -- a really bad stage play.
Although I did like the Russian music and the hyper-kinetic cinematography, Botched was neither funny nor involving enough to hold my attention. On the back of the box, Slasherpool.com calls it a "brilliant horror-comedy" and compares it to Shaun of the Dead. Fat chance, skippy.
If you have seen this director's previous U.S.-available effort, The Living & the Dead, you'll know the drill- everything that can go wrong does, and his films navigate the uncomfortable grey areas of the human psyche. Being a fan of Simon Rumley's The Living & the Dead, I decided to check it out, despite similarly mixed reviews and a nagging feeling in the back of my gut.
Boy, this film is brutal. If Rumley meant to outdo the violence and nihilistic tone of his previous movie, he succeeded. All the main characters make uniformly bad and immoral decisions, and all of them suffer for it. The movie starts out with a sleazy feel, with promiscuous Erica (Amanda Fuller) getting into bed with random strangers at a nightclub.
Then she meets Nate (Noah Taylor,) who got a honorable discharge from Iraq. Although he tips her off almost immediately that he has a history of torturing and killing animals, Erica is drawn to him, mostly because he is the first man in a long time who doesn't seem to be after sex.
The film then puts a third character into the mix, Franki (Marc Senter), who is taking care of his sick mother Ellie (Sally Jackson. whose kind and sympathetic character reminds the viewer of Kate Fahy's Nancy in The Living and the Dead.) Franki has a rock band going with his various buds and hates his father.
The family is thrilled when Ellie goes into remission, but tragedy lurks just around the corner, and Erica's crime has unexpected repercussions.
Gandhi's advice, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind," seems to apply here.
Like Todd Field's In the Bedroom, revenge only hurts those who practice it, and no one seems to get much gratification out of it (except for one, who is basically a sociopath.) But even the sociopath is capable of compassion,, which makes the dynamic between the characters all the more puzzling.
.
I love Rumley's style, with his moral ambiguity, interesting cinematography, and tense situations. But Red, White, & Blue has scenes and gaps in storytelling that make it seem less professional. The music during the torture scenes, for instance, is discordant and not in a good way, like taking bad inspiration from Psycho.
Some scenes open awkwardly in the middle of the action, and end just as uncomfortably. An example is when Erica is almost raped by a co-worker.
The beginning shot of the scene takes place in the middle of the attack, and Nate lingers for a moment before hitting the attacker with a hammer off-screen.
The next scene shows Nate approaching and sitting next to a teary Erica. But happened to the would-be rapist? Was he killed and his body disposed of? Arrested? Taken to the hospital? He disappeared without a trace. There are several scenes like that, which leave the viewer rather confused.
Some of the dialogue is rather stiff and drawn out, and several lines sound alien from the way anyone I know speaks. The acting is good, however, with unknown actors (Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter) turning in capable performances. Noah Taylor, who you may know as the teenage version of the pianist David Helfgott in the biopic "Shine," does creepy and brutal nicely. And the last scene of violence goes above and beyond over the top, amounting to one of the most disgusting things I've seen in a long time.
Should you see it? Despite panning reviews, it's not "only an exploitation film." Although it is a bit rough at times. it has a sense of style and has Rumley's essential humanity, light amongst the darkness. Go see it if you have a strong stomach, and be sure to watch The Living and the Dead, which has a classy Gothic atmosphere and more involving, likable characters.
