1997 begins with two Jennifer Lopez movies, the debut of a modern American master, and Corky St. Clair:
Waiting for Guffman
release: January 31
dir: Christopher Guest
pr: Karen Murphy
scr: Christopher Guest & Eugene Levy
cin: Roberto Schaefer
A rewatch for me, I first saw it thanks to Hollywood Video while in high school and have since revisited it many, many times. Christopher Guest semi-improvised mockumentary comedies are their own genre, this one's my favorite, focusing as it does on the world of amateur theatricals. And within that milieu, small town pride and politics, the fantasy of a life that could be vaguely "more" than the one you lead, and, uncynically, finding expression, self, and purpose in the arts. We can giggle at the outsized ambitions of Corky St. Clair (Guest, iconic), touting his expertise as he puts on a very local musical about the history of the town of Blaine, Missouri, and certainly, much of Corky's plans are about the self-mythology of Corky, but there is also something beautiful about someone who does not see any subject as unworthy of being treated as great (in his mind) art, who can create a tribute for a town of "bastard people," make them feel seen, give people an opportunity to be and see a version of themselves they had not anticipated. We need our dreams, don't we?
Vegas Vacation
release: February 14
dir: Stephen Kessler
pr: Jerry Weintraub
scr: Elisa Bell, story by Elisa Bell & Bob Ducsay
cin: William A. Fraker
A rewatch for me, I first saw it when it came to home video and hadn't watched it since. Filler movie, nothing really laugh-out-loud funny, very little even chuckle-worthy, yet it's not that things are bad, they just don't land. The runner where Wayne Newton (as a quietly unhinged version of himself) attempts to seduce Beverly D'Angelo probably gets the most mileage: Newton is game for the task, D'Angelo is one of the great reactors (and, apparently, a Kids' Choice Awards nominee for Favorite Movie Actress? She lost to Alicia Silverstone for Batman & Robin).
Lost Highway
release: February 21
dir: David Lynch
pr: Deepak Nayar / Tom Sternberg / Mary Sweeney
scr: David Lynch & Barry Gifford
cin: Peter Deming
Went in with a blank slate, honestly the best way to experience this movie, because IMDb's brief summary is accurate but undersells it, while my best way to describe it (a nightmare loop within dark corners and negative spaces) is just nonsense without context, probably inaccurate. A kind of supernatural neo-noir, I guess? I don't know how to describe it, it feels like a full-length version of that segment of Blue Velvet where Dennis Hopper takes Kyle MacLachlan on a horrible night out. I loved it. Bill Pullman's blasting on a saxophone, Patricia Arquette dons great wigs, Robert Blake is terrifying, Robert Loggia dispenses necessary guidance on tailgating, and Balthazar Getty is a lost puppy.
Donnie Brasco
release: February 28
nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay
dir: Mike Newell
pr: Louis DiGiaimo / Mark Johnson / Barry Levinson / Gail Mutrux
scr: Paul Attanasio
cin: Peter Sova
A movie that reminds me of that one Emma Thompson quote where she said she didn't want to play the kind of wife roles where all she was required to play was, "Please don't do that important thing: the children need you." By which I mean: Anne Heche deserved better! Dialed-down Depp feels lost, mostly surface, doesn't feel like he actually gets the character (or wants to). Pacino, on the other hand, is terrific as Depp's "in," an aging second-rate gangster who doesn't realize he no longer has any pull, if indeed he ever did. He's the Fredo here; no, he's the Shelley Levene, desperate to make an impression. An impressive, sad performance in an otherwise pretty generic cop thriller.
Hard Eight
release: February 28
dir/scr: Paul Thomas Anderson
pr: Robert Jones / John S. Lyons
cin: Robert Elswit
A rewatch for me, I first saw it in high school when I marathoned Paul Thomas Anderson's films. Philip Baker Hall as aging professional gambler/former mobster Sydney (the film's original title) is the whole reason to watch, a melancholy portrayal of wisdom borne of many mistakes, a man who has constructed a form of dignity with which to conduct himself. It's a great performance. Good movie, but it's very first feature, very '90s; you'll know what I mean when you hear the monologues and sit through some unconvincing plot twists (some turns honestly winced into the screen). But on a performance level, on a Promising Filmmaker level, hell yeah. If you like Hall or Anderson (or, indeed, John C. Reilly or Samuel L. Jackson, who's terrific here), it's worth the watch.
Jungle 2 Jungle
release: March 7
dir: John Pasquin
pr: Brian Reilly
scr: Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon
cin: Tony Pierce-Roberts
A rewatch for me, I first saw it in cinemas. There's a weird subplot with Russian mobsters that doesn't quite play (similar to the drug dealer subplot in another American remake of a successful French farce, Three Men and a Baby). This might be my own ignorance, OK, that's fair, but I didn't think it was nearly as offensive as it could've been, and while I usually take umbrage at the shallow narrative of "big city guy needs to learn to let go and go native," there's a sincere attempt to accept that one can have enough, that different cultures can exchange knowledge and epiphanies, and that family is worth losing a fiancee (that you share no chemistry with) for. I got emotional! JoBeth Williams is giving a terrific performance! Merchant-Ivory collaborator Pierce-Roberts is the cinematographer!
Crash
release: March 21
dir/pr/scr: David Cronenberg
cin: Peter Suschitzky
Kind of love that exactly one month apart, divisive auteur Davids gave us Arquette sisters in very specific fetish roles/dress; here, scarred, leg-braced Rosanna seems like a one-off curiosity but gets a showcase sex scene that is simultaneously off-putting, thrilling, erotic, uncomfortable, and impractical (that seat is too close to the steering wheel!). This very same year, Michael Haneke's Funny Games would premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May (with a 1998 US release); its meta scolding about the thrill we get from watching violence in film and television pales in comparison to Cronenberg's and original author J.G. Ballard's link between actual sex and violence, where horrific car accidents are foreplay and sexual act, physical activity ending in a loud release. Yeah, I dug it. Elias Koteas, who I thought would get his greatest showcase in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, gets star treatment as the mysterious Vaughn, wow wow wow!
Liar Liar
release: March 21
dir: Tom Shadyac
pr: Brian Hrazer
scr: Paul Guay & Stephen Mazur
cin: Russell Boyd
A rewatch for me, I first saw it, oh, numerous times on TV. Love these in-between fables that are simple enough for the whole family but raunchy enough for, uh, not the whole family. So I guess PG-13 is the perfect rating. Good for all involved: Jim Carrey's great, physically, verbally, handsomely, just a ball - and a Golden Globe nominee, deservedly so! And look at all these women: Swoosie Kurtz gives good antagonist, Jennifer Tilly's Tex Avery-level hot and (I know, I know) Madeline Kahn-level funny, Anne Haney gets actual material to chew on, and Maura Tierney, of course, shows up and gives you thirteen layers of history and emotion on a line reading that most would (and should!) just toss off. Silly, but it works.
Selena
release: March 21
dir/scr: Gregory Nava
pr: Moctezuma Esparza / Robert Katz
cin: Edward Lachman
A flood of memory washes over me...in second grade (1997-98 for me, sorry), Ms. Whittaker, among my all-time favorite teachers, takes a turn as the wish-granting fairy, we have to submit something we wish would happen and she tells us if she can grant it or not (honestly, a great teaching moment for the limits of deities). Four or five girls ask her to bring Selena back to life. The first time she reads that request, she hesitates..."Is this because of the movie?" And a whole clique bursts into tears. Later, I'm invited to a playdate at Janessa's for the first time - it's the summer between 2nd and 3rd grade, I've never been there, she's my first real big crush, she introduces me to Fastball's "The Way" - the most significant moment, for me, is the time she insists on taking me alone to her room so we can listen and dance to the Selena soundtrack together. For two years, "I could fall in love with you....." was as inescapable as "Near, far, wherever you are...."
It took me almost 30 years to finally see the movie. It's interesting enough. Edward James Olmos is great, beginning with his non-starter career as a musician is pretty genius because it informs so much of the rest of the movie, his character, the performance. But this movie came out only two years after the real Selena's assassination; while everything leading up to her fame is interesting, everything with her place in the world of Latin music, mainstream success, the salon, the fan club, Yolanda - well, it's taken for granted you already know all this, so it's very vague, broad strokes. Selena herself, as a character, is defined by her relationships with her father and her husband. I think it's a good movie, but I think its longevity in pop culture has more to do with it being the main record of a Latin-American boundary-breaker than with its actual quality, which is pretty...fine. I just don't think there's enough distance.
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie
release: March 28
dir: Shuki Levy / David Winning
pr: Jonathan Tzachor
scr: Shuki Levy & Shell Danielson
cin: Ilan Rosenberg
A rewatch for me, I first saw it at my friend Matthew's and, if I recall correctly, it was on LaserDisc (his was the first and only family I knew that owned an LD player). I probably should have watched a movie I'd never seen before rather than watch a movie I last saw when I was 8 or 9 years old, but I had a vivid memory of a certain shot and thought I ought to... Anyway, whatever, not worth it, even everyone's hair looks like shit.
Anaconda
release: April 11
dir: Luis Llosa
pr: Verna Harrah / Carole Little / Leonard Rabinowitz
scr: Hans Bauer and Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr.
cin: Bill Butler
A rewatch for me, I first saw it when it came to home video and we rented it many times. Many times. My relief on this rewatch decades later was finally understanding some of the narrative turns that bring the film's climax to a shack. Turns out, they're still opaque. But this is your run-of-the-mill monster movie with a crazed villain, a role assayed here by Jon Voight with a Paraguayan accent and a greasy ponytail. God, I tell you what, though: Voight is magnificent. The kills are murky, the effects are dated even for the time, and the performances are just about what this genre requires, but Voight with that bizarre accent, he said, "I know what the people need," and he delivered! Only 20 days after Selena, Jennifer Lopez is the heroine, a documentary filmmaker in search of a lost tribe. She's fine here, too, and she'll be fine later down the road, as we'll see.
Romy & Michele's High School Reunion
release: April 25
dir: David Mirkin
pr: Laurence Mark
scr: Robin Schiff
cin: Reynaldo Villalobos
A rewatch for me, I first saw it just two years ago when one of my best friends hosted a movie day - an excuse to introduce me to this and White Chicks. I am so grateful he did that. I'm reminded of when I joined my Class of '07 Facebook group and people tried to organize a 10-year reunion; baby, it never happened, not least because everyone said social media made it unnecessary, we all kept up with people we liked, no need to "network" with assholes. Naturally, this came to mind as I watched my titular gals come to the realization, late in the movie, that, as Michele so wisely say: "I never knew that we weren't that great in high school." Well, yes. Like the first film from this post, Waiting for Guffman, Romy & Michele's High School Reunion is dedicated to the weirdos (NEWSFLASH: EVERYONE feels like a weirdo (except for that one kid who said to me, when I told him I was campaigning for him to be prom king, "I'm pretty popular, Walter, I don't need campaigning")); this one is just as much for those who haven't realized their potential yet (as Romy & Michele must) as it is for those who already saw their hyper-focused weirdness as advantages (yeah, hi, Alan Cumming and his whole deal, but also, hello, Janeane Garofalo as Heather Donohue, you are a star!!!!). The costumes, from earrings to heels and everything in between, are unlike anything you've seen in a motion picture. The performances are bone-deep without forgetting what kind of comedy they're in. This is cinema, on rewatch, it really is one of the greats, it's why we come to the movies, to see ourselves as we are and what we could be if we just allowed ourselves the benefit of knowing our fantasies are within our capabilities.
Tomorrow: Austin Powers, Batman, and Julia Roberts. Oh, it's all good.
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