Stagecoach of the future

 NEON CITY (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Dirty, messy, unfocused "Mad Max" rip-off are the first words that occurred to me while watching "Neon City." I still gave it a shot, even when we learn that some woman in a desolate, wintry landscape sells dog meat (yuck!) in some wooden shack. When you have a cast that includes the lovely Vanity, the tough-as-rusty-nails Michael Ironside and the late NFL defense lineman for the Cleveland Browns, Lyle Alzado, I wanted to be on board. After a practically worthless opening, the movie picks up a little speed and I sorta, kinda enjoyed it. 

It is the year 2053 and the world's climate has deteriorated due to the ozone layer thinning out completely. A scientist had screwed up with some scientific experiment and so a mutated group known as the Skins have become marauders who have seen "The Road Warrior" one too many times. A rough, no-holds-barred bounty hunter named Stark (convincingly played by Michael Ironside with a ponytail) has a prisoner with a red star tattoo in tow named Reno (Vanity) who torched her parents. He will turn her in and get his "credits" but unfortunately, he has take her to the safe haven of Neon City! This means getting on board a mobile transport with a motley crew of characters. They include a murderous doctor; a comedian who performs magic tricks; the aforementioned scientist who is trying to keep a low profile; Stark's ex who is getting married in Neon City and a socialite of sorts (Juliet Landau) who has presumably never been outside Neon City...except she has since she is in this vast wasteland. A few stops along the way to a bar/restaurant, a clinic littered with corpses, and deadly climate obstructions (Xander Clouds and Brights) eventually lead to that city!   

"Neon City" has a grungy, low-tech, micro-budget feel that is completely appropriate to this oft-old tale but it is nothing special or particularly memorable. You'll come away wishing there was more intimacy between Vanity and Michael Ironside (a most unlikely pair who have sex in a series of Hallmark dissolves) and some measure of camaraderie between all the other characters. It has been described as a futuristic variation on "Stagecoach" and, though it is not close to the same cinematic level, you will not feel like you wasted your time.

Pledge your love or die

 CHRISTINE (1983)

Remembering that darling '58 Plymouth Fury 

by Jerry Saravia

"Christine" is a wild gorilla of a movie. I compare it to a gorilla because it looks harmless yet, provoke it or make it jealous, it can turn fearsome and kill you. Based on Stephen King's supernatural novel, "Christine" unfolds with a leisurely pace and the brief excursions into supernatural horror tropes occurs in spades. The movie is a master class in making a horror film palatable to the audience, to reveal itself first and foremost through its characters and then scare us.

Set in late 1970's, nerdy, clumsy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham (Keith Gordon who is exceptionally good) is threatened by bullies during shop class with a switchblade on his first day of school. Arnie's best friend, Dennis, a sweet-natured jock (John Stockwell), intervenes and is always there for his buddy no matter what. While driving through a deserted road, Arnie spots a dirty, seemingly broken-down 1958 Plymouth Fury car on someone's lawn and is instantly smitten. Arnie buys the car, despite Dennis's objections, and at a garage owned by a most repugnant man, Darnell (Robert Prosky, making us smell the oil and grease just by his mere appearance), the Plymouth Fury is worked on becomes a pristine car. It is in such pristine condition that you feel just grazing the classic car or touching it might kill you (and you would be right). The car has a supernatural bent to it and it feels emotions - jealousy may cause Christine to disrupt the ignition. Drop some cigarette ash on the seat or, in the film's most grueling moment, have the car's entire body frame, hood and headlights get smashed by those bullies and Christine will find you on those lonely city streets at night. Beware. 

Christine has an adverse effect on Arnie who changes his attitude, loses the glasses, wears fashionable clothes, struts like no one's business with confidence, and threatens his parents with obscene language. Arnie begins dating Leigh (Alexandra Paul), the new beguiling student at school, but their drive-in date turns into a disaster involving her getting locked in the car and almost choking to death. The romance soon turns sour and Arnie also stops seeing his best buddy, Dennis. Christine also begins her nightly rampage of chasing down those who hate her and Arnie. Comical moments develop before the violence erupts when Christine starts playing 1950's rock and roll tunes like "Pledging My Love" and "Little Bitty Pretty One." 

I've seen "Christine" many times and it is always been a mesmerizing, sometimes terrifying treat of a movie. From director John Carpenter, it is extra special for not containing an abundance of gore (the kills are practically off-screen including a scary gas station explosion scene). This could have been a slasher film with a car killing someone every few minutes. "Christine" plays by different rules and has a stylish veneer to it. "Christine" is beautiful, really, now please let me start the ignition.  

Wile E. Coyote becomes an ominous sign

 THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

A cross-country trip with an escaped convict and a ditzy girlfriend, along with a naive cop in tow, has been a formula recipe for action-driven scripts for years since the 1970's. The remarkable thing about "The Sugarland Express" is that it is a fun, raucous ride despite needing an infusion of deeper character interplay. Also, this trip is mostly through the state of Texas. 

William Atherton is the slightly dim Clovis who is incarcerated and will be released in four months. Goldie Hawn is Lou Jean, Clovis's wife, and she is visiting him after a long journey only to tell him the marriage is over. Their own son is in foster care and there's nothing Jean can do about it. End of movie? No, this is just the beginning of an endless chase film when Jean decides that Clovis needs to leave with her and get their young son. They escape in an older couple's car though the old man can't speed up. Finally, after a cop pulls them over for slowing down traffic, Clovis and Jean take the wheel and leave like a bat out of hell. A initially nervous patrolman Slide (Michael Sacks) chases them, is held hostage and forced to drive the couple in his squad car. You would think a less obvious vehicle would be more beneficial, but then you would be lying. In what seems like a whole squadron of police cars, the chase is on...in slow motion! That's right, they are on all their tail but the felons and the patrolman are not exactly traveling at high speeds. At one point, they pull over to get gas while the other officers also get gas! 

"The Sugarland Express" benefits greatly from the appearance of Ben Johnson as Captain Tanner, who realizes the felons are just a couple of kids. Yes, they are, and contextually they are not quite the imminent threat of the murderous felons from "Badlands" - they just don't know better. Goldie Hawn shows Jean as giddy and carefree, concerned over what type of bed to get for their boy. Jean puts on lipstick provided by locals (the threesome have become celebrities) and they receive odd gifts like a pig! There are just as many police cars on the chase as shown in "The Blues Brothers" with a few crashes along the way.  

There are few interactive moments between Clovis and Jean who love each other completely, though I wish there were more. One scene has them breaking in and staying in an RV at an auto lot. They manage to see through their window a Wile E. Coyote cartoon at a drive-in across the way. Clovis provides the soundtrack for the cartoon and, after a while, he turns silent and stares at the screen. Jean keeps giggling. It is a transcendental moment and an ominous sign for Clovis without much explanation or words. "The Sugarland Express" is an expertly made chase picture but it is the quieter moments that really resonate. 

Live your life

 ALL OF US STRANGERS (2023)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

If a man can't admit to being gay to his parents, then can he move on in life without such acceptance? Well, Adam (Andrew Scott) knows he is gay and accepts it. His parents might accept it or have trouble with his sexual orientation. As the film rolls with this oft-told tale of a single gay male coming to grips with his family possibly disowning him, my heart sank a little. I have seen many films about gay men and women who have had no trouble letting others know - think how in the 1990's, several independent films like "Go Fish" or "The Living End" explored LGBTQ lives without having to exploit the theme of "coming out." "All of Us Strangers" thankfully turns into some sort of quasi-metaphysical, dreamy and melancholic exploration of a man seeking solace from his parents. Without them, he can't move forward.

Adam is a forty-something TV/film writer living in a high-rise London apartment with only one other neighbor in the building. His life seems mundane as he watches TV, writes in his computer about his family that may or may not turn into a green-lit script, sleeps a lot and almost never leave his digs unless there is a fire drill. Adam's life seems empty, almost unrewarding. Never fear the excessive isolation when his drunken neighbor, Harry (Paul Mescal), arrives with liquor at Adam's apartment. Adam declines having Harry as a guest in his own home but then Adam warms up to Harry when they steadily develop a hot and heavy relationship - Harry is even able to bring Adam to a noisy dance club. Adam wants experiences but he can't let go of his parents.

Adam is confronting the realities of his lost family. His parents died in a car crash thirty years earlier and all that remains are the ghosts. Jamie Bell is Adam's father, who loves listening to Ink Spots records, and Claire Foy (in the film's most remarkable and nuanced performance) is Adam's loving mother. When she asks Adam if he has a girlfriend, his response is to come out of the closet. The nagging issue with the mother is that she is thinking in a 1990's lens about gays before they later became accepted. She is uncertain about the news yet she also has an unconditional love for Adam. So does the father. 

"All of Us Strangers" is a smoothly paced and hallucinatory film with no full disclosure of what is real or mere hallucination. The family discussions that Adam and his ghostly parents have together is often reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman's acute merging of reality and fantasy. Adam's love for his parents hasn't withered and, though they died when he was 12, he can't let them go so he merely sees as them living in the same Croydon home he grew up in.Writer-director Andrew Haigh invests wisely on the emotional toll it takes for Adam to come to grips with some form of reality - to be able to move on to that plateau called life. Though I wished there was a deeper connection between Adam and Harry that took place on that plateau, "All of Us Strangers" is a very moving, sad and practically unforgettable tale of a lonely man. What started off as a potential cliche turns into a dramatic tour-de-force for all involved. This film is to be treasured. 

Heartbreak is life just educating us

 MEN DON'T LEAVE (1990)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally seen in 1991)

It is nothing but heartbreak and relentless heartache in "Men Don't Leave," a rather offbeat domestic drama about a widow learning to cope with loss, with everything she thought she knew but has no idea how to deal with it going forward. What is so terrific about the film is that Jessica Lange plays the widowed mother of two sons who leaves her home for an apartment in Baltimore City. Lange conveys everything you want and need to know about this woman and how much suffering she's going through, even if it isn't always apparent. 

Lange is Beth MacAuley and she finds a job as an assistant manager at a gourmet food place called Lisa, run by a very finicky Lisa of course (memorably played by Kathy Bates). Beth has her two boys, the rebellious teenager Chris Macauley (Chris O’Donnell) and 9-year-old Matt Macauley (Charlie Korsmo). Chris simply wants to do what he wants, especially dating an older woman named Jody (Joan Cusack) who lives in the same apartment building. Matt won't cry about his father's accidental death and starts stealing VCR's with a classmate, just so that he can have enough money to return his family home. Home is where the heart is in his old house. 

Meanwhile, Beth meets a "weird" musician (Arliss Howard) during a food delivery and a relationship strikes where he makes it clear that bowling is as physical as they will get. Beth clearly is not ready for her new life and when he loses her job, everything becomes a shambles. She loves to bake to relax yet, one night, she throws her oversized muffins out the window! She can't get out of bed and it takes Jody to get her out of the slump and in a hot air balloon ride! 

None of this may read as extraordinarily believable, especially on paper, but it is Jessica Lange who makes everything seem possible. The lonely Beth is trying to move on and the hardships and emotional toll follow with a great deal of emotional sensibility. Arliss Howard seems like a contrivance as the musician who loves Beth unconditionally yet he also takes great pains to make him credible as a human being. Joan Cusack is not nearly as over-the-top as she can get in some movies and she also shows sensitivity as Jody, and wants to make a better life for everyone. A new family unit emerges. 

"Men Don't Leave" is a tearjerker but it is so life-affirming, so moving without jerking tears so obviously that I found myself weeping by the end. Sure, there are some cliches and foreseeable moments but the movie still works because it never feels false. A most unusual family film from Paul Brickman, the writer-director of "Risky Business." 

Crime doesn't pay and nor does stupidity

 BADLANDS (1973)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Badlands" is infrequently an insufferable chore to sit through yet it is also a stunningly poetic film about something that shouldn't be so beautifully portrayed - aimless young people on a crime spree. For its 1970's context, think "Bonnie and Clyde" yet more brutal and less engaging in emotions. This young couple could care less, roaming through the Dakotas and Montana on the run without a thought in their heads. 

Naturally with first-time director Terrence Malick, the young couple are not romanticized nor are they colorfully or cartoonishly portrayed - they are just boring. Martin Sheen is 25-year-old Kit who can't hold a job as a garbage collector yet he is handy with a gun - when he aims to shoot, he never seems to miss his human target. As he rolls through town, he spots an innocent fifteen-year-old girl named Holly (Sissy Spacek) and all he wants to do is walk with her and speak his mind. Truth is Kit has nothing to say and has little to no regard for anyone except himself. Holly sees him as a James Dean-type which was enough to make want to vomit. There is a nonchalant void in these two from the start so when Kit shoots Holly's stern father (Warren Oates), I wasn't surprised yet I still felt a sudden shock. The twosome burn the house down, leave an audio recording where they claim to have killed themselves, briefly live in the woods in their own little ramshackle wooden shack and pack up and leave after they kill some passerby (bounty hunters, Kit seems to think). 

"Badlands" is a road movie about two nihilistic nitwits who are as stupid and shallow as you can imagine. Kit fancies himself as James Dean yet he possesses no intelligence. When Holly approaches potential shooting victims, she just says "Hi!" Kit whirls his gun and kills without much hesitation, though he at least issues a warning. A scene involving an innocent couple who inadvertently show up at Kit's co-worker's house is one of the more shocking because we do not see anything - shots are fired plainly as the couple is forced into a storm cellar but no blood is shown. What is striking is one sequence where Kit forces himself into a rich man's home and doesn't kill the rich man or the maid. Why? Who can say except that maybe the rich man did not yell or act aggressive or retaliate? When we get to the eventual capture of Kit and Holly after an exhaustive manhunt, Kit thanks the police for capturing him and knows he has become some sort of mini-celebrity.  

Based on the infamous 1950's crime spree perpetrated by Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate (the similar incidents as depicted in the film were much worse in reality), Malick has made an intelligent, psychological observation of stupid kids. Crime doesn't pay and nor does stupidity.