Reviewing movies since 1984, online film critic since 1998. Here you will find a film essay or review, interviews, and a focus on certain trends in current Hollywood, and what's eclipsed in favor of something more mainstream.
BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II (1989)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
It is often the middle parts of trilogies that are the darkest and most
unsavory. "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" was a darker, more graphic
adventure in the Indy trilogy. Also shrouded in gloom was "The Empire Strikes
Back," the best "Star Wars" movie ever that had no ending. "Back to the
Future Part II" has none of the sunny disposition or joy that the original
"Back to the Future" possessed. It is more of a carnival of frenetic,
action-packed, time-traveling sequences than a movie and about as
straightforward as a David Lynch film.
Originally titled "Paradox" and directed by Robert Zemeckis, "Back to the
Future Part II" picks up exactly where the original ended. Marty McFly
(Michael J. Fox) is kissing his high-school sweetheart, Jennifer (Elisabeth
Shue replacing Claudia Wells), when out of the blue arrives the crazed,
wild-haired inventor Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in his time-traveling
DeLorean. Brown has seen the future and it is not pretty, and warns Marty
that there is a problem involving Marty's future kids! And so they speed off into
the year 2015 to the same picture-postcard town of Hill Valley. There are
flying cars that leave from ramps, a theater showing "Jaws 19," cafes that
play Michael Jackson's "Beat It," hoverboards and so on (and plenty of
advertising, including the Roger Rabbit doll from Zemeckis's own "Roger
Rabbit" movie). Marty makes a mistake and buys a sports almanac that has
scores from the years 1950 to 2000. And who else but good old Biff Tannen
(Thomas F. Wilson), the bully from the original film, happens to be
eavesdropping on Marty and Doc's conversations about rupturing the space time
continuum and making money on predicting future game scores. Needless to say,
after Marty's kids are saved from a ludicrously contrived mini-disaster,
Marty and Doc head back to 1985 and find that it is a very different place.
It turns out that Marty's house is not his own, his father, George, is dead,
and the town is presided by a seething, evil billionaire none other than Biff
himself who is married to Marty's mother! Yep, this is a cold, ugly world not
unlike the alternate reality depicted in "It's A Wonderful Life."
For those who have not seen "Part II," it would be unfair to reveal much more
except that this is one of those rare sequels that manages to revisit the
original film. It does so in clever ways and the paradoxes and breaks in
space time continuum contribute to an ingenious if rather headache-inducing
screenplay. You'll need a road map to keep track of all the characters and
time lines, and even then it is still confusing. As much fun as it is to make
sense of all the contradicting paradoxes in the film, "Back to the Future
Part II" desperately lacks joy or at least some sense of human involvement
that we should feel in an adventure of this kind. It is often amusing but
also repetitive and hollow - we learn plenty about Marty's family but there
is never any true insight into his character. The same can be said of Doc
Brown, a scientist trying to make sense of the universe and alternate
timelines they occupy but there is not a whisper of much else in him - he is
simply not just mad but comically mad, in the Jim Carrey vein.
The character of Marty's father, George (played by Jeffrey Wisseman, not
Crispin Glover), is basically a cipher who floats around upside down (done on
purpose presumably so we wouldn't notice that it isn't Glover). But what of
his death in the alternate 1985 by the evil Biff? And what about Marty's
mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), who in the alternate 1985 looks more haggard
and drunk than in the 1985 that the original "Back to the Future" began with
(I hope this is making sense). Yes, we learn about their possible futures
but, again, they ring hollow at best. They are like Norman Rockwell
caricatures from the 1950's that have been demonized by outside forces,
namely Marty and Doc.
The first time I saw this movie, I greeted it with groans as did the
audience (and the groans got louder when we saw the trailer for the upcoming "Back to the Future Part III"). Seeing it a few times since, "Back to the Future Part II" has
an addictive mentality - director Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale keep your
interest because you have no clue where their ideas will lead you and you
want to keep revisiting to make some sense of the plot. It is a frenzied,
hyperkinetic nightmare of a movie, an assault on our senses that places its
paradoxes and mind-bending logic on overload. But the original "Back to the
Future" was a human comedy of manners, a juxtaposition of the 1950's crossed
with the value system of the 1980's. The point was that the relationships
were at its center and provided the heart of its story. This sequel has the
same characters but insists on engaging us with paradoxes, not people. Having said all that, Part II is a creative continuation, not just a rehash of the original's gags and plotline. It says an awful lot about greed in the 1980's and it has a disturbing, nightmarish quality to it. On that level, definitely worth seeing and it improves with repeated viewings. Aside from the fabulous "Back to the Future Part III," how many other sequels invite that much curiosity and revisiting?
Audiences are used to a steady diet of freaky gore shows that claim to be horror that anything else won't do. Fangoria magazine covered a preview of this movie in early 2011, a mag that often covers horror films that are not resolutely pure gore. André Ovredal's "Trollhunter" is a quixotic delight, a funny and irreverent social commentary on Norway's environment, its circular power lines, the nature of government cover-ups, etc. Okay, I am be overdoing it on subtext but it is also a scary picture because seeing oversized trolls who sniff and kill without remorse is a little terrifying.
A documentary crew is investigating a series of bear killings in the Norwegian countryside. A suspected bear poacher named Hans (Otto Jespersen, a comedian) is followed by the crew into mountainous Norwegian regions, seeking not to kill a bear but those fantastical mammals of folklore - trolls. The difference is that these trolls are nasty, smell bad, kill livestock, make loud snarling noises and are infected with a form of rabies. Hans' job is to kill them with flashes of light that turn the trolls into stone.
The movie is told from the point-of-view of found footage from filmmakers. I might have preferred a more sound approach where we are just following a crew making a documentary, as opposed to edited found footage ("Blair Witch Project" clones have been harping on this cliche for a decade). Still, it doesn't make a big difference - the movie is smooth and quick with moments of sheer terror (Hans in medieval-like armor confronting a troll), comical brilliance (like the three-headed troll that scratches its leg or Hans filling out a troll kill form) and government cover-ups that are exceedingly funny (such as a paint van service that provides dead bears from Croatia so that nobody suspects trolls are responsible for killing animals, or the power station where an occupant has no idea why the power lines run circular in the snowy landscape). Speaking of sheer terror and gravitas, nothing beats a scene where a gigantic troll in the frozen tundra of Norway stars chasing the crew while Hans plays some hymns from his vehicle (I think earlier in the film he sings "Danny Boy" but I could be wrong).
"Trollhunter" is a marvelous, original, often hilarious film, containing more thrills and laughs than the average Hollywood picture. I also like the crew though they are not as memorable as Hans - a hunter who is sick of chasing and killing trolls (he keeps their tails and troll entrails to make himself smell like a troll). Hollywood is wanting to churn out a remake but I say, uh, uh. The movie is so inundated with Norwegian origin and with the visuals of its countryside and woodland areas that only someone from Norway could have made this film.
I remember Jill being very vulnerable...her emotions always on her sleeve...which makes her not only compelling but beautiful...I still smile when I think of her....
- Don Michael Paul on Jill Schoelen
Artwork by Troy Foote
By Jerry Saravia
Nicolas Cage (credited as Nicolas Coppola) and Jill Schoelen in "Best of Times" (1981) Courtesy of Jill Schoelen
In the late 1980's thru the 1990's, actress Jill Schoelen could've been a bigger movie star than Winona Ryder. After all, Ms. Schoelen recently disclosed in an interview with Fangoria magazine that she had been considered for two Steven Spielberg productions, "Back to the Future" and "Young Sherlock Holmes," and had been passed over for both. The films she did star in ranged from the sublime (The Stepfather, "When a Stranger Calls Back") to the standard slasher type (Cutting Class) to the patently absurd and horrifically misguided (Curse II: The Bite). To this day and with her attendance at recent horror conventions, she is regarded as a former scream queen yet she actually did fewer horror films than non-horror. We should not exclude her dramatic work in films and TV shows that Jill Schoelen fans often disregard (she also appeared on stage in plays such as "Hurlyburly" with Sean Penn and "Pepper Street"). One such film is "Not Again!", a romantic comedy that had no actual theatrical release (one reason I suppose that few have seen it aside from a showing at a film festival). Few have heard of 1992's "State of Mind," Jill's foray into Troma territory that saw no actual U.S. theatrical release - it was released on DVD in 2005.
Jill Schoelen (wearing a denim jacket) in the unreleased 1996 film, "Not Again!"
This page is devoted to non-horror films (excepting the TV-movie "Chiller," which is hardly mentioned in the same breath as Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "People Under the Stairs") and some TV appearances that are not regularly mentioned in any capacity. Some nitpickers will notice no reviews for a 1983 TV-movie called "Happy Endings," a TV episode of "Sara" where Ms. Schoelen played Bill Maher's girlfriend (Maher had also appeared with Jill in "D.C. Cab"), or for an episode in the TV series, "The Heights" for good reason - no footage seems to be out there on youtube nor do I know anyone with a copy. Other nitpickers might wonder why there is no mention of "Babes in Toyland," the muted and occasionally diverting fantasy picture she made with Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves. Truthfully, "Babes in Toyland" is better-known than some of the other selections below. There are other surprises in here and some shockers, all in an yearly order.
Jill Schoelen in her debut role as Jill in Best of Times
Courtesy of Jill Schoelen
Courtesy of Jill Schoelen
THE BEST OF TIMES(1981) - An ABC pilot that never aired, it was meant to be a comedy-musical with a touch of "Laugh-In" added to its mildly amusing skits, peppered with meaningful monologues by teenagers breaking the fourth wall by talking to the audience. Intriguing enough, "The Best of Times" was left behind.
Told from the perspective of seven teenagers in California, hopscotching Jill Schoelen playing Jill (in her debut role) is the presumed lonely one of the bunch who mostly talks to her cat and dog, and hesitates going away to college (she wants to get married in a hot-air balloon). Still, she seems to cavort with her three girlfriends and is asked out on a date by Crispin Glover, who had a dream about asking her out. Suffice to say, her role as the sweet, husky-voiced girl next door-type had become standard-issue in some films for Jill long after 1989's "Cutting Class."
Crispin Glover says it best about teenagers: "Without us, there is no future." I would agree. He narrates the entire episode. Nicolas Cage (known at the time as Nicholas Coppola) mimics Stallone's Rocky in scenes where the famous pugilist punches slabs of meat, and mimics his own nerdy friend (it is funny in a way that only Nicolas Cage's wacky personality can allow). The rest of the teens are not nearly as memorable. The plus is we are left with Jackie Mason as a convenience store owner who is reluctant to buy empty soda bottles, culminating in a bizarre scene of syncopated rhythm with the young lads creating their own music by tapping on anything in the store. Talk about bizarre, there is a car wash montage set to the song "9 to 5" and several other dance numbers peppered with discussions on jeans, going off to war to become a man, a failing student smitten with her teacher, and much more.
"The Best of Times" is not great television nor will you remember much of it. It is fascinating, though, to see a young Nicholas Cage and a very youthful Crispin Glover, who tries very hard to be a normal teen who loves the Talking Heads. He almost succeeds.
Courtesy of Mitchell Bilus
T.J. HOOKER(1983 Episode: "Sweet Sixteen and Dead"): Jill Schoelen plays a different part here - a 16-year-old prostitute named Kelly Hobbs out and about on the Boulevard, far away from her home in Fresno, California. One night, she is asking anyone on the street for a date for a mere twenty dollars! I guess I had forgotten how far twenty dollars can get you back in 1983. Kelly is stopped by Star (Toni Hudson), a former prostitute and teenage runaway, who encourages Kelly to go to a shelter called Irene's and get the help she needs to stay away from the streets. Better late than never until her pimp, Eddie Pearl (Paul Kent), is caught by Kelly and Star giving money to a politician who is supposed to keep the police off the Boulevard. Mr. T.J. Hooker (William Shatner) and his partner, Office Vince Romano (Adrian Zmed), are parading around the Boulevard and witness Eddie Pearl's car run over poor Kelly. Yep, this may be the only occurrence in Jill's career where she plays a character who dies within the first twenty minutes.
Jill Schoelen as Kelly Hobbs in TJ Hooker
"T.J. Hooker" is one of those cheesy police shows that I could never take seriously. William Shatner is too stiff in this role and the criminal situations, like in most hour-long episodes, are resolved a little too neatly. I suppose The Shat does a competent job of directing "Sweet 16 and Dead" maybe because the subject means something to him - 16-year-olds should never be prostituting themselves. Instead, they should be selling girl scout cookies.
First of all, I got the part of Barry almost by accident. Someone else auditioned for another role and they saw me on his tape! While we were shooting Hot Moves, my first film, Private School, opened so this was a very exciting time for me. And while we were shooting I was cast in the Gene Wilder film, The Woman in Red. All of those things are stamped in my mind as are the people I worked with on Hot Moves. They were all great people and I remember Jill Schoelen well. While we were not in many scenes together, I remember her as being quiet and professional. She had that wonderful voice and a great quality about her. I remember thinking that her acting was way above what the movie called for and that she was destined for bigger and better things. She was very nice and genuine.
- Michael Zorek on working with Jill Schoelen in the film Hot Moves. HOT MOVES (1984) - An average high-school-virgins-looking-to-get-laid sex comedy laced with a certain amount of sweetness. Not as foul or as gross as any of today's counterparts, the movie is still virtually indistinguishable from "Spring Break," "Fraternity Vacation, "Hot Dog: The Movie" (avoid that one at all costs) and countless others from the 1980's. More often than not, we get hot, nude blondes on the beach, Venice Beach activities that include weight lifting and breakdancing that seemed to have been lifted from a documentary (plainly put, they hardly mesh with footage of the actors), one teen seeking sex from someone who is not a prostitute, hornier-than-thou Barry (Michael Zorek), and little Julie Ann (Jill Schoelen) who doesn't want to just get in bed with her anxious boyfriend of six months, Michael (Adam Silbar).
Jill Schoelen's part is small but almost too good for a film like this - she is perceived as some sort of wholesome, morally correct angel. She has one terrific scene where she yells and smacks a sleazy guy who wants his way with her - it is in this scene where she really comes alive. Although I do not profess to know Jill Schoelen personally, I sense this Julie Ann character and her Stephanie Maine character (from "The Stepfather") are pretty close to the real Jill Schoelen. Perhaps, without sounding crude, she really liked to keep guys waiting so she could separate the wheat from the chafe.
CHILLER (1985)- Michael Beck is a cryogenically frozen man who has remained in an ice cube state for 10 years. His mother (Beatrice Straight) gets wind that he has awakened. Only problem is that the dog dislikes him and barks at him; he has an uncomfortable, very slightly incestuous hold on his cousin (Jill Schoelen); the local priest (Paul Sorvino) doesn't trust him; Beck treats one of the elder employees of the firm with disdain and causes him to have a heart attack, and the freezing chamber leaves the door open for a sequel.
Jill Schoelen in "Chiller"
"Chiller" is infrequently eerie thanks to Michael Beck who projects an enigmatic, untrustworthy quality. But his performance is one-note all the way and completely unsympathetic. It might have helped if some light was shed on who he was before he came back as some sort of inhuman monster. The cast does as well as it can with the material and director Wes Craven knows where to put the occasional shock to the system. When all is said and done, the movie fails to grip us and leave us with that chill to the bone.
Jill Schoelen and Robert Blake in Hell Town
HELL TOWN(1985 - Episode: "The People vs. Willy the Goat") - "Hell Town" is an NBC TV-series that barely lasted one season. Robert Blake played Father Noah ("Hardstep") Rivers, a scrappy former convict who is turned into a sappy, sentimental fool who need only finger point at the authorities to keep away from his precious parish and orphanage, that being St. Dominic. St. Dominic is in a rough part of town, which is why the show has its namesake. Father Noah is on a crusade to get drugs and crime out of the town he was brought up in.
In the "Willy the Goat" episode, there is a goat running around his parish. Lord knows that Father Noah can't get hold of him, nor can his nuns with names like Sister Angel Cakes. A boy is left on his church's steps by some unknown girl, who it turns out is a 14-year-old prostitute turning tricks for twenty dollars! Sound familiar? It is none other than Jill Schoelen as Shelley, who speaks in the third person a lot ("Nobody cares about Shelly. Shelly's got things to do"). She has a big emotional scene at the end with Father Noah and tries to reform herself, if only for her catatonic brother who blinks only when the goat is around.
"Hell Town" is Baretta without guns, only attitude. And it has a sentimental inclination by way of Father Noah. This particular episode is campy but still sort of watchable, if only for Robert Blake's tough-guy demeanor. The goat subplot simply gets old and repetitious but I suppose there are worse ways to spend 49 minutes.
Jill Schoelen as 14-year-old going on 15 Shelley in Hell Town
THUNDER ALLEY (1985) - Hair metal bands do not impress me, they vex me. And a band that calls themselves "Magic" may be asking for trouble. Nevertheless, "Thunder Alley," a largely forgotten 80's flick (and still unreleased on DVD), has its moments amidst its relatively muted story and thin characters.
Roger Wilson ("Porky's") is Richie, an Arizona farm boy and aspiring guitarist/singer who reluctantly joins his friend Donnie's band (Donnie played by Scott McGinnis) - it is this band that is named Magic. Leif Garrett is the arrogant lead singer, Skip, who feels intimidated by Richie's guitar and songwriting skills. The band finds a tough-as-nails manager named Weasel (perfectly cast Clancy Brown) who has them go on tour, essentially to get out of town because the band is too good (better than the real-life band, Surgical Steel, who never produced an album). Depends on whom you ask because, aside from the song "Heart to Heart," Magic is a mediocre band that would not survive in any club on any given night but that is just my opinion. Along the way, we see the realities of the club scene that include ramshackle motels, rough cowboy types, sleazy managers, and drugs. Donnie becomes a cokehead but, and this seemed a little too unbelievable, none of the other band members partake, including Skip.
Jill Schoelen has that standard girlfriend-type again (Richie's girlfriend, Beth) and she is not allowed to sing one note. This would have made a more interesting journey in hindsight had Schoelen's Beth aimed to be in a band and prove she was a better musician than Richie. As it is, she is just made to look pretty - a love object for Richie so he can come back to his farm and live the good family life. Richie's character does take a rather ridiculous turn towards the end that felt completely uncharacteristic. It is almost as if he tries to become Donnie by having a romp in the hay with a blonde groupie, but the writer-director J.S. Cardone botches it by not giving us enough time to absorb such an action from a goody-goody farm boy (J.S. Cardone later wrote the screenplay to the even more mediocre "The Stepfather" remake).
I am not a fan of the music in "Thunder Alley" but the movie is enjoyable enough on the surface. What makes it sing is Clancy Brown, who seems to occupy a real world of grit and hardcore reality. He saves the picture from drowning in its cliches and obligatory happy ending. Roger Wilson is pleasant enough, McGinnis provides a dose of tension, and Schoelen is simply appealing. Two years later came "Light of Day" and, despite the preposterous casting of Michael J. Fox as a rock n' roller, it felt more honest and alive.
Footnote: Of all the Jill Schoelen films discussed here, I have had the pleasure of meeting one member of the Jill Schoelen universe, Mitchell Bilus, who was the apprentice editor on this film.
GAMBLER (1988 - CBS Schoolbreak special episode) - A CBS Schoolbreak special's intent was to remind teens of the hazards of suicide pacts, driving while intoxicated, the impact of money on a marriage, coming out when you are gay, Nazism, racism and, in this example, gambling.
Nicholas Kallsen is Jim Jennings, a high-school football player who is deep into sports gambling. He is in so deep that he owes thousands of dollars! He tries to sell one of his prized trophies to no avail. Jim also has to use his car as collateral. How can a high-school kid keep piling up debt and keep it a secret from his parents and his girlfriend, Amy (Jill Schoelen)?
"Gambler" evokes its moral code rather simply yet lucidly. You still kinda wish Jim would get away with it, but this is not a Ferris Bueller at work here. George Dzunda adds a lot of spice as Jim's dad and they have a fascinating little moment where Jim confronts his dad about his own football pool at work - is that not a form of gambling too? At least here, the screenwriters aim for a little touch of complexity. Adding strong support is Troy Winbush as Ty, Jim's best friend; Jennifer Warren as Jim's mother (she had the best role of her life in 1975's "Night Moves"); journeyman actor Matt Clark as a sympathetic pawnshop owner, and Dan Florek ("Law and Order") adds grit with his smooth-talking loan shark. As for Jill Schoelen, she is, once again, the girlfriend-type. What's fascinating is that she is more of a gal pal - any time she sees Jim, they simply hug but never kiss. I know this was a schoolbreak special for kids, but not even one kiss?
Jill Schoelen and Angela Lansbury in Murder, She Wrote
MURDER, SHE WROTE(1989 episode - "Truck Stop") - I always found the irresistible Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher, the mystery novelist and amateur sleuth who can solve any murder, to be the main reason "Murder, She Wrote" worked. She made the show, and there were several guest stars throughout its run. I never bought the premise because most of the shows from the 80's seemed to think that real police detectives in the homicide unit were completely clueless ("Diagnosis Murder" being another example) yet mystery novelists somehow had a keen sense of solving real-life murders.
"Truck Stop" episode has Ron Karabatsos as Pete, a hard-bitten owner of a truck stop in the middle of the L.A. desert. Elizabeth Ashley is Pete's wife and truck stop waitress, Vera, and mother to her sassy daughter, Flora (Jill Schoelen), who dates dangerous, rebellious motorcycle enthusiasts. Enter author Jessica who is passing through with her friend (Mike Connors) who knows a thing or two about Vera. Before you can say, welcome back Mannix, there are three murders, a tape recorded confession, a lawyer from out of town with a surprising will beneficiary, and a lot of noirish, black-and-white flashbacks with Mike Connors' reliable narration.
Jill's character, Flora, is more of a wild card than her Stephanie Maine character from "The Stepfather." She disrespects her mother and father and takes money from the cash register without hesitation. This was further proof that Jill could play a bad girl, not just a nice, homely girl you would want to take home to meet your father (unless that father was a Motorhead fan).
The denouement is not a twist you haven't seen a million times but the cast makes it seem new all over again. Thanks to Elizabeth Ashley's token raspy voice and idyllic manner of holding a cigarette (she had appeared with Mike Connors in an episode of "Mannix" back in the day), she makes Vera very real and there is a heartbreaking quality to her performance. That and the movie-movie noir look give the episode a higher pedigree than most of the others.
ADVENTURES IN SPYING (1992) - An innocuous time-waster at best with one of the strangest casts for a family movie ever. G. Gordon Liddy as a high-end drug dealer? Director Henry Jaglom's brother, Michael Emil, as a professor? Leather-jacketed hooligan Michael Bowen as a drunk assistant to Emil? And we also got Bernie Coulson (who had a small sympathetic role In "The Accused") as our small-town/fishing community hero, Brian, a newspaper delivery boy. He recognizes Liddy's drug dealer, presumed dead, who is alive and well and living in a big house next to the one that Julie Converse's family (Julie played by Jill Schoelen) is buying. Perfect opportunity for Coulson to photograph Liddy and to prove to the newspapers that this notorious criminal is alive and well. Jill almost plays a Nancy Drew-type to Coulson's Hardy Boys-type. I shouldn't leave out the always watchable Seymour Cassel as the cop who believes Liddy is alive (Cassel also appeared as the Pops owner in "There Goes My Baby").
The movie gets sillier as it ends with a minor shoot-out on a boat and Coulson pretending to be his younger brother (a cringe-worthy moment). The movie aims for a comedic bent on the thriller genre by way of "Rear Window" and "Body Double" mixed with juvenile tactics, notably Julie successfully making Bowen drunk and having him admit to his "extracurricular activities" with the professor. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon viewing, provided it is raining and if you live in Connecticut or Gig Harbor, Washington, which is where this was filmed.
Jill Schoelen as Courtney in Rich Girl
RICH GIRL (1991) - Advertised as a "Pretty Woman" for the 90's in its VHS debut (when in fact there was already a "Pretty Woman" for the 90's), "Rich Girl" is more of a 50's melodrama where the rich girl from a Bel Air mansion in California wants to make it on her own, without the aid of her demanding father (Paul Gleason) who practically owns Bel Air. Jill plays Courtney, the poor little rich girl who settles for a job as a waitress at Rocco's, a low-grade nightclub where a blue collar, Springsteen-type lead singer (Don Michael Paul) becomes smitten with her, and vice versa. By the way, Courtney seeks other jobs, like a secretarial position, but she can't type worth a damn. And since her father breaks off any financial ties with her (well, not completely), I wondered how she was able to afford an apartment for more than 1,000 dollars a month. And there is also the matter of breaking off an engagement to her cheating fiance (Sean Kanan, playing a far more insidious character than in "Karate Kid Part III").
"Rich Girl" barely had a chance at theaters. It opened in over a 1,000 theaters (more than "There Goes My Baby" which was given even less of a push), was ubiquitously advertised but it sank without a trace with one of the lowest per-screen averages ever. This reminds me of Jill's superior effort released earlier that same year, the postmodernist horror/slasher flick "Popcorn" that in some markets bypassed first run cinemas completely and was booked directly into second run/discount cinemas (according to IMDB).
"Rich Girl" is the kind of movie you love to hate or hate to love. Its redeeming features are few but almost enough to warrant a viewing. Ron Karabatsos has ample charm and real-life grit as Rocco (he played Jill's father in the "Murder, She Wrote" episode), more of a real father figure to Courtney than her own father. There is spectacular support from former Runaway band member Cherie Curie, playing the back-up singer who is thrown to the wind due to her endless coke-sniffing.
My main issue is that very film directors knew how to handle Jill Schoelen. One critic made a snide remark that "she had the personality of coral" (according to Rita Kempley of The Washington Post). I wouldn't go that far but it is a blander part than she had in even "Hot Moves." Schoelen's Courtney shows that she loves the lovable rocker but her performance is light on other shadings (that may be more of a screenwriting fault than her own). Schoelen does hold her own in her two brief scenes with the late Paul Gleason. "Rich Girl" is merely OK, light fare but it needed a lift and a real shot of adrenaline. Still, part of me says that this movie is disarming and relatively entertaining, and another part of me wants to gag.
THERE GOES MY BABY (1994) - Floyd Mutrux's "There Goes my Baby" is full of cliches and aims to hit every note known to people who graduated high school in the 1960's. And it works beautifully because it strikes notes of nostalgia and adds counterpoint - an affluent, practically all-white high school that has reality slapping its face. Vietnam hits home, as one is ready to go to war (Rick Schroder) and another had a brother who died in the war (Shon Greenblatt). One student, Mary Beth (Lucy Deakins), refuses to listen to her conservative parents, hoping to attend the progressive Berkeley. Noah Wyle is the poet and realist, Finnegan, who is honest about everything he does and says, whether remaining silent about his relationship to his girlfriend, Tracy (Kristin Minter), or torching a soldier statue outside his school as protest against the war. Delmot Mulroney is Pirate, the guy who longs to play his guitar and fondle his girlfriend, Sunshine (Kelli Williams), yet sees little else in his future aside from driving thru Route 66. The sole black student, Calvin (Kenneth Ransom) who gets a scholarship to Princeton, has his own realities to face, namely family members who are getting harmed during the dreadful Watts riots of 1965. Jill Schoelen is Babette, a singer in love with the Crystals band who wants a spot on the show Shindig! Flower power, abortion, hippies, sex, rock and roll gig at the Shindig, riots, violence, war, burning your draft card and Pops Paradise, the hangout cafe, is about to replaced by a shopping mall - seems like this is the movie that "More American Graffiti" should have been.
As written and directed by Floyd Mutrux ("The Hollywood Knights"), "There Goes My Baby" has dialogue that seems a bit forced at times - there is a lot of talk from the elders about Vietnam being a "police action" and World War II being a real war. The implied message is that Vietnam is a war you go fight for because it is your patriotic duty. The real war seems to take place in the streets, whether it is on a high-school campus or in Watts (as observed by Stick's father played by J.E. Freeman, who feels the blacks should go fight in the jungles of Vietnam which is where they are from. Such a line of dialogue may make some cringe but it shows the narrow-mindedness).
Interestingly, as stilted as the adults sound in this film (Andrew Robinson's line about communism for one), the younglings seem fresh and animated about their lives - they see a future that the adults do not see. Kelli Williams is like a delicate flower in this film - her thoughts on the importance of "I Love Lucy" on her life will make the most jaded person tear up. She expresses pure love, and smiles when she is sad. Noah Wyle's Finnegan merely wants change and hopes that poetry will lead the way of the future. Lucy Deakins' Mary Beth is a realist who wants her conservative parents to wake up.
Where does that leave Jill Schoelen? She is a dynamo in this movie - she struts, she sings, she curses, she flips her fellow classmates the bird, etc. But like most of the characters in this film, at 95 minutes plus, you do wish you saw more of them. Most of the situations are truncated, perhaps due to excessive trimming by the now defunct Orion Pictures - who knows. Robert Altman could have mastered a mosaic like this with more cunning and more flair.
"There Goes My Baby" ends with a tinge of sadness, not just about losing your own high-school friends and moving on to adulthood, but about facing an uncertain future that will get progressively uglier (assassinations of political leaders, Nixon and Watergate). The sadness is that they do not know, and we wonder how they will deal with it. Don't think twice, it's all right.
Footnote: Director Floyd Mutrux has written two Broadway jukebox musicals, "Baby, It's You!" and "Million Dollar Quartet," both of which Jill Schoelen had been actively involved in as a producer.
DIAGNOSIS MURDER ("Shaker" episode, 1994) - Dick Van Dyke proves to the master of the light touch as Community General's own Dr. Sloan who works with the police in solving cases. This episode deals with an earthquake and its aftershocks, leaving his staff working overtime to help victims. One such victim, Martin Garfield (Allan Miller), is found dead under an armoire. Dr. Sloan realizes with incredible intuition that the victim was killed prior to the earthquake. Sloan's son, homicide detective Steve Sloan (Barry van Dyke, Dick's actual younger son), helps with the investigation.
Jill Schoelen has a very brief role as Becky Garfield, future sister-in-law to the naive Ilene (Liz Vassey). Jill has worked with Allan Miller before in the TV movie "Billionaire Boys Club." A tight, droll, engaging episode though I think I prefer "Murder, She Wrote" in general.
Jill Schoelen as Yalena in She Kept Silent
SHE KEPT SILENT (2004) - "She Kept Silent" is proof that past directors did not know what they had with Jill Schoelen. She plays a sullen mother named Yalena who takes a taxicab to a train station on a cold night. When she wipes the foggy cab window, she is reminded of her son who wiped the foggy window at their home. When Yalena sees some guys playing basketball, she is reminded of her son also playing basketball. It was on that day, inside of some basement workshop, that we see Yalena who planned on leaving her abusive, alcoholic husband and presumably wanted her son to go with her. The husband lets her leave, but not with her son. She is torn, conflicted.
Jill Schoelen displays textured sullenness with her added vulnerability - she is as unglamorous here as she was in "When a Stranger Calls Back" and never displays that trademark smile. Though the film is short, director Svetlana Cvetko gives us a glimpse of a withering, soulful mother who wants her son back. The question is: will she ever get him back? Is she running away at the end? This short is so damn good that you wish it would go on longer than 10 minutes.
Jill Schoelen and Dee Wallace at Horrorhound - a "Popcorn" reunion
Taking Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and updating it to the 2010 high school years is a smart move. But even in 2010, couldn't the filmmakers have opted for something else more humiliating than being marked with an A because you had sex? In high-school?
That is the issue I take with "Easy A"; it assumes that sex is still something to rave about in high-school. I know I am older and I was only a teenager in the 1980's, but sex was rarely an event that had to be broadcast around school. Since "American Pie" in 1999, teen comedies dealt with sex as the main plot twist when, in fact, I would have hoped teenagers have something else to talk about. And when you get an electrifyingly winsome actress like Emma Stone playing a teenager named Olive Penderghast, who is ignored by schoolmates and Google Earth (!) until it is leaked that she had sex with some guy (which she did not), it makes you wonder how far astray Hollywood is from reality.
Once Olive is heard in the bathroom by the religious-minded Marianne (Amanda Bynes) making a false confession to her best friend, Rhiannon (Aly Michalka), all hell breaks loose. Olive starts getting sex proposals from nerds and jocks and the like (including her harassed gay buddy), and gets money offers and/or $100 gift cards in exchange (like to Bed, Bath and Beyond and Home Depot). She doesn't have to have sex with these guys, just get paid for letting some loser broadcast it to everyone. That in itself is a great comic idea and it is milked for what it is worth. Things get shaky, however, when it involves her favorite teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church) and his wife, a guidance counselor (Lisa Kudrow), and the morality of such an unethical practice gets more interesting but it is never truly dealt with.
The best scenes in "Easy A" are between Olive and her liberal, supportive parents (crisply acted by Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci), but most of "Easy A" avoids any issue that isn't sexual. In a film like Alexander Payne's "Election," the high-school teens in that film focused on politics, love, getting ahead, cheating, etc. Even the John Hughes films "Easy A" references had more complexity, not to mention a non-John Hughes film, Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything" which this film shamelessly steals its most iconic moments.
I'll put it simply: Emma Stone is a an adorable actress who I am sure will go on to great things. But a movie like "Easy A"only hints at her talent. The last thing she needs is to be stuck in Lindsay Lohan's "Mean Girls"-ish waters.
The critics excoriated this legal thriller with "Silence of the Lambs" pretensions but I happen to consider it what it is: a fire and brimstone Southern Gothic nightmare of a movie. It has its share of flaws but the first 3/4 of it are fantastic.
Sean Connery is a Harvard law professor, Paul Armstrong, who is against the death penalty. He is a former lawyer but no longer practices. He is married to a woman who was young enough to be Indiana Jones' flame, the spunky Kate Capshaw - Laurie, who once practiced law. Armstrong is recruited by a kind old woman (Ruby Dee) to help reopen the case against her grandson Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood), who is allegedly innocent of severely stabbing and killing a young girl. Bobby is on Death Row in Florida and claims he was beaten severely to give his coerced confession. Armstrong has a suave, allegedly trigger-happy cop (Laurence Fishburne) and his partner to deal with, both of whom beat the confession out of Bobby. There is also the hellbent, Bible-spouting serial killer Sullivan (a manic Ed Harris in the Hannibal Lecter part in a less nuanced role) whom Bobby claims is the real killer.
You can't beat the film's location - sunny Florida Everglades with its crickets, alligators, swamps and beautiful rivers. The movie has enough atmosphere for ten thrillers, and those prison cells look creepier than most prisons you see nowadays. In addition, these sights help develop the tension and also help in leaving your logic at the door with its red herrings. A terrifying car ride with Connery and Ferguson in establishing evidence of Bobby's guilt will give you a jolt. Connery's discovery of a supposedly unoccupied house will give one the jitters. His conversations with Sullivan are stultifying and put in there for the Lecter crowd.
When the movie past the hour mark reverses its initial determination of someone's true character, I was reminded of 1991's "Mortal Thoughts" by director Alan Rudolph, which also did a 180 and tended to negate most of its first 3/4 of film time. "Mortal Thoughts" is less nuanced as a thriller if only because its interrogation scenes between Demi Moore and Harvey Keitel were endless and boring. "Just Cause" is fitfully entertaining but it loses steam at around the point that you might think, hey the movie is over.
Sean Connery as always is a titanic actor of great strength and his extreme close-ups (which are more powerful in a movie theater) are as selective and as well placed as his similar close-ups in "The Hunt for Red October." The character is thin but Connery makes the best of it and gives this potboiler class and a touch of dignity. Same with Laurence Fishburne as the vicious cop, Tanny Brown, who hates Bobby and has suspicions about everyone, including Armstrong. Both actors have their moments of over-the-top theatrics and both also show sensitivity and presence to match.
Ed Harris is simply an animal on screen, a wild animal given to hollering like a cartoonish madman. Ruby Dee, Chris Sarandon, Kevin McCarthy and Hope Lange are merely set decoration. The great Southerner himself, Ned Beatty (actually more upper South, Kentucky), gives his role every ounce of legitimacy as Bobby's one-time defense lawyer. And let us not forget a very young Scarlett Johannson as Armstrong's daughter.
Director Arne Glimcher (who made the wonderful "Mambo Kings") gives his film polish and parades the screen with an outstanding cast. The screenplay by Jeb Stuart and Peter Stone is a hot mess, but its touch of amped-up melodramatic spinning of Southern Gothic noir staples is still fast-moving and pulpy enough to warrant a viewing. Hard to say if the movie is pro-death penalty or against it, or if it even matters. When the alligators start chomping away, you might think you are in a different movie than the one that began with a college debate with George Plimpton.
Allegedly based on Jean Shepherd's fanciful childhood tales, "A Christmas Story 2" heads direct-to-DVD on October 30th, 2012. That is right, a sequel to the perennial favorite that plays on a 24 hour loop on TBS every Christmas with the kid who might shoot his eye out is coming packaged and ready for delivery. Obviously I have not seen this sequel but it strikes me as missing a crucial ingredient from the original film - the plight of adolescence and the yearning for the toy you must have. Daniel Stern plays the Old Man (so vividly played by the late Darren McGavin in the 1983 original) and a young fresh actor named Braeden Lemasters plays the teenage Ralphie (replacing Peter Billingsley and Kieran Culkin from "It Runs in the Family") who yearns for a 1938 Hupmobile Skyline Convertible. Stacey Travis takes over as the mother, an actress who seems like a far cry from Melinda Dillon in the original and Mary Steenburgen from the forgotten "It Runs in the Family" (and I do mean the 1994 film sequel, also known as "My Summer Story," not the 2003 Michael Douglas picture). David W. Thompson and David Buehrle play Flick and Schwartz. The director is Brian Levant, the same one who helmed the unfunny "Jingle All the Way," a disastrous Schwarzenegger kiddie flick.
Studying the poster carefully tells me that the filmmakers are riding high on some of the specific gags of the original film that have become as common to our popular culture as apple pie. Will the Old Man still be salivating over that dreaded leg lamp? Will Ralphie be forced to wear a teddy bear costume as opposed to a bunny costume? Will Flick and Schwartz play sword fighting with two candy canes? I think a more appropriate question for a coming-of-age story would be: will the teenage Ralphie be having sex and who is that girl sitting next to him? Oh, no, some of you might say. This is a Christmas tale and teens didn't have sex in the 40's. Hogwash.
Warner Bros. is actually shutting down its direct-to-DVD slate division, Warner Premiere, and their reason is: "a decline in direct-to-video-film market." Sounds more like a decline in quality - let us not forget that maybe they could have churned out more original films than sequels to "The Lost Boys." There has been a prejudice to direct-to-DVD or direct-to-video films for several decades now, but occasionally there is a diamond in the rough. I am talking about "Slumdog Millionaire," a film that was going straight to DVD thanks to Warner Bros. (ouch!) and was rescued from oblivion and ushered into theaters instead thanks to distributor Fox Searchlight Pictures, and it went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Danny Boyle is a talented director whereas Brian Levant, not so much. Warner Premiere had nothing to do with "Slumdog Millionaire" either. Since their inception in 2006, they established a formula of making sequels to movies or as they put it, and I quote, "follow-ups to films that had done well at the box office theatrically,
but wouldn't be expected to do well if a sequel were to be made."
Without Jean Shepherd's reliable narration that anchored "A Christmas Story" and "It Runs in the Family" (Shepherd passed away in 1999), I am sensing this is a movie that I have one too many reservations about. I may eventually see it on cable out of curiosity but, for the time being, I will check out "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Part 2." Or just watch the original "A Christmas Story."
"Xanadu" is a flashy, absolutely fun, completely nonsensical yet alarmingly watchable musical. I first saw it in the early 1980's and had forgotten it. Seeing it again now in 2012, it is pure kitsch but also spirited kitsch.
Michael Beck (fresh, at that time, from his sublime work in "The Warriors") is Sonny Malone, a painter who had to abandon his own personal work to do "someone else's work." He paints larger versions of record album covers in a makeshift work environment with three other painters. One day, he runs into Olivia Newton-John who rollers skates up to him and kisses him. Then Sonny discovers that the album cover he is recreating features Olivia herself, who basically came out of thin air. That is because the dazzling blonde beauty is a muse who calls herself Kira! The building in the background of the album cover is an abandoned art-deco auditorium. The grand tap-dancing legend Gene Kelly shows up as a former big band leader, Danny McGuire, who longs to live the good old days of 1945 and, well you guessed it, it is high time to put on a show at the defunct auditorium.
It doesn't take much to figure out how these elements fuse together. What is fascinating is how Sonny and Danny dream up their idea of a nightclub that has elements of 1940's big-band music and 1980's rock (which includes the Electric Light Orchestra). The last few scenes of "Xanadu" handles these musical numbers fairly well, though I could have lived without these dancers riding on roller skates (the film was originally a roller boogie disco picture, and thank God that idea was scrapped). I don't get how this muse, who brings inspiration and initially inspired Danny forty years earlier, doesn't inspire Sonny to paint what he loves as opposed to commercial art. How does Sonny's aspirations have anything to do with converting an auditorium into a ritzy nightclub?
My other problem is Michael Beck - he is no romantic leading man. He has too much edge and a certain killer instinct in those penetrating eyes that makes it hard to fathom any chemistry with Olivia. Olivia mostly dances and smiles as brightly as any toothpaste commercial. Gene Kelly has such a fantastic role as a somewhat dashing old legend who can still tap dance like no one's business that it night have been a more heartfelt, genuine film had he fallen for Olivia, rekindling his 1940's glory years.
"Xanadu" is technically a mess but it also has a certain gracefulness to it. The dancing has flair and it pops, especially Gene Kelly's duet with Olivia. I just wish they got rid of those damn roller skates.
