You always say the perfect thing

SINGLES (1992)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(originally reviewed in 1992)

Of Cameron Crowe's few films in his career as director, I count "Singles" as my absolute favorite, a sincere, hilarious, slightly satirical take on twentysomethings in Seattle, the land of good Starbucks coffee and endlessly rainy days.

We have Bridget Fonda as a cafe waitress with architectural ambitions who has a lunkheaded musician boyfriend (Matt Dillon) - he does not pay her as much mind as he should. They both live in a singles apartment complex, though not in the same apartment. The other tenants include Campbell Scott as the inventor of a new transportation system and Sheila Kelley as a desperate, shrill-voiced woman who seeks a date through a video service that specifically outlines her traits and sexual specialties (Tim Burton shows up here as a director who insists on designing her next video).

The delight in "Singles" is that the screenplay allows room for the characters to breathe and roam free based on their desires and emotions. Crowe has not written a plot to bring his characters together - he mostly devises ironic title cards like chapter stops for a series of events in his characters' lives. There is no dumb, recycled plot here, as in the similar but inconsequential "The Night We Never Met," to bring the film momentum. Sometimes there are breaks in time and space and other times, his characters speak right into the camera. It can be a disorienting device but Crowe uses it expertly to draw us closer to these people. My favorite moment was hearing Scott's story about his mother's advice to stay single when he was eight, and how he once mispronounced sperm as spam when he was a kid.

The funniest, truest moments are supplied by Bridget Fonda (a terrific comedienne), who can't figure out why her boyfriend won't pay attention to her and why her breasts are too small for him - Fonda has the spark and wit that was crucially missing from her performance in "Bodies, Rest and Motion." I enjoyed a scene where she flirts with the possibility of calling her boyfriend who has not called her when he should have. She decides that throwing a piece of paper in her trash can mean calling him or not calling him (and then she forgets what it initially meant).

Exceptionally winning are Matt Dillon as the rock singer who devises funny, disorganized lyrics on Fonda's answering machine; Campbell Scott as the straight, serious-minded guy who doesn't call his girlfriend a whole week after their first date to be different; and Kyra Sedgwick as the most sympathetic character (an environmentalist) who compliments Scott on his honesty - "You always say the perfect thing."

"Singles" is a wild, boisterous, smart, refreshingly simple and supremely entertaining take on the day-to-day basis in which twenty-year-olds live on their fears, their hopes, their agendas, their worries. Along with a great soundtrack with music by Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins, this has got to be one of the best of the Generation X pictures of the 90's.

What is irony? I am Audi 5000!

REALITY BITES (1994)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Reality Bites" begins with the notion that no Generation X-er is safe in the job market because there are no real jobs for them. Winona Ryder plays Lelaina, the class valedictorian who lives with her best friend, Vickie (Janeane Garofalo). Lelaina works for an arrogant, impatient TV host (John Mahoney). Vickie is in charge of folding jeans at the Gap. Along comes the philosophical dude with a goatee, Troy (Ethan Hawke), who moves into their cozy little apartment because he got fired from his last job for eating a Snickers bar with the wrap still intact. He's a typical slacker who lies around the couch all day, quotes lines from "Cool Hand Luke," smokes pot like there is no tomorrow and will, according to Lelaina, "turn this house into a den of slack."

On the basis of a realistic depiction of hopeless, jobless twentysomethings, "Reality Bites" suffers. Firstly, if Lelaina was class valedictorian then how is it that she can't find work outside of using up her father's credit card to get cash at the local convenience store? For example, she is unable to compute simple math problems like adding figures at the local hot dog joint. She also has no idea what the word irony means when she applies for work at a publication house. Can the writer Helen Childress be serious?

What Lelaina seems capable of is shooting video footage of her friends as they answer personal questions about their lives. She literally runs into a top video executive, Michael (Ben Stiller), a brash, naive, uneducated yuppie who sees potential in Lelaina's amateur videos. The video footage is so shoddy that I couldn't see how an executive would ever be interested in the first place but never mind. And (*spoiler warning*) why does she choose Troy over Michael when Troy obviously wants nothing to do with her? Troy's change from a cold-hearted cynic to a warm-hearted, caring person is nothing but hogwash.

Lelaina's character is the least believable character in "Reality Bites" because she doesn't seem real and writer Childress makes her seem unfortunately dumber than she really is. Aside from her character, "Reality Bites" is mostly entertaining and on-target with scene-stealing roles by Janeane Garofalo (who probably became a star based on the terrific "My Sharona" scene) and Ben Stiller as a hipper Tom Cruise type (he also made his directorial debut here as well). It's just that based on the unbelievable ending, the characters of Troy and Lelaina don't quite ring true, though they are engagingly performed by Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder. "Reality Bites" was poised to become the "American Graffitti" of the twentysomething set of the 1990's. It never quite happened but it is fascinating to watch as a moment in time when Hollywood churned out these Generation X-er comedies by the dozen, hoping to bring in their target audience. They never showed up.

Selene's heart is broken

UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Underworld: Awakening" is the template of an action-horror flick  - it does a bang-job of delivering action but doesn't quite flesh out its characters. It runs 88 minutes long but it actually cuts to the end credits at the 80 minute mark. Up to that point, we have black-leather-spandexed Kate Beckinsale as Selene, the sexy vampire who is searching for her daughter (Indian Isley), a half-vampire, half-lycan who is in danger of either being killed by the Lycans or the human race, who have just discovered that both vampires and Lycans live amongst them.

Unlike the humdrum first two "Underworld" sequels and the fitfully interesting prequel that followed, this fourth chapter is surprisingly enjoyable and good bloody fun for a while. Selene continues to pack heat and do those "Matrix" flips in slow-motion while fending off Lycans, rampaging werewolves to the rest of you. In fact, for the first thirty minutes of the movie, after Selene wakes up from a decade-long cryogenic state, she kills more people than probably the first two "Underworlds" combined. Beckinsale gets to emote a bit when she discovers that her lover, also a crossbreed like her daughter, has also been kept in a frozen solid state at some sort of high-security medical lab. "My heart is not cold. My heart is broken," says Selene. Other than that, it is same old Selene with Beckinsale looking more fetching than ever, and she even sports a trenchcoat for the first time (she steals it from a department store which is suspicuously shot the same way as the original "The Terminator" aping Michael Biehn).

There is some business about Lycans receiving inoculation treatments from their worst nightmare - silver bullets and silver grenades - but it is a fairly slim story and slimmer narrative thrust. The movie is action-heavy with the expected fight sequences between both creatures in a climax that beats anything I've seen in this series thus far. Charles Dance has a short and spectacular part as a vampire elder - he is on equal footing with Bill Nighy's elder vampire from previous entries. Beckinsale and Isley are at the heart of this film (Isley cuts herself again and again and watches her arm heal - a disturbing moment that easily brings up real-life teens who cut themselves to feel no pain) and give it an anchor that the screenplay doesn't provide. "Underworld: Awakening" is the best of the series and my little guilty pleasure, but it feels incomplete and undernourished. I wanted more, something I can't say about the other sequels.  

WILD Shining theories

ROOM 237 (2012)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Back in 2000, I wrote a detailed, frame-by-frame deconstruction of Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." I singled out the use of colors in the film, the repeated phrases of dialogue, how every encounter that Tom Cruise's good doctor had was sexual, etc. I wish I hadn't written it because it read too much like a scripted version of the film though I may or may not have had good points. Watching the documentary "Room 237" reminded me of that, looking for meanings where none may not necessarily exist, at least not as intended in the viewer's mind, and some that may exist because they relate to the storyline.

"Room 237" features mostly clips from "The Shining" and other Kubrick films as we hear voiceovers from a group of obsessed fans (a history professor named Jay Weidner, a music blogger for starters, people whom we never see) discuss subliminal messages and or background elements by pausing individual scenes or moments from "The Shining," possibly alluding to one meaning or another. One fan feels the film is an examination of the Nazi Holocaust due to a German typewriter that Jack Torrance uses in the film, and the number 42 (meaning the year 1942 when the Final Solution took shape) as emblazoned in one of Danny Lloyd's sport shirts; It goes further by alluding to suitcases that dissolve to people and vice versa. Another fan sees the film as an examination of the genocide of Native Americans - this theory has credence since the Overlook Hotel in the film has Native American tapestries, framed artistic renderings of Native Americans, the iconic shot in the film of blood gushing from an elevator, and the single line of dialogue in the film that mentions how the hotel was built on a Native American burial site. Also consider how the film opens with a spectacular aerial view of the Colorado woods while we hear chanting and other ritualistic noises in the soundtrack that could come from a Native American tribe. Oh, yes, I must not forget the Calumet Baking Powder cans, though I am skeptical that they deal with broken American Indian treaties. My theory is that they evoke the ridicule of making Native Americans into an advertising icon (not unlike Land O' Lakes butter). We see...what we want to see.

Then there are theories that run into the extreme and ridiculous. One fan posits that the film proves the Moon landing was a hoax thanks to Danny Lloyd's sweater that reads: "Apollo 11." Interesting but hogwash - I am not sure when these rumors started that Kubrick directed the Moon landing in the middle of Death Valley but if that rumor existed while he shot "The Shining," he might have been tickled pink by it and purposely had Danny wearing the sweater as a joke (Mr. Kubrick did have a wry sense of humor). Then there's the supposed erection from the hotel manager Stuart in the opening interview scene, or the fact that Barry Dennen's character as Stuart's assistant is somehow indicative of a Native American-type. Or the supposed Minotaur from a poster of a skier. Or making silly allusions to the Three Little Pigs combined with Nazi Germany propaganda films based on a dialogue bit improvised by Jack Nicholson during the famous scene where he tears down the bathroom door with an ax (I don't dispute the Three Little Pigs reference since Jack improvised the lines, but a Nazi Germany allusion? I think not.) Then there's the climactic moment when someone figures out a way to watch "The Shining" backwards and forwards at the same time!

No matter how ridiculous some of the claims are (did you catch Kubrick's face in the clouds?), "Room 237" can be a tad tedious but it is often fascinating and will lead many to look at "The Shining" again, a film that not unlike other Kubrick films continues to change each time one views it.  Missing from this documentary is an exploration of what is definitively in the film, and not just wild theories (though, as I mentioned, there are some theories I agree with). I would have liked someone to mention the tiny ax in a cup during the Interview scene, or how there is the repeated line, "I want to be here, forever, and ever." We see...what we want to see and hear what we want to hear. I see "The Shining" as the breaking down of marriage, family and civilization through violence that repeats itself every generation. Others will see something different.

History of Lycans vs. Vampires

UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS (2009)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I tried to stay awake during most of "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," and inevitably I grew tired by the movie's monochromatic look and its cheesy special-effects. This is the kind of woeful horror movie that thinks moonlit action scenes can be exciting as long as there are quick cuts so you don't notice how bad the special effects are. Though the third film in the series is not as boring as the first two, it is easy to dismiss and forget.

"Rise of the Lycans" is the prequel of the series, focusing on the long-gestating war between the Lycans (the werewolves) and the Death Dealers, an elite group of vampires who use the Lycans as slaves. The Lycans find a leader in their group, Lucian (Michael Sheen), who gathers his werewolf compadres to stand up and fight against the Death Dealers. This may be because the lead Death Dealer, Viktor (Bill Nighy), wants his daughter, Sonja (Rhona Mitra), to dance the political game with the other vampire higher-ups in the council instead of fighting the Lycans. Sonja is also, unbeknownst to Viktor, in love with Lucian. Lucian can't have her because he is a Lycan so we technically have a "West Side Story" revamp minus the musical numbers (though a musical might be a good idea) and loaded with racism against Lycans.

"Rise of the Lycans" starts off well enough, and I thought maybe the series was finally realizing its intended goal since devising an origin for these creatures carries a certain original horrific spin. Bill Nighy has always been the exception in these movies, and I loved how he tries to convince his Sonja to stay with the council. I also like Michael Sheen's Lucian (previously seen in the first two films) as the Jesus Christ of the Lycans, who suffers horrendous whippings yet still has the strength to have sex. But all goes south when the movie leaves its premise dangling and there is nothing to latch it on to. Special-effects take over and the werewolf transformations are added ad nauseam (think how "The Howling" managed such scenes in the past with the less is more tactic). Blood and gore fills the screen with one too many werewolf and vampire decapitations and impalings, and the movie's key setup of its characters is completely abandoned. It is a humorless, horror-less and colorless movie with no real sense of purpose. It should've stayed underground.

Band of Lycans still on the run

UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION (2006)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

What an unfortunate waste. "Underworld: Evolution" is the kind of sequel that forsakes imagination and style for the sake of ultraviolent set pieces and nothing more. In terms of gore and blood running thicker than water, "Underworld: Evolution" has that in spades. A story and interesting characters - not so much as a stake driven through the narrative.

Leather-clad Kate Beckinsale returns as Selene, a vampire who is partnered with a half-werewolf (or lycan) and half-vampire breed, Michael (Scott Speedman). The two have been on the run since they eliminated a vampire of the highest order in the last film, Viktor (Bill Nighy, seen mostly in flashbacks). They are being chased by a resurrected giant bat/vampire mutation (Tony Curran), though why he's after them is not really made clear. Eventually, Selene and Michael need to find a half-lycan and half-vampire breed (Derek Jacobi) who has some sort of command center in Eastern Europe. His plans are never made clear, and Selene and Michael's own plans are not clear either. All Selene and Michael have to do is shoot to kill the vampire villain.

So we get plenty of action and gore. We get severed heads, lots of arterial spray, plenty of piercing flesh shots, lots of fangwork, some shoot-em up action, lots of jumps and flips done in slow-motion, and that is it folks. I didn't like the original monochromatic "Underworld" and this sequel is not any better - maybe I am old-fashioned but I don't think highly of vampires using guns. Kate Beckinsale looks good in a leather suit, but she may as well just do a nice spread for "Vanity Fair." Scott Speedman is agile yet non- charismatic. Derek Jacobi has some authority and presence, but his character feels fruitless.

Except for an exciting truck chase, "Underworld: Evolution" is a hackneyed, listless, humorless affair that will make your eyes strain, your blood curdle (and not in a good way) and will leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. All you will remember is that monochromatic glow that will give you a migraine.

Band of Lycans on the run

UNDERWORLD (2003)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I am a sucker for rain-drenched cities with a monochromatic glow where people stand on medieval statues looking below at city life. The problem is that such a visual has become a cliche and rarely becomes anything more than that. We have seen dozens of films featuring rain-drenched cities where people wear black leather, dating back to 1982's "Blade Runner" up until the most recent "Matrix" film. Monochromatic hues and tones have become so basic to movies that I am surprised they haven't gone back to the days of black-and-white yet. "Underworld" is another one of those loud heavy-metal, MTV-razor-cut spectacles where something happens every few seconds, even when nothing is really happening.

We are in some anonymous city where the rain never stops and the sun never sets. This is "Blade Runner" country where Kate Beckinsale (in the film's first shot) is perched on some architectural crevice overlooking the city. She is like a hawk waiting for her prey. It turns out she is Selene, a sour, pouty vampire who is on the hunt for werewolves. Her mission is to hunt them down and kill them all, and if I understood correctly, the hairy beasts are headed for extinction. The paper-thin plot involves a 1000-year war between vampires and werewolves. But vampires do not waste their time by fighting it mano-a-mano with the werewolves (referred to here as "lycans"). Instead, like Selene, they pack some firepower with silver bullets meant to implode on impact. Werewolves also use guns meant to cause harm to vampires and so we are treated to an interminable opening shootout at a subway station that looks like deleted footage lifted from "The Matrix." The war continues. Then we learn that a descendant, who is a werewolf, has the unique blood type where he can be bitten by a vampire and not die; rather, a gradual merging of wolf and vampire can create a new race. Good idea, but that is all it ever becomes.

"Underworld" is an interminable, numbing exercise in nothingness. All style and no substance is a cliche as well, but I can't imagine calling this film anything but. If Selene had been given more depth (particularly her infatuation with a werewolf) and if the backstory involving this war had more bite, then we might have had a visually enticing new entry in the horror genre. What we get is every single stylistic trick that can be made with a camera, not to mention yet another one of those "Matrix" slow-motion flips and leaps in the air. But the vampires are nothing more than black-leather-jacketed-spandexed misfits who occasionally bare some fangs - they are amazingly skillful with guns and cell phones (and driving) but you wouldn't know they are vampires unless they bit you. And since the film is set at night, the werewolves are barely visible, though there are some split-second transformation sequences. Kate Beckinsale is beautiful to look at and the concept is somewhat of interest. Alas, it's all bark and no bite.