De Niro's existential hero is back

CITY BY THE SEA (2002)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally reviewed in 2003)

Robert De Niro playing yet another New York City cop? Can we say "15 Minutes"? Well, let's not get too hasty. "City By the Sea" is an exceptional thriller giving us the De Niro that I kind of missed in the last few years. You know, the dramatic De Niro - the angry, ebullient De Niro playing the kind of existential antihero we had thought disappeared from cinema.

Set in Long Beach and Manhattan, De Niro is Vincent LaMarca, a rugged homicide cop who goes to work at the crack of dawn, watches TV, visits his girlfriend, Michelle (Frances McDormand) who lives downstairs from his apartment, and not much else. His partner, Reg (George Dzundza) is a family man yet Vince is not comfortable with visiting Reg's family - "Too much love," the man says. His reasoning is understandable - Vincent walked out on his family many years earlier. His estranged son, Joey (James Franco), who drives a blue Chevy Nova, is a junkie living on the boardwalk of Long Beach, sometimes residing in an abandoned casino building. One night, while drugged out on crank, he kills a neighborhood drug dealer. Now Joey is wanted by the police, and guess who has to lead that investigation. Vincent's own past has come back to haunt him, including dealing with an understandably bitchy ex-wife (Patti LuPone) and Joey's ex-girlfriend (Eliza Dushku), who has a kid. There is also the drug dealer's big boss (William Forsythe), who is about as vicious and snarly as one can expect in a movie of this type.

Okay, so we have heard all this before. The difference is that "City By the Sea" is based on true events, emanating from a 1997 Esquire article by Michael McAlary. Truths aside, the movie works because the characters are believable and three-dimensional. Rather than subjecting to overdone car chases and endless shootouts, director Michael Caton-Jones ("This Boy's Life") keeps the pace lively and the character studies sturdy. This movie is not about action but about words. It is about people who are affected by the downward spirals in their lives, and about families broken apart by unforeseen tragedies.

De Niro is as good as he can be as Vincent LaMarca, showcasing the character's strengths and flaws. He abandoned his child and he may abandon his grandchild. Will he be a father again to his son or just another cop? "I am a cop and a father," says Vincent to Joey. This is a standout sequence in itself, again focusing more on their relationship than the actual plot. And what of Vincent's relationship to Michelle (Frances McDormand)? Vincent has kept her in the dark about his family, including his father who was electrocuted for murdering babies. Can Michelle handle his family history and his inability to hang on to whatever family he may have left?

"City By the Sea" is often sensational entertainment, briskly directed and acted. The ending suffers a bit from either straining too hard to be emotional or not enough. I also could have learned more about William Forsythe's expendable character - he is nothing more than a meanie with a shotgun. On the plus side, De Niro and James Franco rise above the melodrama and provide the poignancy that might otherwise be lacking. A fine film, unjustly ignored by audiences.

Action painter at work

POLLOCK (2000)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The most innovative of the Abstract Expressionists was Jackson Pollock whose surrealist paintings gave way to "action paintings," the idea that paint could be dripped onto the canvas and create vivid splashes of color. Pollock created the drip technique and thus, a sense of freedom within the canvas was born where space became largely ambiguous. Pollock is world renown, so much that American film directors like Martin Scorsese or Oliver Stone are often referred to as the "Jackson Pollocks of cinema" for their often seemingly free form styles. Such an innovator is given a fairly conventional though often harrowing treatment by Ed Harris in his directorial debut.

Naturally, Ed Harris plays the tortured, neurotic, manic-depressive Jackson Pollock. The film begins in New York City in the postwar era of the 1940's where Pollock is still an unknown. He meets with another painter, Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden), who hears of Pollock through word-of-mouth and becomes interested in his work. After all, if you are a painter in New York who is talked about in circles, you must make your appearance through the proper channels. Lee Krasner knows the proper channels. She is acquainted with Peggy Guggenheim (Judith Ivey), the owner of the Art of This Century Gallery, who is ticked off when climbing five flight of stairs to find Pollock is not home. Nevertheless, she sees his work and commissions it to be shown in her gallery.

Pollock also finds a willing romantic partner in Lee Krasner who knows of the man's faults and still decides to be with him. Pollock is an alcoholic and usually finds himself sleeping outside tenements. His solution is to get away from the city, and so Krasner offers him an option - get married and move or she walks. They move to the Hamptons near the beach for tranquility. This is also beneficial for Pollock who can find himself locked in his work rather than in alcohol. As time goes on, Pollock eventually discovers his drip technique and becomes a sensation in New York and around the world. And when does Pollock know that his work is finished? "How do you know you are finished when you are making love," asks Pollock when interviewed by Life magazine.

"Pollock" occasionally finds the painter at work in his studio but the film's screenplay devotes more time to his turbulent relationship with Lee Krasner. Lee puts up with Pollock through his affairs and endless drinking bouts because she wants him to be the great painter that he is. It is clear that Lee is devoted to him and tries to help him, thus putting her own career on hold for his sake. They frequently have their arguments, some more harsh than others, but they still manage to stay together for several years.

By the 1950's, Pollock grows into a bearded, fat, obnoxious, unlikable man. He retreats from his "drip" style to his original abstract paintings. He also has an affair with a luscious art groupie (Jennifer Connelly) and largely detaches himself from Lee. The brief romance is mostly dull as compared to his emotional bond with Lee, and the film meanders a bit whenever Connelly shows up, whom I do admire as an actress overall.

My complaints of the film are largely relegated to the depiction of Pollock's own status in the art world. The recent "Before Night Falls" did not dwell on why the famous writer, Reinaldo Arenas, became a writer, it only showed his surroundings and how they affected him. But Pollock is a more complex, larger-than-life character. He seems to lack communication with his mother (Sada Thompson - the matriarch from the 70's TV show "Family") or his brother and his family - they attend his gallery shows but they never speak to each other, particularly at the dining table. Pollock's family life is given so little shred of introspection that we never understand why they ever visit him in the first place - consider that almost every scene with his family ends in a violent disruption. Does Pollock's temperamental personality and his seclusion in his work cause his family to be silent or are they unhappy with his artistic life? Whatever lack of communication exists may hint at Pollock's own troubled nature but the film never makes that connection.

The two fantastic lead performances rescue whatever character limitations exist. Ed Harris is powerful and harrowing as the troubled Pollock - he even looks like the painter judging by recent photographs I have looked at. Marcia Gay Harden is the strong, sympathetic, tough and direct Lee Krasner (she deservedly won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work here). They have several great scenes together but my favorite is when he asks her if "they can make a baby." She says no, claiming that fulfilling his needs is enough and all she ever wanted. It is indeed.

If "Pollock" had dwelled on the artist's personal, familial side and if the fleeting world of Abstract Expressionists had been developed, the film might have been a stunning masterpiece. As it is, it is a hellish, demanding work with two ball-of-fire performances that will rattle your nerves, shake up your senses, and largely disorient you. Just like Jackson Pollock did.

Run-of-the-mill snuff thriller

15 MINUTES (2001)

Reviewed By Jerry Saravia

(Originally written in 2001)

Something shocking happens in "15 Minutes." It is so shocking and unexpected that it will leave you coming up for air wondering why the filmmakers went through such lengths to shock the audience. And yet its shocking twist results in a final half-hour of ridiculous implausibilities squandering its initial premise.

Robert De Niro plays Eddie Flemming, a New York City homicide cop who loves to be surrounded by the media (he also dunks his head in ice water to sober up). Eddie is a celebrity cop, having had his hide splashed on the covers of People magazine. The latest murder in town involves arson, and Eddie is there ready to mingle with the press while solving the crime. Trouble is that an arson investigator, Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns), has solved the crime first, realizing it was actually a homicide than an accidental arson case. Eddie knows it too and gets all the credit. You do not have to be a film buff to know that Eddie and Jody become partners in what appears to be a buddy-buddy cop flick, only Jody is no cop and realistically, he would not have been allowed to follow Eddie everywhere since the subsequent murders do not involve arson! We will allow logic to be suspended for now since their banter is occasionally intoxicating.

The latest string of murders are committed by two European thugs. One is Olgen (played by Olgen Taktarov), a bald-headed man who grins uncontrollably and his partner, Emil (Karel Roden), who also grins and shoots their murders with a stolen digital camera. Their motives remain unclear at first but afterwards, their intent becomes clearer - they want to publicize their snuff videos on television and become celebrities. Olgen's idea is that in America, nobody is blamed for what they do and everyone is a celebrity for at least fifteen minutes. Andy Warhol might have wished his words were not used synonymously with murder.

"15 Minutes" is nothing new, and its theme of how amoral and devalued our country (and the media) has become has been explored in everything from Sidney Lumet's "Network" to Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" to Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" to the blackly comical "Man Bites Dog," which this film so closely resembles. But what the film says is that someone crazy enough would be willing to create a snuff film and try and sell it to the media in return for some exposure. Sure, there is jail time served but who can say no to book rights, movie rights and the right lawyer who can negotiate a percentage of the profits (Olgen's lawyer is played by real-life Gotti lawyer Bruce Cutler).

Most of "15 Minutes" has a jazzy, immediate feel to it, and there are some terrifically choreographed scenes. One involves a gruesome murder seen from a witness's point-of-view. Another involves a shootout on the streets near Central Park that is hair-raising and frenetic. I also liked a long scene involving an escape from a burning building. But "15 Minutes" lacks much thrust or purpose. It seems to evolve from one type of genre to another. First we get some harrowing scenes of violence from a camcorder's point-of-view. Then we get the buddy shtick of De Niro and Burns at odds with each other. Then there is a developing romance between De Niro and a reporter (Melina Kanakaredes from TV's "Providence"). Then there is the brief satire of the media (such a cliched attack at best) where Mr. Frasier himself (Kelsey Grammer) plays a famous TV tabloid reporter whose sole purpose in news is summed up in one line, thanks to actress Kim Catrall: "If it bleeds, it leads." At this point, I was confused since the film doesn't stick close to any consistent tone or style.

De Niro has some bright, lively moments but it is mostly a thankless role for someone of his stature. He does have a touching scene, however, where he fills out a card to his possible bride-to-be written in a different language. Edwards Burns is not always up to the task and I had a hard time believing him to be an arson investigator (ironically enough, De Niro did wonders with a similar role in "Backdraft"). The two thugs are so inhuman, callous and pathetic that nothing registers them as anything but cartoonish, jocose villains whom I did not care for in the slightest.

"15 Minutes" has that unexpected twist in the middle (which will not be revealed here) that leaves the rest of the film without much soul or interest. Let us just say that another pile of cliches follow, including the obligatory turn-in-the-badge scene and a host of other predictable scenes from the "Dirty Harry" school. And the ending is so melodramatically silly and over-the-top (similar to the finale of the remake of "Shaft") that it ruins its thought-provoking premise. This is the kind of film possibly written by one person that is then run through a full-scale committee turning it into your average Hollywood run-of-the-mill thriller, satire, commentary, or whatever the heck it is.

This Peek-a-Boo is a boo-boo

HIDE AND SEEK (2005)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally reviewed in 2006)

When a new movie arrives in theaters that stars Robert De Niro, I get a little excited. After all, De Niro is one of our great actors, a man who gave us many inspired, complex performances. So for him to appear in a horror thriller, it is exciting news. The news, unfortunately, is precisely where the excitement ends.

De Niro plays a psychologist named David who has just suffered a tremendous loss - his wife (Amy Irving) has committed suicide by slitting her wrists in a bathtub. Now he has to console himself and his young daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning), so they move upstate from all the noise and chaos of New York City. This is seen as a hindrance to Emily by David's close friend and colleague (Famke Janssen) but hey, David feels the openness of country living might be therapeutic. So much for that idea. Before you know it, Emily starts exhibiting odd behaviors. She claims to have an imaginary friend named "Charlie," she dresses in a black dress for dinner, she visits a cave where she deposits dolls she destroys, she uses a bug as fish bait, shall I go on? Naturally she is hesitant to accept anyone new in her father's life, including Elizabeth (Elisabeth Shue), so Emily's behavior may be symptomatic of all that.

But then, a drowned cat is found in the bathtub and, twice, words are sprawled across the bathroom walls that serve as ominous warnings. Is "Charlie" the culprit? If so, how can David stop it? And if a cat drowns in your bathtub and you suspect your daughter is responsible, then wouldn't you consider taking your daughter out of the country setting and seek professional help? The plot thickens.

All this leads to the inevitable surprise ending, which will not come as a surprise to anyone who has read good mystery novels and is a film buff. The problem with "Hide and Seek" is that after a remarkably solid thirty minutes, it slides into the trite and bleak world of nothingness and emptiness. In other words, the filmmakers decide to abandon the two strong characters of Emily and David and subject them to pointless thrills and chills that ride high on the implausibility meter. This leads to more pointless scenes of David's neighbors, David's extremely brief fling with Elizabeth (and their initial encounter has got to be the speediest request for a date ever), endless scenes of David wandering the hallways and basement of his house, the cliched teapot hissing, etc.

De Niro handles the task of playing a bespectacled psychologist respectably but that is because he is Robert De Niro - unfortunately, he barely tries. He inhabits the role in a dreamlike state with no inner tension. Anyone could have played this role and that is not true of De Niro's other incarnations such as Travis Bickle or Jake LaMotta. On the De Niro meter of bad films, this is far better than "The Fan" or the dreadful and painful "Meet the Fockers" but that isn't saying much.

Dakota Fanning has the right look as the big-eyed, pale Child of the Damned, or so it seems (she looks like she could be in a remake of "The Bad Seed"). Save for the occasional smile, this kid could grow up to be a Stepford wife - an emotionless doll. I understand that her Emily character is upset over her mother's death but Fanning appears geared to be in a goth rock band.

The last half-hour of "Hide and Seek" is so incongruous to the rest of the story that I felt cheated and hoodwinked, but not in a good way. I always say that the only director who can come up with a surprise ending is David Lynch because he works in the logic of a dream. To a certain extent, it is difficult to surprise an audience when we've seen most surprise endings by now. "Hide and Seek" seems to be heading in the direction of nightmare or dreamlike logic but it goes for broke, culminating in an ending that one can see miles away since no other logical conclusion is possible. The biggest insult is how one movie can make Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning and poor Elisabeth Shue so damn enervated. Now that's surprising.

Rob Zombie's Clownish Chainsaw Massacre

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003)

Re-Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There have been so many variations on the stranded-kids-in-the-middle-of-nowhere scenario that, well, you can only come up with so many variations. Rob Zombie's directorial debut film, "House of 1000 Corpses," is stylish and even if it adds nothing new to the scenario except more of the usual cruel humor and occasional gory highlights, it works on your nerves like a punch to the solar plexus. It is far more of an improvement on second viewing.

The typical scenario has four young foolish people travelling on the road to discover the urban legend of Dr. Satan. Supposedly, Dr. Satan performed experiments on human guinea pigs involving dismemberment, disembowelment and who knows what else. So they stop at a chicken-takeout/gas station/haunted theatre called Captain Spaulding's Museum of Monsters and Madmen (the owner is wonderfully played by Sid Haig). They are lured into a ride of horrors that include wax figures of real-life murderers such as Ed Gein, Lizzie Borden and, naturally, the fictitious Dr. Satan. After the amusement ride is over, the four agree to go the woodsy area where Dr. Satan was supposedly hanged. They pick up a blonde hitchhiker (Sheri Moon) who has a knack for heavy rock and roll. Of course, their car gets a flat (thanks to a shotgun blast during a rainy night which nobody hears) and they end up at the blonde girl's residence, a spooky house occupied by the blonde's flirtatious mom (Karen Black), a deaf, deformed giant named Tiny (Matthew McGrory) and a blonde madman wearing spooky contact lenses and sporting a "Burn the Flag" T-shirt named Otis (Bill Moseley).

Most of "House of 1000 Corpses" is blackly comical and often too hyperbolic. It is the equivalent of a rock music video with interspersed clips of superior horror movies (including "The Old Dark House"), grainy footage and other film stocks, not unlike what Oliver Stone might have done had he directed this. None of it is remotely scary, and maybe it isn't meant to be. Even the cliched false alarms and the "who's there" shenanigans aren't very well executed but perhaps that is on purpose. The two young couples are the most innocent and annoying of victims, and they hardly merit any sympathy. The black humor runs too high and the gory killings, played against rock music and asynchronous Satanic readings, feel out-of-date and repetitious. I know this is set in the 1970's and that this is Rob Zombie's zany homage to those splatter flicks but he could have benefited from the most tried-and-true rule of horror - less is infinitely more.

The best thing about this movie is Sid Haig, last seen in various cult films and blaxploitation fare. He has fun with his role and brings it the relish and humor one might expect from an atypical clown character like Captain Spaulding. Bill Moseley seems to be treading on his "Chop Top" character from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (which this movie clearly resembles), yet he has a menacing stare. Karen Black and Sheri Moon run the gamut of overly theatrical to highly overly theatrical and may grate the nerves after a while, yet they still chill the bone. However, Sheri Moon's lip-synched rendition of "I Wanna Be Loved By You" is hysterically gaudy stuff.

"House of 1000 Corpses" is occasionally frightful and moodily photographed (though the zoom lens is overused), but it is just a maniacal, cartoonish, out-of-control carnival rather than a horror movie. High octane doesn't always translate as unruly intensity but it has the icky spirit of the best "Chainsaw Massacre" films. On that level, it is worthwhile but it is too hyperbolic for the average horror fan.

Warriors for hire

RONIN (1998)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Originally reviewed in 1998)

The element of surprise has disappeared in modern action thrillers. We see the usual thunderous explosions and gunfights bereft of any decent plot or character exposition. Mostly, we get thrill rides that aim mainly to please the eye, not unlike the summer of 1998's experiment in overkill, "Armageddon." "Ronin" is not exempt from the aforementioned expectations of your average action thriller, but it is executed with a finesse in its strategy to thrill us - it does it without CGI effects or special-effects of any kind. That in itself is commendable.

The term Ronin refers to Japanese legend where the Japanese samurai, left with no leaders to lead them, roamed the countryside acting as warriors-for-hire. This legend was prominently featured in Akira Kurosawa's great "The Seven Samurai" and "Yojimbo" - the latter remade as "A Fistful of Dollars." "Ronin's" version of the story deals with a band of mercenaries who are looking to be hired, and find work courtesy of an IRA honcho named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone). The job is to obtain a mysterious briefcase, which is in the hands of "five to eight men." That's the slim plot in a nutshell, and the mercenaries set out to find the briefcase braving one shootout, car chase and double cross after another. Who ever said you could trust mercenaries who just want to make a quick buck?

The international group of macho warriors-for-hire includes Sam (played by Robert De Niro), who may be ex-CIA and has a way with a cup of coffee; a psychotic Russian computer expert named Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård); a hulking Frenchman named Vincent (Jean Reno playing virtually the same role as in "Mission Impossible"); and a very fast driver named Larry (Skip Suduth), who has a way with the narrow roads and tunnels in Paris (shades of Princess Di's death come to mind).

"Ronin" could almost be a James Bond thriller considering its numerous locations (Nice, Paris) and assortment of artillery (machine guns, bazookas), but it fits more squarely in the tradition of the espionage thriller genre. Examples of this type of genre extend from Hitchcock's "Sabotage" to "The Day of the Jackal." "Ronin" is directed by the exciting John Frankenheimer ("The Manchurian Candidate") and he milks the formula for all the atmosphere and intrigue you can get. At times, "Ronin" is vaguely European in its steely attitude and tough-as-nail characters, including the deadly Gregor who has no qualms of shooting a child in an open playground, or the Irish female leader who may not be quite what she seems.

"Ronin" is filled with car chases galore but it is at its best during its calm moments, some vaguely humorous. I liked the scene where Sam and Deirdre pose as a couple at a hotel so they can snap shots of one of the "five to eight men." I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie between the members of the group, who size each other up uncovering one's weaknesses and one's strengths. But there are two sequences that must be seen to be believed: one is an elaborate setup involving a Parisian bistro that is as perfectly timed and edited as anything Hitchcock might have attempted, and the other is when the wounded Sam is giving instructions to Vincent on how to retract a bullet lodged on his side. This one sequence features the brilliant British actor Michel Londsdale ("The Bride Wore Black") as a doctor whose hobby is designing samurai figures.

"Ronin" has too many chase sequences, and a scantily designed plot, but it's always enticing, breathtaking, and watchable. The cast is watchable, too, and De Niro's commanding presence (playing an action hero for the first time) and Frankenheimer's alert direction make up for the brief lapses in plausibility.

Exorcising a mental illness

THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is trying to make the case that possession might indeed be real. I understand that the fictional "The Exorcist" wanted to show possession as a nightmarish reality (and it made its case as harrowingly realistic as it could be, even though I do not believe in possession) but "Emily Rose" is supposedly based on real events, and therein lies the rub.

Father Richard Moore (Tom Wilkinson) has been accused of negligent homicide in the death of Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), a college student who may have been possessed by demons. Her death happened during the exorcism, but was she actually possessed or did she suffer from some form of psychosis and epilepsy? Most people who suffer from such horrid conditions don't suddenly have their eyes turn black or contort their bodies in ways that could result in spinal breakage, nor do they utter foreign languages they have never spoken. Aye, but therein once again lies the rub. Emily has learned other languages, especially German, so there is the distinct possibility she is going through a psychosis. That is what agnostic defense lawyer, Erin Bruner (Laura Linney), is initially trying to prove until she decides to prove that Emily really was possessed. Father Moore believes so, and maybe Erin wants to believe it. The prosecution feels otherwise.

"Exorcism of Emily Rose" is not a full-throttle, quaking-in-your-boots horror flick but it does have its nailbiting moments (it is based on the true case of Anneliese Michel). Mostly, it is your basic courtroom drama with consistent flashbacks to Emily's condition (and only fleetingly before the madness began). But the movie never makes a distinction between the possession and the epilepsy - it is assumed Emily was definitely possessed. I wish the movie gave us a choice and it is hard to counter the notion that six demons took possession of her body. When Emily jumps out of a window from the second floor of the house and runs into a barn, we can't assume it is anything but. When Erin Bruner hears the tape recorder play itself or her watch stops at 3 am (the devil's hour), there is no mistaking the Devil is at play here.

Fascinating and intriguing and often intensely frightful minus any gore (unless you can't handle Emily eating bugs), "Exorcism of Emily Rose" is a decent horror flick and an absorbing courtroom drama (unusual mix for this kind of schlock). Jennifer Carpenter delivers a sonic boom to the nerves - she is startlingly effective and made me have goosebumps. I only wish that since this is based on true events, we got a more evenhanded exploration of any medical condition that could explain Emily Rose's outbursts.