Movie Review: Mulholland Falls (1996)

Genre: Neo Noir Crime Drama  

Director: Lee Tamahori  

Starring: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, John Malkovich, Treat Williams, Chris Penn, Andrew McCarthy, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the early 1950s in Los Angeles. A tough squad of police detectives led by Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) and consisting of his partners Ellery (Chazz Palminteri), Eddie (Michael Madsen), and Arthur (Chris Penn) play outside the rules to push back against organized crime. When high-class prostitute Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly) is found dead, Max is compromised because he was one of her clients. Seedy cameraman Jimmy (Andrew McCarthy) secretly filmed Allison with her illicit lovers, including General Timms (John Malkovich). Max's dogged investigation leads to a Nevada atomic bomb test site, and a tangle with Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald (Treat Williams).

What Works Well: This character-based mood-focused drama rides on the brute charisma of Nick Nolte as Max Hoover, a detective determined to keep his town clear of mob figures. His world is suddenly upended when his trysts with the alluring Allison are exposed, collapsing his stable relationship with his wife (Melanie Griffith). The Peter Dexter script balances expertly-delivered punctuations of violence with interesting characters brought to life by a dream supporting cast, with Andrew McCarthy's opportunistic photographer a stand out. At the heart of this investigation is a strong bond of male friendship, Max's squad a cacophony of barbs united by an ends-justify-the-means ethos.

What Does Not Work As Well: The period set designs, vehicles, and wardrobes leave the conspiracy behind, the sequence of events leading to Allison's death becoming fuzzier, less interesting, and ultimately illogical with every reveal. The resources available to the antagonists should have ensured that she simply disappeared, rather than dumped in plain sight of a construction project. 

Key Quote:

General Timms (talking to Max Hoover): That's the history of the world, Lieutenant. Some people die before their time so that others can live. It's the cornerstone of civilization. War, religion, democracy. A hundred die so that a thousand may live.

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Movie Review: Weekend At Bernie's (1989)

Genre: Comedy  

Director: Ted Kotcheff  

Starring: Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Terry Kiser  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: Junior analysts Larry and Rick (Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman) uncover financial irregularities at the giant Manhattan-based insurance company where they work. Their boss Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser), who is secretly pilfering the money, invites the young men to his Hamptons house for the weekend with intentions to kill them, but his Mafia associates murder him instead. At the Hamptons, Larry and Rick find Bernie's dead body but pretend that all is well, and proceed to enjoy a party weekend while Rick pursues a romance with intern Gwen (Catherine Mary Stewart).

What Works Well: Terry Kiser delivers one of the all-time-best performances as a movie corpse, and the few good laughs feature the dead Bernie's inopportune appearances at awkward moments.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is an interminable one-joke comedy mostly consisting of a corpse being shuffled from here to there and back again, with satire too haughty a concept for the juvenile antics. Brought to life (and death) by systemic over-acting, the witless script runs out of steam quickly and is hopelessly dependent on caricaturish behaviour and abject stupidity. The material leans heavily on poor taste and is probably hilarious for pre-teen boys (although the gag involving unintended necrophilia may mercifully fly over their head), but for everyone else, this is one long and lost weekend.

Key Quote:

Larry: What kind of a host invites you to his house for the weekend and dies on you?

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Movie Review: Less Than Zero (1987)

A coming-of-age drugs-and-sex morality tales, Less Than Zero oozes style but reeks of plastic music-video superficiality.

Classmates Clay (Andrew McCarthy), his girlfriend Blair (Jami Gertz), and Julian (Robert Downey Jr.) were best friends from wealthy families at their Los Angeles high school. After graduation Clay heads out to college, Blair stays in LA to pursue a modeling career, and Julian dreams of successful business investment ventures using his father's money. At Thanksgiving Clay discovers that Blair and Julian are sleeping together, and at Christmas he returns home for another visit at Blair's request.

Clay finds Julian broke, addicted, and descending into a spiral of hard drugs supplied by slick dealer Rip (James Spader). Julian is still charismatic and dreaming of his next big venture, but running on empty, and owing Rip a lot of money. Clay reconnects with Blair and they rekindle their relationship as they try to help Julian break out of his destructive cycle.

A loose adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' celebrated book about life among LA's decadent teens, Less Than Zero is loud but exceedingly tedious. Self-consciously directed by Marek Kanievska, the film looks sumptuous, with every frame an attempted work of art, Kanievska particularly fond of symmetrical framing and glitzy hyperactive lights puncturing the LA nights. The music, for better or for worse, is the other notable achievement, Less Than Zero featuring a nonstop soundtrack of what passed for cool rock and party tunes in the mid to late 1980s.

Otherwise this is a story about teenagers attending parties and dabbling in unconstrained sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll dreams, but unfortunately the film drops to the vacuous level of its protagonists. Clay and Blair attend party after party, usually looking for Julian as he struggles through his latest drug-induced haze, only to restart the same cycle the next day. Kanievska may have intended the endless succession of parties with throbbing music and stroboscopic lights to meld into one long 98 minutes as a metaphor for lives being wasted on indistinguishable highs, but as a viewing experience, the film dances up a sweat in one place and gets nowhere fast.

Apart from the insatiable appetite for all-night parties featuring flickering mountains of monitors as the decor object of choice, the film struggles to reconcile the main character interactions with their age. Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey Jr., and James Spader represent core and loose affiliates of the Brat Pack, and here they fail to convince as 19 year olds six months out of high school. The actors range in age from 22 (Gertz) to 27 (Spader), and the dialogue, courtesy of a Harley Peyton script, suggests thirtysomethings rather than spoiled teenagers. McCarthy comes off worst in his perpetual dreamlike state. Downey Jr. and Spader are suitably intense and slimy respectively, while Gertz is adequate.

With plenty of throbbing ostentation, Less Than Zero is not wholly negative, but it is less than meets the eye.

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Movie Review: Class (1983)

A high school sex comedy, Class boasts a remarkable cast and appears intent on exploring some serious issues before getting lost in a tonal no-man's land.

Jonathan (Andrew McCarthy) is a new senior student at the exclusive all-boys Vernon Academy somewhere in New England. His roommate is the fun-loving "Skip" (Rob Lowe), who comes from a rich and established family. After trading painfully embarrassing pranks, Jonathan and Skip become good friends.

Skip encourages the tentative Jonathan to take a weekend trip to Chicago to gain confidence in his dealings with women. Jonathan does so, and to his surprise meets and starts a torrid sexual affair with the much older Ellen (Jacqueline Bisset). Having a mature woman as a lover changes Jonathan, as he gains immeasurably in confidence and becomes one of the most popular boys at Vernon. But when Christmas break arrives and Jonathan heads off to meet Skip's family, he is in for a huge shock.

Directed by Lewis John Carlino, Class struggles to define itself. The film spends a lot of time on routine campus high-jinx inspired by Animal House and its countless imitators. But gradually the narrative shifts uncomfortably towards the complications stemming from a sex drenched relationship between a younger man and an older woman. Serious themes are suddenly scattered across the screen. Lust is confused with love, troublesome stalking phone calls are introduced, and the loneliness of the emotionally abandoned rich wife emerges as a potential interesting plot line.

But the script by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt is capable of introducing weighty matters but proves clueless in dealing with them once hatched. Class stumbles into awkward territory where a host of unresolved ideas run headlong into a rudimentary comedy, and the mess ends with an embarrassing fist fight that reveals nothing except the limitation of the writing.

Andrew McCarthy (in his debut) and Rob Lowe do establish a credible rapport of friendship that builds during the film and adds a dose of interest. Jacqueline Bisset plays off her screen persona as a sexpot, here becoming the dream mature woman capable of transforming an adolescent into adulthood in one night.

The three principals are supported by a talented supporting crew, with John Cusack (also in his debut), Alan Ruck, Casey Siemaszko, Virginia Madsen and Joan Cusack appearing as students. Stuart Margolin is the mysterious mustached investigator who descends on the school late in the proceedings to uncover wrong-doings, and Cliff Robertson is Skip's father. It's an unusually deep cast for what is ultimately an underdeveloped and lightweight high school romp, and the surprisingly good acting talent set against the bumpy script adds to the film's identity crisis.

Class is not without its merits, but the curriculum is a most messy muddle.

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Movie Review: Pretty In Pink (1986)

A high school comedy, romance and drama wrapped into a pink package, Pretty In Pink delves into the politics of love across social class divides, and finds real teenagers grappling with the details of growing up.

Andie (Molly Ringwald) comes from a lower income family and lives on the wrong side of the tracks with her father Jack (Harry Dean Stanton), who has not yet recovered from being abandoned by his wife. Andie is clever, resourceful and takes on the responsibility of keeping her father somewhat functional. At a high school dominated by rich kids, Andie fends off the sexual advances of the lecherous Steff (James Spader), but harbours a crush on his shy friend Blane (Andrew McCarthy). Both Steff and Blane come from monied families and social norms dictate that they stay away from poor girls like Andie. Meanwhile, Andie's best friend since childhood is the extroverted Duckie (Jon Cryer). He is deeply infatuated with her, but she just considers him a reliable if sometimes annoying buddy.

Blane finds the courage to approach Andie and they start dating. Steff is incredulous that his best friend is associating with what he considers an unworthy girl, while Duckie is heartbroken that the love of his life has eyes for someone else. With the big night of the prom approaching, Andie finds herself at the centre of a turbulent romantic drama with ripple effects disturbing established expectations.

Written by John Hughes, directed by Howard Deutch, and packed with new wave music from the likes of The Psychedelic Furs, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order, Pretty In Pink is a cultural milestone. It followed on the heels of Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, as Hughes established himself the dean of smart high school films, with Molly Ringwald his primary muse and a generational role model. Andrew McCarthy's presence helps to classify Pretty In Pink as part of the loosely defined 1980s brat pack series of films.

The story itself is a simple riff on Romeo and Juliet, with teenage emotions exaggerated by throbbing hormones and the intensity of the high school experience. Pretty In Pink may be a touch over-scrubbed. Andie is just a shade too perfect, Blane carries a hint of white knight, and Duckie's individualistic free spirit at times reaches into comic relief territory. The ending (changed from the original intent) caters more to fairy tale fantasies rather than gritty reality.

But Hughes again demonstrates his unusually high level of respect for many his characters, with Andie, Duckie, Blane and Jack all developed into rounded people worth knowing. Even Andie's friend and boss at the mall record store Iona (a sparkly Annie Potts) benefits from creditable depth. And the characters all come to life within an efficient 96 minute package.

Through his characters and with a mix of humour and pathos driven by the thumping soundtrack, Hughes delves into some of his favourite issues, including the fuzzy borders between friendship and love, the cliques that dominate high school social interaction, and building difficult bridges across chasms of wealth and privilege. Other than Jack, this is a discovery world made up exclusively of teens, the school teachers a mere inconvenience to be navigated on the road to understanding the truths that define adulthood.

Molly Ringwald is at her best, her subtle expressions a constant source of critical embellishment. Ringwald narrows her eyes, cocks her head and purses her mouth just so, never over elaborating and always with the quizzical innocence of a mature teenager walking the tightrope towards becoming a grown-up. Andie loves pink; Ringwald adds the texture, shades and patterns to bring the one colour to cheerful life.

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Movie Review: St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

A post-graduation coming-of-age drama and one of the essential Brat Pack movies, St. Elmo's Fire is crowded with stereotypes but nevertheless captures the angst of transitioning from the campus to the real world.

Seven friends in their early twenties are facing life soon after graduating from Georgetown University. Alec (Judd Nelson) and Leslie (Ally Sheedy) are living together, and while he is working as a political aid and ready to get married, she wants to wait. Kevin (Andrew McCarthy) is an aspiring writer and frequently hangs out with Alec and Leslie. Kevin's roommate is Kirby (Emilio Estevez), who has ambitions to study law but currently works as a waiter at St. Elmo's Bar, the group's favourite hang-out.

Billy (Rob Lowe) is the bad boy, a saxophone player with no career path, already estranged from his wife and infant child. Nevertheless, Wendy (Mare Winningham), a social worker, is deeply in love with him. Finally, Jules (Demi Moore) is a party girl and already sucked into a materialistic life she can't afford.

Alec can't help but cheat on Leslie as he waits for her to agree to get married, while Kevin harbours a secret crush on another member of the group. Kirby openly lusts after Dale (Andie MacDowell), a doctor who graduated a few years earlier, and starts stalking her. Billy and Wendy have a falling out, and she comes under pressure from her father (Martin Balsam) to marry a boring man and get into her family's greeting card franchise business. Jules seeks a short-cut to financial stability by starting an affair with her married boss. As the seven struggle to deal with the responsibilities of adulthood, their friendships are stretched to the breaking point.

The seven characters of St. Elmo's Fire are undoubtedly self-centred, over-dramatic, and generally quite irritating. Not one of them appears to have charted a logical emotional or career path, and their behaviour is more suitable to snotty high schoolers than university graduates. Allowing for the film's tilt towards the dysfunctionally exaggerated, St. Elmo's Fire does deliver some succulent drama. There is enough romance, lust, and irresponsibility going on to fill a few seasons' worth of guilty pleasure television, and director Joel Schumacher packages his movie with glossy wrapping paper and the nostalgia of early adulthood, when every little independent decision seemed like a monumental moment.

The script, by Schumacher and Carl Kurlander, creates characters that are vivid and memorable rather than unique. Each of the seven represents a broad societal pie slice, and there is no holding back on the amount of filling. Billy's rebel without a cause is all long haired, ear-ringed, unfocused imprudence, Wendy's goody two-shoes dresses like the Mayflower pilgrims, and Jules' slutty material girl lives life according to a Madonna soundtrack. Kirby's infatuation with Dale would qualify as a crime outside a movie script, but here is played for laughs, Kevin's dreamy-eyed long-haired aspiring writer drips idealistic romanticism, and Alec's out of control libido would condemn him as a sex addict. Leslie just barely qualifies as closest to rational, but even she quickly hops into a bed with a new lover at the first hint of a fight with Alec.

With the subtleties being pummeled, there is no need for textured acting, and no one ever accused the Brat Packers of excellence in the performing arts. Fulfilling the function of pretty faces representing their generation's excesses rather than intense dramatists, the seven actors dive into their strictly defined roles and embody them energetically, without ever moving beyond the obvious. Nelson, Lowe and Moore get to stretch the most, but even they are confined to stock displays of anger generated by hormones adjusting from the campus cocoon to the cold real world. Estevez, as a little boy lost in a horrible role, suffers the most.

The theme song St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion) is quite outstanding. Written by David Foster and performed by John Parr, it is overused throughout the film, but does capture the energetic anguish of responsibility. In St. Elmo's Fire growing up is hard to do, but at least it looks and sounds good.

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