The Usual Choices
The Crying Game (Neil Jordan)
Howards End (James Ivory)
The Player (Robert Altman)
Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino)
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
But how about...
Leaving Normal (Edward Zwick)
Another one of those films which only I seem to be a fan of. Two women (one tough & men-weary; the other, naive and eternally-hopeful) go on a life-changing road trip to Alaska. Along the way, they meet...etc etc etc. I prefer this to Thelma & Louise mainly due to the performance of Christine Lahti (many critics consider her performance to be of the "broad broad" type, but I find it transparently armour-like which barely hides her unhappiness). The many picture-postcards shots add to the pleasant artificiality of the whole story and Meg Tilly is both pathetic and endearing as the tag-along innocent. The shaggy-dog style story unabashedly goes for heart-warming and pretty much succeeds.
...and what about...
A Midnight Clear (Keith Gordon)
A war film with a warm moral centre (and that is not a putdown), this tells the WWII story of a band of young American soldiers which comes across a band of young German soldiers. Object: surrender, survive, but not to be thought of as cowards. The bitterly cold Ardennes setting adds to the bleakness of the group's situation, and some scenes (the washing of a fallen comrade's body; dogtags being hammered shut into a corpse's mouth) are haunting. Only a questionable flashback sequence (a girl back home loses her fiance & gives herself to four virgin soldiers to help assuage her grief) seems out of place. So great to watch a war film which has more than action or jingoism as its mandate.
...not to mention...
The Waterdance (Neal Jimenez / Michael Steinberg)
The adventures of three paraplegics in a rehabilitation hospital...gotta be a bit of a downer, right? Yes, it is (of course it bloody is), but it manages to also come across as a slice of reality: all three men are suddenly reduced to wheels and the story outlines how they handle / do not handle / accept, but never entirely, the transition. A great ensemble piece, the stages of grief the men go through are woven through their behaviour towards each other, from punching bags to supportive friends. Never slipping into schmaltz, the film declines to portray the men as heroes (just ordinary guys dealing with a life cruelty) and refuses to go for Uplifting & Heartwarming; refreshingly Frank & Honest instead.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest)
Like every other movie fan, I was glad that Al Pacino FINALLY won an Oscar, but, My God, for this?? The star of The Godfather(s), Dog Day Afternoon, Glengarry Glen Ross, Carlito's Way and (I insist) Frankie & Johnny gives one of the least convincing portrayals of a blind man EVER (he just seems to have a fetishistic case of the stares). So, of course, the movie drags out this performance embarrassment for over TWO & a HALF HOURS!! Blind Al drives a car, hires a prostitute, tangos beautifully and teaches a young guy how to live, all of which were antics pinched from The Mr Magoo Show, I am sure. Hoowah.
My Top 10 Films of 1992
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| "Hello? I'd like to report a plumbing problem..." |
#02 A Batman Returns (Burton)
#03 A Leaving Normal (Zwick)
#04 A Lorenzo's Oil (Miller)
#05 A- A Midnight Clear (Gordon)
#06 A- A Few Good Men (Reiner)
#07 A- Howards End (Ivory)
#08 A- Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino)
#09 A- Glengarry Glen Ross (Foley)
#10 A- The Waterdance (Jimenez / Steinberg)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- Spotswood / The Efficiency Expert (Joffe)
#12 A- Bob Roberts (Robbins)
#13 B+ Malcolm X (Lee)
#14 B+ The Player (Altman)
#15 B+ Husbands and Wives (Allen)
#16 B+ The Crying Game (Jordan)
#17 B+ Sneakers (Robinson)
#18 B+ Hero / Accidental Hero (Frears)
#19 B+ My Cousin Vinny (Lynn)
#20 B+ One False Move (Franklin)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B A River Runs Through It [genteel and pastoral Americana, but too much for us foreigners]
> B The Mambo Kings [lots of unbridled passion but not enough to camouflage the corniness of the story]
> B Singles [must have been an inspiration for Friends...but nowhere near as good]
> B Hoffa [not as good as the American Experience documentary which one day will get made]
> B A League of Their Own [so mild that even Tom Hanks can inject a bit of grit into it]
> B The Hand That Rocks the Cradle [a good psycho in a passable thriller with a pathetic victim]
> B Death Becomes Her [wants to be a dark comedy, but the cartoonish SFX turn it into broad slapstick]
> B Mr Saturday Night [the characterisation is muddled and the make-up guy shoulda been shot]
> B Far and Away [Tom & Nicole are a gorgeous couple, but they sure ain't Irish]
> B Chaplin [Robert is stunning as Charlie but everybody else sure ain't who they're supposed to be]
> B Alien 3 [not as bad as its rep, but not as good as its predecessors either]
> B The Last of the Mohicans [the romance overwhelms the film's historical epic-ness and old-fashioned action]
> B- Peter's Friends [The British Big Chill with an ensemble performance which isn't as good]
> B- Strictly Ballroom [have I ever mentioned that musical stage shows just aren't my kinda thing?]
> B- The Power of One [Apartheid reduced to what a goody-two-shoes white kid thinks about it]
> B- Romper Stomper [I know it's about repellent people, but that makes it a chore to watch]
> B- Bad Lieutenant [I know it's about a repellent person, but that makes it a chore to watch]
> B- The Muppet Christmas Carol [a good Michael Caine performance surrounded by talking foam and crappy songs]
> B- Into the West [for lovers of horses, Irish mysticism and cute kids...that's 0 out of 3 for me]
> B- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me [the absurdist humour remains intact, but the surrealities are tedious]
> B- Bram Stoker's Dracula [Universal Horror meets Apocalypse Now. Result: looks good but is too silly]
> B- Radio Flyer [hmm...using your imagination to escape from child abuse...are you sure about this?]
> B- CrissCross [unappealing story filled with unappealing people]
> C Stay Tuned [wants to be a witty satire on TV culture, but is more Dumb than Clever]
> C Careful [beloved by Arty types, it bored the shit outta me]
> D Scent of a Woman [A Personal Unmentionable]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1992 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
American Heart (Bell); American Me (Olmos); Damage (Malle); Deep Cover (Duke); 1492: Conquest of Paradise (Scott); Gas Food Lodging (Anders); In the Soup (Rockwell); Juice (Dickerson); Laws of Gravity (Gomez); Light Sleeper (Schrader); The Long Day Closes (Davies); Orlando (Potter); Passion Fish (Sayles); Red Rock West (Dahl); Simple Men (Hartley); Soft Top Hard Shoulder (Schwartz); Swoon (Kalin); This is My Life (Ephron); Thunderheart (Apted); Trespass (Hill); Waterland (Gyllenhaal); White Men Can’t Jump (Shelton); You, Me & Marley (Veevers); Zebrahead (Drazen)
Best Performances of 1992
Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game
Robert Downey Jr in Chaplin
Gene Hackman in Unforgiven
Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman
Emma Thompson in Howards End
Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny
But how about...
Michelle Pfeiffer & Danny DeVito in Batman Returns
Catwoman and the Penguin are two members of the Batman Clan that have been retconned and reimagined within an inch of their comicbook lives. How could anyone do better than Julie Newmar & Burgess Meredith from the 1966 campy TV show? But Michelle & Danny do it (just like Heath banished all memories of Caesar Romero's Joker 42 years later). Neither have been improved upon and, like Christopher Reeve's Superman, the actors make the 2D into 3D flesh'n'blood characters who are still obviously outrageous fiction. Amusing, sexy and repellent (er, scratch "sexy" for Danny), they set the superhero movie standard for enjoyable villainy.
...and what about...
Richard Harris in Unforgiven
Everyone raved about Gene Hackman as Little Bill, but that was just another Gene-the-Anger-King performance, something which he has done many times in his career. But Richard as English Bob is something new for both actor and the Western genre. Flamboyant, a compulsive embellisher, slowing down but with his ruthlessness engrained, Richard is the gunfighter that the tail end of The Wild West was probably riddled with. You feel every blow and kick he endures; you wince with every truth designed to belittle him. Richard makes you like and feel sorry for a man who is a professional killer. That's an achievement.
...not to mention...
Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge is one of the juiciest acting roles and there have been some great portrayals (Alastair Sim, Albert Finney, Ralph Richardson, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone, Walter Matthau, George C. Scott and Yosemite Sam have all played him), but Michael had to do it surrounded by scene-stealing Muppets. To the great man's credit, he steals the film back from his cloth castmates: he is very much the star of the show and they are merely in support. Rather than going for the standard grumpy-old-man (eat more fruit?) version, Michael is clearly a miserable bastard who is scared shitless into empathy by the visiting ghosts. He isn't reborn so much as he is chickening out. I love the saccharine-killing cynicism...something which could only come from Michael Caine.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula
While everyone dumps on Keanu Reeves' performance in this (and, to be fair, he is dreadful...I keep expecting him to suddenly come out with "excellent" or "dude"), Gary's OTT turn as the horror icon is universally praised. Why? The man is definitely a terrific actor, but his attempt at Count Dracula is a cross between the Plan 9 From Outer Space version of Bela Lugosi and the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock version of Dame Judith Anderson. The top hat and round spectacles make him look like a member of The Strawberry Alarm Clock, and his expressions of sexual desire are all breath and slowly-closing eyelids. Could any actor have played this role in this indulgent, bloated film without slipping into similar exaggerations?
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1992
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| "...and we can call it The Pussy & Birdie Day Care Centre..." |
#02 Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns
#03 Danny Devito in Batman Returns
#04 Richard Harris in Unforgiven
#05 Denzel Washington in Malcolm X
#06 Robert Downey Jr in Chaplin
#07 Susan Sarandon in Lorenzo's Oil
#08 Al Pacino & Jack Lemmon & Alec Baldwin & Ed Harris & Alan Arkin & Kevin Spacey & Jonathan Pryce in Glengarry Glen Ross
#09 Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
#10 Eric Stolz & Wesley Snipes & William Forsythe in The Waterdance
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven
#12 Christine Lahti in Leaving Normal
#13 Emma Thompson in Howards End
#14 Ben Mendelsohn in Spotswood / The Efficiency Expert
#15 Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny
#16 Jack Nicholson in Hoffa
#17 Bridget Fonda & Campbell Scott & Kyra Sedgwick & Matt Dillon in Singles
#18 Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own
#19 Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol
#20 Emma Thompson in Peter's Friends
#21 Fred Gwynne in My Cousin Vinny
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game [once the cat was out of the bag, it became ordinary]
> Gene Hackman in Unforgiven [for any other actor, this would have been an extraordinary performance]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1992 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood)
SILVER: Batman Returns (Tim Burton)
BRONZE: Leaving Normal (Edward Zwick)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Denzel Washington (Malcolm X)
SILVER: Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin)
BRONZE: Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns)
SILVER: Susan Sarandon (Lorenzo's Oil)
BRONZE: Christine Lahti (Leaving Normal)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Danny DeVito (Batman Returns)
SILVER: Richard Harris (Unforgiven)
BRONZE: Jack Nicholson (A Few Good Men)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Judy Davis (Husbands and Wives)
SILVER: Emma Thompson (Peter's Friends)
BRONZE: Geraldine Chaplin (Chaplin)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Al Pacino & Jack Lemmon & Alec Baldwin & Ed Harris & Alan Arkin & Kevin Spacey & Jonathan Pryce (Glengarry Glen Ross)
SILVER: Eric Stolz & Wesley Snipes & William Forsythe (The Waterdance)
BRONZE: Bridget Fonda & Campbell Scott & Kyra Sedgwick & Matt Dillon (Singles)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ciaran Fitzgerald & Ruaidhri Conroy (Into the West)
SILVER: Zack O'Malley Greenburg (Lorenzo's Oil)
BRONZE: Elijah Wood (Radio Flyer)
The Alternate Razzies for 1992 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker's Dracula)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Rita Rudner (Peter's Friends)
