The Usual Choices
As Good as It Gets (James L. Brooks)
Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo)
L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
Titanic (James Cameron)
But how about...
Breakdown (Jonathan Mostow)
A superior action-thriller that deserves to join the glistening-chrome ranks of Die Hard and Speed. A nice married couple are driving through the desert when their car seemingly breaks down. They flag down a truckie who drives the wife to the nearest roadside cafe while the husband stays with the car (it's new and expensive, you see). Hubbie fixes the car, drives to the cafe...no wife, the truckie denies any knowledge of husband or wife and the local police are of no use at all. So, off we go on a Duel / Nocturnal Animals / Wolf Creek hybrid journey, as tense as all get-out and mounting one nailbiter on top of another. Kurt Russell is ideal as the hero (initially timid and eventually superman) and JT Walsh is an absolute mongrel bastard. Correctly-so all over within 93 minutes and tense stuff from beginning to end.
...and what about...
The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola)
The dwindling away of his talent by Director Francis is one of Hollywood's great too-bads. After the hysterical mess that was Apocalypse Now, something was clearly broken inside the man; never again would he come close to matching the pinnacles of The Godfathers (I & II only of course) and The Conversation. This film, The Rainmaker, could have been made by any competent filmmaker and has nothing to do with terms such as "visionary", "cutting edge" or "challenging". But who cares? It tells an absorbing David & Goliath story set in a court of law, with Matt Damon (at his most appealing) as the green lawyer and Jon Voight defending the "rights" of an insurance company which is just out to fleece their clients. Along the way, we are treated to fun characters (Mickey Rourke as a shyster lawyer; Teresa Wright as a dizzy old dear; Roy Scheider as the cardigan-ed Prince of Darkness; Danny DeVito as Danny DeVito) and, while the outcome is preordained and the side love story is a bit naff, it is one of the great long rainy day movies.
...not to mention...
Cop Land (James Mangold)
Yet another film which has been brushed away by critics, but I thought was very good. Featuring the cast of a half-dozen Scorsese films (De Niro + Keitel + Liotta), this story is obviously a camouflaged Rio Bravo / High Noon retelling where the baddies on horses are replaced with goodfellas. Sylvester Stallone is the Garrison, New Jersey town sheriff who dreams of being in the bigtime NYPD. His town is a Mafia / very-bad-cop haven and Sly turns a deaf ear to the corruption swirling all around him. It comes to a violent head, of course, and the sheriff decides to stop being a passive joke and actually do his job for a change. All built upon my favourite theme (Redemption), this is a gangster movie which is more about good people reclaiming their decency rather than bad people getting their just desserts. And Sylvester Stallone shows that his Rocky persona can be used for more than just multi-sequel pummeling.
...and one personal unmentionable...
Titanic (James Cameron)
True story: this got me thrown out of a movie theatre for inappropriate laughing.
I endured the 2 hours (or was it 7?) of build-up before the catastrophe even hits, then my jaw dropped when Kate climbed out of the lifeboat and back onto the ship to rescue her beloved. Dressed in a long, flowing ballgown, she swims through iceberg water carrying an axe and chops through Leonardo's handcuffs...my incredulous titters began here. Giggles became guffaws when they hung onto the now-vertical ship (the size of which is around a half-dozen football fields...just imagine the suction that would create), holding hands and being sucked down into the briny depths. Then...omigosh...they bob up together, still hand in hand, find a floating piece of debris which she sits on but won't move her arse over so he doesn't have to freeze to death.
"Sir...you will need to leave the theatre. Your laughter is disturbing the other patrons."
"But...they choose to find it sad...I choose to find it funny."
"Sir...please don't make a scene. Come quietly. It's nearly over anyway. Surely."
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| Sometimes, Twister is just played far too seriously. |
My Top 10 Films of 1997
#01 A The Sweet Hereafter (Egoyan)
#02 A L.A. Confidential (Hanson)
#03 A- The Rainmaker (Coppola)
#04 A- Cop Land (Mangold)
#05 A- The Ice Storm (Lee)
#06 A- The Wings of the Dove (Softley)
#07 A- Donnie Brasco (Newell)
#08 A- Breakdown (Mostow)
#09 A- Eve's Bayou (Lemmons)
#10 A- Mrs Brown / Her Majesty, Mrs Brown (Madden)
Overflow: More A-/B+ Films
#11 A- Love and Death on Long Island (Kwietniowski)
#12 B+ Dante's Peak (Donaldson)
#13 B+ Boogie Nights (Anderson)
#14 B+ The Full Monty (Cattaneo)
#15 B+ My Best Friend's Wedding (Hogan)
#16 B+ The Castle (Sitch)
#17 B+ Grosse Pointe Blank (Armitage)
#18 B+ The Butcher Boy (Jordan)
#19 B+ Oscar & Lucinda (Armstrong)
#20 B+ Alien: Resurrection (Jeunet)
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> B Ulee's Gold [just another old-man-as-hero movie]
> B Air Force One [POTUS as action superhero certainly beats him being an egotistical buffoon with a lid for hair]
> B Men in Black [comicbook sci-fi which is great fun but easy to forget]
> B Nil By Mouth [powerful, hard-hitting, confronting slice of reality...but is there anything else on?]
> B The Apostle [applaudable one-man show...but I can't stand the one man]
> B Eye of God [ugly story, told well]
> B Amistad [an American History teacher's dream resource...but the class will need pillows]
> B Good Will Hunting [an engaging but predictable story about you being the best You you can be]
> B Contact [overlong Aliens-Talk-To-Nice-Scientist story that pleases more than it enthralls]
> B- Tomorrow Never Dies [acceptable Bond with a Rupert Murdoch villain and a terrific motorbike chase]
> B- The Game [intriguing, but SNAP! (the sound of overstretched plausibility)]
> B- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery [slightly amusing extended Saturday Night Live skit]
> B- Bean [slightly amusing extended TV show episode]
> B- Kundun [a spiritual epic which is gorgeous, lush and quite boring]
> B- Wag the Dog [U.S. political satire which isn't as funny, biting or clever as it wants and needs to be]
> B- In & Out [amiable one-kiss comedy that is destined to age badly]
> B- Face/Off [stars two action heroes whose on-screen charisma has been exaggerated for years]
> B- Starship Troopers [a juvenile sci-fi movie with blood'n'guts-splattering and unisex shower scenes]
> B- Con Air [an action film that does its job but nothing even slightly more than that]
> C Photographing Fairies [interesting side-look at the post-WWI obsession with spiritualism, but gets awfully silly]
> C As Good as It Gets [why would someone as gorgeous as her go for someone as awful & old as him?]
> C Deconstructing Harry [Woody as unlikeable, self-justifying sex-addict]
> C Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil [a wonderful novel drained into a long, limp movie]
> D Titanic [A Personal Unmentionable]
> D Gummo [bizarre, unpleasant and plotless film which doesn't want me to get to know the characters]
> D Jungle 2 Jungle [please come back Bomba...you can even bring your 12 movies...all is forgiven]
> E Batman & Robin [the world is right: this isn't even just camp...it's the camp latrine]
"Ah!..Sweet Mystery of Life...": 1997 Films I Apparently Still Need to See
Affliction (Schrader); Afterglow (Rudolph); An American Werewolf in Paris (Waller); Bent (Mathias); The Borrowers (Hewitt); The Boxer (Sheridan); Career Girls (Leigh); Chasing Amy (Smith); Clockwatchers (Sprecher); Downtime (Nalluri); The Edge (Tamahori); The End of Violence (Wenders); FairyTale: A True Story (Sturridge); The Fifth Element (Besson); Gattaca (Niccol); Henry Fool (Hartley); In the Company of Men (LaBute); The Island on Bird Street (Kragh-Jacobsen); Jackie Brown (Tarantino); Kiss or Kill (Bennett); Lawn Dogs (Duigan); Lost Highway (Lynch); Mad City (Costa-Gavras); The Matchmaker (Joffe); Mimic (del Toro); Mouse Hunt (Verbinski); Mrs Dalloway (Gorris); My Son the Fanatic (Prasad); One Night Stand (Figgis); Passion in the Desert (Currier); Picture Perfect (Caron); Regeneration (MacKinnon); Shooting Fish (Schwartz); The Spanish Prisoner (Mamet); Twentyfourseven (Meadows); Twin Town (Allen); Under the Skin (Adler); Volcano (Jackson); Waiting for Guffman (Guest); Welcome to Sarajevo (Winterbottom); Wilde (Gilbert); The Winter Guest (Rickman)
Best Performances of 1997
Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential
Robert Duvall in The Apostle
Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets
Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights
Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets
Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights
Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting
But how about...
John Hurt in Love and Death on Long Island
An English highbrow author, now leading a solitary life, becomes unexpectedly obsessed with an American heart-throb actor. Discovering the pop world of junk food, VHS machines and teen magazines, the writer goes to his idol's homeplace of Long Island, to visit, to guide and, eventually, to confess his love. Essentially Death in Venice restructured as a romantic comedy, this film succeeds primarily due to John Hurt's light-of-touch performance. The man makes you feel the character's loneliness and surprise self-realisation that this is his last chance for true attachment to another person...to feel emotion rather than merely writing about it. Things are left unsaid (his past marriage was loveless; the owner of the diner is a fellow piner) but we all just know...another broken heart is coming up.
...and what about...
Jodie Foster in Contact
I don't know how she does it, but Jodie excels in this female twist on Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters. I've never been much of a fan of the actress (even as a kid, she struck me as more brash than talented), but she is totally convincing as an astronomer who receives First Contact from an alien race. While the film drags us through the usual stuff (US government interference & ignorance & cover-up; jawdropping visual special FX; love & death & faith & God), Jodie overcomes all that baggage and makes the story fresh and even believable. Her facial expression as she passes through a wormhole (Kubrick's 2001 strikes again) is the highpoint of her performance: we see the experience through her eyes and react to her feelings. Easily one of the most effective performances in any mainstream sci-fi film.
...not to mention...
Jurnee Smollett in Eve's Bayou
One of the great child performances in one of the finest African-American movies. Essentially a construct built upon the classic Staggerlee tale (infidelity & murder & cool), Eve's Bayou is a film about parental love and how that is returned by the children. Jurnee is Eve, a 10 year old who loves her family and tries to make sense of the adult world, with all its confusion, hypocrisy and danger. She begins by being an innocent observer of what is swirling about her, but increasingly attempts to take control, asking questions, arguing back and blatantly defying. Never cloying or gaggingly cute, Jurnee (great name!) is a yours-&-mine child just simply trying to understand what the hell is going on with these adults. With added Creole mysticism, second sight and even a bit of voodoo thrown in, Eve becomes the smartest person in the room, and the serious sister of Addie Pray.
...and one personal unmentionable...
George Clooney & Chris O'Donnell & Arnold Schwarzenegger & Alicia Silverstone & Uma Thurman in Batman & Robin
Pure bat guano.
The Dusk of Justice: 4 careers derailed & 1 to go.
My 10 Favourite Performances of 1997
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| Finally, Billy-Bob seeks professional help for his digestion problem. |
#02 Jurnee Smollett in Eve's Bayou
#03 Vincent D'Onofrio in Men in Black
#04 Jodie Foster in Contact
#05 Ralph Fiennes in Oscar & Lucinda
#06 John Hurt in Love and Death on Long Island
#07 Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential
#08 The ensemble cast of The Ice Storm
#09 Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove
#10 Judi Dench in Mrs Brown / Her Majesty, Mrs Brown
Overflow: More List-Worthy Performances
#11 Cameron Diaz in My Best Friend's Wedding
#12 Ray Liotta in Cop Land
#13 Ian Holm in The Sweet Hereafter
#14 Rupert Everett in My Best Friend's Wedding
#15 Sarah Polley in The Sweet Hereafter
#16 Eamonn Owens in The Butcher Boy
#17 Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land
#18 The Lady Chablis in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Sorry, They Didn't Make It...
> Peter Fonda in Ulee's Gold [a lucky fluke]
> Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential [I was more surprised by her performance than impressed]
> Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets [overdoes it...again]
> Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets [straight out of Mad About You]
> Robert Duvall in The Apostle [a loud ham playing a loud ham]
> Burt Reynolds in Boogie Nights [okay but hardly worthy of all the accolades he garnered]
> Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting [he comes across as a repressed one-man show]
> Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights [isn't this just another variation on the old "harlot with a heart of gold"?]
And so...onto the annual awards (with a nod of appreciation to Danny Peary)...
The Alternate Oscars for 1997 are:
FILM of the YEAR
GOLD: The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan)
SILVER: L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson)
BRONZE: The Rainmaker (Francis Ford Coppola)
LEAD ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Ralph Fiennes (Oscar & Lucinda)
SILVER: John Hurt (Love and Death on Long Island)
BRONZE: Russell Crowe (L.A. Confidential)
LEAD ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jodie Foster (Contact)
SILVER: Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove)
BRONZE: Judi Dench (Mrs Brown / Her Majesty, Mrs Brown)
SUPPORTING ACTOR: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Vincent D'Onofrio (Men in Black)
SILVER: Ray Liotta (Cop Land)
BRONZE: Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Cameron Diaz (My Best Friend's Wedding)
SILVER: Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter)
BRONZE: The Lady Chablis (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)
ENSEMBLE or PARTNERSHIP: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Johnny Depp & Al Pacino (Donnie Brasco)
SILVER: Joan Allen & Kevin Kline & Tobey Maguire & Christina Ricci & Sigourney Weaver & Elijah Woods & Jamey Sheridan & Adam Hann-Byrd (The Ice Storm)
BRONZE: Robert Carlyle & Mark Addy & William Snape & Steve Huison & Tom Wilkinson & Paul Barber (The Full Monty)
JUVENILE: PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
GOLD: Jurnee Smollett (Eve's Bayou)
SILVER: Eamonn Owens (The Butcher Boy)
BRONZE: Nick Stahl (Eye of God)
The Alternate Razzies for 1997 are:
CRAP FILM of the YEAR
Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher)
CRAP MALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
George Clooney & Chris O'Donnell & Arnold Schwarzenegger (Batman & Robin)
CRAP FEMALE PERFORMANCE of the YEAR
Alicia Silverstone & Uma Thurman (Batman & Robin)
