Summer slips into Autumn at the 1991 multiplexes, with a legendary documentary, a hit for Terry Gilliam, and a backloaded September:
Mobsters
release: July 26
dir: Michael Karbelnikoff
pr: Stephen J. Roth
scr: Michael Mahern and Nicholas Kazan, story by Michael Mahern
cin: Lajos Koltai
The rise of gangsters Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Lucky Luciano, with emphasis on Christian Slater's Luciano. It isn't bad; there are few surprises; the youth of the protagonists is jarring at first, but look it up, these guys started young. And I appreciated how local it all felt: these were neighborhood boys dealing with neighborhood issues and neighborhood toughs. Patrick Dempsey fares best as the calculating Lansky, you see him constantly observing, hatching a plan, weighing his actions before he takes them. Still, kind of forgettable.
V.I. Warshawski
release: July 26
dir: Jeff Kanew
pr: Jeffrey Lurie
scr: Edward Taylor and David Aaron Cohen and Nick Thiel, story by Edward Taylor, from the novels by Sara Paretsky
cin: Jan Kiesser
Private eye Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski has a hot date with a baseball player who winds up murdered - now his 13-year-old daughter is hiring Warshawski to investigate. All the ingredients are there, love seeing Kathleen Turner get tough, she plays well against Jay O. Sanders as a journalist and on-again-off-again lover. It'd make a satisfying afternoon watch with the girls and the gays, playing in the background over wet glasses of homemade margaritas. Like Mobsters, though, it's not really memorable, though I loved watching Turner whoop Wayne Knight's ass.
Paris is Burning
release: August
dir/pr: Jennie Livingston
cin: Paul Gibson
A rewatch! Documentary about New York City's ballroom culture in the late 1980s, a subculture living on the fringes, mostly trans girls and drag queens and plain ol’ homos of color. There is an entire vocabulary to learn (much of which is now in mainstream [mis]use), a history to be respected (though my favorite subject, Dorian Corey, laments that the “younger queens” don't always), and etiquette to be observed. Beyond camp, beyond fantasy, the film suggests that the balls are celebrations wherein the “realness” is not mere mimicry, but a projection of who the participants feel they are inside: glamorous, desirable, in control, in demand. But it is also elegiac: there is this feeling throughout that this scene as it is seen is already waning, that a way of life is at risk of being lost or forgotten. There's strength, too, in their determination not to be lost or forgotten, not to be some sad story on the fringes, but to, in some way, be a star. The older I get, the more moved I am by Dorian Corey’s final observation, “You don’t have to bend the whole world. I think it’s better to just enjoy it.”
The Commitments
release: August 14
nominations: Best Editing (Gerry Hambling)
dir: Alan Parker
pr: Lynda Myles / Roger Randall-Cutler
scr: Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais and Roddy Doyle, from the novel by Roddy Doyle
cin: Gale Tattersall
Dubliners form a cover band and do well. Nice movie, fun to watch, very believable portrayal of local celebrity. Robert Arkins (really the lead, he gets the band together), Bronagh Gallagher, Glen Hansard, and Johnny Murphy are the standouts for me.
Barton Fink
release: August 21
nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Michael Lerner), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Dennis Gassner / Nancy Haigh)< Best Costume Design (Richard Hornung)
dir: Joel Coen
pr: Ethan Coen
scr: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
cin: Roger Deakins
Playwright comes to Hollywood and experiences writer’s block, plus there’s a murder. Tried watching this in college and was just not vibing with it, didn’t get past the first 40 minutes; this was my first attempt since then and now, of course, I think it’s one of the best movies I watched for 1991, one of the Coens’ best, and certainly the best I’ve seen from John Turturro or John Goodman. Turturro is the titular Barton, who seems sincere about wanting to produce important art for the working man but doesn't want to spend time with them. Love that this is a Golden Age of Hollywood film without the glamour, just one frustrated writer sweating in a derelict hotel room while the flies buzz and the wallpaper peels. Wickedly funny, too.
Dead Again
release: August 23
dir: Kenneth Branagh
pr: Lindsay Doran / Charles H. Maguire
scr: Scott Frank
cin: Matthew F. Leonetti
A rewatch! Private detective helps a mute amnesiac, and they may share a connection from their past lives. Never mind the dodgy accent work (Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as Americans? Oh heavens), forgive the ridiculous climax, it's a fun entertainment with some surprising twists and a genuinely unique take on past life regression and the intertwining of two souls.
The Fisher King
release: September 20
wins: Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes Ruehl)
nominations: Best Actor (Robin Williams), Best Original Screenplay, Best Score (George Fenton), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Mel Bourne / Cindy Carr)
dir: Terry Gilliam
pr: Debra Hill / Lynda Obst
scr: Richard LaGravenese
cin: Roger Pratt
Former shock jock befriends a homeless man seeking the Holy Grail. Hard to summarize, actually, a lot is going on here, maybe even too much. Does an admirable job of being much more than a “this magic hobo changed my life” kind of movie. Looks incredible. More when we discuss the acting Oscars.
The Indian Runner
release: September 20
dir: Sean Penn
pr: Don Phillips
scr: Sean Penn, from the song "Highway Patrolman" by Bruce Springsteen
cin: Anthony B. Richmond
A rewatch! Two brothers, one a cop with a family, the other a Vietnam vet who can't get on the right side of the law, try to maintain a stable relationship in 1970s Nebraska. First saw this at the Aero Theater on a vintage film with Sean Penn doing a Q&A afterward. That was over a decade ago, but I remembered a lot more of the film than I gave myself credit for, and I also found it to be better than I gave it credit for - and I had liked it! It’s a refreshingly uncompromising movie, asking us to empathize with whatever’s going on in Mortensen’s troubled brain without excusing his rage. Penn was really exorcising the spirits here.
Rambling Rose
release: September 20
nominations: Best Actress (Laura Dern), Best Supporting Actress (Diane Ladd)
dir: Martha Coolidge
pr: Renny Harlin
scr: Calder Willingham, from his novel
cin: Johnny E. Jensen
A young woman lives as a housekeeper for a family in Depression-era Georgia, but her promiscuity causes problems at home and around town. Adored this movie, which somehow manages to sell you on both Rose’s insatiable need to have sex and her wholesome, innocent nature. Takes some unexpected turns (the understanding of matriarch Diane Ladd, the education of 13-year-old Lukas Haas), shares some memorable lines (“I am only a human girl person!” “It’s positive energy on this planet, it’s what we do with it that’s negative.”), and offers some terrific performances. This is bizarre, down-home storytelling only the South can offer.
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
release: September 27
dir/cin: John Bailey
pr: Paula Mazur
scr: Jane Wagner, from her play
Film of Lily Tomlin’s one-woman show about people nearing the millennium. Tomlin performs all the monologues, just as she did on Broadway; the difference here is that sometimes we watch her on stage - live, no costuming, only her physicality and voice work distinguishing between characters - and sometimes we watch her in full costume and makeup on sets, such as when she plays the old married couple. An important record of a great performance that covers, oh, capitalism, keeping up appearances, the generation gap, the history of modern feminism, and more.
Homicide
release: October 9
dir/scr: David Mamet
pr: Michael Hausman / Edward R. Pressman
cin: Roger Deakins
Cop investigates the murder of a Jewish shopkeeper, which sends him on a journey of self-discovery regarding his own Jewish heritage...and exposes him to a pro-Israel underground. Intriguing setup, but each step the character takes made me more confused about who this guy is. Provocative subject matter that feels, I don't know how else to say it, kind of stupid when yout hink about it for more than two seconds.
Next time, a tale as old as time that makes Oscar history...
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