Review #1,455: 'Four Rooms' (1995)

The early 1990s saw a rise in independent film-making that gave a voice to the wannabe auteurs and allowed them to handpick their own posse of preferred actors. This movement was spearheaded by the likes of Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino, and backed by disgraced scumbag Harvey Weinstein. Fresh off the huge success of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino was becoming a household name, and his unique brand of motor-mouthed, pop-culture-heavy dialogue and extreme violence was striking a chord with moviegoers both young and old. He took this unexpected fame and influence and used it unite a group of indie up-and-comers - Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodruguez - for an offbeat anthology film about a young bellhop named Ted (Tim Roth) and his encounters with the various oddballs staying at his hotel.

The result was Four Rooms, and there's a reason Tarantino chooses to forget his own segment behind the camera when his trailers announce the new film as the nth of his career. It begins promisingly with a quirky animated intro that sets the goofy, unpredictable tone of the film, before diving into a collection of stories that appear to have been dreamt up in between bong hits. One thing Four Rooms has going for it is that the short films improve as we progress, but even Tarantino's final section reeks of narcissism and smugness. Anders' first story, about a coven of witches (including Ione Skye, Madonna, Alicia Witt, Lili Taylor, Sammi Davis and Valeria Golino) attempting to resurrect a goddess, may have worked for an episode of Charmed, but falls flat as the opener of what is supposed to be a collaboration between some of cinema's most exciting maverick filmmakers. Rockwell's short plonks Ted in the middle of psycho-sexual game between married couple Sigfried (David Proval) and Angela (Jennifer Beals).

The first two segments may have raised a titter if the writers didn't have such a tin ear for comedy and had a lead actor with a natural gift for over-the-top comedy. I love Tim Roth and he has had many great roles, but his twitching, shrieking Ted belongs in a cartoon. Rodriguez and Tarantino's efforts fare better because they rely less on Roth's prat-falls and more on their own self-indulgences. The performance of Antonio Banderas as a ridiculously posturing father who leaves his children under Ted's protection is a particular highlight from the third story, as the children naturally decide to make Ted's night a living Hell. Tarantino's climactic entry is full of memorable dialogue and pop culture insights, but the director, who also plays the main role, fails to inject much life into what is otherwise a plodding re-hash of his favourite episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Anthology films are always hit-and-miss, but Four Rooms fails to register a single hit. What was supposed to be a triumphant coming-together of a new wave of hip filmmakers is instead a limp and uneven slog through a tide of bad comedy and even worse ideas. One of the biggest disappointments of the 90s.


Directed by: Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Tim Roth, Antonio Banderas, Valeria Golino, Madonna, Alicia Witt, Sammi Davis, Lili Taylor, Ione Skye, David Proval
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,404: 'The Quick and the Dead' (1995)

By 1995, the western genre had all but disappeared completely from our cinema screens. Black-and-white tales of cowboys and Indians in America's Old West was the stuff your granddad would watch on television during the day and claim they just don't make 'em like this anymore. They didn't stop completely however, with the likes of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man making an earnest attempt to infuse the genre with a psychedelic, folksy edge, and George P. Cosmatos' Tombstone turning the events at the OK Corral into an explosive action thriller. Some, like Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, while adding a more sombre tone, successfully stuck the traditions of the genre, while others, like Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, simply took an old-fashioned premise and ran with it. If you're looking for revisionism or an interesting take on an iconic time in America's history, then The Quick and the Dead ain't the film for that, but you may just find yourself having a bit more fun that you expected.

The town of Redemption was once a thriving community, but it now rests in the hands of the ruthless mayor and former outlaw John Herod (Gene Hackman). Herod enjoys a nice house while taxing his citizens 50% on any money they make, and apparently relieves his boredom by hosting a quick-draw contest every year. Gunslingers from all across the country arrive to take part - but God knows why, given the obviously high risk of death - including the mysterious Ellen (Sharon Stone), who shares a history with both the town and Herod himself. Also in town is Kid (Leonardo DiCaprio), a cocky teenager with a steady hand who also believes he is Herod's unacknowledged son, and a repentant outlaw-turned-preacher named Cort (Russell Crowe). Cort is dragged into the contest against his will by Herod's cronies, and the boss man is seemingly angered at his former associate's new anti-violence stance. There's backstory and melodrama, but it's all just an excuse for a series of stand-offs in a town where it always seems to be high noon.

While subverting expectations by enlisting a woman to play the central gunslinger, Raimi may as well have cast a broom in a wig, as Stone struggles to convincingly brood and frown and maintain any kind of interest in her character. Faring considerably better are DiCaprio and Crowe, who were just a few years off Titanic and Gladiator and the global stardom that followed. Their charisma and star quality are as clear as day, especially when they share a scene with the one-note Stone. For a film that boasts a wonderful supporting cast (Roberts Blossom, Tobin Bell, Keith David, Lance Henriksen and Gary Sinise are just some of the familiar faces), they all cower in the shadow of Gene Hackman, who somehow manages to turn some truly atrocious dialogue into Shakespeare. Yet the real star is Raimi's crazy camera lens. Before he was bringing Peter Parker's swinging exploits vividly to life in Spider-Man, he was crash-zooming on the faces of readying gunslingers and capturing daylight through a bullet-hole in the belly. It's silly, outrageous and wonderful. The problem is everything that comes in between, from the dreary central hero to the unengaging backstories.


Directed by: Sam Raimi
Starring: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobin Bell, Roberts Blossom, Kevin Conway, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Pat Hingle
Country: Japan/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,025: 'Pocahontas' (1995)

Made during the era now known as the 'Disney Renaissance' between 1989 and 1999, Pocahontas is one of the least fondly remembered of a wave of films that also included the likes of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994), all of which are now considered giants of the Disney back-catalogue. It received mixed reviews upon its release, with some seeing a bravery in the films desire to tell a more serious story, and others lamenting its lack of memorable musical numbers and three dimensional supporting characters. And 'mixed' is precisely the way I felt when the credits started to roll.

In 1607, a ship named the Susan Constant arrives at the New World carrying settlers and fortune-seekers from England. Led by the dastardly Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) who means to strip the lands of all of its riches so he can return to England as a success, the ship also carries the dashing John Smith (Mel Gibson), the captain seen as a hero by his crew-mates after saving young deck-sweeper Thomas (Christian Bale) from drowning during a storm. Further inland, the beautiful and free-spirited Pocahontas (Irene Bedard, with Judy Kuhn providing the singing vocals) fears the prospect of marriage to stoic warrior Kocoum (James Apamunt Fall), arranged by her father and tribe chief Powhatan (Russell Means). As tensions between the settlers and the natives grow, Smith and Pocahontas form a romantic bond that will shake the foundations of both camps.

Pocahontas deserves to be applauded for its refusal to gloss over the racial aspects of a story aimed primarily at children. Smith isn't simply the traditional square-jawed Disney prince, and early on boasts about the amount of 'savages' he has killed during his adventuring. There's clearly blood on his hands but, through his relationship with Pocahontas, learns of the value and importance of nature, as well as the peaceful ways of her tribe's culture. The song Savages has both sides portraying the other as, well, savages, demonstrating their natural fear and distrust of a culture they know little about. Yet there is a distinct lack of fun to the film, with only Pocahontas's animal side-kicks providing some much-needed light-hearted comic relief. Outside of the two leads, the supporting characters are wafer-thin, with Ratcliffe paying the moustache-twirling villain, and Powhatan the wise, mystical old man. It's also unlikely you'll be whistling the songs afterwards.


Directed by: Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
Voices: Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #740: 'The Usual Suspects' (1995)

Thanks mainly to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992), the 1990's saw the re-emergence of crime noir - talky, violent thrillers packed with colourful characters and even more colourful language. Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects was one of the best of the bunch, thanks mainly to the director taking influence from past masters such as Hitchcock, Lang and Kurosawa, rather than the many Tarantino copycats that flooded the 90's cinema market, who did little but poorly imitate the big-chinned one's chatty screenplays and outlandish, darkly humorous violence. It also had a killer twist; one that will baffle as much as it will surprise, or possibly induce cries of cheap manipulation.

After what appears to be a heist gone wrong on an exploded boat, the only surviving witness, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), a disabled con-man, is brought in to be interrogated by customer officer Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri). Having already been acquitted by some mysterious higher powers, Kint is probed by Kujan for more information. He tells a story of five criminals who meets in a line-up - Dean Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a steely criminal gone straight, Michael McManus (Stephen Baldwin), an entry man with a short fuse, Todd Hockney (Kevin Pollak), a hijacker, Fred Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), McManus's partner, and Kint himself. Having being picked up one time too many, the group hatch a plot to pay the crooked cops back, and eventually start taking jobs from the shady Redfoot (Peter Greene).

While the build-up to the explosion seen at the beginning of the film is relatively formulaic in its execution, Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (who won an Oscar for his efforts) inject enough humour into the script to bring these characters alive, and bring them over to your side. The clever thing is that it soon becomes apparent that everything were seeing either isn't true or isn't at all relevant, and it's the increasingly looming presence of the mysterious and infamous criminal mastermind Keyser Soze, who may in fact hold all the cards. The twist is not particularly clever at all, and isn't that hard to guess, but the director's skill in capturing it is what makes it so memorable.

The now-iconic poster wouldn't be so iconic if the characters hadn't been so memorably played by it's cast. With the exception of Kint, the characters are little but stock characters, but there is genuine chemistry, especially in the line-up scene where they crack up after Baldwin's over-the-top delivery of a line. Byrne proves again that he is much more deserving than the mediocre roles he tends to land, and Spacey bagged a Supporting Actor Oscar for his puppy-dog con-man. It's far, far from deserving of its place as #23 on IMDb's top films of all time, but The Usual Suspects is riveting stuff, even after it's umpteenth viewing.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio Del Toro, Pete Postlethwaite, Giancarlo Esposito
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #717: 'Se7en' (1995)

After his calamitous experience working on his début film Alien 3 (1992), David Fincher took on a small genre picture that, little did he know, would revitalise his career and become one of the greatest films of the 1990's. Se7en appears to begin as your typical detective neo-noir, with the cynical veteran and the naive rookie taking on an elusive serial killer seemed hell-bent on turning the sin against the sinner. But, set in an unnamed and permanently drizzly American city, Se7en is a meditation on evil and a pessimist's depiction on the modern world, climaxing in one of the bravest and most memorable endings in Hollywood history.

Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is on the verge of retirement, where he plans to leave his inner-city life behind him after years of fighting on the side of good. His replacement is the brash Detective Mills (Brad Pitt), an optimistic young recruit eager to learn, who Somerset takes under his wing. Their first homicide investigation involves an obese man who has been fed at gunpoint to the point of causing his stomach to rupture. With Somerset ready to leave the force, Mills takes on his first solo case in the murder of a rich attorney, a man forced to cut a pound of flesh from his own body. The murder scene has the words 'greed' written in blood. Somerset eventually finds the word 'gluttony' etched in grease in the apartment of the first victim, and he becomes convinced the murders are connected, and that the killer is murdering under the guidance of the seven deadly sins.

The genius of Se7en is rooted in the way the movie keeps the audience as clueless as the detectives. Normally in genre pictures such as this, we either know who the killer is and eagerly wait for the investigators to put the pieces together, or we have a line-up of suspects and red herrings to decide from. Here, apart from brief glimpses during a thrilling chase scene, we are devoid of clues. The killer is always one step ahead of Somerset and Mills, alluding to the idea that the mysterious 'John Doe' is indeed having his work guided by a higher power. Of course, he is not, he is merely a man, but this helps gives Se7en dramatic weight, rather than it becoming a nihilistic exercise in cruelty.

When, three-quarters of the movie in, the killer hands himself in, the movie becomes a masterclass in writing, slowly building into one of the greatest climaxes in film. Somerset, a decent man who has devoted his life to the side of good but has had the fight slowly drained out of him, meets his nemesis in John Doe (Kevin Spacey). But as they talk, Doe's reasoning becomes clear and, shockingly, almost sympathetic. "Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore, you have to hit them with a sledgehammer," he says. It's about a world gone to shit, a view shared by Mills' wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who talks to Somerset in a diner about allowing a baby to be born into the world after discovering she is pregnant. Cerebral and gothic, Se7en transcends the genre on so many levels thanks to some bleak yet stylish direction by Fincher, and it still manages to astound after almost 20 years of repeat viewings.


Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, R. Lee Ermey
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #713: 'Ghost in the Shell' (1995)

Upon Ghost in the Shell's release in 1995, the Western world was still largely unfamiliar with manga, but had already had its head turned by Katsuhiro Ohtomo's Akira (1988). Blending philosophical musings with blistering action, Ghost in the Shell captured the imagination of it's new audience, helping kick-start the Japanophilia that runs so blatantly through most modern Western cartoons and lines the bookcases of many a teenager. While it certainly has its flaws, this was the first time that casual Western audiences who were new to manga had seen a cartoon be as meditative as is explosive. And for those that didn't catch it, no doubt they would have watched The Matrix (1999) four years later, a film that arguably 'borrows' a lot more from Ghost in the Shell that it lets on.

In the future, technology has become so far advanced that all aspects of life are interconnected through an electronic network. Major Motoko Kusanagi (Atsuko Tanaka), a soldier working for government agency Section 9, is a cyborg, and is able to access this network through plugs in the back of her head. She and her team are assigned to catch an elusive 'ghost-hacker' known as the Puppet Master (Iemasa Kayumi), an intelligent entity created by the government, who they lost control of when it became self-aware. When the Puppet Master surfaces in the mangled body of an artificial human shell, Kusanagi faces a crisis of identity.

Disappointingly, the film begins with gratuitous nudity, showing off the fine female form (with giant breasts, of course) of Major Kusanagi just before she takes a plunge off a building to nail some bad guys. Manga caters heavily for its audience, be it sexually-frustrated, highly-stressed businessmen or horny teenagers who have no doubt been bombarded with images of giggling, short-skirted school girls throughout their young life. Thankfully, these moments are brief, and prove to be not much more than a mild distraction from the stunning animation on show. Things are grim in the future, but they're certainly beautiful to look at.

The sexism aside, Kusanagi is an interesting character. When a man realises his wife and daughter are nothing more than an implanted memory, he fails to comprehend it. Kusanagi, with her mixture of organic and mechanical body parts and uploaded memories, struggled to define what it is to be human. Her hunt for the Puppet Master, who is seemingly a new kind of being, becomes a hunt for identity. Is it enough to be aware of what and who you are? The philosophy, although provocative, is heavy-handed. Conversations about humanity between Kusanagi and her second-in-command Bateau (Akio Otsuka) are delivered with a monotony worthy of a whiny emo teen, and I found the film's first half quite a head-scratcher. But things thankfully do become clearer, and the film is still, almost twenty years later, one of the best examples of the genre.


Directed by: Mamoru Oshii
Voices: Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Ôtsuka, Iemasa Kayumi, Kôichi Yamadera
Country: Japan

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #13: 'The Basketball Diaries' (1995)

Based on the autobiographical novel written by Jim Carroll, The Basketball Diaries follows one young man's descent into addiction, crime and homelessness. Jim (here played with mature dedication by Leonardo Di Caprio) is a promising high school basketball player, who along with his three friends, enjoy shooting hoops and getting into general mischief. What starts out as a past-time, soon deteriorates into something more deprived and desperate, as Jim sees his world crash around him as his drug habit becomes an unstoppable affliction.

When Jim's situation gets so desperate that he leaves home to hustle and rob on the streets, he begins to push away the people in his life that were once close to him. His mother, played by Lorraine Bracco, throws him out after the extremities of his situation become apparent to her and refuses him back. Reggie (Ernie Hudson) was an inspirational figure and mentor to Jim and regularly met up to play basketball in the court. And Neutron (Patrick McGaw) distances himself from Jim and his friends' habits and focuses on his basketball career, much to Jim's dismay. These people will all have a profound effect on Jim's eventual redemption. The film also switches the book's real-life setting from 1960's New York to the 90's.

What The Basketball Diaries attempts to do is to create a realistic and gritty (a phrase that seems to be thrown around a lot these days) depiction of drug abuse, and create a hellish portrait of a confused young man who his throwing away his many talents in favour of a life that is doing nothing but ruining his life and isolating the people around him. In reality, this is a terribly-directed film that seems to sledgehammer the phrase 'drugs are bad' into the viewers skull, rather than having the nerve, or in deed the respect, to let the audience make their own mind up. Or maybe the director doesn't have the skill to create a film capable of conjuring up those feelings in the viewer. It sounds ridiculous, but if you have seen the South Park episode where Mr Mackey is giving his anti-drug lecture by simply listing the drugs that are 'bad', then you can see a clear parallel to this film. Jim basically goes from one drug to the other and one crime to the next. It's not interesting, convincing, and to be honest I found it all just very annoying.

Jim is a character of no redeeming qualities. He's selfish, careless, and is basically a whiny little shit. Fair enough, this is a chance to develop an interesting, fully-rounded character, but director Scott Kalvert and scriptwriter Bryan Goluboff cannot combine their 'skills' to pull it off. Even though Jim narrates the film and reveals everything about his feelings and opinions, and Di Caprio's fantastic performance, we never get inside Jim's head enough to understand him and why he is willing to give up on a fledging basketball career. This is a character that we're supposed to be praying for to overcome his addiction, but (spoilers!) when his clean-break arrived, I asked myself should I be feeling happy for this arsehole?

A well-acted film all-round, namely from the lead and Mark Wahlberg as his friend Mickey, but a film that is swamped in faults and scenes that are just ridiculous. Possibly only remotely remembered for the controversial scene where Jim storms his school with a shotgun in a drug-addled fantasy, which was caught up in the media storm surrounding the Columbine High School massacre. Watch only for signs of early promise from Di Caprio, but otherwise avoid.


Directed by: Scott Kalvert
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, Mark Wahlberg, Bruno Kirby, James Madio
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie