Category: Film Review

The crime genre is one of the most studied milieus in all of cinema, and in our rapidly changing Hollywood landscape, genuine genre fire-crackers like City of Industry are increasingly harder to find. Receiving an extremely small theatrical release before making its way to DVD and cable in 1997, John Irvin’s gritty, finely textured, and extremely seedy motion picture contains an oversized lead performance from Harvey Keitel as a career criminal who refuses to be taken advantage of by one his young underlings. After a viciously staged heist sequence where things actually go according to plan for Keitel and his crew (a nice spin on the classic idea of the robbery gone awry premise), the film switches gears into revenge territory, with Keitel looking to take down the menacing Stephen Dorff, a dangerous hot-head who tries to double cross Keitel and make off with the score for himself.

Written by Michael Mann protégé Ken Solarz, the film does feel very much inspired by some of the plotting from Mann’s 1995 masterpiece Heat, taking the shape of a stylized, contemporary western where everyone is a shade of grey rather than simple black or white. A whiff of Reservoir Dogs can also be felt, but this distinctive film is definitely its own beast overall, and it serves as a reminder of how few down and dirty crime movies like these actually get made in today’s Hollywood landscape. Irvin, whose credits include The Dogs of War and Hamburger Hill, directed with an iron fist, but in the best sense of the phrase; there’s a no-nonsense quality to City of Industry that allows the bristling narrative to move with driving forward momentum, never pausing for extraneous or unnecessary beats. The rough and tumble outskirts of Los Angeles feel ominous and scary in this film, with Irvin and his astute cinematographer Thomas Burstyn never making any one image too pretty or overly manufactured, instead opting for a dank and murky vibe with flashes of red and blue.

City of Industry feels like a left over from the 1970’s, a crime film interested in character motivation as much as it is in showing off bloody shoot-outs or the expected explosive violence from a tale such as this. In fact, one of the best aspects to the film is how the script does a few things out of the norm, and it can’t be understated just how magnetic and powerful Keitel was in this role, which seemed tailor made to his sensibilities as an actor. The deteriorating industrial side of Los Angeles is also a major character in the film, with an atmosphere that suggests crumbling infrastructure and shady morals, which feels perfectly in tandem with the duplicitous characters. And because everything here was played straight and without a wink of self-conscious posturing or riffing, all of the developments in the story feel all the more tough and earned. Timothy Hutton was shrewdly cast against type, while Famke Janssen and Lucy Liu got some solid scenes as well. Elliot Gould made a colorful cameo appearance. An Orion Pictures release.

Despite being met with mixed critical response upon initial release and becoming a major financial wipeout, The Cotton Club is a massively ambitious epic, sprawling in its scope, and hugely entertaining, fusing the period gangster film with the movie musical in very unique ways. An absurdly plagued production on any number of levels (just head on over to Wikipedia…), this Francis Ford Coppola directed film has some of the greatest production design I’ve ever seen (courtesy of the legendary Richard Sylbert), and ludicrously photogenic cinematography from Stephen Goldblatt. Featuring an utterly insane cast including super suave Richard Gere, extra hot Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne, Lonette McKee, Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Grey, Gregory Hines, James Remar, Tom Waits, Diane Venora, James Russo, and tons of character actors from that era, The Cotton Club centers around Dixie Dwyer (Gere), a young musician who uses mob influence to advance his show-biz career, but ends up in a dicey situation when he falls in love with the sultry girlfriend of mob boss Dutch Schultz (Remar). Lane is the sexy object of desire, and she and Gere were both terrific. In fact, everyone gets a chance to shine in this expansive tale of friendship, love, rivalry, jealousy, murder, and betrayal.

The plot thickens when Dixie’s brother Vincent (Cage) decides to join in on the criminal antics, while various real life gangsters are intermingled into the busy plot which ratchets up the spectacle and suspense. The musical set-pieces are spirited and terrifically choreographed, with the smashingly authentic costumes by Milena Canonero lending the entire production a sense of gaudy splendor. And it goes without saying that the vibrant and jazzy musical score from John Barry is absolutely sensational, mixing show tunes and peppy musical numbers with somber melodies from the traditional score. When a film goes through as many difficulties as The Cotton Club did, by the time it’s ready for release, critics have already sharpened their knives, which is of course wildly unfair but pretty much standard operating procedure for those writing about film. Every movie is a struggle to get made, some more than others, so it always seems wrongheaded to bring any upfront negativity into a viewing when you’ve heard that things haven’t gone smooth on set. Judge the final product, not the process of getting the film made. Siskel and Ebert most notably included the film on their top 10 lists in 1984 and for good reason, as The Cotton Club is a celebration of all things cinematic, both large and small, and as always, the level of detail and craftsmanship that Coppola brought to the table was eye-opening to behold.

Palmetto is a twisty, lethal little neo-noir from 1998 that took familiar ingredients and threw them into a blender of Florida sunshine and juicy star-turns from a game cast who clearly had fun with the hot-blooded, morally treacherous material. Directed by the great filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum), the film failed to ignite a fire at the box office and received mixed to negative reviews, while serving as the director’s last American feature film. And while it’s hardly a brilliant film ,there’s so much fun stuff on display to remind you that Hollywood rarely makes them like this anymore. Taking a page from genre staples like The Big Sleep and Key Largo, the screenplay concocted by E. Max Frye, which was based on the novel by James Hadley Chase, concerns a falsely imprisoned journalist named Harry Barber (Woody Harrelson in one of his most atypical performances) who, upon release from the joint, crosses paths with the sexy but probably dangerous Rhea Malroux (the absolutely fantastic Elisabeth Shue in drop-dead sexy mode), a classic femme fatale who you just know is going to take poor Harry for a ride he’ll never forget. Rhea convinces Harry to help her in an extortion plot against her rich husband, but nothing goes according to plan, with multiple plot strands converging and everyone double and triple crossing each other without a moment’s notice. I still haven’t looked at a 55 gallon drum the same way since this film. Cinematographer Thomas Kloss took advantage of his lush surroundings, bathing the film in warm colors and sun-dappled imagery so that the audience felt the sticky humidity all throughout the constantly shifting narrative. A game supporting cast including sultry Gina Gershon, Michael Rapaport, Chloe Sevigny, Rolf Hoppe, Tom Wright, and the always awesome Marc Macaulay all contributed to the sweaty thrills. This overlooked item would make a nice double feature with the underrated Bob Rafelson crime-noir Blood & Wine with Jack Nicholson.