The Player

Robert Altman, 1992 (9.2*)
[This is an updated repost of one of my favorite films about films]

Tim Robbins portrays a film producer looking for that next major hit project, who, through an anonymous blackmailer that sends him threatening postcards, becomes involved in a mystery, and his character degenerates into one who may actually stop at nothing to protect his ego and his wallet, and perhaps find love as well.

With the always delectable Greta Scacchi in his sights, who could blame him? He inadvertantly gets involved with her, with completely unforeseen events, through a screenwriter whose script he rejected. I liked the performance of Cynthia Stevenson as Robbins' low-key girlfriend within the studio, who often travels with him 'on business' - and who seems to be the perfect cynical match for her boss.

The Player is a perfect modern complement to Sunset Boulevard, as each presents the cynical and parasitic side of Hollywood and its shallow, self-centered denizens. Robert Altman's best film (for me) includes dozens of famous cameos (around 75), including 16 Oscar® winners, the most of any feature film (of course not including clip films like That's Entertainment). In fact, the dvd has a special menu of all the cameo scenes so you can quickly jump to the one you're seeking.

As another homage to cinema, the opening tracking shot is one of the longest in cinema history as a couple of film buffs argue in one shot of that about the longest tracking shots in cinema history. That has a pleasing circularity to it that will likely go over the heads of most viewers.

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The Last of the Mohicans

Michael Mann, 1992 (8.2*)
Memorial Day War-a-thon film #20
Based on the James Fenimoore Cooper novel, this is the definitive version of this American classic.

Daniel-Day Lewis has the title role as Nathanial Poe, known as Hawkeye, who was adopted and raised as a Mohican. Native American Russell Means plays Chingachgook, the title character. Means was an Indian activist who was at the last clash with the FBI at Wounded Knee. Lewis does a pretty good job, but it seems they could have found a real Native American actor for this part as well.

The story is about British and French troops warring in colonial America, with various Native American tribes helping on either side. Hawkeye seems to have his own agenda, which largely involves a British officer's daughter, played by Madeleine Stowe. Hawkeye, Chingachgook and his son rescue Stowe and some others from renegade Hurons and return them safely to a fort.

Unfortunately the film is more about this romance than the actual nation-shaping war. Michael Mann always seems to have more of a 'tv look' to his films (he created Miami Vice), everything is a little too clean, too pretty, but he escapes that for the most part here with a feature film that looks like a big budget adventure. The cinematography and the music are superb.

This finally brought color to Cooper's work, the previous best versions were all in black and white. Some say this was the first chase story in literature. The climactic scenes on a mountain were shot in the beautiful area of Chimney Rock, North Carolina, one of the nicest parts of Appalachia.

An Oscar® winner for sound, a BAFTA for cinematography, two for actor Daniel-Day Lewis. Winner of 6 awards out of 16 nominations

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The Crying Game

Neil Jordan, 1992 (8.7*)
Not your average romance, nor your average crime film, and not an easy film to describe without spoiling it's secret.

The film begins with Miranda Richardson's character seducing a young black British soldier, Forrest Whitaker, and then's he kidnapped by IRA friends of hers. While being held hostage, gunman Stephen Rea takes a daily watch and gets to know the soldier, even though he's supposed to be the enemy, they start to connect while discussing their personal lives.

Suffice to say that not much in this film goes according to the plans of the participants. The hostage section is really just the first half of the story, the second half becomes a unique romance, about which I won't say anything. This is an intesting blend of terrorism, crime, and romance.

The acting, the writing, and Neil Jordan's direction make this film a notch above most others. Nominated for six Oscars®, including film, directing, actor for Rea, supporting actor for Jaye Davidson, supporting actress for Miranda Richardson (she won the NY Film Critics award), editing, and it won an Oscar® for screenplay. It won 19 awards total (out of 37 nominations), including a BAFTA for Best British film. Rea won the National Society of Film Critics best actor award, and on top of the Oscar, Jordan also won the Writer's Guild award for screenplay.

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Basic Instinct

Paul Verhoeven, 1992 (7.6*)
This film won't appeal to everyone, but for those who enjoy a Hitchcockian murder mystery updated with modern sensuality, this will be right up your alley. After the murder of a famous rock star, detective Michael Douglas is making the rounds of those closest to the victim, and he runs across a beautiful and seductive suspect  in Sharon Stone. After a now legendary and infamous interrogation scene, he becomes intrigued by Stone's charms. Even though he has a fiance, he becomes involved with Stone anyway, who, it turns out, may have more than one thing to hide. He may have met his match, I'll let you decide after seeing it.

This film put Sharon Stone on the map, she was certainly more believably seductive in this than any prior roles. Thanks to some better acted screen mayhem than usual, this rises above standard slasher fare and approaches the finest of that genre. This was one film that begged for no sequel, but they made one anyway, which I already know not to watch.

This won 5 awards out of 18 nominations, but nothing big, in fact a couple were MTV awards (both for Stone), so those don't count

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Singles

Cameron Crowe, 1992 (8.4*)
This early comedy of Cameron Crowe's is about the lives and loves of six Seattle singles living in a common apartment complex. Most of the film centers around the emerging grunge rock scene (there are even cameos by members of Pearl Jam).

Matt Dillon is the funniest as a air-headed leader of an unknown garage band named Citizen Dick in his best comedic performance. He has problems with, and takes for granted, his girlfriend Bridget Fonda. Most will likely wonder why she bothers with him at all, he's so thick - maybe it's the guitar. Campbell Scott (George C's son) has some funny scenes with his emerging romance with new gf Kyra Sedgwick, including one hilarious cameo by an NBA player.

There is a healthy dose of grunge rock in the soundtrack that lends authenticity to the film overall (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, others), and the entire movie seems to lay the groundwork for his later success Almost Famous (click for my recent review of that). A very good romantic comedy overall, of course, if you're not looking for a deep film but some light, fun entertainment. This was one of the first romantic comedies I added to my dvd collection, after Woody's New York Trilogy of Manhattan, Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, of course.

Quote: This negativity just makes me stronger, we will not retreat, this band is unstoppable!
Quote2: I think that, (a) you have an act, and that, (b) not having an act is your act.
Quote3: When my dad left home, he told me to 'have fun, stay single'. I was eight.

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Baraka

Ron Fricke, 1992 (9.5*)
This is a beautiful visual poem to the spirituality of the planet, mankind included. Director Ron Fricke has given us a film without narrative or even dialogue, yet it's the best description on film of, in his words, "man's connection to the eternal". In order to achieve his vision, Fricke created film equipment cabable of giving us time lapse sequences of both nature and urban settings.

The film primarily shows serene locales in nature (like Arches Nat Park in Utah), or of man's creation, such as temples, zen gardens, meditating monks. Fricke filmed in over 200 locations in 22 countries, many familiar sites, some not so familiar. The beauty is occasionally contrasted by images where we've interrupted the inherent serenity, such as the oil fires in Kuwait, traffic in a metropolis, a hand-rolled cigarette factory in Asia.

This film won't suit all tastes, but if you're of the meditative type, or just love the visual artistry of films, enjoy nature films like Planet Earth, which this preceded by a decade, then Baraka will strike a resonant chord in your spirit.

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Visions of Light

Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, Stuart Samuels, 1992 (8.7*)
For all students and fans of the art of cinematography, this documentary produced by American Film Institute not only shows great example of cinema art, but also interviews many directors of photography (DPs as they call themselves), many Oscar® winners. As any photographer knows, the camera captures light emissions on film, so lighting is extremely important, not only for proper exposure but also for creating the intended mood for the scene. This film even goes one step further, having these artists also explain their inspiration and possible symbolism for their compositions. They also talk about camera movement, an important aspect of film viewing that keeps scenes from being so stagnant they they resemble a stage play.

Oscar®-winner (and favorite) Vittorio Storaro has extensive examples shown from The Conformist (dir by Bertolucci), Apocalypse Now (Coppola), and The Last Emperor (Bertolucci), in which he said he used red for life, yellow for the embryonic emergence into the world, and green for knowledge. These metaphors are likely noticed by very few filmgoers. Another fave of mine is also featured: Oscar®-winner James Wong Howe, a b&w master who shot Hud and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Other prominent DPs are included such as Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane), Lazslo Kovacs, Gordon Willis (Godfather), Conrad Hall, Charles Lang, Vilmos Zsigmond, Nestor Almendros, Sven Nyqvist (Bergman's DP), and more. They also talk about how they had to light certain actors, such as Garbo, Dietrich, Cooper, and what those stars demanded. Though the film was shot in 92 and therefore missed some recent masters, such as Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love, Hero), this is still an important documentary for serious students of cinema, and thoroughly enjoyable.

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Unforgiven

Clint Eastwood, 1992 (8.4*)
Best Picture (AA)
AFI/Time Top 100
This is a violent and unforgiving western, and the best one in the long career of director-actor Clint Eastwood, and earned him a Best Director Oscar. This was his first best picture, followed by Million Dollar Baby. The story involves a cowboy cutting up a woman with a knife and being protected by a corrupt sheriff, brilliantly played by Gene Hackman in an Oscar-winning supporting role. Retired gunslinger Eastwood is hired to seek vengance and what follows is a relentless pursuit similar to John Ford’s The Searchers. Morgan Freeman, as a friend of Eastwood’s, is also terrific as usual, and look for Richard Harris as the “Duke of Death”. Good western, not sure if it’s the year’s best film (I preferred Robert Altman's The Player that year), it likely gets overrated due to Eastwood's popularity. If you like this, check out Kevin Costner’s brilliant Open Range. Four Oscars.

Note: NOT to be confused with John Huston’s 1960 western,The Unforgiven with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn. Either too bad or a good thing: you can’t copyright a title - hence the film Crash, by J.G. Ballard with James Spader and Holly Hunter as crash survivors involved in s-m, and the more recent Crash, the boring police drama with Matt Dillon in what resembled a tv police show yet somehow won best picture as well due to a lack of competition.

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El Mariachi

Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 1992, Mexico (8.8*)

Audience Award, Sundance

Indy Spirit Award for Best Picture

This terrific action film put Rodriguez on the map, and he made the entire film using credit cards for an amazingly low price, something like $50,000 (his friends acted for free!); it went on to gross millions. The movie concerns an out-of-work mariachi guitarist on the road looking for work. At the same time, a drug gang war erupts, and they hire an assassin who carries his weapons in a guitar case. Gee, guess what? The guitarist becomes mistaken for the assassin and has to defend himself, and the ensuing massacre makes him a frightening legend to everyone in his path, as he must flee both gangs and the police! Rodgiguez' camerawork is very inventive and fresh, and even though this is lightweight, it's still far better than his big budget sequels, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (which had Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayak!) On the dvd, be sure to check out "Robert Rodriguez' Ten-Minute Film School". Brilliant stuff and on a "shoestring".

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