Paradise Lost and Found
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ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE - Trimark, $24.95
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Last fall when I had the chance to meet and interview James Woods, he took time out from praising his experience on John Carpenter’s Vampires to complain about another film he did around the same time: director Larry Clark’s second feature, Another Day in Paradise. Just released on DVD from Trimark Home Video, I can now understand Woods’ trepidation and disappointment with the project. Despite his own standout performance, the film is mired with repulsive characters and despicable situations.
Posited as an updated Bonnie and Clyde for the ‘90s, the film co-stars Melanie Griffith and Woods as pseudo-mentors to teen criminals-in-the-making Vincent Kartheiser and Natasha Gregson Wagner. Woods and Griffith sort of “adopt” the kids and drag them along on a series of increasingly-dangerous crimes, and you can just sense that someone along the way is going to put their life on the line as the drugs, cash and seedy characters pile up.
I liked Woods' performance here for the same reasons I like all his performances: because he makes it seem so effortless and usually brings an edge or bitter cynicism to every role. But Clark’s plodding direction and failure to elicit anything from the rest of the cast let the film fall flat. Griffith phones in a series of motherly advice speeches; Kartheiser is a grinning blank who resembles Leonardo DiCaprio’s less handsome brother; and the otherwise fetching and usually interesting Wagner is relegated to playing the “concerned girlfriend” and is foolishly left out of the film’s heists.
Clark seems to relish pointing his camera at the underbelly of society to the point of revulsion. I was equally disappointed and downright annoyed by his overhyped debut, Kids, which presents an endless parade of ignorant, self-absorbed teens who live for sex, drugs and baggy clothes. Some directors can turn such scrutiny of the dark side into art: Martin Scorsese quickly comes to mind. But unlike Scorsese, Clark fails to present us with interesting characters -- just simple-minded low-lifes who have neither the will nor capacity to claw their way out from under.
Trimark presents the 101-minute film on a double-sided, single-layered disc with the theatrical cut on one side and the more graphic, unrated director’s cut on the other. The disc also boasts a letterboxed (1.85:1) transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a self-congratulatory running commentary with Clark, cast and crew bios, the original theatrical trailers for Another Day in Paradise and Kids, and a music video for “Looking for a Fox,” which is featured in the film.
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VELVET GOLDMINE - Buena Vista, $29.95
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Every once in a while a film comes along that you have little or no desire to see in the theater but turns out to pleasantly surprise you on video/DVD. The latest entry in this category for me is director Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, an eclectic blend of fact and fiction that effectively recreates the glitter and glam rock era of the early 1970’s in England and America. Written and directed by Haynes -- whose earlier feature Safe was as cold and antiseptic as this film is warm and colorful -- Velvet Goldmine is a refreshing blast of pop culture that defies conventional packaging. It’s not surprising that rock renegade Michael Stipe of R.E.M. served as Executive Producer on the project.
The film stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Brian Slade, a glam rocker clearly modeled on David Bowie, whose quick rise to fame is chronicled through flashbacks instigated by investigative reporter and former fan Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale). This Citizen Kane-inspired framework allows Haynes to bounce back and forth from past to present to allow little bits of truth to seep out, all the while setting the stage (both figuratively and literally) for some truly riveting musical performances.
Not least of these is courtesy of Jedi Knight himself, Ewan McGregor, who provides his own impressive vocals for a flamboyant and rebellious American rocker that’s part-Alice Cooper, part-Iggy Pop. The music throughout, under the careful guidance of Carter Burwell, is authentic and catchy and sounds like some of Bowie’s better Ziggy Stardust-era material.
But what really caught my attention was Haynes’ clever and flashy staging of early music videos and his on-again, off-again documentary filmmaking style that owes a lot to Ken Russell’s film of The Who’s Tommy and Alan Parker’s film of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Haynes has some great shots of passive English faces staring blankly at the camera intercut with Brian Slade’s pomp and circumstance performances. It is this dichotomy between “proper” English society and the ever-radical glam rock movement that provides some of the film’s funniest and best moments.
And despite the familiar reporter/flashback structure borrowed from Orson Welles’ masterpiece, the film does offer a few surprises and has the distinction of boasting one of the most intriguing and head-scratching opening sequences I’ve ever seen. I was so disoriented by the first few minutes that I had to double-check to make sure I had inserted the right disc into the player. Rest assured, however, that the seemingly unrelated opening does bear some significance on the tale to be told.
Disney/Buena Vista presents the 119-minute film on a single-sided, single-layered disc with a stunning letterboxed (1.85:1) transfer, crisp Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, chapter stops, and the original theatrical trailer. Given the film’s varied color palette, it’s perfect for the high resolution DVD format, and the images are vibrant and shimmering throughout.
Digital Domain menu
