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16 Blocks

16 Blocks
David DuPuy

16 Blocks shoots itself in the foot with a typical Hollywood misfire: the overblown final sequences. Alcoholic detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) escorts witness Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) sixteen blocks to testify as a grand jury witness, before he can hit the bottom of a bottle again. However, his corrupt, former partners have other designs.

Mosley and Bunker start running from block four. Exiting a liquor store in the beginning of his sixteen block route, Mosley shoots the first assassin of the day. Director Richard Donner (The Omen, Lethal Weapon, Superman II) absorbingly shows Mosley's return to sobriety with disoriented perspective, suppressed sound and slow motion. Now a circuitous route former colleagues headed by Det. Frank Nugent (David Mourse) hunt Eddie for the danger he poses, and the separate histories of the quarry unfolds.

The excitement of the film, penned by screenwriter Richard Wenk, is contained in the struggle and stories of change of the two men. New York feels tough, seedy and close again, with Chinatown tenements doing the heavy lifting. To transcend it will require great effort, physical and emotional, by both men. Det. Mosely's confession to convicted felon Bunker is the worth- watching soul of the film, and with a nice twist the rescued criminal effortlessly becomes the heroic redeemer.

However, as the chase stretches forward it becomes too thin, and breaks the allegiance of the viewer: a stuck bus starts rolling again subsequently making a blind hairpin turn into an ally, a doorway miraculously appears as an escape hatch, and formerly determined evil inexplicably loses it nerve -- and so too the film.

The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm

David DuPuy

Director Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm: a boring movie about a meteorological event on a 1973 New Canaan, CT November night or a strong existential statement of the human condition? Either Ang Lee or contemporary society is going to have some explaining to do.

On Thanksgiving break highschooler Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) returns from boarding school home to see his family, Father (Kevin Kline), Mother (Joan Allen), and Sister (Christina Ricci). The familial relations appear ordinary, but bit by bit the self-destructive actions of the parents are mirrored by the children: infidelity; drinking to facilitate sexual intimacy; shoplifting; and the inability to communicate honestly and directly about oneself.

Novelist Rick Moody carries on the tradition of the family drama, as well as co-screenwriter James Schamus. The Ice Storm has the (eventual) emotional weight of Ordinary People, except this film chronicles events leading to a tragedy rather than dealing with its ramifications. Every scene both builds and reveals the world which the characters create and inhabit. The parent’s and children’s actions mirror each other in their infidelity, shoplifting, alcohol abuse, and the profound inability to communicate honestly and directly. Their characterological states are finally mirrored by the physical environment of an ice storm, and beautifully rendered by cinematographer Frederick Elmes. One character, Mikey Carver (Elijah Wood), feels safe and liberated in this sterile environment, donning boots and jacket to explore it. The consequence of his celebration within it reflects back on the makers of his world.

Both as a student of the human condition and as a filmgoer The Ice Storm is worth watching.

The Sweet Smell of Success

Sweet Smell of Success

David DuPuy

The “Ernest Lehman Effect” (Lehman was one of three screenwriters of Sweet Smell of Success) is a film critic’s term meaning the verbal evisceration of another’s weaknesses or general identity, often in front of others, so accurate, insightful and painful that the viewer becomes visibly agitated. Yet entertained. He is a kind of American Ingmar Bergman. Brutal truth about the character’s motivations is laid so bare that we are scared to be bad; unconsciously deciding to attend church, treat our significant others better or at least stop picking on the weak and infirm.

In The Sweet Smell of Success NYC gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lanchaster) doesn’t want his sister Susie growing apart from him and dating anyone…namely, musician Steve Dallas. That sentiment is arguably vulnerable and sweet, or kind of incestuous – you decide. Either way it gets covered in oil – crude oil. Hunsecker, a terrific motivator, blackmails/encourages Sidney Falco (Tony “Ice Cream Face” Curtis) to libel the bard as a pot smoking communist – qualities, ironically, endearing artists to downtown audiences fifty years later. The dark mechanics of that process and once there how they get from bad to worse, are a kind of evil algebra and drive the movie. Threatening to expose infidelity for personal gain, using trust to manipulate and/or betray, publicly destroying a man’s character, and even prostituting a friend (with a great denouement) work well. That these do not deal with anything too distant from us (like murder, torture and other modern movies staples) make the film more familiar, intimate and suffocating.

The downside: director Alexander Mackendrick has Press Agent Sidney Falco spout, “That’s fish four days old – I won’t buy it!” and, “If you’re funny James, I’m a pretzel – drop dead!” Huh? Also gossip columnist and potential fascist J.J. Hunsecker quips, “I’d hate to take a bite out of you, you’re a cookie full of arsenic.” Cold shiver. Originally an Ernest Lehman novella, maybe the other two screenwriters hyperbolically dated the film. Overall though, Lehman delivers.

The pacing of the film still drives a modern audience forward. The amount of plot, information about the gossip columnist/press agent profession, and the effort in extending ourselves to the consistent enormity of selfish decisions, jaw dropping manipulation and general nastiness, keeps us blushing, ashamed and engaged throughout the movie. It reflects The Maltese Falcon or Double Indemnity in the mature complexity of its plot, mirrored by contemporary movies such as The Usual Suspects and L.A. Confidential. You have to pay attention to follow these movies, and it definitely pays off.

Sweet Smell of Success is a fun watch, a window to the past of Page 6, a timeless study in bad-to-worse character, and an engaging film noir. It has lines both good and bad that you will quote with your friends. Although some phrases are dated, and maybe because of this, this film is an accessible example of both film noir and why NYC and human character are often held in contempt.