Ten Statements About....THEY LIVE (1988)

"We wear our sunglasses at night..."

“Brother, life’s a bitch...and it’s back in heat."

1) For a first time actor, Rod Piper does pretty well.  His John Nada manages to be fairly low-key and almost melancholy at times throughout the first act...until he puts on those sunglasses, at which point he keeps switching from Nada to Rowdy Roddy Piper, and those moments tend to detract from the main story.

2) Man, does this film move slowly.  There are long stretches where pretty much nothing happens, especially at the beginning and end of the film.  There’s none of that increasing speed of storytelling we see in some of Carpenter’s other films like Escape From New York  or Big Trouble In Little China.  As such, the story crawls, making it seem longer than its ninety-five minutes run time.

3) One of the many slow moments Carpenter could have cut to liven the pace?  That third act ‘tour’ of the alien’s facility.  All we really need to know about the aliens is that they are the  ultimate capitalist exploiters--they see humanity as chattel and are altering the planet to suit their industrial needs.  We don’t need to see every. single. thing. about how things work with them.

So a skinless man walks into a bar....

4) Even though her role is so wispy it could fly away with a good strong breath, Meg Foster does nothing to give any life to Holly.  She’s just not a good actress, delivering every line in a soporific monotone that, if anything, serves to reveal a major portion of her character arc way too early.

5) This films relies so much on coincidence in moving its plot that it’s ridiculous.  Even though Nada is surprisingly proactive for a Carpenter hero, he would be just sitting with his thumb up his butt if he didn’t happen to meet the right people who happen to be wandering by at the right time.

6) Hello, primitive CGI flying thingie.  If only you hadn’t flown apart so awkwardly when shot....

I've heard of simplifying articles, but this....

7) Okay, that fight scene--I really don’t think it works as a parody of wrestling (as my buddy Derrick Ferguson claims; I’ve always thought it was Carpenter’s tribute to the legendary Rod Taylor fight scene in Darker Than Amber) even if Piper does break out a couple of wrestling moves.  It doesn’t work because it stops and starts.  The killer isn’t the fight itself but the constant pausing we get throughout it.  Those pauses disrupt the flow and make us impatient to get the scene over with.  That being said....

8) It’s really refreshing to see a lead who obviously isn’t being doubled for his stunt work and fights.  This is where Piper’s experience as a wrestler works for him rather than against him.

Something for the ladies....

9) If you ask me who this film’s MVP is, it’s Keith David.  David is given a character whose arc literally changes in mid-stream, is made to work opposite an actor he really has no chemistry with, and goes out like a punk...and yet he makes this character work.  It’s a testament to his skill that Frank has any dimension at all.

10) One of the things that bugs me the most about this film is how it doesn’t so much end as stop.  Maybe Carpenter thought a sex gag (which makes no sense given how the aliens claim humans are repulsive to them, but that could just be me reading too much into a throwaway line) was a fitting capper to this story....but it, well, isn’t.

Overall...a messy, sloppy film that probably has its reputation due to a handful of--well, okay, a single--memorable line.  Its slowness and tendency to work in fits and starts blunt what could have been an effective little satirical thriller.

Ten Statements About....BLUE IN THE FACE (1995)

"Yes, I am Lou Reed, and I endorse this review."

"I'm scared in my own apartment. I'm scared 24 hours a day, but not necessarily in New York. I actually feel pretty comfortable in New York. I get scared, like, in Sweden."

1) The first two things you see in this film are Lou Reed talking about not knowing how to get around Paris and Harvey Keitel wandering out of a smoke shop in Brooklyn. These two randomly transposed scenes, and how you respond to them, will tell you whether you'll like this film or not.

2) Unlike the previous Wayne Wang film I discussed here, this movie plays to his strengths precisely because it isn't trying to ape a mainstream narrative. Wang seems so much more comfortable with the freeform, improvised narrative he develops with Paul Auster that it flows better, is more engaging, and more fun--to the point that I had to wonder if he really needed the six minutes or so worth of plot that is imposed upon this structure.

3) While Harvey Keitel's Augie is ostensively the main character of the film, a better way of approaching him is as this film's version of The Stage Manager in Our Town--as a shepherd through these various short stories about the different people who drift back and forth into the smoke shop.

4) There are a lot of cameos in this film. While I found the scene where a jean-shorts-and-sports-jacket wearing Michael J. Fox subjects Giancarlo Esposito to a bizarre personality quiz and the strange out-of-nowhere appearance of Madonna as a singing telegram delivery person surreally funny, the best by far comes from Keith David, who appears out of nowhere as Jackie Robinson, giving Augie's boss Victor (Victor Argo) some advice. There is such a sense of weirdness to this scee that still feels absolutely right that it really stands out.

"...and then I smacked that Begnini bastard clean across
the fucking room."

5) Yep...I'd watch Mel Gorham do that impromptu striptease while singing 'Fever' acapella a number of times, broad Spanish accent aside.

6) Why is it that the only time I can appreciate Giancarlo Esposito is when he's in films set in Brooklyn? I almost want to watch this in a double feature with Do The Right Thing to see the full ability of this actor unleashed.

7) Some of these actors are deeply submerged in their characters--I didn't realize the homeless person standing outside the smoke shop was Lily Tomlin until the credits rolled.

8) I really appreciated both the interviews Auster and Wang conduct with real Brooklynites (I found the one with the young girl on the Coney Island boardwalk at turns charming and heartbreaking) and the news footage of Ebbets Field being torn down. Given how Wang almost fetishizes both the Dodgers and Belgian Waffles during the course of this film, shots of the Field, and of the apartment complex that took its place, seem at home in this film.

"Sometimes, Michael, some days you gets the pants, and
someday, the pants get you..."

9) My favorite of all the segments in the film is indicative of why I enjoyed it so much. It's basically Jim Jarmusch smoking what he claims is his last cigarette with Harvey Keitel, and the two of them riffing on cigarettes, why they smoke, and what the purpose of smoking is. Throughout this sequence, which Wang keeps returning to, the characters and the actors blur together and you get the impression these are just two guys talking about a subject they're actively interested in. Sometimes the improv nature doesn't work as well--the first scene between Keitel and Rosanne, playing his boss' wife, seems a little shaky because you see Rosanne working her way through her improv--but when it does, it's magic.

10) Perhaps the biggest surprise? The pair of scenes involving Keitel, Esposito and Malik Yoba...not just because Yoba is a hoot and a half, but because in both cases we see Victor Argo take up acoustic guitar and play some kick-ass country and western.

Overall...if you treat this not as a single narrative film but as a collection of short films strung together, this is a treat and a half, and far more indicative of how good a director Wayne Wang can be.