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Mommie Dearest
This sad, pungent drama contains some of the best female performances of the year. It's also a breath of fresh air in a fall season so far overrun by stale male-action extravaganzas. Based on a best-selling 1999 novel by Janet Fitch, Oleander bowled me over with its story of the poisonous ties that can bind together mothers and daughters. Will men be able to relate to the movie? Maybe not, but so much the worse for them. Bright and lucid beyond her years, newcomer Alison Lohman is exceptional as Astrid, a 15-year-old Californian whose mother is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her boyfriend. Turning a new leaf as a mature actress, Michelle Pfeiffer registers the best acting of her career as Ingrid, an artist who seductively controls and haunts her daughter from afar. Ingrid believes she's a superior being, permitting her a ruthlessness towards others that would put Lucrezia Borgia to shame. Over the span of five years, Astrid is shuffled from one foster home and youth facility to another, enduring a journey that would harden any youngster's heart. With few friends, sketching becomes her only escape. Astrid's first stop is with Star Thomas (Robin Wright Penn), a gaudy born-again Christian who nevertheless lives in sin with Ray (Cole Hauser), a married man. Astrid's desperate search for a father figure nurtures her attraction for older men-especially Ray. The producers have said the movie wasn't meant as an indictment of the foster-care system. I'm not sure there's another conclusion. Astrid's odyssey also includes a stop at the home of Claire (Renee Zellweger), a well-off but emotionally needy actress who can't have kids. Claire and Astrid instantly bond, but Ingrid does her worst to sabotage that relationship out of spite and envy. This heartbreaking drama should be required viewing for those who believe our country does plenty for its unwanted youth. It's often said that conservatives only care about children up until the time they're born; after that, the kids are on their own. Through extreme examples, this movie shows just how dysfunctional our foster-care system is. And if you think it's bad in California, folks, it's worse in Republican-dominated Colorado. I've heard several critics (mostly male) turn up their noses at Oleander. One thought that the symbolism of Oleander-it's a poisonous shrub that Ingrid nurtures-is heavy-handed and obvious. But there's no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. So few movies today show the deep, sometimes pernicious influence that mothers have on their children. British director Peter Kosminsky courageously gives a liberating, post-feminist view of American motherhood. None of that sugary, Mom-and-apple-pie idolizing here. Someone once joked that "mothering" sounds a lot like "murdering." White Oleander is one for the criminal case files. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Wise guise
Benny Chains. Johnny Marbles. Bobby Boulevard. At the very least, the guys in Knockaround Guys have neat names. This generation-gap gangster movie plumbs the plight of young Matty Demeret (Barry Pepper), son of Brooklyn crime boss Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper). Matty wants to be a sports agent, but his infamous name trails him like a ball and chain. But neither will his father bring him into the family business. Marty's friends share his predicament. Chris (Andrew Davoli) is a ladies' man without a day job. Bumbling Johnny Marbles (Seth Green) has a cocaine problem. Tough-guy Taylor (Vin Diesel) is half-Jewish, and the Mob isn't big on diversity. Like producer Lawrence Bender's previous Pulp Fiction, this movie rumbles with genre self-consciousness. It's not so much a mob movie but a movie about other mob movies. Life and verisimilitude take a back seat to pose and attitude. When Knockaround Guys is good, it's a canny Coen brothers knockoff. When it's bad (as in the dead ending), it feels like any number of trite Tarantino rip-offs. Any uniqueness comes from the settings. Leaving the skyscrapers of New York City, the action gallops to the Big Sky Country of Montana. That's where a million dollars in mob money disappears during a botched airplane pick-up by Marbles. The job is supposed to be Matty's big chance to impress his father. The tadpole-out-of-water story pits Matty and his gang against a dumpy Montana town ruled by a lean, laconic sheriff. Looking like he just ambled out of a Western, Sheriff Decker (Tom Noonan) shrugs his shoulders and drawls lines like, "That concerns me not a hitch." Tony Richmond's cinematography is a plus, boosting the visuals with dark, noirish lighting and offbeat compositions that contrast Matty's city slickers with the desolate backdrops. These black-leather boys stick out like Robert De Niro at a rodeo. The juxtapositions pique our interest by playing with movie conventions. In the simplest terms, the film feels like it draws on everything from Blood Simple to Mean Streets. But that's giving the writing/directing duo of David Levien and Brian Koppelman too much credit. There's more to knock in Knockaround Guys than there is that rocks. The True Romance-style shootout ending is a dud. Playing Marty's ruthless uncle, John Malkovich arrives on the scene with gun, lisp and a strange accent stuck somewhere between New York and Newfoundland. But what really dooms this movie has to do with Levien and Koppelman's retro definition of manhood. In the prologue, a 12-year-old Matty can't work up the guts to shoot the snitch who sent his father to prison. In the present, Matty has a chance to "redeem" himself by whacking another traitor. By the time the shooting stops, this junior varsity GoodFellas is just bad, fellas. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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Whatever you do, don't pick on White Oleander by calling it a chick flick.
