Aooowww — Woo! Jack Nicholson summons his inner dog — and dons the makeup and scary contact lenses — to go the Larry Talbot route. Unfortunately, his moon-howling nighttime life isn’t as interesting as the dog-eat-dog infighting in the publishing house where he works – where feral instincts and sharp lupine senses are a major aid to ‘getting a leg up’ on the competition. I know, cheap metaphors are the ruin of promising writers.
Wolf
All-Region Blu-ray
Indicator
1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date November 20, 2017 / £14.99
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Plummer, Richard Jenkins, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin, Prunella Scales, David Schwimmer, Michael Raynor.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Design: Bo Welch, Jim Dultz
Makeup Effects: Rick Baker
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick
Produced by Douglas Wick
Directed by Mike Nichols
I think my mother...
Wolf
All-Region Blu-ray
Indicator
1994 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date November 20, 2017 / £14.99
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Plummer, Richard Jenkins, Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin, Prunella Scales, David Schwimmer, Michael Raynor.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Design: Bo Welch, Jim Dultz
Makeup Effects: Rick Baker
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick
Produced by Douglas Wick
Directed by Mike Nichols
I think my mother...
- 11/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Friends in real life growing up on the mean streets of East Harlem, filmmaker Seth Zvi Rosenfeld and actors Nick Chinlund and Michael Raynor first presented their downbeat tale of two conflicted brothers in a 1989 off-Broadway stage production and then developed it into an equally uncompromising feature film.
Admirable in many ways but oddly distancing when it means to take one on an emotionally wrenching journey into the often gruesome dramatics of "under-city" life, with a strong supporting cast that includes Cathy Moriarty, Rosie Perez, Marisa Tomei and John Leguizamo, "A Brother's Kiss" is a hard sell for distributor First Look Pictures.
Shifting between 1979 and 1995, the low-budget independent evokes a steamy, volatile urban setting in which booze and drugs, abuse and broken dreams are the lot of most denizens who have little hope of escape or redemption.
Portrayed by Justin Pierce, tough and charismatic teenager Lex is protective of his quieter, more practical younger brother Mick (Joshua Danowsky). They live in a dismal tenement with an alcoholic mother (Moriarty) who loves them but brings home a steady stream of unsavory lovers and has lost her will to even dream of a better life.
Lex, however, dreams of a career playing basketball and Mick wants to be a cop, and they both agree to stay away from drugs and drink. As adults, Mick (Raynor) and Lex (Chinlund) have survived but with deep-rooted problems that won't ever go away. Disciplined and now part of a large family with rules, policeman Mick was sexually traumatized as a kid and cannot get close to either sex.
His older brother is even more of a case study. Frustrated by his unobtainable hoop dreams, Mick tries to have a normal family life, marrying a sweet girl (Perez) who likewise longs for stability. They have a child, but Lex's bus-driver job does not pay enough to cushion them from adversity, and he becomes involved with a local drug dealer (Leguizamo), a fatal move that leads to a swift and sure downward spiral.
Tomei is believable as a scary crackhead homegirl who becomes Lex's pal, while Leguizamo is likewise menacing as a streetwise devil stealing souls and destroying lives. Moriarty has her best role in years as the lead's psychologically toxic and sickeningly self-destructive mom. Chinlund ("Con Air") and Raynor ("Federal Hill") are excellent.
Overall the film is realistic and superbly filmed by Fortunato Procopio, but first-time writer-director Rosenfeld, with the help of a pop soundtrack, tries too hard to keep one hooked on an unpleasant experience when less cinematic opening up of the material would have been more effective.
A BROTHER'S KISS
First Look Pictures
A Rosenfunk Pictures Ltd. production
Writer-director Seth Zvi Rosenfeld
Executive producer Jim Walton
Producers Bob Potter, E. Bennett Walsh
Director of photography Fortunato Procopio
Production designer Roger Fortune
Editor Donna Stern
Costume designer Carolyn Greco
Music Frank London
Casting Francine Maisler,
Tracey Marable Moore
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lex: Nick Chinlund
Mick Michael Raynor
Young Lex Justin Pierce
Young Mick Joshua Danowsky
Doreen Cathy Moriarty
Debbie Rosie Perez
Missy Marisa Tomei
Lefty John Leguizamo
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Admirable in many ways but oddly distancing when it means to take one on an emotionally wrenching journey into the often gruesome dramatics of "under-city" life, with a strong supporting cast that includes Cathy Moriarty, Rosie Perez, Marisa Tomei and John Leguizamo, "A Brother's Kiss" is a hard sell for distributor First Look Pictures.
Shifting between 1979 and 1995, the low-budget independent evokes a steamy, volatile urban setting in which booze and drugs, abuse and broken dreams are the lot of most denizens who have little hope of escape or redemption.
Portrayed by Justin Pierce, tough and charismatic teenager Lex is protective of his quieter, more practical younger brother Mick (Joshua Danowsky). They live in a dismal tenement with an alcoholic mother (Moriarty) who loves them but brings home a steady stream of unsavory lovers and has lost her will to even dream of a better life.
Lex, however, dreams of a career playing basketball and Mick wants to be a cop, and they both agree to stay away from drugs and drink. As adults, Mick (Raynor) and Lex (Chinlund) have survived but with deep-rooted problems that won't ever go away. Disciplined and now part of a large family with rules, policeman Mick was sexually traumatized as a kid and cannot get close to either sex.
His older brother is even more of a case study. Frustrated by his unobtainable hoop dreams, Mick tries to have a normal family life, marrying a sweet girl (Perez) who likewise longs for stability. They have a child, but Lex's bus-driver job does not pay enough to cushion them from adversity, and he becomes involved with a local drug dealer (Leguizamo), a fatal move that leads to a swift and sure downward spiral.
Tomei is believable as a scary crackhead homegirl who becomes Lex's pal, while Leguizamo is likewise menacing as a streetwise devil stealing souls and destroying lives. Moriarty has her best role in years as the lead's psychologically toxic and sickeningly self-destructive mom. Chinlund ("Con Air") and Raynor ("Federal Hill") are excellent.
Overall the film is realistic and superbly filmed by Fortunato Procopio, but first-time writer-director Rosenfeld, with the help of a pop soundtrack, tries too hard to keep one hooked on an unpleasant experience when less cinematic opening up of the material would have been more effective.
A BROTHER'S KISS
First Look Pictures
A Rosenfunk Pictures Ltd. production
Writer-director Seth Zvi Rosenfeld
Executive producer Jim Walton
Producers Bob Potter, E. Bennett Walsh
Director of photography Fortunato Procopio
Production designer Roger Fortune
Editor Donna Stern
Costume designer Carolyn Greco
Music Frank London
Casting Francine Maisler,
Tracey Marable Moore
Color/stereo
Cast:
Lex: Nick Chinlund
Mick Michael Raynor
Young Lex Justin Pierce
Young Mick Joshua Danowsky
Doreen Cathy Moriarty
Debbie Rosie Perez
Missy Marisa Tomei
Lefty John Leguizamo
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 7/21/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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