Is that a young Leonardo DiCaprio? No! But clearly they wanted a kid with his vibe. Oh, it's the young man from Madmen, Vincent Kartheiser, years before he found success with that series. What a gnarly way to kick off your career...
This is certainly not a pleasant watch but it's definitely a peculiar one. It is a unique amalgamation of flammable parts. This was infamous director Larry Clark's follow-up to his wave-making depresso collaborative masterpiece with Harmony Korine, KIDS. I suppose after the success of that, he needed to join forces with another fireball of some sort, but this time in the form of a Hollywood actor who's been roped in for much longer, that being James Woods.
Oh, James Woods...utterly gnarly James. If cocaine took form as a human being, it would basically just be James Woods. I've heard rumors that he is a colossal hothead in reality. Is anyone shocked by that? You can feel the potential of his heinousness through every scene whenever he is on screen. And here, in this film, as is the case with many films, he plays an absolute monster. Of course, he produced this film, so he put the whole thing together so he could play a monster. I'm sure it comes very naturally for him!
What else do we add to the equation? Why, Melanie Griffith of course! The charming babe who had a hideously disturbing beginning as a teen actor in Hollywood, then broke through as an indie darling in the mid 80's, then found mainstream success at the end of the decade, only to be cast in endless stinkers throughout most of the rest of the 90's. It seems awfully fitting for James Woods to reach in and grab someone with an immensely abusive and traumatizing past to play his punching bag throughout this entire film! In one sense, it's nice to see Griffith returning to grittier films, but in another it's kind of dark when you hear so much about the reality of these actors.
The movie starts somewhat shockingly abrasively as our protagonist seems to nearly get beat to death within the first 5 minutes. It's extremely bloody, and I was very confused as to why it was so brutal, but I was very intrigued. As a big fan of Clark's two most celebrated films (Kids and Bully), I was quickly reminded why Larry Clark is a name no one ever forgets - he makes his movies bleak and heavy, as heavy as possible, and this one NEVER lets up. You get brief glimpses of relief and humanity, but it's mostly one brutal or depressing sequence after another, with a REALLY horrible and wholly unfitting soundtrack playing over the whole thing.
Of course, I did enjoy the Clarence Carter appearance as I am a big Clarence Carter fan, but the rest of the of the soundtrack was the worst part of the film, and really took away from the whole vibe of it in my opinion. The directing and cinematography is full-on typical Larry Clark, a lot of extended sequences of our young leads just lying around mostly nude, extremely high, fornicating, etc - but the horrible music I'm gonna assume was just picked by James Woods (LOL, it seems to fit his energy?), in an attempt to create some sort of Tarantino-ish juxtaposition, sporting "feel good rock and roll" songs over utterly bleak sequences, but it just never works. This isn't a dark comedy, so don't soundtrack it like one. If this film had a fittingly dark soundtrack or score, or at least a moodier or more unique one, I think the film would have been more highly regarded and hit people harder. At it's core this is a very, very heavy movie and all the ill-fitting soundtrack does is take away from the effectiveness of that.
I wouldn't recommend this to many people but if you are a Larry Clark fan (or a James Woods fan? LOL) you definitely should see it. Some of the gun fights are actually pretty top notch. Lots of blood, lots of drugs, and lots of horrible, horrible people, making horrible decisions. It's not perfect, but it does stand out as a bizarre installment in the filmography of everyone involved.
This is certainly not a pleasant watch but it's definitely a peculiar one. It is a unique amalgamation of flammable parts. This was infamous director Larry Clark's follow-up to his wave-making depresso collaborative masterpiece with Harmony Korine, KIDS. I suppose after the success of that, he needed to join forces with another fireball of some sort, but this time in the form of a Hollywood actor who's been roped in for much longer, that being James Woods.
Oh, James Woods...utterly gnarly James. If cocaine took form as a human being, it would basically just be James Woods. I've heard rumors that he is a colossal hothead in reality. Is anyone shocked by that? You can feel the potential of his heinousness through every scene whenever he is on screen. And here, in this film, as is the case with many films, he plays an absolute monster. Of course, he produced this film, so he put the whole thing together so he could play a monster. I'm sure it comes very naturally for him!
What else do we add to the equation? Why, Melanie Griffith of course! The charming babe who had a hideously disturbing beginning as a teen actor in Hollywood, then broke through as an indie darling in the mid 80's, then found mainstream success at the end of the decade, only to be cast in endless stinkers throughout most of the rest of the 90's. It seems awfully fitting for James Woods to reach in and grab someone with an immensely abusive and traumatizing past to play his punching bag throughout this entire film! In one sense, it's nice to see Griffith returning to grittier films, but in another it's kind of dark when you hear so much about the reality of these actors.
The movie starts somewhat shockingly abrasively as our protagonist seems to nearly get beat to death within the first 5 minutes. It's extremely bloody, and I was very confused as to why it was so brutal, but I was very intrigued. As a big fan of Clark's two most celebrated films (Kids and Bully), I was quickly reminded why Larry Clark is a name no one ever forgets - he makes his movies bleak and heavy, as heavy as possible, and this one NEVER lets up. You get brief glimpses of relief and humanity, but it's mostly one brutal or depressing sequence after another, with a REALLY horrible and wholly unfitting soundtrack playing over the whole thing.
Of course, I did enjoy the Clarence Carter appearance as I am a big Clarence Carter fan, but the rest of the of the soundtrack was the worst part of the film, and really took away from the whole vibe of it in my opinion. The directing and cinematography is full-on typical Larry Clark, a lot of extended sequences of our young leads just lying around mostly nude, extremely high, fornicating, etc - but the horrible music I'm gonna assume was just picked by James Woods (LOL, it seems to fit his energy?), in an attempt to create some sort of Tarantino-ish juxtaposition, sporting "feel good rock and roll" songs over utterly bleak sequences, but it just never works. This isn't a dark comedy, so don't soundtrack it like one. If this film had a fittingly dark soundtrack or score, or at least a moodier or more unique one, I think the film would have been more highly regarded and hit people harder. At it's core this is a very, very heavy movie and all the ill-fitting soundtrack does is take away from the effectiveness of that.
I wouldn't recommend this to many people but if you are a Larry Clark fan (or a James Woods fan? LOL) you definitely should see it. Some of the gun fights are actually pretty top notch. Lots of blood, lots of drugs, and lots of horrible, horrible people, making horrible decisions. It's not perfect, but it does stand out as a bizarre installment in the filmography of everyone involved.