Noirvember: Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead (1995)

Director Gary Fleder has a strange, but not uninteresting, filmography. He's done a lot of TV work in recent years, and started his directorial career with a TV movie (which also paired him up for the first time with writer Scott Rosenberg), but he's also delivered a few real gems throughout the last few decades. Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead is one of them, and maybe that's as much to do with the fact that it was Fleder's first theatrical release as it is to do with the script and execution of the material. Or maybe he just does well with star-studded ensemble casts (considering that Runaway Jury is also up there with his best work).

Andy Garcia plays Jimmy "The Saint" here, and he's a man who ends up between a rock and a hard place when a big boss (The Man With The Plan, played by Christopher Walken) tells him to put a team together in order to give some young guy a fright. Jimmy ends up working with Pieces (Christopher Lloyd), Franchise (William Forsythe), Easy Wind (Bill Nunn), and Critical Bill (Treat Williams). If all goes well then the team will end up in the good graces of a very powerful individual, but the title may have already clued you in on the fact that all doesn't necessarily go well.

Read through that list of names again, but let me add to it by mentioning Gabrielle Anwar, Fairuza Balk, Steve Buscemi, Jack Warden, Bill Cobbs, Marshall Bell, Don Stark, Jenny McCarthy, Don Cheadle, Tiny Lister Jr., and Josh Charles. You may not recognise all of those names, but anyone who appreciates '90s cinema will recognise their faces as soon as they appear onscreen. Not only is that a truly stacked cast, everyone feels perfect in the role given to them. Garcia stays cool and calm for most of the runtime, Walken enjoys getting to wax lyrical in a couple of scenes, and Williams almost steals the entire film with his portrayal of someone who seems to be a real liability. While both Anwar and Balk are slightly sidelined, both get to do a bit more than may be expected, and their inclusion certainly lifts the film above the complete sausage-fest it otherwise would have been.

Fleder may not indulge himself too much, this is a straightforward tale told in a straightforward manner, he knows how to make the best of Rosenberg's screenplay, which could easily have been ruined and made more forgettable by an attempt to match the many other Tarantino-esque crime thrillers (of which this is certainly one) from this time. The dialogue feels natural to the characters, as opposed to trying too hard to be super-cool in every exchange, and the cast are allowed to give enough substance to their performances to make them feel like more than just stereotypes/archetypes.

It's easy to see why some who didn't see this back when it was first released would continue to ignore it. It's a specific type of film from a specific time that makes it a risky proposition. I would say that it exceeds any expectations, however, and the traditional approach to the material, including the score from Michael Convertino, as well as every other element, allows it to feel more timeless and enduring than many other titles that just had the idea of putting criminals at the heart of the plot and trying to give them all memorable soundbites.

9/10

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New Jack City (1991)

A film I somehow missed when it was first released, despite hearing a lot of good talk about it, New Jack City constantly kept being held back from the top of my prioritised viewing list by many other movies. That’s a shame, because this is a great movie, energetic and entertaining throughout, with a nicely stacked cast.

It’s the tale of a drug dealer/crimelord, named Nino (Wesley Snipes), who seems to remain far too many steps ahead of the law. He rose to his position thanks to the introduction of crack cocaine into the drug market. Addicts die, threats die, competitors die, but Nino just keeps on trucking, much to the frustration of a special task force that has been assembled to bring him down. Headed up by Detective Stone (Mario Van Peebles), the two men most likely to get some kind of victory over Nino are Appleton (Ice-T) and Peretti (Judd Nelson). They are willing to do whatever it takes, even helping an addict (Pookie, played by Chris Rock) clean and asking him to do some undercover work for them.

Written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, New Jack City dances beautifully between some moments of realistic violence, some very pertinent points on the changing face of modern crime and those in charge, and pure visceral cinema. All of the characters feel slightly larger than life, but that helps to underline the idea of the way territories have been redrawn and reformed. And there is snappy dialogue throughout that reveals extra information about choices made by the main characters.

The champ of delivering that snappy dialogue is Snipes, who gives what could well be his best ever performance, all confidence and no heart. Having said that, Snipes has so many great performances tucked away in his filmography that it’s tough to pick out a clear favourite. He owns every minute of his screentime here though, and it’s a good job. His character needs that charisma and presence to be at all believable, even while being so enjoyably over the top. Ice-T and Nelson have to bicker at one another in standard “cops who may not like one another, but will look out for one another” mode, and they do well with what they’re given, especially when delivering some more melodramatic moments in the finale. Then there’s Rock, delivering a fantastic performance as an itchy and desperate junkie who is given a big second chance at life. Bill Nunn and Bill Cobbs are as good as ever, Allen Payne does perfectly okay, although he is the weakest of the main players, and there are many others worth keeping an eye out for, from Michael Michele and Vanessa Williams to Russell Wong and Anthony DeSando, as well as Fab 5 Freddy, Flavor Flav, and more.

Although he has a supporting role, Van Peebles also gives himself the much more important job of directing this thing. Helped by the casting, and the soundtrack (this has an amazing soundtrack), he delivers a film that I would easily rank alongside many of the top crime films of the 1990s. It’s arguable that making something more grounded, and grittier, would have been a better approach, but this is a slickly-packaged bit of entertainment that is also a call for change. Van Peebles, with the script he is working from, gives viewers a sugar-coated pill, but you can still easily taste the sour centre. 

It may not seem as worthy as a film like Boyz N The Hood (released in the same year), or Menace II Society (which came along a couple of years later), but it is just as deserving of your time, even if it takes a very different approach to the social issues being explored.

9/10

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Sister Act (1992)

The reason high-concept films are releases is because they're an easy sell. Take Sister Act, for example. It's a fun comedy, a lot of fun, but you can sell it with the simple line "Whoopi Goldberg has to act like a nun." There you have it. Do you like that idea? Does it amuse you? If so, you're bound to get some enjoyment from this movie.

Goldberg plays a singer named Deloris who walks in on her married gangster boyfriend (Harvey Keitel) having someone shot. Running away, she eventually goes to the cops and is asked to testify. That could take a couple of months though, which is why she has to be hidden away in the meantime, hidden where nobody would ever think of looking for her. A convent. Maggie Smith is the Mother Superior who doesn't think this is a good idea, Kathy Najimy is a very cheery and friendly nun, and Wendy Makkena is a bit shy. After some difficulty adjusting, Deloris manages to convince the Mother Superior to let her work with the choir, and that's when she starts realising the good she can do, arranging some non-traditional hymns and helping everyone to do better.

Director Emile Ardilino had a good run of hits from the late '80s to early '90s (starting with Dirty Dancing and ending with this one) and he knows how to put everything together for a perfectly satisfying feature that should please a large demographic. Although this is a star vehicle for Goldberg, the talented supporting cast members all get chances to shine and the major set-pieces are surrounded by lots of great touches and exchanges of dialogue.

Paul Rudnick wrote the script (billed as Joseph Howard) and it's very impressive for a feature debut. Rudnick paces things perfectly, and he seems to know that viewers will forgive the by-the-numbers nature of the thing as long as it keeps entertaining them from start to finish (which it does). You know how it's all going to end, but that doesn't make the journey any less enjoyable.

Goldberg is very funny in the lead role, although slightly toned down compared to her more amusing earlier career turns (the films may not have been as good, or slick, as this one but her ability to be more free and easy with her language and material worked a bit better), and the hilarity steps up a level as soon as she is forced into wearing a habit. Maggie Smith does thin-lipped disapproval better than anyone else I can think of, Najimy is amusing throughout with her wide-eyed view of the outside world, and Makkena does well as the shrinking violet who responds well once given a bit more confidence. Keitel is perfect for his role, trying to be charming one minute and then just ruthless the next, Bill Nunn is good as the cop trying to keep Deloris alive, and Robert Miranda and Richard Portnow are both a lot of fun as the guys who do most of Keitel's dirty work.

The soundtrack helps a lot too, with Deloris adapting a number of the tunes we hear her singing at the start of the movie into various hymns. It will have you tapping your feet and singing along.

Some will rate this even higher, of course, but it just suffers from the air of predictability, especially during the grand finale. The humour is still there, but there isn't the feeling that anything is really at stake. That's not terrible, it's a comforting and safe bit of work, but it does stop it from being a true great. Of course, on any other day I may have just overlooked that and added another point.

7/10

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Kiss The Girls (1997)

I had seen Kiss The Girls some years ago, or had at least seen enough of it to know how everything played out. And then I forgot everything that happened in it. Or so I thought. As the opening credits started to play out, I remembered one or two important plot points, making my revisit a fairly disappointing and pointless experience.

It's not that this is a bad film. It's just a textbook example of this kind of '90s thriller. They may have tried to get a bit darker and edgier after the success of Seven, almost exactly halfway through the decade, but the basic ingredients were the same. You had a smart detective who could think more steps ahead than the other officers around him (and, yes, it was more often than not a male character in the lead), you had a couple of decent players in supporting roles to provide a red herring or two, and also a main villain, and you had a female who either escaped the killer or assisted the detective, or indeed both. Most, if not all, of these tropes can be found in this film, and in films such as The Bone Collector, Color Of Night, Insomnia, Striking Distance (Willis again), and in a few others. The tropes could be subverted for erotic thrillers (e.g. the detective often being the character a couple of steps behind everyone else), and there are an equal number of movies that are notably different (mainly with female leads, such as The Silence Of The Lambs, Copycat, and Blue Steel), but you get the gist of what I am saying.

Morgan Freeman plays Detective Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist who becomes very personally involved in a major case when his niece goes missing. She is one of a number of girls taken by a criminal who goes by the name of Casanova. Helped by local law enforcement (Bill Nunn and Cary Elwes are here, Brian Cox is the Chief), the investigation doesn't seem to be moving forward until one of Casanova's most recent victims (Ashley Judd) manages to escape from his lair. She's determined to help bring her captor to justice, but can she trust her own memories of that traumatic episode?

Based on the best-seller by James Patterson, Kiss The Girls succeeds most in the casting department. The script by David Klass is servicable enough, admirably ticking all of those boxes mentioned above, but a lesser cast would, I suspect, have left this struggling to find an audience. Freeman and Judd are the leads, the former trying to piece together the puzzle while the latter uses her special position to help the investigation maintain momentum. Cox, Nunn, and Elwes all do well enough in their roles, and there's also a small, but impressive, turn from Tony Goldwyn and an even smaller role for the always-welcome Jeremy Piven.

The second theatrical feature for director Gary Fleder (who had previously done some TV work before delivering the highly enjoyable Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead), this is a safe and competent film that creeps close to darker territory at times before deciding not to wade in any further. That fault may lie with the source material, Patterson is certainly one of those prolific crime writers I can imagine does so well because he doesn't scare away all of his readers but I am sure it's easier to describe something grisly on the page than it is to show it onscreen, but it's a shame that neither Klass nor Fleder decided to push things a bit. Even the one moment that shows Alex Cross being affected by someone who gets under his skin hints at missed opportunities, considering how personal the case is for him (something all too easy to forget for most of the runtime).

I don't think I ever saw Along Came A Spider, which sees Freeman returning to the role, and I know I haven't yet seen Alex Cross. I'll be marking them off the list in the next few weeks.

6/10

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The Last Seduction (1994)

In the opening scenes of The Last Seduction we find out that the lead character, Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino, in her best ever role), isn't very nice. She's smart, but not very nice. Just how smart she is, and how nasty, only becomes clear as the plot unfolds, and things move towards a fantastic, dark, entertaining climax (no pun intended, considering the libido and confidence of Bridget).

Directed by John Dahl, and written by Steve Barancik, The Last Seduction is one long con game being played out by Bridget, a woman who has left her husband (Bill Pullman) with a bag of money that he made from selling drugs. The husband owes money to people who tend to damage his thumbs whenever he can't pay so he's understandably angry. Bridget continues to plan her exit strategy, biding her time in a small town that has very little going on, but allows herself some fun with a local boy, Mike (Peter Berg). Poor Mike doesn't realise that he's about to be involved in some wild mind games as Bridget coldly lines up all of the pieces for her big play.

John Dahl is a fine director  (having also given audiences the superb Red Rock West and Joy Ride AKA Roadkill) and he does himself a few favours here by working with a superb script, by Steve Barancik, and assembling a cast all doing some of their best work. Fiorentino, especially, hasn't had any better role to sink her teeth into, but Berg is great as the small town boy who dreams of bigger things, Pullman is surprisingly good in an atypical role for him, J. T. Walsh does his usual stellar work in an all-too-brief role, and Bill Nunn does well as a detective hired to find Bridget/the money. Dean Norris also has a very small role, alongside Brien Varady, the two of them playing friends of Mike who don't waste their energy on big dreams and are just happy with small town life.

Everything comes together perfectly to make this a real treat for fans of neo-noirs. The script is chock full of great lines and exchanges, the characters are all memorable (even the more minor characters like the poor schmuck, played by Mik Scriba, who is tasked with tailing Bridget), and the lady at the centre of events is one of the best femme fatales ever. Very smart, very sexy, and as cold-hearted as they come. Which always makes things more fun in the world of noir.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Seduction-Disc-Special-Edition/dp/B000F5S21E/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp