A beer-soaked poem of a movie. It's pretty slow-moving, but Arliss Howard's performance and his use of surreality help to capture the chaotic, frustrating, poetic life of Leon Barlow. Everybody in this one provides strong performances, particularly Paul Le Mat as Barlow's amiable best friend and Angie Dickinson as his dignified mother. The dialogue is for the most part crisp and poetic in a broken-down working-class way. Michael Parks has some great moments as the gas station philosopher, at times politely crude and other times quietly insightful. And I love Debra Winger. Her voice sends me into orbit every time. This one reminded a bit of "Factotum" except that in that movie, Charles Bukowski has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and made me not care what happened to him. Here, while Barlow has many of the same characteristics, he still struggles to overcome his demons rather than wallow in them and celebrate them. It's a huge difference and made this a better movie for it.
I actually watched this movie by accident - it caught my attention & I couldn't turn it off. Not in my genre preferences, not even remotely something I would pick off the shelf to rent normally - but an excellent thought provoking movie. Realistic & stunning.
This was an amazing and unique film in how it is both directed and filmed. Clever and smart - heartcrushing and soul revealing. Rings as true as a bell and if you don't hear it ringing you've lost yourself somewhere along the way. A real piece of art.
An unfair statement but one which is quite true is that this film is Adaptation meets Barfly, but with a boatload more of sincerity and talent. I don't understand why this movie isn't more popular, since it's a "full cargo of long ago light."
MCT:March 26, 2008
MCT:April 11, 2007
MCT:March 15, 2007
MCT:February 11, 2007
