Late 20th Century Cinema Roundup and Hamlet 2000

Today I will be reviewing several films of varying genres that I watched this year that were all released after 1970 and before 2000. This for me is one of the golden eras of filmmaking where the natural style of the 1970's was still intact while bringing in some more focused scripts than some of the run and gun features of the 1970's. Lets begin.

Star 80 (1983)

Haunting vision of a real life event where a damaged man ended up committing a heinous crime. Bob Fosse, the film's director, did a great job at portraying the Playboy enterprise without slanting to far in any direction so as to allow the viewer to make up their own mind on the subject.

Eric Roberts, who has become a sort of cult hero online with his ridiculously long filmography, is terrifyingly great in this. Mariel Hemingway is good here but is never given an awful lot to do aside from try to placate Roberts as he grows more maniacal as the film goes on. This is a good movie, but it is also a rather frightening look into the darker side of humanity which is made all the more gripping knowing that this is a true crime.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

This is the perfect encapsulation of dumb 90’s comedy. I ended up enjoying this an awful lot with its action movie plot where two stone heads become the most wanted men in America and unknowingly evade capture which I found hilarious.

Robert Stack, who most know as the iconic voice and host of Unsolved Mysteries, is a pleasant surprise in this as the police officer trying his hardest to track down the two titled hooligans. This was a great watch with tons of laughs to be had and it was also a perfect nostalgia trip back to the 1990's.

Polyester (1981)

This is a riot of a film with hilarious dark humour and outlandish satire that seems more relevant now than ever. First time watching Divine and thought he was amazing and carried the film with his charisma and exaggerated performance. John Waters is just as fascinating of a director as he is a human being, I cannot wait to dive into more of his filmography after enjoying this and Cry Baby (1990) so much.

The movie had surprisingly slick and stylized cinematography with some good moments of musical score especially in one sequence where Divine’s character has a breakdown.

This scene, which I included above, in Polyester absolutely floored me. There were so many great little moments like this in the film such as the high end food sold at the drive in theatre for people to enjoy while they “ponder the intellectual meaning of cinema.” This kind of slapstick humour and outlandish normative subversion were incredibly enjoyable, this film is more than worth a watch.

The House of Yes (1997)

This movie simply couldn't decide which genre it wanted to be in which made it suffer as I was never sure whether I was supposed to be taking the darker aspects of the story seriously when so much of the film seemed so exaggerated and hard to take serious.

Tori Spelling is strong here at playing the naive girlfriend of Parker Posey's brother. Posey could have been great here as she fully invested in her ridiculous character who could have been a memorable film icon of the 1990's if not for the muddled script. The movie has a haunting score, impressive cinematography and some interesting aspect ratio changes far ahead of their time. This is an compelling watch but is more frustrating than it is fun simply due to the overwhelming feeling of this being a wasted opportunity to do something better or more memorable.

Hamlet (2000)

This is a messy adaptation of the best play ever written by William Shakespeare which missed several key plot points yet perfectly captured the emotion of the original piece.

Turn of the millennium melancholy and the dying breath of 90’s nihilism make for a moving picture. Ethan Hawke is also great in this film at portraying the downtrodden and disillusioned young heir to a business fortune. The cinematography in this movie is great especially in those scenes in Hamlet's gloomy apartment where he watches movies over and over trying to learn more about the world around him. I enjoyed this movie more for the feeling it gave me than the story it told. If you are in the right mood I believe this could be a great watch.

Hard Eight (1996)

Good film from Paul Thomas Anderson's golden era where he put Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in all of his films. Reilly is phenomenal here, there is something so honest about his character and performance that even when he lies you can easily tell based on his inability to be anything less than sincere. Hoffman only had one scene but chews up the scenery in it, what a great talent taken way to soon.

As for the plot it begins as a sort of Tarantino wanna be Jackie Brown and by the end feels more like a PTA film with chaotic scenes and outlandishly intense characters.

Hall’s character never really worked for me. As the audience comes to learn more about him and his backstory it did help shed light on his motivation in the film but his straight faced portrayal prevented me from ever empathizing with or even understanding who he is supposed to be.

Say what you will about Gwyneth Paltrow but she was genuinely good here. While the prostitute character has been done to death in these indie thrillers she was still believable and added rather than detracted from the movie. Samuel L Jackson was also great here, as always.

This is a good film, an easy watch and one I’m sure people that enjoy this sort of grifter thriller will find something in. I wish there was more to unpack with this one but it never really scratched too far beneath the surface. A good but largely forgettable watch I would say.

Malicious (1995)

Decent enough erotic thriller that at times worked better as a story about a struggling college baseball star though it was hard to take that he was also in medical school. Molly Ringwald is good in this at though she is playing a clone of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.

Patrick McGaw, who plays the college baseball star, was actually really good in this in that while he is not the most sympathetic main character his struggle of trying to balance the mess of his life he has made was interesting thanks to his performance. The paper thin plot and obvious twists were also fun none the less.

The conclusion of this film is beyond hilarious where in a final confrontation with Ringwald’s crazed character McGaw, the baseball prospect, is left with no other recourse than to swing a baseball bat at Molly which propels her through a window and onto the ground outside. This is a sloppy film which is only worth watching if you really have an interest in this genre of thriller. Nothing is great here or even unique but all the pieces of better films are thrown together to make one Frankenstein’s monster of a moderately enjoyable time.