DVD of the Week: Something Wild: Criterion Collection

The 1980’s saw the rise of the Baby Boomers as the dominant class in North America. Many of them embraced the materialism of this decade as they settled into comfortable 9 to 5 work routines and raised families in suburbia. However, there were still remnants of the rebellious 1960’s of their youth threatening to surface and that was something a number of films picked up on, including After Hours (1985), Into the Night (1985), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), and Something Wild (1986). These films feature Boomer protagonists plucked out of their humdrum lives and thrust into foreign, sometimes frightening new surroundings where they encounter strange people while being caught up in thrilling misadventures. Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild was one of the best of this kind, featuring a button-downed Yuppie who takes a walk on the wild side thanks to a wild and impulsive mystery woman.


Charles Driggs (Jeff Daniels) is a straight-laced banker whose idea of rebellion is skipping out of a diner without paying for the check. This catches the eye of Lulu (Melanie Griffith), a beautiful woman who sports a Louise Brooks hairdo and is decked out in African-themed Bohemian attire. She playfully confronts him about his act of rebellion and then proceeds to “kidnap” the hapless man under the auspices of showing him a good time. Charlie protests initially but there is something about this strange woman that he finds intriguing. Maybe it’s her exotic nature or her knack for spontaneity. Before he knows it, they’ve rented a motel room in New Jersey and are having sex while he’s handcuffed to the bed.

It’s all an attempt to loosen Charlie up and get him out of his comfort zone. Lulu is a New Wave music femme fatale and he likes the way she makes him feel – both physically and emotionally. So much so, that he ends up going to her hometown in Pennsylvania where she reveals her name to actually be Audrey. We, much like Charlie, are waiting to see what she does next. It’s safe to say that Audrey is not what she appears to be and, for that matter, neither is Charlie as we eventually find out. At her class reunion, they run into her psychotic estranged husband Ray (Ray Liotta), which puts Charlie’s newfound confidence to the test.

Jeff Daniels is quite good as the hopelessly square Charlie. His transformation from boring banker to impulsive free spirit is well done. The actor manages to keep us interested in Charlie and keep us wondering what motivates him to leave his safe existence behind. Something Wild really belongs to Melanie Griffith and her portrayal of a chronic liar who gets her kicks breaking the law. It’s a completely uninhibited performance and one of, if not her signature role. Its success led to her most high profile role to date – Working Girl (1988).

Ray Liotta is the film’s scene-stealer as the unhinged Ray. The actor has that great crazy laugh and a glint in his eyes that suggests he is not someone you want to piss off. You can tell that Liotta is having an absolute blast playing this crazy guy. Astute observers will also spot filmmakers John Sayles and John Waters in amusing cameos as well as veteran character actors Tracey Walter and Charles Napier in small but memorable roles.

There’s an engaging, freewheeling vibe to Something Wild that mirrors the unpredictable Audrey and part of the fun is seeing where Demme takes us next. He does an excellent job of navigating through the film’s wild tonal shifts. Over the course of the film, Charlie first sheds his inhibitions and then systematically his old life for a new one. Like Desperately Seeking Susan, Something Wild is a subversive film in the sense that its protagonist rejects a safe, predictable life for a new one with all kinds of possibilities.

Special Features:

For a Criterion Collection release there is a disappoint number of extras.

There is a 33-minute interview with director Jonathan Demme where he starts off talking about the genesis of Something Wild. After coming off the debacle of making Swing Shift (1984), he was ready to quite the movie business but he read the screenplay for Something Wild and it got him excited about making films again. He talks about the look, the casting and many other aspects of the film in this engaging interview.

Also interviewed is the film’s screenwriter E. Max Frye. He talks about what inspired him to write the script. At the time, he lived in the East Village in New York City and drew from artists there.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.

 

JGL Blog-a-thon: The Lookout

BLOGGER'S NOTE: This post is part of the Joseph Gordon Levitt Blog-a-thon over at the Detailed Criticisms blog. This is also a reprint of a DVD review I did for this film a few years ago.

With his adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel, Out of Sight, Scott Frank demonstrated a knack for crime thrillers with plenty of plot twists and double crosses. Now, he’s finally gotten the chance to direct his own movie and the result is The Lookout (2007), a neo-noir that evokes other crime movies like Charley Varrick (1973) and Fargo (1996).


Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young hockey player with a promising career that is snuffed out in an instant thanks to a car accident that he caused. Four years later, he’s working as a night janitor at a local Midwestern bank located out in the middle of nowhere and dealing with a head injury from the accident. He has to write down everything that he does to get ready every day. His old life is gone and his new one is one mundane day after another. Chris now lives with Lewis (Jeff Daniels), his blind roommate who helps the young man out with things around their apartment.

Chris meets Gary (Matthew Goode) at a bar one night. He’s a genial guy who befriends the young man over beers. Chris also meets a beautiful young woman named Luvlee (Isla Fisher) who is friends with Gary. They quickly go to work on Chris, Gary appealing to his brain and Luvlee to his heart. They make him feel like he belongs which is important to him because his family doesn’t know how to relate to him anymore. Pretty soon Gary tells Chris about a bank heist he plans to pull with his buddies. The bank that they are targeting just happens to be the one that Chris works at. Gary dangles the proverbial carrot in front of Chris with the promise of money and the power that comes with it. He is very persuasive and knows exactly which buttons to push. Like most heist films, things do not go according to plan and the rest of the film deals with the aftershocks.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues his knack for offbeat roles. He does a great job portraying someone with neurological damage and the frustration that comes from not being able to do simple things like opening a can of food or remembering someone’s name. He also conveys the guilt his character feels over the car accident that cost two of his friends their lives and robbed him of a promising future. We see how he tries to hide his disorder and the frustration of not being able to do basic things. It’s a performance grounded in realism that is in contrast to this stylized noir world. It doesn’t hurt that he is surrounded by cold, detached characters, and this makes him very sympathetic as well.

Jeff Daniels steals pretty much every scene he’s in as Chris’ genial roommate. The actor displays a dry sense of humor that is very funny to see in action. He and Gordon-Levitt’s character make for very unlikely roommates to say the least but the two actors make it work thanks to the excellent chemistry they have together. Along with The Squid in the Whale (2005) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Daniels is turning out to be quite an excellent character actor appearing in several well-made independent films.

Scott Frank has a keen visual sense, adopting a predominantly dark color scheme in keeping with the neo-noir tradition. With The Lookout, he has crafted a clever little thriller with a fascinating protagonist at its center. What could have easily been a forgettable film is anchored by yet another riveting performance by Gordon-Levitt.

Special Features:

“Behind the Mind of Christ Pratt” features an interview with the film’s star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He was drawn to the complexity of the character and ended up living with the role for almost a year. He talks about how he portrayed Chris and speaks intelligently about his take on the material.

“Sequencing The Lookout” takes a look at various aspects of the movie: the script, casting, the look, and so on in an interesting way. Frank says that he was influenced by European thrillers that emphasized character. He talks about the origins of the story as well.

Finally, there is an audio commentary by writer/director Scott Frank and his director of photography Alar Kivilo. They talk about the challenge of shooting in the wilds of Canada. It was spring when they started but the temperature was very cold. Frank isn’t afraid to point out the mistakes he made as a first-time director. With Kivilo, their comments tend to be about filmmaking techniques like the cameras they used, the type of shots for a given scene and locations used. This could come across as kind of dull if you’re not into the technical aspects of film.