because you can't have too much entertainment... September 2000

Never Let Them See You Sweat
Almost Famous Dir: Cameron Crowe Starring: Patrick Fugit, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Zooey Deschanel & Kate Hudson
Way of the Gun Dir. Christopher McQuarrie. Starring: Ryan Phillipe & Benicio Del Toro
Urbania Dir: Jon Shears Starring: Dan Futterman & Alan Cumming

I have always felt that the argument over style vs. substance was a lifeless one. Style or substance or both?! I really don't care. Is it any good? For me that's the only criteria that matters when the lights go back up. Comedy? Drama? Horror? Thriller? Popcorn film? Art film? Innovative? Traditional? Mainstream? Independent? Cult? My last question is "was it any good?" Did the film know what it wanted to be? Did the director know what he wanted to say? If the film is clear on this and the director and cast have at least a modicum of talent to realize the intentions, most everything will be fine. If however, you are a filmmaker and you should choose to make your film a stylized or atmospheric one -you must adhere to the following two rules.

Number one: Never Let the Effort show! There are few things as off putting as forced stylistic flourishes or stylizations or moods that are too derivative, that the filmmaker hasn't made his own.

Number two: If the effort is showing -make that part of the stylization. Drawing attention to one's own devices is perhaps a shallow trick, but it often works to build confidence in those very devices and to distract attention from their clumsiness. Three films recently underwent the style test.

The directors of Urbania, Almost Famous, and The Way of the Gun all tried their hand at atmosphere first filmmaking. Who failed? Who passed? You ask? Read on...

Almost Famous
Judging on early reviews and audience reaction to Almost Famous, you would expect that Cameron Crowe passes all moviemaking tests with flying colors. I am the bitchy one here to let you know that he in fact, by no means, passed. This 70s rock love fest is based largely on Crowe's own experiences as a young rock critic. Surprisingly undramatic experiences these turned out to be. Early in the film, Crowe achieves a lovely sense of nostalgia and playful memory but this mood proves impossible to maintain. The film abandons effortless memory for forced showmanship around the midway point. Eventually it all feels awkward. Even well acted scenes (the cast for the most part is capable and winning) feel like they're being played out on idyllic sound stages. Part of the problem with this film is that you have too much time to think about the flaws because there's no story to follow or care about. The plot, what little there is of one, is ironically enough about the search for a story. It's woefully undramatic and even resolved offscreen. Most of the characters seemed to have moved on already. If the filmmaker and his characters dont seem to care about it, why should you?

There's big set piece scenes that struggle spectacularly with all of this meandering and false (or at least deluded) emotion. There's an embarassingly acted 'funny' bit about the group's inner turmoil over the lead guitarist's focus pulling beauty. The sing along to Tiny Dancer, a classic Elton John tune is whimsical at first glance until you realize how ripped off it is from Magnolia's astonishing "Wise Up' number -which also came at the end of act one in a two act structure and also used the bridge of a singalong to bring all the cast emotionally together before throwing them to the wolves. All of these problems culminate in the most embarassing climax I have seen to a film in recent memory: A faux plane crash comedic sequence with all the dumb exposition of a sci-fi dud and all the grace of a WB or UPN sitcom. For such an acclaimed filmmaker, particularly one who fancies himself as a writer first, the scene is a miracle of ineptitude.

The Way of the Gun
It could be argued that Almost Famous was stylized because it had to be. Nostalgia pieces can't be completely realistic. The Way of the Gun on the other hand can't be seriously considered to be anything but a style piece. So it has to be judged on those merits alone. It fails. It's simply too derivative -so obviously based on style within other much better films; Its prime ancestors being Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects and anything neo noir. It's not entirely hopeless. The set up is best. That's largely thanks to a cleverly snail paced car chase scene and an interesting overall plan involving the kidnapping of an unpredictable pregnant woman (Juliette Lewis in an almost spectacular return to form). It does manage to build suspense in its first segment. The film has some visual flourishes that work well. I loved the act one ending: They've kidnapped the girl and are trailing through the desert into the pitch black night until only one tail light fading from view can be seen.

From there, unfortunately it all unravels. The movie is too sure of its own cleverless. Betrayals are stacked upon betrayals underneath betrayals which are covering up dirty secrets. The storyline becomes so convoluted that only a carefully nuanced script or coherent performances could have held the reins in. The film has neither. The script is a hodgepodge of tough guy homophobic rants, shoot outs, bizarre "come to Jesus" epiphanies, venomous women, and clueless antiheroes. It's just a gigantic "genre" mess.
The ever charismatic Taye Diggs & Juliette Lewis survive but I can't say that the career of Christopher McQuarrie (writer/director) will or should.

Urbania
And the winner is.... Urbania, directed by Jon Shear. This is a fine example of style creating substance and originality. Even when the effort shows -the stylization feel fresh and fluid. The wonderfully calibrated structure of the screenplay is less about the actual story than about the act of storytelling. There's intrigue, there's unusual plot lines, and holding all the wild disparate threads and emotions in place is a superb central performance by Dan Futterman as a pissed off gay man in mourning.

The film has a lot to recommend it. It's unquestionably heavy material but, like Dancer in the Dark also out in theaters, it finds a sense of redemption in the horrific. There's a palpable grasp towards hope in the face of tragedy. It's a wonderful urban original. The film repeatedly asks 'heard any good stories lately?' Well, I heard a good one... 'And this one really happened.' Someone made an original and stylish gem called Urbania. The good story is this movie. Go see it.

-Nathaniel

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