ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996 TAG: 9604150093
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: It Came from the Video Store
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
All of this week's new releases are about young people. Befitting the screwy nature of the home video business, our first film is 37 years old.
"The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery," a rarely seen curiosity from 1959, rates a footnote in the history of popular film. It is one of Steve McQueen's first leading roles, and his character can be seen as a prototype for the alienated loner hero that would make him a star.
The film itself is a black-and-white fact-based crime drama with murky psychological undercurrents. McQueen is George Fowler, a college dropout who's recruited as a driver for a bank job. While the older gang members are career criminals - with lawyer's bills to pay - George thinks that the job is going to be a one-time thing, his ticket back to a life of respectability.
The film itself follows two lines of action. One is an almost documentary re-creation of the robbery. Seen as a snapshot of American city life in the late 1950s - what the bars, automobiles and hotels looked like - it's fascinating. When the filmmakers delve into the histories of their characters, they're on less solid footing. Perhaps the more restrictive times forced them to be circumspect about sexual motivations. But there are enough Oedipal conflicts and repressed urges at work to fill a textbook. The violence, on the other hand, is remarkably realistic.
On balance, the film earns a solid recommendation for McQueen fans, particularly those who think they've seen all of his work.
(By the way, the title listed on the screen is simply ``The St. Louis Bank Robbery.")
Although it is more or less doomed from the start, "Empire Records" manages a degree of success. The problem: it's an establishment film about anti-establishment heroes. An engaging young cast is less than completely convincing.
The title refers to a music store. Manager Joe (Anthony LaPaglia) is the only adult on the payroll. His staff is made up of adolescents, each poised on the brink of a total emotional breakdown. One steals the day's receipts and takes off for Atlantic City. Another has decided to profess his love to a co-worker at precisely 1:37, but she has chosen that day to give herself to a visiting pop star (Maxwell Caulfield) who's there to sign records. Not to mention the potential suicide, the shoplifter, the headbanger and the floozie. Will they be able to keep the evil Music Town franchise from taking over their funky store?
Director Allan Moyle keeps things moving briskly, but the film lacks the inspired anarchy that powered his cult hit "Pump Up the Volume." Even so, teen-age videophiles shouldn't let the opinions of an aging reviewer put them off if the subject sounds interesting.
"Clueless in New York" would be the short review of "Party Girl,'' but the key ingredient - an engaging, funny young heroine - is missing. Mary (well-played by Parker Posey) is a self-centered jerk, and her transformation into something more appealing doesn't wash.
Mary's a thief, drunk and druggie who spends so much time nightclubbing with her gay friends that she can't be bothered with a job. But an unfortunate arrest forces her to seek employment at the library where her godmother works. She also has a romantic relationship - sort of - with a Turkish immigrant hunk.
Writer-director Daisy Von Scherler Mayer tries to make Mary's little failings seem cute and endearing, but the character remains little more than a skinny mannequin for a series of trendy/ugly costumes. The entire production has a slick mainstream "studio" look that doesn't really suit the would-be-hip story.
"True Crime" is a disturbing little film. On one hand it's a fairly well-constructed mystery based on too-familiar cliches - think Nancy Drew Meets Ted Bundy. At the same time, it deals frankly with teen-age sexuality without exploiting either the characters or the subject.
Mary Giordino (Alicia Silverstone), daughter of a slain policeman, is fascinated by her father's work. She pores over articles in the copies of "True Crime" magazine that she keeps hidden from her strict mother. When a classmate at her Catholic high school is brutally murdered, she suspects that a serial killer is at work. Police cadet Tony Campbell (Kevin Dillon) thinks she's right. Neither of them can do anything officially, but of course that doesn't stop them. As their "investigation" progresses, she comes to believe that Tony might not be all he seems.
All that is standard stuff and nothing really new or innovative is done with it. But the performances by the two leads are remarkably good. Kevin Dillon makes a curious role seem believable, and Alicia Silverstone proves that there's some substance behind her sudden popularity.
Next week: Youth, part II
Got a question about home video or film? Contact your favorite video columnist at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491, or by
e-mail at 75331.2603compuserve.com
New releases this week:
The Scarlet Letter: turkey
Starring Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall. Directed by Roland Joffe. Buena Vista (Hollywood). 130 min. Rated R for violence, nudity, sexual material.
Any high school student who tries to base a book report on this version of Hawthorne's novel is in big trouble. The opening credits admit that it's "freely adapted," and they're not kidding. The lumbering, overwrought melodrama bears more resemblance to a paperback bodice-ripper with a one-note Moore playing Hester Prynne as an early American feminist. The whole thing is too long, too slow, too boring.
- MM
Unstrung Heroes: **1/2
Starring Nathan Wyatt, Michael Richards, Maury Chaykin, Andie MacDowell, John Turturro. Directed by Diane Keaton. Buena Vista (Hollywood). 90 min. Rated PG for a little strong language.
In plot and tone, this comedy-drama is almost identical to Stephen Soderberg's underrated gem, "King of the Hill." Both are stories of boys whose families are threatened by the illness of a mother. But where Soderberg approached the material with unsentimental toughness, Keaton focuses on eccentricity and sometimes lets the emotional element overpower all others.
- MM
The Essentials:
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery ** 1/2 Ivy Video. 88 min. Unrated, contains some violence.
Empire Records ** 1/2 Warner Home Video. (Time not listed, about 90 min.) Rated PG-13 for strong language, sexual content, drug use.
Party Girl * 1/2 Columbia TriStar. 101 min. Rated R for subject matter, strong language, sexual material, brief nudity.
True Crime ** 1/2 Vidmark. 94 min. Rated R for sexual content, violence, subject matter, strong language.
LENGTH: Long : 124 linesby CNB