st. nicholas cage, joaquin phoenix
USA 1997 123 mins rated R
released by columbia tristar films
Reading the reviews for this film before it was released made me expect a nasty little flick that spent its time exploring the seedy underworld of the pornography industry. How sadly mislead I was.
Nicholas Cage is a private investigator who is hired by a wealthy widow to determine if a snuff movie found in her late husband's vault is real or fake, and if the girl in the film is dead or alive. That all sounds promising doesn't it? I am a fan of Nicky, and even though he has made a wad of dull films (The Rock, Guarding Tess, City of Angels etc) he has also made some classics (Valley Girl, Vampire's Kiss, Wild at Heart, Leaving Las Vegas, Face-Off, Snake Eyes) so I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. In this film he still seems to be in City of Angels mode, roaming around with a gloomy expression on his face being Mr Serious, Mr Family Man like Kevin Costner. I hate having someone else's morality shoved down my throat. The scenes where he returns home to bond with his wife and child are nauseating. Family subplots in general are annoying, but this one is even more pointless and poorly constructed than usual.
Nick goes to LA to check out some leads on the girl in the film and the industry in general. He meets Joaquin Phoenix in an adult bookstore and hires him to guide him through this new environment. Joaquin's role is to provide some comic relief (like Steve Buscemi in Armageddon). Throughout the film the characters constantly tell us how nasty and depraved the industry is, and how it corrupts and destroys those that come in contact with it. What a pity they never bother showing us any of this, instead we see a few characters who don't look as vile and nasty as the people I see on the street at night. And as for the places they go to? I've been to scungier nightclubs and record fairs than the dens of ill repute that they expose us to.
Every review I read for 8mm went on and on about how nasty a film was, and how it showed us a side of society we don't normally see. The reviews made out that it showed the depravity of the human race and it would shock and offend the viewers. Well, it did shock and offend me, but not for the reasons they thought. It was about as nasty as an episode of Miami Vice.
The point of the film seems to be to show you can get anything if you are willing to pay for it. I think the film shows how some directors have no idea of their capabilities. I shall lay the blame for this poor excuse for a movie on the shoulders of director Joel Schumacher who is blatantly operating out of his depth. It is not a subject he knows how to deal with, so the finished product is another shallow Hollywood release that was overhyped in the media. I shall recommend David Cronenberg's Videodrome instead, even though the two films have little in common. Cronenberg is without equal, his vision of the world and humanity is enlivening, he doesn't curtail to the general ideas of love and happiness and motivation. No normal concepts of family, relationships and honour in his films. DC is not afraid to show the world for what it really is and he inspires actors to fully extend themselves. Jeff Goldblum in The Fly is glorious, Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers is so creepy. Actually Dead Ringers may be the best horror movie ever made. I have never seen women squirm the way they do during that film, and its these sort of details that separate Cronenberg from Schumacher.
sebastian niemand
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