st. john cusack, cameron diaz, john malkovich, catherine keener
USA 1999 112 mins
Australian theatrical release: Dec 26 1999
Video-clip directors often only have one idea, and they're very talented at getting all the mileage they can out of that solitary moment of inspiration. That's the videoclip ethic in one, the ruthless devotion to "one thing at a time". Forget about notions of visual fluidity, the supposedly rampant play of ideas. This video is Britney and breasts, this one is a slacker in the garage with his girlfriend coming over later in the day, this one is a group of angry young men with flashcuts to facts about the Sandinistas. Only in the memory do things take on that much-hyped hypertext feel. For the moment, video-clips are perfect little fascist playthings.Back to the one idea at a time rule. This film has a male lead who turns out to be completely unsympathetic. It has one of the world's sexiest women (a magazine's opinion, not mine, good for me) in an atrocious frizzy wig nursing animals in a ridiculously infantile manner. It has a subplot that evokes that Ron Howard masterpiece Cocoon. It has a flashback from an animals point-of-view. Whatever Jonze is doing (and what he's doing is far from perfect, let alone a masterpiece) he's not taking any lessons from the David Fincher handbook on feature filmmaking. The film tumbles along with a childish plot, fulfilling a promise to spin out in a million wonderful directions. It's happy just to be here, twirling, staying alive. In short: Anti-fascist art.
adam rivett
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