To Die For

A beautiful, highly ambitious, and totally unscrupulous TV weatherwoman (Nicole Kidman) finds her career in standstill in small-town New Hampshire, which she largely attributes to her oafish lout of husband (Matt Dillon). When she begins work on a documentary project involving susceptible and unintelligible teenage boys at the local high school, she may have found a way to eradicate her pesky husband and thus obtain her ticket to stardom. From the true life crime novel by Joyce Maynard, To Die For is a salacious and compelling satirical film from Gus Van Sant and screenwriter Buck Henry which features a whirlwind performance from Nicole Kidman. The film is told in a mockumentary style which, possibly due to the genre's overuse today, comes off as trite at first before the true weight of the film is gradually revealed. In support to Kidman, there are several fine performances including Dillon, Ileanna Douglass as his suspecting sister, Wayne Knight as the station manager, and a very young Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix as the dupes to her grand criminal scheme.

Promised Land

A rising corporate executive (Matt Damon) and his travelling partner (Frances McDormand) travel from the big city to a rural Pennsylvania township to secure the drilling rights. After bribing the mayor and enticing the local citizenry with temporary relief from the current economic slump, an activist (John Krasinski) comes into the fray with a counter plan: to inform the people of the realities of fracking. "Promised Land" is an excellent environmental film, one that works both as drama and informative, which avoids the usual pitfalls of many of these movies, and is even self-aware. It was directed by Gus Van Sant, a competent veteran and one of the few filmmakers keeping alive the tradition of film, who works from a script by Krasinski and Damon, who draw from a David Eggers story, and both are engaging in their parts. McDormand again proves why she is one of our finest actresses and Rosemarie DeWitt also contributes fine work in a supporting role. The film does have a tendency to be preachy, as would be expected, but this element is mostly held in check, and a concerted effort to find balance on the subject is made. A late act of theatrical chicanery hurts the grounded intentions of the movie, but still works well within the bounds of drama. Whether you seek to be illuminated or entertained, "Promised Land" should suffice, but it also serves as a testament to filmmaking, in a time of big budget, digital extravaganzas.

Restless

Enoch is a grieving teenager who has lost his parents in a car crash, been kicked out of school, and is currently playing board games with a Kamikaze ghost from WWII. Finding solace in attending funerals, he is busted by a minister and while being threatened, a beautiful young girl comes to his rescue and claims him as an acquaintance. The two begin a courtship and it is gradually revealed that the life loving girl, Annabel, is dying of terminal brain cancer. Gus Van Sant’s film, which was written by Jason Lew and surely inspired by Hal Ashby's "Harold and Maude", is a touching and beautifully realized work, which wonderfully incorporates its whimsical elements. Mia Wasikowska, delivers an indelible performance as the convivial young girl and Henry Hopper (Dennis's son) contributes nicely in a moody performance. I found myself being drawn into the lives of these characters and Van Sant does a terrific job setting his palate and maintaining his tone.

Drugstore Cowboy

Most films about drugs, no matter how entertaining or successful, never really hit the nail on the head. By either glorifying or vilifying the users, most find them to be entertainments, yet not really successful as drug movies. Where Drugstore Cowboy stands out is that it is a drug movie that just observes, and never passes judgment on its junkie characters. The 1989 breakthrough hit not only for Matt Dillon but also for director Gus Van Sant is kind of a remarkable film in the way it handles its material. It focuses on Bob (Dillon) and his crew who go around robbing drugstores and getting high in 1971 Portland, Oregon. Bob is not your typical junkie. He is very intelligent, but puts his intelligence to use only to devise means to score more drugs and maintain his high. He also believes in lucky streaks and hexes, which may accurately describe a junkie's existence. There is a point where Bob decides to sober up, but it is not for the cliched reasons most movies offer, and Bob puts his reasoning for choosing sobriety so delicately to a counselor that paraphrasing it here wouldn't do justice. Drugstore Cowboy is a film that was a breakthrough for several talented artists, an early Indie classic, and a movie that gets drugs right.
***1/2