Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks

This entry into ESPN's 30 For 30 series chronicles the rivalry between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers. Specifically, it focuses on the Pacers star player and top trash talker Reggie Miller and the showdowns the two teams had in two separate Eastern Conference Finals-Finals that led to losses by both teams in the Finals on separate occasions. Nice doc displays many interesting aspects involved in this colorful rivalry.
***

The Box

In the beginning, The Box plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone and effectively engages the viewer. Then it becomes completely preposterous and goes on way longer than in should. The film is about a married couple with a son living in late 70s Richmond, Virginia. Norma (the horrible Cameron Diaz, this time with an atrocious southern accent) is a teacher at her sons school and is informed that discounted tuition will no longer be given. Her husband Arthur (James Marsden) is a NASA employee who finds out he failed the astronaut psych test. These instances of bad news coincide with the visit of a disfigured visitor (the wonderful Frank Langella) with a strange gift and an even stranger proposition: If the couple presses the red button on the box he has given them, they will receive one million dollars, while someone they don't know will be killed. It is up to this point that the film is engaging. After this, as it gets into conspiracies and the ridiculousness of the story keeps getting worse, all is lost and by the ending.
**

Greenberg

For a short while, you think Noah Baumbach has recreated the human and humorous elements that made The Squid And The Whale great, but this notion soon fades and by the end you are left with a portrait of a despicable man and some on-goings that just come off as phony. The story focuses on Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller, a beyond neurotic man who writes the airline after his New York to L.A. flight about how their seats don't recline far enough. He is fresh off a nervous breakdown and a stint in a mental home, and is staying in his brother's house while he's on vacation with his family. While in California he meets up with some ex-band members and starts a relationship with his brother's assistant (Greta Gerwig) who he treats more like a concubine. It is despicable how he uses her and how she allows herself to be used, but when we are introduced to his ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Jason Leigh) we realized Greenberg has done this before, and left her heartbroken nonetheless. The film does have nice reflective moments in it like that and is well filmed. It's just that Stiller and Gerwig don't have the acting chops to pull this off, the main character is utterly despisable, and the way his character is brought around and his relationship is portrayed is just plain false.
**1/2

2010 CIFF: Final Thoughts

So the 34th annual Cleveland International Film Festival is over, and as I finish my first year volunteering I must say that it was a truly wonderful experience. It was a great interacting with staff, patrons, and other volunteers while working and seeing films. In total I saw 10 feature films and 26 shorts, some good some bad. I also fell asleep during 2, which is an example of how tiring a festival can be. I made new friends and would encourage all to volunteer or just attend next year's festival.

2010 CIFF Closing Night: Looking For Eric

May 2010 Lamplighter Review In a time when American comedies rely on gross-out gags and then expect us to care for infantile grown men, a humanistic British comedy like Looking for Eric is like a breath of fresh air. It is directed by Ken Loach and tells the story of a named Eric, wonderfully portrayed by Steve Evets. He is undergoing a mid-life crisis. His kids don't respect him, his ex-wife won't talk to him, and he has just been in a car crash. He eventually admits that he can’t remember the last time he was happy.

After some meditation exercises with friends, Eric is visited by an imaginary friend in the form of Eric Cantona (played by himself) the star player of the soccer powerhouse Manchester United in the 1990s and Eric's favorite player. As he begins to heed the advice from his make-believe hero, Eric begins to pick up the pieces of his life. From this description, you may think this is the usual tale of self-redemption, but if you think you know where this is going and how he gets there, you are sadly mistaken. We are lead down roads we cannot anticipate into an ending that is inspired and uproarious.

While engaging the viewer with its comedic elements, Looking for Eric also succeeds by drawing us in with its human elements, making us care about its characters. Though some of the characters are rough around the edges, the filmmakers have nothing but love for them and what results is a kind, observant, and profound film experience while managing to be utterly hysterical at the same time.

Original Review Well the time has come and closing night, the last film is upon us in my first volunteer year for the Cleveland International Film Festival. This year the film selected to close this years fest is Ken Loach's Looking For Eric and it was a truly wonderful selection. Looking for Eric stars a postman named Eric (a wonderful Steve Evets) who is undergoing a mid-life crisis. His kids don't respect him, his ex-wife won't talk to him, and he has just been in a car crash. He can't remember the last time he was happy. After some meditation exercises, Eric begins to see an imaginary friend in the form of Eric Cantona (played by himself) the star player of Manchester United in the 90s and Eric's favorite player. With advice from his hero, Eric begins to pick up the pieces of his life. But if you think you know where this is going and how he gets there you are sadly mistaken. This is the kind of British comedy that Americans just aren't capable of. It is kind, observant, and profoundly human while being utterly hysterical at the same time. What a great film to end a great film festival with.
***1/2

2010 CIFF: The Last Truck

The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant is the wonderful and heart-wrenching documentary short that was nominated for an Academy Award. I reviewed it further down the blog or you can view it here. It was preceded by a short. Here's that review:
The Palace Of Light
Hilarious short shows Post's Shredded Wheats CEO trying to hold back his company from progress. There are many sharp points and funny moments in this 13 minute film. ***1/2 

2010 CIFF: Independent Short Jury Awards

The Jury Awards worked the same way, except that they awarded more films. We were again shown seven shorts, and I was a little disappointed with some of the selections, though there were some good ones. These films are eligible for Oscar contention and I placed an asterix after ones not screened. Here are the reviews:
Alma*
Lost and Found*
Home
Home is a surprisingly bland and empty short made with home photographs and having to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. **
The Devil's Wedding
Devil's Wedding is a darkly comic, well-written, and disturbing short about Satan getting hitched. ***
Get Happy*
Claiming The Title: Gay Olympics On Trial*
Ana's Playground
Well-made short about a girl risking her life to regain her lost soccer ball in a war zone neighborhood. ***1/2
We Were Twenty*
Cigarette Candy
Well made and well acted short about a Marine's homecoming just rings false. **1/2
After Tomorrow*
Beast
Again well-made but extremely convoluted Danish short about domestic abuse. **1/2
Expiration
Wonderfully conceived and executed short about the dangers of drinking expired milk ****
The Best Part Of My Day
Cute but long and obvious short. **1/2
Heal*
reviewed here **1/2
The Beauty Of Damage*
Winter Fugue*
reviewed here ***1/2

2010 CIFF: Independent Short Audience Awards

This program was determined by audience vote and before the program, we were told what the top ten shorts were, informed that we would only view seven, and that the winner of the audience awards was not available because its print had already been shipped to its next destination. bummer! Still the shorts shown were of decent quality. I will try to view the three that didn't play. Here are the top ten with an asterix next to the ones that didn't screen:
12 Stones*
Lost and Found*
Heal
Heal tells the story of a Middle Eastern boy who finds he has a special power in the time when his village needs him. I didn't think this was a top-notch short though it was kind of powerful at the end. **1/2
Nico's Challenge
Wonderful documentary detailing a one-legged boys attempt to scale Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity. ***1/2
The Action Hero's Guide To Saving Lives
Amusing short in which a Bruce Willis like cop is called in to handle a hostage situation.
***1/2 
Pigeon: Impossible
Ok short detailing an FBI agent dealing with a bothersome pigeon. **1/2
Big Guy
Disturbing short in which the fake-Superbad dude starts a relationship with a bulimic brothel worker. **
Banana Bread
Saw this earlier in the week, reviewed here ***
Table 7
My favorite short of the program shows what happens behind the scenes at a Chinese restaurant. ***1/2 
Lights*

2010 CIFF: A Town Called Panic

 

The festival's late night showing tonight was a delgihtful, funny comedy from France, filmed with little figurines done entirely in stop-motion animation. The ludicrous story revolves around two friends, Cowboy and Indian, trying to plan the best birthday for the other friend horse. Their plans of course go horribly wrong and the trio find themselves in situation I can't even begin to explain. Though maybe in the same league as other stop-motion classics such as Wallace and Gromit, ATCP is filmed in the same vein with the same warm and charming sense of humor.
***

2012

After a week of viewing haughty foreign festival films, I decided to take a break by settling with a big budget disaster picture, no matter how mind numbingly awful it may be. And mind numbingly awful it is, made like every movie of its kind made recently with the special effects which are no longer impressive and the stupid cutesy jokes. This one is directed by Roland Emmerich, the prince of big dumb action flicks (Michael Bay is the king). It starts off with a White House official discovering in 2010 that the world will end two years later. He begins to inform high-ranking members of the country. The credits roll and we jump to 2012 when the rapture begins to take place. We follow a failed author (the eminently terrible John Cusack) and his two kids as they meet a hippie kook (a surprisingly irritating Woody Harrelson) who informs them of what looms ahead. The author meets up with his ex-wife and her boyfriend and all attempt to evade the imploding world. I take back what I said before. The effects are semi-impressive and this kind of film is fun up to a point, but the film is still loud and dumb and goes on way, way, way too long.
**

2010 CIFF: The Last Campaign

Well, today was the day it hit me. After watching hours of film and volunteering all week I was utterly exhausted. I had tickets to see a double feature before my shift today started. The first film was called the Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner. Since it was nominated for an Academy Award Best Documentary Short, I reviewed it here or you can scroll down the blog to view it. The director introduced the film which was pretty neat. After nodding off a little towards the beginning the film, I decided to skip the second feature which was called Convention and was supposed to detail the Democratic Convention in August 2008. I figured I didn't need to see two liberal documentaries in one day. I was so tired that I decided not to volunteer today and skip the midnight screening I had tickets for called Storage. I didn't realize how exhausting a film festival can get!

2010 CIFF: A Call Girl

Today the late show I caught after volunteering was a Slovenian film called A Call Girl. The film's editor who introduced the film said it was originally called Slovenian Girl but the American distributor's thought it would fair better under A Call Girl, so there you have it. Anyways, the film is about a young college student who sells herself to pay for rent and school. It opens with her visiting an obese client who has a heart attack and dies. It turns out he is some government bigwig and the police begin looking for the girl to question her. This was basically the description I read in the CIFF film brochure and I decided to see it because it sounded to be like a capable thriller, and for a while it is. However the film shifts tones to much from thriller to comedy to drama and doesn't really know what it wants to be. Also many interesting storylines do not payoff and the film feels incomplete. I did like the performance of her father as a suicidal musician who cares about his daughter, but even his scenes felt out of place. A Call Girl is a movie that sets things up very well but never follows through.
**1/2

Millions

Millions is a film of wild imagination, directed with fervor and energy. It is not constructed or told in a traditional fashion. It tells the story of two young British brothers who have just recently lost their mothers and relocated with the father, two of the hardest situations for children to cope with. One day while playing near the train tracks a bag of money seemingly falls from the sky near Damian, the younger brother. Since he is a kind, God fearing boy, Damian with the help of the saints whom he has visions of decides to give the money to the poor. However, his older, wiser, and greedier brother Anthony will have no part of this when he finds out about the loot and decides to spend and surprisingly invest the money. However, it is seven days until Britain switches over to the Euro upon whence the boy's money will be worthless. From this point Millions goes off in several directions, many of them spectacular and some not. Still, Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle's talent is clear here in a children's film, the likes of which rarely receive this kind of treatment.
***

2010 CIFF: Garbo-The Spy

Garbo: The Spy is a unique historical documentary in that it has a sense of humor, and in that instead of listening to old British historian bores drone on, we are shown clips from classic WWII and spy films on top of the expected stock footage for which the old British historian bores to drone on over. The documentary tells the story of a Spaniard acted as a spy for the British while pretending to be a spy for the Germans. He is depicted as enigmatic and intelligent, contriving the most grandiose of schemes and also saving himself from the most dangerous of situations. The most pertinent part of his story is the role he played in D-Day, and how he helped the Allies win the war. I really liked the structure of this documentary in how it tells an interesting story that unfolds like a good film.
***

2010 CIFF: Independent Shorts Program 8

When I was volunteering, I was told that the shorts programs were the most popular screenings at the festival. So, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 8th set of the Independent Shorts Program today. It was a nice mix of different kinds of shorts, including live-action, documentary, and animated, and also ranging among different types of tones. Here are brief individual reviews of each short in this program:
Down In Number 5
The first short of the program is also probably the best. It tells the story of a dying man's efforts to secure a future for his disabled son. It is exquisitely filmed and heart-wrenching. ***1/2 
Cricket
Cricket is a mercifully brief Japanimated short. ** 
When I'm Not Alone
This is also a wonderful short, a documentary about a woman who was abused so bad and so long that she thinks she is a man. However, it is not a weepy film that makes you feel sorry for the person, but rather an uplifting story about succeeding despite obstacles. ***1/2 
Banana Bread
Short tells about an overprotective, hypochondriac mother who continually nags her grown son on the cell phone, though he has a secret she should be worried about. Funny short, though the joke begins to wear thin. *** 
Winter Fugue
This finely realized short tells the story of a young woman who's inventor father has recently died and left his New York apartment a mess for her to clean before selling it. However, her father may have one last surprise up his sleeve. ***1/2 
Helpless
Helpless takes place in a police station and recalls an incident from several different point of views. Certain elements in this short irritated me but at the same time I enjoy these kind of exercises. ***
The Shopkeeper (Dukandar)
Indian film tells the story of a mischievous boy with a vivid imagination who is given the task of watching his father's shop during a crucial cricket game. This one didn't really work for me, but it had its moments. **1/2  
I Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life With You
Very short short is darkly humorous as a destined couple meet. ***

The Red Riding Trilogy

The Red Riding Trilogy is a series of films made for British television that deals with a serial killer in London. Each of the three films takes place in a different year with a different director and a different cast, but all have the same screenwriter. Because of the way the series is constructed it presents a difficulty in reviewing. First, there are different styles to review in each film yet they are all trying to tell the same story. So, each film does not stand on its own and the three films should probably be reviewed as one. Yet, because each director brings a different style, I will offer a rating to each individual film, and then an all-inclusive rating at the end. 
Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1974

A little girl disappears and young greenhorn reporter begins to investigate. The girl's body is found and the journalist ties it to past murders within the same area. As he begins to dig deeper, he finds himself uncovering things some powerful people (including the police) don't want uncovered and he eventually finds his life in jeopardy. This first entry is exquisitely shot and directed by Julian Jarrold, and it builds up intensity, especially in the end. But this is a hard movie to follow, especially with the cockney English accents. It is also frustrating how little we know at the end, and you can already tell that these films were meant to be viewed as a whole and cannot stand alone individually.
*** stars
Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1980

It is six years later and people are afraid to leave their homes. The Yorkshire Ripper has just claimed his 13th victim and the police department must act. They decide to form an investigative squad with Paul Hunter at the helm, a despised man due to his past work investigating cops. Paul and his crew uncover police corruption at the heart of the case, and the further he digs the more troubled his life becomes. Like RR 1974, 1980 is very well shot and directed, and Paddy Constantine is fine as Hunter. Still, the film is again hard to follow and many questions remain unanswered. Also, there is almost no tangible connection between this and the first film. Not that that is bad, it is just not what I expected out of these films.
*** stars
Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1983

  

 All comes together this brilliant final chapter which contains everything that was good about the first two films along with the clarity that was lacking in those films. As another young girl disappears, we are given two investigators who delve in the case. The first is a verteran cop who has been on the case since the beginning, who now begins to look at the case with new eyes as his conscience begins to bother him. The second protagonist is the unlikely, rotund attorney, son of a corrupt Yorkshire policeman, who takes the case of his neighbor who is imprisoned for the murders. As he reluctantly gets further and further into the case, he begins to sense something fishy going on, and begins to delve deeper. Wonderfully filmed and acted, providing the desired closure.

**** stars

Overall

This ends up being a great series but I would recommend watching them as a whole if you have 5 hours to spare. Also, watch it with the subtitles and with your undivided attention. In the end, I think you will find this to be a very deserving crime saga.

***1/2 stars

2010 CIFF: Quest For Honor

I concluded my day by seeing Quest For Honor, a sixty minute documentary which was preceded by the wonderful Academy-Award winning documentary short Music By Prudence (which I'll review further down the blog, or click here). Quest For Honor wasn't a bad documentary. It just wasn't an interesting one. Maybe I've gotten used to the in-your-face Michael Moore style of documentaries or maybe it was just too late, but this one didn't really peak my interest though it was about an important subject. It opens with CNN's Anderson Cooper reporting on an "honor killing" in Iraq where a woman has been brutally beaten to death for betraying her husband. The film then follows a group that tries to protect women from these killings. We also meet a victim of an attempted murder, a journalist who writes about these horrid happenings, and a policeman who is investigating one such murder. Though this is an important issue, I thought it could have been presented in a less tedious fashion.
**

2010 CIFF: Applause

After two days of volunteering and seeing films I took a day off and was back today for a movie before and after my shift. I started the afternoon out seeing a Danish film called Applause. This is the kind of film where the lead performance is the whole movie, and that should be no surprise since it is about an alcoholic stage actress trying to reform her life. Though her career is still strong and she is still a celebrity, Thea has lost her husband and relinquished her kids. Now she desperately wants her children back, if only she can stay off the bottle. We have seen this scenario many times before, but I think why filmmakers return to it again and again is for the performance and here Paprika Steen delivers a home run. She plays Thea as an angry woman, upset at her ex, furious with her visible aging, and ultimately furious with herself. She plays her with such ferocity, you aren't quite sure how a trip to the park with her children will turn out. Though we have seen this type of film before, Steen's performance is one to behold.
***

The Station Agent

The lawyer presiding over his best and only friend's will tells the dwarf about the land he has just inherited: "I gotta be honest with you. It's a beautiful piece of land, but there's nothin' there." But this suits the sad little man just fine and he goes to his newly inherited train station house in the middle of rural New Jersey to live in solitude. This is not to be however as the friendly and talkative Joe has a coffee truck stationed outside his new property (it is unclear why he has a stand in the middle of nowhere). Joe is the kind of Brooklynite who wears cutoff shirts and ends every sentence with the word bro. But he is kind and genuine enough, and along with a troubled older woman wants to help the new tenant come out of his shell. The Station Agent is a wonderful and observant film beautifully shot and on par with his subsequent release The Visitor. Like Richard Jenkin's beautifully nuanced performance, Peter Dinklage turns in an equally poignant one here. It must be hard for someone of his stature to choose roles, and I have always admired his choices. Equally fine are Bobby Cannavale bringing humor and warmth to his role, and Patricia Clarkson as the troubled friend. This movie was a slam-dunk until the near end when I feel it takes a few wrong turns. Still, it is fine film worth seeking out.
***

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

From the novel by Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is seen through the eyes of a young girl who is part of the Nolan family living in the NYC burrough. Beset by the hardships of poverty, the family is kept together by their genteel yet protective mother. Along the way the family deals with the troubles of their father, the many trysts of their aunt, and the day-to-day travails associated with poverty. Throughout all of this, young Francie dreams of a better tomorrow which she hopes to achieve by way of her education. Peggy Ann Garner shines as the young girl in what could have been a disastrous role. Dorothy McGuire and Joan Blondell are solid as the protective mother and her floozy sister whose multiple marriages are neighborhood gossip. James Dunn won an Oscar for his work as the father, unemployed and alcholic, yet still beloved by his family. This was legendary and controversial director Elia Kazan's first film and his prowess was already eminent as he gracefully films this tale of one family's hardships. Though the film tends to sink into that type of melodrama that was prevalent in many of the films from this time, it is a pleasure to watch such fine acting and the work of a young director at the outset of a brilliant career.
***1/2

In The Heat Of The Night

The key moment of the film comes in the very beginning and is the same line everyone remembers. It is the moment when Virgil Tibbs asserts himself when the Sparta, Mississippi Police Chief belligerently asks what he's referred to as in his hometown of Philadelphia. Virgil replies, "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!" and the audience cheers while some think, this movie was made in 1967-sentiments they will ask again during the infamous slap scene. Indeed, In The Heat Of The Night challenged racial stereotypes and caused a stir when it was released, but at its heart it is an old fashioned murder mystery/detective story (at a time when these stories were still fun and not set in CSI labs). The plot revolves around the murder of a rich industrialist. A well-groomed black man is arrested for the crime, shown to be innocent, and then heads the case as he is a top homicide detective from up north. He is given aid from the reluctant new Chief of Police Gillespie, and of course the two men form a bond as the movie progresses. The movie oozes southern atmosphere, though I learn it was filmed in Illinois. Though Sidney Poitier turns in a wonderful performance, the movie is stolen by Rod Steiger in his academy award winning role as the beer-bellied, gum chewing, southern speaking police chief. I would have liked a neater wrap-up to the film's mystery, but this is a wonderful film on so many different levels, and one that inspired a revolution.
****

The Graduate

The Graduate represents a triumph of film directing, a generation defining revolutionary film, and what many won't recognize as a misinformed or convoluted story. We all laugh as the naive recent college grad Benjamin Braddock fumbles his way through an affair with the manipulative, controlling, and sexy Mrs. Robinson, and then cheer for him as he tries to woo her daughter Elaine. Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft are superb in their roles throughout and Mike Nichols commands his camera like no other person ever has (I'm serious, this is one of the most sure-handedly directed films ever). The dialogue is spot on and the comedy still works, not too mention the great Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack. It's just a matter of story when it comes to Katharine Ross's Elaine. What does Benjamin see in her? Is it the fact that Mrs. Robinson forbids them seeing each other? Well it can't just be just that thrill that gets him entirely out of his aimless funk. I mean, they go on one date, she doesn't say a word and begins to cry because he acted like a jerk. Then she runs away, and he follows her in what can only be described in today's terms as stalking. Then you know the rest, but by the end this is a couple who don't know each other from anything and may or may not be right for each other. Look at the picture above and wonder if they aren't thinking the same thing. Or maybe that's the point.
****

2010 CIFF: Retrospective Screenings

Since festival films are usually hit-or-miss, I thought why not taken in a couple of proven films that are shown as part of a retrospective series, and since this year's films were 1967's The Graduate and In The Heat Of The Night, where could I go wrong? The actual name that is given to the retrospective screenings is called From The Page To The Projector and is actually an award given to those who have made contributions to literature and film. This year they decided to award Mark Harris, whose book PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION details the five Oscar nominated Best Picture nominees from 1967 (the other three are Guess Whose Coming To Dinner, Bonnie and Clyde, and Doctor Dolittle[he explained this nomination]) and how they changed Hollywood and America. He spoke before both screenings, after the second screening, and in between when he received his award. He seemed very genial and well versed in film. Before reviewing these two classics, I just wanted to state how great it was to witness them on the big screen and to see how they helped to usher in the revolution.

2010 CIFF: Van Diemen's Land

So the Cleveland International Film Festival has kicked off again and for the first time I have decided to volunteer, rather than just patronizing a few of the films. After 6 hours of collecting ballots, tallying patrons, and ushering I was ready to enjoy a film. And although it was a stinker, I really enjoyed the film festival atmosphere (as I sensed the many who came out for it today did) and I would encourage you to come out and support it. Here is my review of the midnight movie I just got out of called Van Diemen's Land, which contains minor spoilers:
     As the film begins, it offers us the prisoner's two choices: enslavement with brutal work and cruel punishment or escape through the harsh and unforgiving wilderness. The men choose the latter and are off on a grueling battle with Mother Nature, but of course they will find that the real enemy is themselves (it doesn't help that the seven men are from opposing British and Irish backgrounds). This film had potential, but soon it becomes a nasty, nihilistic, and gruesome tale that plays out like an And Then There Were None version of Saw. There is no point to all the mayhem and carnage accept for the fact that it was supposedly based on a true story of an 1822 escape by prisoners on the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land in Tasmania. What makes everything worse is the extreme self-seriousness of the story, especially in the narration. A good survival in the wilderness story can be the most fun of films, but not the way this one was handled. It does score points for its wilderness shots, but even the cuts are sloppy and the film shows the sign of its low budget.
**

Factotum

It opens with two sight gags so obvious that it may have come from a Three Stooges short. It ends with the story's hero Hank Chanaski getting fired. Then, as the opening credits begin to run the films title is shown with a definition that states that factotum means a man who goes from job to job. That is exactly the trajectory the film takes as we watch Chanaski go from job to job, as well as bar to bar and woman to woman all the time whilst he pursues his real profession which is writing. The film is based on the novel by the late Charles Bukowski, who was supposed to be a mirror of Chanaski, and by the way he is played here by Matt Dillon he must of been a gruff son-of-a-bitch. Though Chanaski is an utterly unlikable individual, there are certain aspects of him that are completely identifiable. I liked the way this film played out during stretches of it, where it plays like a quiet, well-observed indie. Yet, there are other sections that just don't work or seem strange. There is also another film based on a Bukowski novel, this time starring Mickey Rourke as Chanaski called Barfly, and I'd be interested how that film handles the character. Here Dillon does his best playing a difficult role, but I'd say the results are mixed.
**1/2