olivia_sutton | Entries tagged with kevin spacey

Title: The Ref
Director: Ted Demme
Date: 1994
Studio: Touchstone
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis, Christine Barenski
Format: Color, Widescreen
DVD Format: R1, NTSC

"Great, I hijack my f...ing parents!" -- Gus (Leary)

"From now on the only person who gets to yell is me, Why? Because I have a gun, OK? People with guns can do whatever they want. Married people without guns, for instance, you -- Do not get to YELL! Why? No guns! No guns, no yelling." -- Gus

"Eat, don't annoy me, it's Christmas." -- Connie

"I'm in hell. Connecticut is the fifth ring of hell!" -- Gus

The Ref opens with a series of shots of Christmas in a Connecticut suburb. Everything looks perfect, there's even snow and children looking into shop window displays. But then we meet Caroline and Lloyd Cheshire, who are seeing a marriage counselor. Their squabbling and put downs of each other are so bad they annoy their marriage counselor. We also see a cat burglar who is trying to break into a safe in one of the huge homes in the small town/suburb. The break-in goes wrong -- first he's sprayed with cat urine, then he sets off the alarm, and the cops are alerted.

Gus, as we later learn, is stranded without an getaway car, since his partner was frightened by the alarms and ran off, so he takes a woman hostage in a convenient store, looking for a ride. He, and the Cheshires never expected what would result.

Like all good screwball comedies, from a simple plot - a criminal trying to escape, huge events occur and the film is extremely funny. Most of the film takes place in the Cheshires' house, with a few cutaways to the incompetent police manhunt for the criminal. (For example, the police chief, who iscompetent, finds a surveillance videotape of Gus from the robbery. He shows it to his men once, but is interrupted by a phone call. When he returns, they've recorded a James Stewart movie over the surveillance footage.) The Cheshires, with their bickering, arguing, and put downs, drive Gus nuts. When their extended family arrive for Christmas dinner - the family politics get even worse. Yet, it the midst of the chaos - Gus' presence allows everyone to get things off their chest. When Lloyd, who seems to be the calmest one in the group, finally explodes - it's great. And the honesty, not to mention Gus' prodding, might have oddly enough saved their marriage. One can see Caroline and Gus giving up their "safe and comfortable" life, moving to California, and opening another restaurant (closing their restaurant several years earlier had started a series of events that was now bringing them to brink of divorce). Meanwhile, their son, a budding criminal himself, may have been scared straight by Gus - who honestly tells him he doesn't want that type of life.

The film is laugh out loud funny. The characters seem very real, if a little over the top. The sarcastic dialogue is underscored by the sarcastic and ironic nature of the entire film: this little Connecticut suburb may look perfect, but everyone is hiding secrets, everyone is nasty and mean, and no one treats anyone else with any respect whatsoever. There is a lot of swearing and bad language, and some adult concepts as well. However, the film is brilliant. Denis Leary is incredibly funny, and brings out the best of everyone around him. I have seen The Ref more than twice, usually with many years between seeing it, and every time the film surprises me with it's fresh humor. Also, The Ref has some heart to it, that's extremely unexpected. Caroline and Lloyd are already in marriage counseling - yet Gus, as raw as he may be, is a better marriage counselor for the couple than Dr. Wong, the counselor they see at the beginning of the film. Gus also manages to get everyone in the family to honestly confront the issues they have with each other, rather than quietly ignoring them and pretending to be nice. This truly is a brilliant comedy!

Recommendation: See it! (Not for young children)
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Next Film: Roberta

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Title: L.A. Confidential
Director: Curtis Hanson
Date: 1997
Studio: Warner Brothers, Regency Entertainment
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Film Noir
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Straithairn, Simon Baker (Credited as Simon Baker Denny)

"Come to Los Angeles... there are jobs a plenty and land is cheap..." -- Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito)

"I admire you as a policeman, particularly your adherance to violence as an adjunct to the job." -- Police Captain Dudley Smith to Lt. Bud White

"How's it going to look in your report?" -- Det. Lt. Exley
"It'll look like justice. That's what the man got, justice." -- Lt. Bud White

LA Confidential is a brilliant modern film noir. The film weaves deep layered characters into a complex plot of police corruption, graft, drugs, and murder. All the actors give brilliant performances. Russell Crowe, in an very early role, is Lt. Bud White, police captain Smith's "enforcer" with a soft spot for abused women. Watching his journey from tough guy and bruiser to someone who actually starts to figure out what's going on and who stops just following orders and starts to think -- even when solving the case leads right back to the police department -- is a joy in this film. Guy Pearce is the college-educated "new cop" who isn't afraid to testify against other dirty cops, as long as it allows him to get ahead. But he too has to make decisions -- does he "do what he's told, and reap his reward" or does he follow a more difficult path and expose the corruption he and Bud have uncovered? And brilliant as always Kevin Spacey as "Hollywood Jack" Vincennes, who's a technical advisor on the TV cop drama "Badge of Honor" (think "Dragnet") and partners with tabloid reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny Devito) accepting payments to pass along info about upcoming busts so the reporter can photograph them. Sid, a pioneer in bottom-feeding tabloid journalism, and publisher of the tabloid "Hush-Hush" regularly gives Vincennes gifts and bribes, as well as passing along information.

The film weaves a complicated plot, starting with the beating, in the LA lock-up of several Mexican-Americans, resulting in the expulsion of several bad cops and meeting our characters and seeing how they react. Vincennes is transferred between departments and temporarily taken off "Badge of Honor" as Technical Advisor. White refuses to roll on his partner, or become a snitch. Exley not only offers up info as a snitch, but gives advice on how to get to other cops, though this gets him a promotion - it doesn't endear him to the other cops. After "Bloody Christmas" but before the trial even starts, there's a mass shooting at the Nite Owl coffee shop, one of the victims is White's disgraced partner. The hunt for the killers leads to three young black men, who are brought in, questioned, escape, and then are caught again and killed.

However, all three of our main characters soon realize that the three men, though guilty of kidnapping and raping a young Mexican girl, aren't guilty of the Nite Owl killings. And, again, the investigation, though it also involves a millionaire who's running a high-class call girl outfit of girls "cut to look like movie stars" and heroin, ultimately leads right back to the police department. I don't want to spoil the ending for those of you reading this who haven't seen this brilliant Noir film.

This film starts with a sarcastic voice-over, by Danny Devito, describing the bright, sunny, perfect California that's being sold as an image -- only to expose a dark, dirty, and very corrupt underbelly. Irony underlies a lot of the picture (such as showing the ground-breaking ceremony for the Santa Monica freeway "LA to the beach in 20 minutes"). But the characters also present an opening image that changes throughout the film -- Bud White starts as a tough, an enforcer, a brutal cop, albeit with a soft spot for battered women and kids, but he develops, putting together a lot of the clues leading to an explanation of what really is going on. Exley seems like the college-educated "new cop" who won't be able to hack it in the field - yet, he also manages to prove his smarts and his investigative chops, as well as his ability to handle violence when needed. Vincennes, "Hollywood Jack" has somehow lost his way. Asked, "Why'd you become a cop?" He answers, "I can't remember". Jack is like the tough, hard-boiled, cynical protagonists of a lot of Classic Noir. Yet, like those protagonists, his journey in the film is to discover that he can't turn a blind eye to the corruption around him any more, especially when he inadvertently causes a young male actor/hooker to get murdered. There's more to Jack than the smoothness one first sees.

The film is set in the 1950s, but the historical detail, though there, is not at the forefront of the film. The score is fantastic from Jerry Goldsmith's original instrument themes, to the use of period music by Johnny Mercer and Dean Martin. The film also gets physically darker, as the characters discover the true darkness around them.

I highly, highly recommend this film. It has brilliant acting, brilliant writing, a dense, complex plot, and the feel of a true Noir film, but made in a modern style. The film is very intelligent -- both the writing and dialogue and the plot. And, though violent and bloody at times, it's still quite, quite worth seeing.

Recommendation: See it!
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Next Film: League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen

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