Reviews
Glam (1997)
Glam is outrageous
Glam is an outrageous vision of a town built on filigree dreams and exploited by crass power mongers. The most ruthless of these is Sid, Tony Danza, a vain scoundrel producer who sucks the creative life out of others to maintain his commercial viability. Sid recognizes the talents of Sonny, a mute loner from a small town who has come to Hollywood. Along with his hyper kinetic cousin, Franky, Frank Whaley, who has taken Sonny's writing to some shlockmeister producers who's cynicism melts when they read Sonny's emotionally potent words, and believe that they have an entertainment goldmine to be excavated. But Sid strong-arms them out of the way and campaigns to seduce and control Sonny. Sid is so certain of his ability to charm that he is blind to the fact that his girlfriend is attracted to Sonny's goodness. There is something disturbing about Glam. Though the characters are largely archetypes the cast finds a human dimension for the freaks and gargoyles that populate this world. The movie assails and caresses the audience with images and ideas and seems to use a broad range of influences from the French New Wave to MTV music video styles. Glam is outrageous and that's the sort of style this world it depicts deserves.
Inside the Goldmine (1994)
Within the Goldmine
I saw this movie on the Sundance Channel. And I think it is a work of rigorous simplicity and economy, it is assured and mature, especially for a first film. Clearly the filmmaker has not only looked at the world around him but deep inside himself. This is to suggest that this is the kind of film made by someone prepared to strive for self-knowledge. Jordan is the likeable pleasant-looking son of a famous producer. Clyde is his darkly handsome pal, a corrosive nihilist who insists he believes in nothing. There's a recklessness and an immorality about Clyde that attracts the uncertain Jordan, who is a nice guy who has some vague notion of trying to find some direction in his life. As we're wondering how Clyde is going to impact Jordan's life, the two are riding in the hills of Laurel Canyon when Jordan's slows down, curious about a cluster of police cars. Disregarding Clyde's advice, Jordan gets hilmself interviewed by a TV reporter. And their lives are changed by this event. The film has an easy elegance and a swift pace even though the acting is directed much llike a John Cassavetes film, going for a spontaneous, improvised quality. The score enhances the moods perfectly and there arre two sharp and sadly funny scenes between Jordan and his producer father Sid, in which the father is crude but not uncaring, but completely unable to listen to his troubled son. In the end, a long, sustained climax scene reveals the terrible torment beneath the cool void that Clyde affects.