Intermission

by Jim Wunderle

"The Ice Storm"

Directed by: Ang Lee

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline, Christina Ricci

Rated: R

Don't blink or you're liable to miss it, but take note that the Wehrenberg Battlefield Mall Cinema has recently been sneaking in some of last year's most highly acclaimed, if not highest-grossing, films. Recently they played Atom Egoyan's evocative, eerie and entirely original "The Sweet Hereafter." This week sees the arrival some seven months after its initial release of Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm."

Why this film never went into mass release is beyond me. Besides winning the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes, "The Ice Storm" got great reviews from every critical corner. Add to this the fact that director Ang Lee, a few years earlier, had the surprise hit "The Wedding Banquet" and followed that with Emma Thompson's take on "Sense and Sensibility." One would think "The Ice Storm" would have some sort of push behind it, but in truth it just didn't get a "studio" treatment.

I saw it in Kansas City, a place I would guess to be somewhat of a major market, about a month after its official release, and it arrived there without fanfare. It's a strange and fickle business.

"The Ice Storm" takes place in the early 1970s, when Watergate was on TV and the sexual revolution had finally eked its way into the suburbs of middle-class America.

Lee's direction here is consistent with his understated, emotional style and Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline and Joan Allen all turn in affecting performances.

Of special note is Christina Ricci, who comes of age as a teenage girl who is coming to terms with her budding sexuality. She's heartbreaking here and proves to be a great young actress. She's in a number of films about to be released, and I'm sure she will prove to be one of the best young actresses of the new century.

"Suicide Kings"

Directed by: Peter O'Fallon

Starring: Jay Mohr, Christopher Walken, Denis Leary

Rated: R

After "Pulp Fiction" solidly entrenched Quentin Tarantino in the Hollywood mainstream, dozens of other writers and directors followed QT's path, and we saw a great number of films in a few short years that were painfully obvious rip-offs of the new master's style.

It got fairly annoying after a while, but most of the blatant copycats have long since fallen by the wayside. We're now seeing a few young directors who have obviously been influenced by Tarantino but who also have their own cinematic visions.

Peter O'Fallon is the best example of late and his film, "Suicide Kings," is obviously influenced by Tarantino but also has shades of Hitchcock and the Coen brothers, as well.

The plot revolves around a "caper," and the characters engage in a great amount of dialogue (reminiscent of "Reservoir Dogs"), but there are a number of red herrings (McGuffins is what Hitchcock called them) thrown in, and a series of flashback scenes keeps us engaged throughout.

There's a great deal of (dark) humor, as well, mostly coming from the character played by Denis Leary, who is the "Man Friday" to Mafia boss Charlie Barrett, played by Christopher Walken.

A group of, for want of a better word, "yuppie" kids kidnap Charlie in an effort to negotiate the release of another kidnap victim, the sister of one of the yups.

As the story unfolds mostly in one room (again ala "Reservoir Dogs") Charlie begins playing his kidnappers against one another and they (and the audience) discover that there might be a bit more to this story than meets the eye.

The young, all-male cast works well together, and while it's not perfect in its execution, "Suicide Kings" is one of the year's most notable efforts.

Peter O'Fallon is definitely a director you should keep an eye on.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)

[[In-content Ad]]