"U-Turn" could use a lighter directorial touch. As for Bobby, he's like most film noir fellows - broke and just romantic, stupid and fatalistic enough to get himself into trouble. She's sexy and desperate, in a film noirish way. He's a smiling, depraved lout with a Lee Marvin haircut and a Gary Busey attitude. The husband and wife, McKenna and Grace, are played by Nolte and Lopez. But Stone does it in a way that's so subjective it's almost scary.
This kind of flashback-in-a- moment-of-tension thing has been done before. As he does, he has flashbacks to sex with his first wife, his current wife's mother. In another scene, Nick Nolte, as a small-town businessman, is having sex with his wife (Jennifer Lopez). We assess them, apart from the words they say, and they look at us, too. He does it by cutting to still close-ups of people talking, and we hear their voices but their lips don't move. For example, he conveys how two strangers size each other up in conversation. Stone does a couple of purely cinematic things in "U-Turn" that capture previously untouched truths.
Here and there in "U- Turn," Stone comes up with an effect that's not just flashy but new and insightful. But it might be wise to cut him some slack. Stone is bound to be criticized for constantly making his presence felt. The film's relentless stylishness - the odd angles, the mix of film stocks, the almost subliminal use of intercutting - might irritate some. Once he's there, he has a hard time leaving. While driving his '60s Mustang convertible through Arizona, the car breaks down, and he has to stop in a small town. Sean Penn plays Bobby, a wise-guy loser on his way to Las Vegas to pay off a gambling debt. The good news is that Stone has a grounded, solid leading man to build his movie around. Nothing is an accident, except, perhaps, the accidents Stone liked. The black comedy, which opens today, is easy to talk about and hard to dismiss for one reason: Every second, practically every frame, is intentional.
It demonstrates a filmmaker in complete command of his craft and with little control over his impulses. "U-Turn," the latest from director Oliver Stone, is an astonishing mix.
0 kommentar(er)
