Rus Raves and Rants

The Best and Worst of 1997 on Video

by Rustin Thompson | Published April 3, 1998

Cyclo

The Best

Cyclo - There is not a wasted image in this film from Vietnamese director Hung Tran Anh (The Scent of Green Papaya). Scenes of transfixing beauty and startling brutality blend seamlessly to form an hallucinatory narrative, an almost psychotic meditation on a culture and people struggling through their capitalist evolution. Hung is not so concerned with plot mechanicsthe story, about a young cyclo (pronounced SEEK-low) driver who is forced into a gang to keep his job, is disjointed and at times confusing. But the director uses color like an abstract expressionist; he prefers bold, extreme close-ups to standard wide shots. He will someday make a masterpiece. Cyclo comes pretty close to being one.

Small Faces - This Scottish film, directed by Gillies MacKinnon and written by the director and his brother, Billy, also takes a sobering look at a young man lured into gang life. The elliptical story takes place in 1968 and is anchored by the remarkable performance of Iain Robertson, a teenager at war with his older brother and his hormones. MacKinnon's camera moves with a mesmerizing glide; he discovers angles that depict a working class world that is both monstrous and, at times, strangely alluring. An underrated gem.

Casino - Paranoia, treachery, desire. Martin Scor- sese works this territory like a pit boss. Casino was criticized for its length and repetitiveness, but that is exactly why it worked for me. It played like a long night at the blackjack table, an epic descent into the base arena of greed, where deceit can be exposed with a simple wink. Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci are a trio of lowlifes who get to play dress-up until they begin to tumble, step-by-inexorable-step. Scorsese tracks their fall with a trance-like precision while getting powerful performances, especially from De Niro, who plays the last hour of the film in a bathrobe and slippers.

Dead Man - Speaking of trances, Jim Jarmusch made the cinematic equivalent of Tuvan throat-singing with this gorgeous black-and-white western. It's a deeply mystical exploration of identity and death, rooted in a wintry, wooded landscape, grounded by the mesmerizing junkyard growl of Neil Young's guitar. A film of exotic power.

Breaking the Waves

Lone Star - John Sayles writes so well that you believe everything his characters say; you believe their life stories, you understand their reasons without having them pointed out to you. Chris Cooper and Elizabeth Pena are excellent as tentative lovers separated by the past, by prejudices, and by an odd paternity. They unravel a Texas community's secret history while attempting to hold together the fragile present. A mature, subtle, engrossing film from one of our best filmmakers.

Hard Eight - In just two films, Paul Thomas Anderson has established himself as a director of vision. It's clear with Hard Eight and Boogie Nights that he is concerned with survivalthe people who practice it and the tools they useand with the paternal instinct, the ways older men can sweep the young under a fatherly wing. With Boogie Nights it's Burt Reynolds' soft-hearted porn king; here it's Phillip Baker Hall's aging gambler. He is a man who survives through patience, by waiting for the right roll, by working a system just enough. It is a testament to Anderson's trust in his own story that he delivers his climaxes quietly. This is the best American debut film in years. It's dynamite with a slow fuse.

When We Were Kings - We are so lucky that Mu- hammad Ali let director Leon Gast into his training camp for the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974. Now we have this funny, moving, electric portrait of one of America's true originals, who believes to this day that the measure of a man is in his humanity, his ability to say what he means, his willingness to take risks, look foolish, and most importantly, to have a sense of humor. Interviews with Norman Mailer and George Plimpton make you love the fight; Ali makes you love the man.

Breaking the Waves - Lars Von Trier's film is a hybrid, a sort of fictional verité that shows what happens when a woman takes her religion too seriously. It's a devastating story of love and sacrifice, shot by Robby Muller with a roughnecked, hand-held style as rocky as the Scottish coastline where it's set. Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgard are sad and real and erotic as the tragic couple.