Kleist Reviews

The Big Split (1999)

Annie Hall in L.A.

[10/10 · 29 June 2002]

Woody Allen sometimes claims that his work has not had a major impact on directors younger than himself. THE BIG SPLIT gives the lie to this legend.

THE BIG SPLIT is a contemporary version of ANNIE HALL. The chemistry between the two principal actors is almost as good as that between Allen and Diane Keaton. Here, as in ANNIE HALL, a contrast is made between New York City and Los Angeles--but in this version, the secret is that "the people are exactly the same in both places"! (Woody's comic loathing of L.A. sunlight and new-age madness has been superceded by global-market homogeneity.)

Here, a driving instructor and a filmmaker fall in love and marry in a two-week period. Then, almost as quickly, they divorce.

But the romance continues. And in the closing sequence, the couple and the audience look forward to a happy reunion in the Big Apple which will be "almost" like the happy parts of the earlier relationship.

This film asks that usual question: "Is a heterosexual relationship which endures more than six months possible or desirable in contemporary America?"

The answer to that question is the film itself. As with Woody Allen, THE BIG SPLIT uses lovely music from the thirties and forties (here the big song is "I'm Old Fashioned," a counterpart to "Feels Like Old Times" in ANNIE HALL); its dialogues are wonderfully elliptical, with most of the meaning coming from the close-ups of the faces of the main characters (who are unquestionably fun to watch). We get grainy footage of the L.A.-versus-New-York documentary interspersed with "real time" scenes which nicely counterpoint each other. Lots of loving romantic shots of interiors, of parties, of conversations with one mother and many mutual friends. The black couple make a lovely foil to the white couple whose story we're exploring.

Lots of lovely reflections on and about contemporary American life interweave the romantic satire, which is wholly believable.

THE BIG SPLIT reveals once again that Independent Film is where it's happening in American Cinema. I mourn the passing of Hollywood Video's First Rites series, of which this was a part in 2000.

How ironic that some of the best film being made today vanishes without an audience because Big Distributors won't allow it to find the light of day!

Dill Scallion (1999)

Satire at its Indy Finest

[10/10 · 12 June 2002]

DILL SCALLION is a carefully crafted lampoon of the mechanics of fame-- here, in particular, the Country-Music-hit machine. Although the basic contours of Dill's rise from obscurity as a school-bus driver to superstardom and back again are predictable, the jokes are fast-paced and dead-center. The entire cast has a great time with this script, and their hilarity is infectuous. Henry Winkler as the cigar-wielding Big Manager was a real surprise ("Hey, that's the Fonz, isn't it?"): he's unprepossessing as a prepossessing maniac, and he's funny as hell.

There's so much to like here: the hideous breakthrough hit, "You Shared You," with its closing verse about granddaddy's ecstasy when "You Shared You"; Dill's on-stage "Scallion Shuffle," which inspires broken footbones across the nation (and a legion of crutch-waving audience members); Dill's original promiscuous lover, then the quickly fame-sullied roadie girlfriend; sidekick Mr. Pearl, who pretends to be Minnie Pearl's son; and so on.

I would love clarification of Sheryl Crowe's part in this madness: did she really pen these hilarious songs for a lark?

This easily could become a cult classic, and deservedly so. I thought it was funnier than THIS IS SPINAL TAP, with which it is rightly compared. Who wouldn't fall in love with the cow-turd-sized silver belt-buckle?

Whatever (1998)

Brilliantly Realistic; Deadpan Genius

[10/10 · 22 December 1999]

WHATEVER is one of the best first-time-director/writer films I've ever seen. It's up there with Whit Stillman's METROPOLITAN: intelligent script, beautifully photographed, tragicomic, sensitive and bull's-eye psychology, a cast of unknowns whose performances rise off the celluloid in their perfection. Susan Skoog, bless you: may you have a long, long career in an industry which seldom allows such living and breathing females and males onto its screens! I bought a videocassette copy and will enjoy it again and again. What slice-of-life realism! This stuff happens all the time, but we seldom see it so artistically processed and integrated. I like this film lots: can you tell?

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Dude Abides

[10/10 · 29 September 1998]

"Somehow I rest easier, knowing the Dude is out there, takin' 'er easy for our sins." So states the mysterious cowboy narrator of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, thereby elevating Jeff Bridges' character, The Dude, into the archetypical Christlike anti-hero of our times.

Christlike? But The Dude's every other locution is the "eff" word!

Yes, but in chaotic times like the American 1990s, the forces of decency and love inevitably must be found in some pretty strange places, podner.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI is a romp whose chief goal is to make audiences laugh until they cry. However, along the way, the Great Themes all are broached: Love, Death, Greed, Perfidy, Betrayal, Forgiveness, Courage, Honesty, Ambition.

I have watched LEBOWSKI merely four times, but I look forward to owning my own copy soon and watching it once a month. I've already memorized sections of dialogue. Flaubert said, "Madame Bovary--c'est moi!"; I am inclined to say "The Dude--c'est moi!"

For those whose minds and hearts align with those of the Coen Brothers, surely this is their crowning achievement to date. No scene rings false, and the parts all cohere, even though one must watch the film several times before every detail falls into place. This is a consummate work of picaresque art which becomes a kind of DON QUIXOTE before it's over: utter compassion and realism underlie the delicious absurdities.

Ye who have ears to hear: listen and laugh. This is as good as film gets at the turn of the millennium.