Keanu can act!
This film was written by Neal
Jimenez, the writer/director of "The Waterdance."
Of course, those who know me know "The
Waterdance" is one of my favorite movies of all-time. I
was a little bit surprised to find these two
films written by the same author...they seemed,
at first thought, a tremendous contrast in style
and substance. After an additional viewing, it
all made sense to me. Both films are MUCH more
realistic than one is used to seeing in a movie
theatre, and both have incredibly honest,
courageous viewpoints. Simply, both films paint
portraits of worlds we'd prefer to believe don't
exist. What's most impressive is that these
portraits aren't done from a place of
judgment...we are allowed to live in the worlds,
experience them and come away with our own
experiences.
This film is based on the 1981 killing of Marcy
Conrad in Miltipas, California by her boyfriend,
Anthony Broussard. The killing was shocking not
so much because it was a teen on teen
killing...even in 1981, we were starting to get
used to that idea. It was more surprising
because Broussard ended up flaunting the killing
to several of his friends, including showing his
girlfriend's naked, lifeless body. "River's
Edge" takes a powerful, unflinching look at the
experiences of each of these individuals as they
process what they have seen and what they know
and how they assimilate the information into
their lives.
Daniel Roebuck is marvelous as "Toilet," the
young man who kills his girlfriend. You may
remember Roebuck from "Nash Bridges" and when he
portrayed Jay Leno on "The Late Shift." This
film really broke out Crispin Glover...Of
course, it may have contributed to his being
mildly typecast as the quirky, offbeat and
somewhat psycho loner. Glover is simply
brilliant here...he is frightened, stupid and
mesmerizing. This film also shows us how really
wonderful Keanu Reeves can be...something I tend
to forget...his scenes with Ione Skye, another
wonderful surprise here, are simply tender,
moving and beautifully brought to life. Dennis
Hopper, as the lone "adult" in the equation,
gives one of his stronger performances here.
Under recognized, but equally powerful is Joshua
Miller. The music, including Slayer, is
magnificent for the film and director Tim Hunter
gets kudos from bringing these fine individual
performances into a cohesive unit. I'm floored
this film wasn't even nominated for Oscars, of
course, being made in 1986 the Academy wasn't
nearly ready for this type of film. This sad
truth aside, this film is filled with award
worthy performances.
I will add one comment that is an observation
for both films. Both have a tremendous streak of
dark humor at times that some would consider
offensive. In "The Waterdance," it is less
offensive because the film itself primarily
deals with adjusting to life in a wheelchair.
So, it's a fairly safe topic. In "River's Edge,"
when we're dealing with murder, teens, societal
values and topics such as these the potency is
much higher. For me, the humor is not only
realistic but essential to the films.
Back to Neil Jimenez...He has two fine, powerful
and honest flicks to his credit...but, just to
prove he's human he also penned Bette Midler's
"For the Boy's." Yikes!
©
Written by Richard Propes
TC Candler's Comment
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Jacob
Hall's Comment
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