Category Archives: 1991

The Indian Runner (1991)

From Netflix:

Sean Penn wrote and directs this poignant drama inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s song “Highway Patrolman.” When small-town deputy sheriff Joe Roberts (David Morse) takes in his troubled Vietnam vet brother, Frank (Viggo Mortensen), things get very rocky. Joe is determined to help Frank make a new life with his pregnant girlfriend, Dorothy (Patricia Arquette), but Frank’s simmering anger threatens to ruin everything.

Before writing this review I had not fully realized how old the film was – 23 years to be exact. Because David Morse (Dr. Jack Morrison of the 1988 “St. Elsewhere”) looked so young, I should have guessed. Such a powerful lineup of actors:

  • David Morse (Joe Roberts
  • Viggo Mortensen (Frank Roberts)
  • Patricia Arquette (Dorothy)
  • Charles Bronson (Mr. Roberts)
  • Sandy Dennis (Mrs. Roberts)
  • Dennis Hopper (Caesar)

WARNING: This powerful, well-written, well-directed, and well-acted film is a tragedy from beginning to end.

Substitute Vietnam with Afghanistan or Iraq and there is no difference.

Well worth a serious watch!

Crooked Hearts (1991)

From NetFlix:

Director Michael Bortman also penned the screenplay for this potent drama based on Robert Boswell’s novel. Sparked by a troubled relationship between family patriarch Edward (Peter Coyote) and defiant eldest son Charley (Vincent D’Onofrio), the dysfunctional Warren clan finds themselves beleaguered by conflict and tainted by scandal. But things come to a head when middle son Tom (Peter Berg) returns home after dropping out of college.

Welcome to the life of yet another dysfunctional family in which children tend to fail spectacularly in important ventures, brothers make other brothers’ girl friends pregnant, father’s have affairs, etc.

What we have here is not a pretty scene.

If the film has a theme, it is “why can’t Charley leave home?” or “to what horrible lengths must Charley go in order to leave home?”

At least you get to see known actors early in their careers. During the filming:

  • Vincent D’Onofrio (born 1959) was a young looking 32 playing a young man of 26. Of all his roles, this approached most “normal”.
  • Noah Wiley (born in 1971) was 20.
  • Peter Coyote (born in 1941) was 50. He was, after all, the father.
  • Cindy Pickett (born 1947) was 44. She played the mother.
  • Juliette Lewis (born 1973) was a mere 18 playing a much younger little sister.
  • Peter Berg (born 1964) was 27. He does a great job as the brother Tom in this film, but for me his name just does not ring a bell. He played “Pistol” Pete Deeks in “Smokin’ Aces”.
  • Marg Helgenberger (born 1958) was 33. She is now well known as Catherine Willows in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
  • Jennifer Jason Leigh (born 1962) was 29. She played Tom’s girl friend Marriett

If I were not a Vince D’Onofrio fan, and if I did not enjoy watching know actors when they were just starting their careers, then I might not have initially chosen this melodrama. But the story was good enough to keep me interested to the end. Tom’s final family toast weepily tied together the story.

During the final credits Tom reads Ask’s “List of Things”.

Dead Again (1991)

From NetFlix:

Los Angeles gumshoe Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) takes the case of a woman (Emma Thompson) beset with amnesia and soon makes the startling discovery that he and his client are connected — via reincarnation — to a lurid, 40-year-old murder. Branagh is convincing as an American private investigator, and he gets fine support from Thompson (his real-life wife at the time) in this inventive modern noir thriller.

Give a ‘B’ to this somewhat dated film. However, it is just plain fun to see a lot of actors at a young part of their lives. After all, the film is almost 20 years old and a lot can happen in 20 years (such as Branagh and Thompson getting a divorce). Some of the actors are:

  • Kenneth Branagh who speaks a credible American sprinkled here and there with a few choice curse words. He plays two roles.
  • Emma Thompson speaks British. She plays two roles.
  • Who would have thought that Derek Jacobi was ever young. Recall him as the stuttering “I Claudius” ? He even manages to stutter in this film.
  • A year after this film Wayne Knight was the unforgettable “Newman” from “Seinfeld”
  • Andy Garcia you know well. Don’t miss the scene in which he is an old man dying of throat cancer from a lifetime of smoking. He speaks through a hole in his Adam’s apple. He begs Branagh for a cigarette and smokes it through the same hole.
  • I did a double-take. “That can’t be Robin Williams, can it?”. Sure enough!

The acting sometimes breaks down. Amazing to see how technology (cellphones, etc) would have completely changed the scenery in just 20 years. Still it was fun seeing handsome and beautiful people in their prime.

Barton Fink (1991)

From NetFlix:

Idealistic playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) believes writing should reveal the hopes, dreams and tragedies of the common man. When Hollywood taps him to write a movie, Fink develops severe writer’s block and soon falls victim to a strange sequence of events. Unable to combine his deep-seated ethics with Tinseltown’s frivolity, the disillusioned and desperate Fink winds up involved in a murder investigation in this Oscar-nominated dramedy.

In the “NY Times Best 1000” the review for this film raves about this exhilarating original by the Coen Brothers. Therefore I dutifully sat through the entire film. I admit that I could not stay bored for any long stretch because something unusual will soon pop up. John Goodman, not John Turturro, carries the show. John Turturro mostly just sits and stares. I was disappointed in Tony Shalhoub whom I almost did not recognize and who overacted terribly. Judy Davis’ appearance has not changed much over the years, but then 1991 today is only about 20 years ago.