B-Movies & Couch Classics
Reviews of Movies Often Overlooked or Forgotten
by Arik Treston
The Claim
2000, R
 Michael
(Welcome To Sarajevo) Winterbottom’s film The Claim debuts on
video this month, and is a shining example of expert craftsmanship. Set
during the post-gold rush settlement-phase in California’s North-Eastern
Sierra Nevada mountain region in the late 1860s, the film follows three
sets of lives that are or will be connected shortly. Daniel Dillon (Peter
Mullen) was a prospector who sunk to a new low in life when he agreed to
sell off his wife and child for some gold in a “claim”. With that, he was
able to start the town of Kingdom Come and be its autocratic leader.
Twenty years later, the Central Pacific Railroad is coming into town to
survey the land to decide whether or not the rail will pass through the
town, giving it a major economic boost. Dalglish, the chief railroad
surveyor, is played by Wes Bentley (American Beauty) who masks his
youthful face with a coarse, winter-guarding beard. Meeting him on his
journey to town are Hope and Elena Dillon (Sarah Polley and Natassja
Kinski, respectively), a young woman and her ailing mother who are in
search Daniel, the man they have both been separated from for quite some
time. Lucia (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element) is Daniel’s lover
who runs the local tavern, where she also sings.
When the lives of these different people all begin to intersect, the drama
intensifies and creates an amazing and slow-burning character study. One
of the most impressive aspects of the film is the utter maturity (and
singing talents) of Jovovich, the actress/singer/model who up until now
has usually played the young waif role and hasn’t ever acted the part of a
complex woman such as this. Her equal-footed relationship with Daniel is a
powerful statement to the strong-will she had as a woman at such a time in
American history. Bentley is equally strong (as are all of the others) in
his role as the soft-spoken Dalglish who finds his heart splitting in two
different directions, as his interests are peaked romantically. Daniel is
the most complex character, neither good nor evil, rather he is simply a
human who has made some bad decisions in his life and tries to compensate
by having this town run in a civilized and quasi-utopia like manner,
making hopefully better choices in handling this place than he has his
past. The importance to him and his town to have the railroad go through
causes extreme tension when the decision nears. Being a railroad surveyor
at that time made you either a hero or a soon-to-be corpse when your
decision could make or break an entire town, and Dalglish is well aware of
those possibilities. The heart of the film comes in its most innocent
character, Hope. Embodying the purity and righteousness of this character,
Polley (Go, The Sweet Hereafter), proves once again what a
wonderful actress she is. At such a young age to be so poised and strong
(coupled with her careful selection of film roles), only bears good things
to come from her in the future.
Playing like a western in the snow, like Unforgiven meets Robert
Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Winterbottom interweaves gorgeous
scenery (albeit in muted winter grays and whites) into the mix and comes
out with a striking portrait of love lost and new beginnings to come.
Unlike a traditional western though, the bad guys don’t wear black and the
good guys don’t wear white. This is because there are neither to be found
here. It isn’t about good people and bad people, simply about people who
love, make mistakes and act like most humans do. It is a solid and
satisfying film that reminds one that if you have a really good story to
tell, even without huge budgets and battleships and cars blowing up, you
can make a near-masterpiece. The Claim is as visually satisfying as
it is emotionally fulfilling with its heartfelt tale of redemption,
misguided choices and the strength to move mountains — or in this case, a
house — in the name of love.
Caveman’s Valentine
2001, R
 When
actress Kasi Lemmons (Silence Of The Lambs) made her directorial
debut with the much-lauded Eve’s Bayou in 1996, the cinematic
community was blessed with a fresh voice that was sure to repeat her
success. And with Caveman’s Valentine, she has done it again.
Romulus Ledbetter (Samuel L. Jackson) is a Julliard-trained music prodigy
who spends his life living in a cave in a New York City park. Romulus
lives in his own mentally-unstable world of demons and evil characters out
to get him. His (imagined) nemesis, Stuyvesant apparently lives at the top
of the Chrysler building and sends out evil rays in an attempt to control
him.
Because we see the world through Romulus’ eyes, everything is skewed and
off-kilter. When Rom believes he witnessed a murder, nary a soul is there
to believe him, not even his policewoman daughter, Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis),
who has had to put up with his ramblings for too long and has no patience
left for him. As Rom delves deeper into the murder that occurred outside
his cave, he slowly becomes an amateur sleuth, albeit an unbalanced one.
Lemmons fills the movie with wild sweeping images of Rom’s internal world
and makes us not only feel for his plight, but get nervous every time he
tries to have ‘normal’ conversations with people and he is on the edge of
losing it. It’s easy to display an unbalanced individual onscreen, it’s
harder to make us not only feel his trouble, but really feel for him and
wish for him to be, well, okay. His travails lead him to a famed and
worshiped photographer, David Leppenraub (Colm Feore - The Insider, The
Storm of the Century), who may have played a key role in the murder of
this young model. Rom realizes that in order to get close to Leppenraub’s
circle, he must try to act as sane as possible, which isn’t an easy task
when you’re nearly psychotic.
As he works to overcome his inner demons and build back the lost
relationship with his daughter — all the while solving a murder that no
one is paying attention to — we come to care for him and hope that he can
indeed pull this one off.
Visually stunning with a great soundtrack, Valentine combines both
art-house flair with a mainstream murder-mystery storyline. Lemmons has
mixed genres and styles and shows that she indeed could follow-up her
masterful debut with another stunner that wasn’t created by cookie-cutter
formulaic machines. There’s nothing but a promising future for her if she
continues on this path. As for this film, it’s definitely worth the
rental. It’s a multi-layered complex piece that works by not giving us the
normal view and challenges our perceptions of what a lead character should
be.
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