Decalogue, Entropy, River's Edge

reviewed Sun, 03 Sep 2000

Decalogue
Decalogue is a famous ten-part series done for Polish television by Krystof Kieslowski in 1988-89.  The stories, based on each of the Ten Commandments, though not in any obvious ways, stand alone, but all take place in the same bleak apartment building.  I really wanted to see this series; I really wanted to like this series.  It's the sort of thing snotty cinephiles rave about over their cappuccinos, and I got the impression that I couldn't call myself a true film buff if I hadn't seen it.  Unfortunately, it turns out to be very Eastern European, in the sense that everything's gray and desolate; and there are lots of long, arty close-ups of things like smoldering cigarettes, dripping water, dying plants, etc.; and every story has a sallow, sunken-eyed man who appears at odd moments to just stare enigmatically and slightly creepily.  I watched numbers one, two, three, and five (they come two to a tape and run about an hour each).  I just couldn't get involved in any of them -- they were all slow, dull, and rather pointless.

Entropy
I wish I could remember why I thought this would be good.  Because it isn't.  It's crap.  Ethan Hawke -- ooops, I mean Stephen Dorff -- plays this smarmy hot young director who's assigned his first studio film and can't deal with... well, something.  I wasn't really paying attention.  And he's dating a model who takes her top off a lot.  And he asks U2's Bono for career advice.  And, oh yeah, the most annoying part -- he opens the film by talking to the camera and continues to narrate for us, occasionally appearing in subsequent scenes to explain them, still dressed in ratty boxer shorts and carrying a beer.  Charming.  The only reason I kept watching as long as I did was the cat.  No, really.  He has this awesome scrawny little cat that just enchanted me.  Wish the whole movie had been about the cat.

River's Edge
After these disappointing choices, I popped in River's Edge, expecting to pop it out again a few minutes later.  I rented it because my father recently reminded me and my brother of it -- we had watched it back when it first came out and laughed hysterically at it all the way through.  Yet we didn't think it was supposed to be a comedy.  So I was expecting to see something ridiculously bad.

Surprise!  It's good!  Yes, I still laughed a lot, but I think the humor is largely intentional (the only potentially unintentional laughs come from Crispin Glover's demented line readings).  Some people (including the guy the IMDB chose to quote) think it's deep and shattering -- I still don't see that.  But it's excellently done -- great performances, even from Keanu, clever writing, and wonderful, loopy touches of humor that borders on the surreal.  Dennis Hopper dancing with an inflatable doll is a sight you should see before you die.  River's Edge feels a lot like an indie movie that could have come out in the past few years; except for the haircuts, it doesn't seem dated at all.  Big recommendation -- if you haven't seen it yet, rent it (and, to my brother and father, take another look at it -- I think you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was).

Back to homepage
Reviews A to F
Reviews G to L
Reviews M to R
Reviews S to Z
Search