Kids e os Profissionais

'Kids' director Larry Clark really comes up trumps with this fine story of crime, addiction and surrogate families. Relative unknown Vincent Kartheiser, and the up and coming Natasha Gregson Wagner ('Lost Highway', 'Two Girls and a Guy') are fine as the young wanna be thieves, but the real stars of the show are their mentors' played by James Woods and Melanie Griffith.

Griffith is often ridiculed for her flakiness, but should be applauded for taking riskier, more challenging material such as this and John Waters' 'Cecil B. DeMented'. Woods is a ridiculously underrated actor, and along with the equally underestimated James Caan, is rivaling the much more celebrated De Niro and Pacino as best American actors of their generation in my opinion. Woods is simply sensational as the motor mouth Mel, a complex and unpredictable character. His performance here ranks with 'Videodrome', 'Cop' and 'The Boost' as one of his most memorable.

Forget the spurious 'Kalifornia', 'Drugstore Cowboy' and 'True Romance' comparisons. They are all great movies, but this is no rehash or rip off. It's a fantastic movie in its own right. Don't miss this one!

This one worked for me. The superb acting and fine camera work made this very believable. The scenes are some of the most realistic I've seen. Particularly noteworthy are the scenes involving extreme tension.

Throughout the picture I felt an urging to like these characters, sensing that they were, deep down, decent people who somehow got wrapped up in this type of life.

I'm not generally a fan of Griffith, but this role suits her well and her acting is top-notch. Woods is almost always exceptional, and his work here is no exception. The younger stars also perform quite well with this challenging, emotional material. And I thought the acting of the minor characters was excellent, suggesting the director had his act together on this one.

You have to acclimate to the language and level of tension early on or the movie will drive you nuts. But if you do, it begins to involve you deeply in the characters' situations and lives.

1st watched 12/26/2009 – 8 out of 10(Dir-Larry Clark): Extremely well executed drama about a couple of older drug-using thieves who take a younger couple under their wings as they survive in this rough un-forgiving chaotic world. The movie begins as the younger couple is introduced and the male character(played by Vincent Kartheiser) robs a community college's snack room of it's vending machine change and gets ferociously beat up by a security guard but then kills him. Uncle Mel(played by James Woods) then invites the kids to tag along with him and his girl and they graduate to bigger thefts with bigger consequences. The older couple(who can't have kids) kind of take on a tutoring and parenting role to the younger couple and they start developing a good friendship as well. It's obvious there are needs being fulfilled both ways in a companionship perspective as they both have many losses in their personal lives. Mistakes start being made after it's determined the younger girl is pregnant and the younger couple start evaluating whether this life is for them. This causes friction in the characters in this no-holds barred insane lifestyle movie where the characters just want to make good for themselves and this vulnerability brings the audience to like the characters. Melanie Griffith is un-expectedly excellent as the older woman and the overall acting and direction is very well done. You believe this story and that keeps you interested and involved until the end. The movie itself is not for the faint-at-heart but it is a definite un-heralded gem in the independent film-making world and should be viewed.

Another film of the drug/gangster sub-genre, ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE is upper echelon material as far as these pictures go. It is also a sibling to DRUGSTORE COWBOY unintentionally. There are so many similarities because it is impossible to make this type of movie nowadays without being repetitive. No matter. Director Larry Clarke (KIDS, ew!) and main booster James Woods himself dive into that disgusting and sometimes frantically hilarious world of sex, drugs, and driving around. The film works because there are some good characterizations here and people who actually show some concern for each other throughout the haze of it all.

Melanie Griffith plays "Sid", James Woods' girlfriend in the story and delivers some of the finest moments of her career. Not since WORKING GIRL have I seen such a likeable and ballsy portrayal from Griffith, who is a junkie with a knack for mothering the 2 teen runaways and a potent trigger finger when one is needed. The runaways are the children Woods and Griffith parent vicariously through in the most unusual of ways. The kids (Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Wagner) are a version of Bonnie and Clyde, while the adults resemble a warped Ozzie and Harriett. It all adds up to a group of 4 remembering DRUGSTORE COWBOY. This crew needs drugs and they get them by stealing from pharmacists just as Matt Dillon's crew did.

The setting is the early 1970's I guess, and the music reflects the period well. Funk and blues reign over the film's violent and illegal activities while adding a sense of romance to it. You get that feeling in your heart that it won't last (a la BONNIE AND CLYDE, DRUGSTORE COWBOY). Woods character starts out cynical and wise to the "life", but turns ugly as you figure him to do. The young kids who looked up to him throughout grow tired naturally, but his reluctance to grow old possesses him to keep them around. This is where Melanie Griffith is able to shine. She is a sweet, attractive woman who happens to stick needles in her neck. Nobody's perfect.

James Woods was born to play the creep. He has some great lines in ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE. His stories are funny, his trademarks are constant (booyah!), and his fits are worth the price of admission. He is so good at coming across initially confident, eventually desperate and evil. Woods must have had much faith in director Clarke's abilities and the casting of Natalie Wood's daughter, Natasha is a nice, offbeat touch. This is low-budget, nasty fare, a descendant of the countless druggie flicks of the 70's, 80's and PULP FICTION. It is sometimes amazing to see how low actors will go to capture this wild world of fun and drugs in the dark.

RATING: ***

While vastly superior to Larry Clark's other films, "Another Day in Paradise" shares with them a brazen directness which makes it uneasy viewing, particular the many scenes picturing graphic violence. However it's a powerful and moving film with some exceptional acting talent on display.

Clark's obsession with teenagers of the wilder variety is prevalent as always but is balanced by the older surrogate parent couple played by James Woods and Melanie Griffith. Woods once again brings his famed intensity in a well rounded portrayal in which he's not only called upon to play a hardened, ruthless criminal, but also to reveal the more human qualities albeit buried very deep within.

Melanie Griffith is surprisingly effective as Wood's partner in crime. Clark's interest in them as people first and then as criminals, places this movie in a category well above the usual criminals on the run fare.

The younger criminal counterparts are played excellently by Natasha Gregson Wagner and Vincent Kartheiser. There is an almost documentary sense of authenticity to their acting. Oddly enough neither seemed to have as yet progressed to roles of much importance. Kartheiser in particular is an actor to watch out for. (He was superb in the somewhat flawed "The Unsaid").

The complexity of the relationship between the older childless couple and the teenage couple, while not overtly examined, is explored with subtlety which allows the viewer to make his own evaluation.

With large doses of drugs and violence this is clearly not a movie for all tastes. It is however a work of distinction.