Five Corners

Not worth going out of your way to see, but worth keeping on if it comes on on TV. Will provide mild pleasure to fans of Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, and John Turturro (I enjoy all three). It would be interesting to watch this back-to-back with "Barton Fink", in which Turturro plays a polar opposite character.

The only other thing I have to say is that the score of this movie is one of the worst I've ever heard. I hadn't heard of composer James Newton Howard when I saw this, so I'm amazed he went on to respectable and (to my remembrance) perfectly well-scored films like "Pretty Woman", "My Girl", "Glengarry Glen Ross", "The Sixth Sense", and "Dinosaur".

His score in this film is so melodramatic, so overstated, so overly "hit-happy" (in the sense of hitting marks), and so cheesily realized, I'm amazed Howard wasn't relegated to scoring cheeseball B-flicks.

Some interesting performances from people who went on to bigger and better things. Turturro in particular gives a controlled turn to a role that could easily have been over the top. Many discontinuities mar the script, and there are plot elements which seem to come out of nowhere. But overall it is a movie worth seeing when the cupboard is bare.

It's 1964 The Bronx. Violent Heinz (John Turturro) returns to his neighborhood after getting out of prison for an attempted rape of Linda (Jodie Foster). Harry (Tim Robbins) rescued Linda the first time but has turn pacifist since then. Somebody shoots a teacher with an arrow. Castro and Willie are two kids blowing up a store sign with cherry bombs. They pick up Melanie and Brita who are out of it from sniffing glue. Heinz is after Linda again thinking he's in love with her. Jamie would like to be her boyfriend who protects her.

This movie is split in two. Turturro, Foster and Robbins inhabit one half. Turturro is great as the disturbed rapist. The penguins are weird. The acting is good but the script meanders a bit with a lot of strange turns. The other half has four lesser known actors. The girls are funny. It's odd that it seems to float on the surface of the movie without connecting to the other half. I do find the unknown actors' story interesting especially the elevator scene. I kept wondering what that story has to do with anything. The final reveal satisfied me to some extent. I wish it could have made more connections earlier in the movie.

Life in the Bronx in 1964. A psycho gets out of prison and picks up where he left off, affecting the lives of people he knew. Has some funny moments and a couple interesting sub-plots. Excellent cast in this Hand-made indy: Jody Foster, Tim Robbins, Todd Graff as Jodie's limp-legged boyfriend, and John Turturro as the psycho.

This film is a little gem. A very good quirky understated drama. The story is well-developed, reasonably believable, and directed quite nicely. The story is set in a New York neighborhood in the time period of early 60s - both aspects are portrayed well in the film - realistic and believable but not so hammed up as to come across as phony. The acting is superb. Tarturro is great - plays the part of a local psycho bully very well - quite edgy and frightening but not over-the-top. Both Jodie Foster and Tim Robbins also do really well in this movie and is probably the best of that time period (the 80s) for either actor. Would recommend the movie for anyone looking for a good drama or for a movie with some social commentary that does not overwhelm the story.