Wild Side

Stunning piece of b-rate trash that should be honored not criticized. Cliched but effective plot keeps you frozen to the screen. Heche and Chen's believable love for each other shines through, but it's Walken's over the top performance that takes this film to another level. The scene where Walken says the quote "10 years pal in a cage with a gorilla with a psycho gorilla" is classic walken and that one quote alone is reason enough to check out this film.

Ok, so it's a trashy soft-porn B-flick. I still like it. I got my first eyeful of Anne Heche (full frontal and backal--thx, Dilbert) plus more of Joan Chen, a fave since Twin Peaks. What more could you want? Walken gets a little weird...surprised? Isn't that why we love/hate him so? And Steven Bauer sure can play a jerk, the big hunky galoot. I've liked him since "Thief of Hearts."

The soundtrack is a bonus with a lush groove to it. I'd love to see the director's cut which sounds much more divine than the somewhat annoying cable version, but until then I'll have my finger poised confidently over my remote's FF button so I can get to the good stuff. Btw, Anne's performance reminds me of a young Bette Davis with her nervous fidgeting and self-conscious sashaying. Anyone else see it besides me? Just curious...maybe <grin>.

I watched the Director's Cut of this movie premiered August '99, together with clips of the trash that the studio released. The studio movie is trash - completely and utterly and doesn't even aspire to be anything better. The editing is flat and the performances look like rehearsals. The Director's Cut (pieced together by the Editor after the Director's suicide) is an outstanding piece of cinema. Not a frame wasted. The opening sequence shocks you into an awareness that this movie will be very different to anything you've seen before. Chris Walken gives one of the best performances of his career. This is exciting, original cinema that riveted my attention in every moment of its two hour authorised version. The script sparkles with wit and dry, unpretentious humour and you never quite know what is going to happen next. A sexy, stylish thriller that makes you laugh and also appreciate the beauty inside every villain. The tenacity and integrity of the Editor and Scriptwriter that saw it through to completion is a monument to the industry.

It all begin with a boring introduction (a closeup one the city with ugly techno music that is makes me think of the 70s...) but it gets better after that. Christopher Walken is great and his speech about power at the end of the movie won't be forgotten (more funny than intelligent do...) Joan Chen and Anne Heche are sooooo cute in one of the best lesbian scene ever made (and they don't even need to be nude to be so cute ! ). Steven Bauer is also excellent ( we hate him, we find him morron and we hope him to die but that's his role and he's doing the job well...and don't worry you will like to see his fate at the end...).

Donald Cammell's final film, the censorious treatment of which, probably drove him to take his life, is a stupendous tour de force, the likes of which you are unlikely to have seen before. Steven Bauer is scarily violent and believably ruthless. Joan Chen is beautiful and commanding while Anne Heche is astonishingly effective in a complicated and ever changing role as she interacts with the other three main participants. Christopher Walken allows his character to take him over almost completely and occasionally seems to struggle to stay this side of sanity. This is a nightmare of a performance in which he turns himself inside out to portray the true horror of ultimate power and greed. I will not divulge the simple plot as Cammell tells it so well it is far better that this terrible tale unfold as he intended. Suffice to say, the aforementioned acting is faultless, the direction sure footed and the editing an object lesson and for once the word 'sensational' is most apt.