Big Bad Love

Rest in peace Larry Brown. It's so bizarre. I was just re-watching one of my favorite movies of all time last night (Big Bad Love). Larry Brown wrote the book, and he also has a small part as Barlow's father in the film.

Then I read on-line that Larry died today of a heart attack (11/24/04). That is very strange. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, watch the movie "Big Bad Love" (see my review in an earlier listing 4/21/03). I found the story, acting and music to be some of the most moving material I've ever experienced. Don't worry, there are plenty of laughs too. If this flick doesn't draw some emotion from you, you better check for a pulse.

Also get the soundtrack CD. It has some of the coolest blues that you'll ever hear. It features several artists from the North Mississippi Hill Country region, where the movie was filmed. R.L. Burnside and Kenny Brown even have cameo appearances. It's some big bad music.

Crawlin' Kingsnake

Austin, TX

Marks the return of Debra Winger to our video stores if not the big screen. For those who wondered, she is still a wonderful actress and is surrounded by a fine cast here. But this is basically the pretty boring story of an unpublished writer whose skills fail to equal his vocabulary which reeks of the platitudes and 'truisms' he decries.

Arliss Howard plays the writer, Barlow, and his drinking bouts with his Vietnam War buddy, Monroe, Paul LeMat, are well handled and sufficiently depressing to attract 'artsie' viewers. The subsequent tragic events in the actual plot are universal enough to hold our attention while we hope that something major will be said. But alas, nothing is and we are left with nothing but a empty story with good acting.

It is a shame that these notably good artists haven't found anything better to do. Special kudos though to Angie Dickinson who plays a role that no one had ever envisioned for her and does quite nicely.

This essentially comic movie tells a suitably disjointed story of the crazed writing life in the South. All the players -- Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, the underrated Paul Le Mat, Rosanna Arquette, and Angie Dickinson -- are excellent. Instead of spoonfeeding us, the movie lets us discover the characters' past lives and motivations. It contains grand images: someone's novel scattered in a giant patch of kudzu; a painting in progress on the side of a rusted railroad car. Some people will like it just for the music, including by Tom Waits.

A surreal movie based on a short story collection by Mississippi writer Larry Brown. Arliss Howard directs and stars as Leon Barlow, a drunken writer who struggles with the demands of his ex-wife (Debra Winger), his children and his best friend (Paul LeMat). He is a failure on almost every level – certainly personally and professionally – and Howard doesn't shy away from his protagonist's shortcomings. The resulting film is a meandering look at the creative process, and how one man messed up his life. It's a well crafted directorial debut from Howard who handles this quiet tale of an artist's redemption with a firm hand.

Arliss Howard acts and directs in "Big Bad Love" which he co-produced with his wife, Debra Winger. Ms. Winger returns to the screen as the former spouse of Howard. She delivers a performance that made me regret her hiatus away from the set. From a starting point as a more or less typical divorced mother with kids she develops her character into a wrenching portrait of both strength and vulnerability.

In a series of illusions, hallucinations and surreal flashbacks, wounded Vietnam vet Leon (Howard) devotes his life to three endeavors: fiction writing, drinking and attempting, through the fog of alcohol, to be a dad to his little boy and girl. His rejection notices are so many that even after wallpapering a room with them he needs a fifty-five gallon oil drum next to his desk to hold the rest. Voiceovers read the letters which contain just about every cliche from the canon of editorial rejection imaginable.

Leon seems to be welded to beer cans - except when he hits the hooch for a change. I don't think anyone writes coherently when he's three sheets to the wind but this guy can.

As a dad he is both devoted and distracted, the often exasperating but permanent part of many a divorced mom's life.

The setting is a rural part of Mississippi that some reviewers have described as beautiful but which I found desolate and depressing (but that's my Gotham viewpoint, no insult intended to the locals portrayed in this film).

Arliss's character, Leon, has a strong friendship with Monroe, a buddy from combat. Unfortunately the lubricant for their relationship inevitably leads to big time trouble. Without excess sentimentality, the two friends navigate a small world that presents minor pleasures and real disappointments. The friendship is deep and real but with a touch of middle-aged regression to adolescence.

The acting here is as strong as the Mississippi drawl. There is little predicability beyond the reality that NOTHING will stop Arliss from writing and sending his many, many manuscripts off to faceless editors, apparently all or mostly in New York.

This film needs a strong word-of-mouth boost to get the audiences it deserves and it'll probably mostly be seen on VHS and DVD. Howard's and Winger's strong and affecting acting offer, I hope, promises for a renewed future for both in film.