Unsavory Characters
Picture:
C+ Sound: C- Extras: C Film: C-
From the
mock cover to casting, Richard W. Haines’ Unsavory
Characters (2001) seems to have a serious beef with the film version of L.A. Confidential (1997), but it
actually begins with black and white sequences.
Event he title is a mockery of the tradition of who we would find in old
Detective and Film Noir films, but this film is much more playful than
thematically or visually dark.
The Kim
Basinger would-be femme fatale is played by Jacqueline Bowman, while we get a
writer named Archer (Eric Leffler) who has to deal with her. It rips off whatever is convenient form the
time it was made (Usual Suspects,
for example) and becomes a waste of time.
Unfortunately, it is not a point, though it begins in 1950. Noir is about something, but this film is
not. The 1950 piece turns out to be very
limited, as does the film. To try to
explain the film is pointless, because between avoiding spoiling any
“surprises” and separating this from all its imitators, life is just too
short. I felt that after finishing the
film.
To do
either genre is not easy, though this is far too new, light, and pointless to
be anywhere in the neighborhood of a Noir.
That leaves the Detective angle, which is very disappointing. Haines has said that he is trying to make
films without a political point or any other kind of point, but there is no
such thing. As obvious from his other
films, he does not take filmmaking too seriously and when he is doing silly
subjects, no problem. When it comes to a
type of storytelling with a point, everything backfires. Even the cheesiest films he liked in any
category he tackled were not this bored onto themselves.
The
letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is above average, with the black and white looking
more like the commercial stock used by Spielberg in Schindler’s List then in a Noir, while the color looks aged. The Dream
Sequence Always Rings Twice episode of Moonlighting
played better than this and it was less than half its length, but that is also
another source for this rip-off. The
image also lacks detail throughout. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 is oddly monophonic and very, very low in volume as they
stand on the DVD. Extras include stills,
a trailer, and another interesting commentary by Haines that again exceeds his
film.
I have
seen Haines writing in The Perfect Vision Magazine, and he has been a force in
restoring films, and I still cannot believe he knows so much about film, but
just wants to do these passive works.
Films like Unsavory Characters
are an acquired taste form a filmmaker that truly knows the world, but not the
music. At least his non-fiction writing
is inarguable, for the most part. The
problem is that his execution of filmmaking is far too elementary and is only
good for the most absolutely casual of viewers, yet I still want to see more,
in case he makes something I like.
- Nicholas Sheffo
