Movie Details
| Title: | Something Wild | |
| Director: | Jonathan Demme | |
| Year: | 1986 | |
| Genre: | Drama | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.09.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- The Manchurian Candidate
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.09.24 | Blu-ray | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2024 Day Two! As has become custom, today will be another edition of Criterion Random Roll. The thought here is I have a bunch of Criterion discs that I bought with good intentions but have failed to get watched over the years. Some are DVD, some are Blu, all have yet to be watched. Some of them I bought because I felt like I "should" see them, others I do want to watch but my habits never draw me to the physical shelves anymore, still others are worthwhile views but something makes them difficult to decide to watch. So this is a way to force my way through that section of my shelf via rolling dice. I have them sorted by spine number and whatever position I roll I have to watch. This year, the list is down to four! That means that I will watch all these movies today, it's just a matter of which order. Nine years ago I started this experiment with 30 films on the shelf. Now I'm down to four! The end is in sight! Let's do this! --- roll: 3 spine: 563 This is one of those movies I should've seen a long time ago but it just fell through the cracks. I wonder if this is the first of this micro-genre of uptight guy meeting manic pixie dream girl who injects chaos and excitement into his staid life. Madonna did it to Griffin Dunne, Sandra Bullock did it to Ben Affleck, Jen Anniston did it to Ben Stiller, Zooey Deschanel did it to Jim Carrey, even Strange Darling plays on the genre trope but I think my favorite take is a 90s Tom DiCillo movie called Box of Moonlight where John Turturro gets lured by a mixtape even though Catherine Keener and Sam Rockwell and several others also help him along so it's not always the allure of sex with a wild woman is the catalyst... although... I mean... mostly it is. And who could argue with 1986 Melanie Griffith right? There's a shot when she gets in her car and she hikes her dress up to give her legs some room and we see the tops of her stockings and that's it. We're along for the ride just like Jeff Daniels is. Super young Jeff Daniels, super young Ray Liotta, and not-too-young Melanie Griffith are all so electric on camera. Blue eyes everywhere. Also though, I think even more than the actors, I feel an excitement from Jonathan Demme. The little bit of New York City fits right into that golden era of NYC character but then the movie becomes a road trip and we see New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Virginia. We see Daniels' life really take a vacation as he's swept up by Griffith's charisma, but she's a super chic east village new wave musical taste girl so the car radio is always some top-form reggae or David Byrne or X track. It's such an interesting facet of 80s music that things can be so Valley Girl new romantics synth pop stuff but it can also be so many other things. The music here is credited to John Cale and Laurie Anderson which is just... crazy. It's a version of 1986 that is so much cooler than many others. And of course, I think the reason why this movie's on criterion is Ray Liotta. The movie takes such a tonal shift as soon as he appears. You see the menace in his eyes. It's a party that goes on too long, or when the weed stops and the coke comes out, or when shit gets real. I bet it was even more of a shock based on the poster and trailer for the film. I kinda knew it was coming but I still felt it when it happened. God I loved the dog on the motorcycle. There's so much vibrance and character on display around the edges of the frame. Kids on bikes, shopkeepers with a Sherlock pipe, the gas station attendant that dresses Daniels in a Virginia is for Lovers t-shirt, New Yawkers gabbing in the restaurant, they all complete every frame as a painting. So I thought this was great. Lots of talent showing what they got, even for the story being potentially archetypal for what was to come there were still lots of interesting twists and moments augmented completely by the performances. Plus it's got Charles Napier playing "Irate Chef." So many movies would be improved by the inclusion of Irate Chef. ok, the day's gotten behind me. Gotta bust these next ones out before I fall asleep. Next! |
