A Texas Funeral (1999) - Stars shine in Herron's under-seen and underrated dramedy

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+ Best Box Office Disaster + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best Texas Movie of the Year + Most Under-Appreciated Movie of the Year  

 

A Camel and an old Buick on the flat plains of Texas on this sepia-toned poster for William Blake Herron's A Texas Funeral

The patriarch of the Whit family has past away, so the family gather in the house in Texas around the time of the funeral with their time there and engagement with the old man's will laying bare some secrets, resentments and envies - among the family's virtues.

A Texas Funeral is written and directed by great Illinoisan filmmaker William Blake Herron (Skin Art (1993)).

It is a refreshing, thoroughly well-made, Texan yarn, which both has the child's perspective (the boy is enormously well acted by Quinton Jones (Walker, Texas Ranger (2001, TV-series))) on the incidents in the strange family, along with adult issues concerning race, wealth, abortion and sexuality. From being a realistic drama about a colorful family, A Texas Funeral turns into a condensed boiler-room type story in the vein of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), when all the characters stay together one night, but it is still managed to feel natural, when dawn breaks, and Herron ties several very satisfying ends together on his funny and moving, worldly story.

There's outstanding performances from the fine cast: Robert Patrick (Kill Speed (2010)), Chris Noth (Crossing Jordan (2001, TV-series)), Grace Zabriskie (Psycho Sushi (1997)), Jane Adams (Wonder Boys (2000)), Isaiah Washington (Hurricane Season (2009)), Martin Sheen (Badlands (1973)); and particularly Patrick and Sheen are masterly. Michael Bonvillain (Felicity (1999-01)) has done the excellent photography. A Texas Funeral is a thoroughly pleasurable nightcap kind of movie.

 

Related post:

 

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Watch a 2-minute scene with Chris Noth from the film here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain - likely a box office disaster

[A Texas Funeral premiered 7 September (Venice Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in October 1998 - ? in Texas. It was released in Italy and Germany in 2000 and 2001, and it is unclear whether the film was ever released more widely than at a couple of minor film festivals in the US. Its gross is unreported. Most likely this points to the independent film being a box office disaster. Herron withdrew from directing but did return as a screenwriter with The Bourne Identity (2002). Patrick returned in The Angry Beavers (1999, TV-series) and theatrically in Shogun Cop (1999); Sheen in 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in A Stranger in the Kingdom (1999). 678 IMDb users have given A Texas Funeral a 6.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of A Texas Funeral?

Galaxy of Terror (1981) - Clark and Corman's delightful space-set gore-fest

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Incredible monsters with sharp fangs and teeth are closing in on a buxom, almost nude blonde on this amazing drawn and colored poster for Bruce D. Clark's Galaxy of Terror

A spaceship full of astronauts hole up on a mysterious planet, where an alien, homicidal life form has its home.

Galaxy of Terror is written by Marc Siegler (The Ski Bum (1971)) and co-writer/director Bruce D. Clark (Naked Angels (1969)).

Cinephiles such as myself will answer "yes, please!" to any Roger Corman (The Fantastic Four (1994)) production from this period, which even has Robert Englund (Hunter (1985, TV-series)) and Grace Zabriski (Dante's View (1998)) onboard, but what is Galaxy of Terror exactly?

It is an Alien (1979) rip-off with paper-thin, distinctive characters. It has romance, a notorious rape by monster worm (!), lots of gore and shouting and petty quarrels, and an ending that is out of sync sound-wise. It is an entertaining mess. The ending shows the fear-based, shape-shifting monster now confusingly shaped as an older character... Galaxy of Terror is awkward and (for the right audience) so much fun.

Watch a 'crossover' (?) trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.8 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 4 mil. $

= Some uncertainty but seemingly a flop (returned 2.22 times its cost)

[Galaxy of Terror was released in October (USA) and runs 81 minutes. Shooting took place in March 1981 - ? in California, including Los Angeles. Later master filmmaker James Cameron impressed Corman as the film's production designer and second unit director with ingenious solutions such as electrocuting maggots for the wiggling effect! Corman himself directed the controversial worm sex scene with Taafe O'Connell and a body double. Short shots of the scene of worm rape (resulting in an orgasm so strong that it kills the character!) were cut out to appease the US censors and avoid an X rating. In other countries the scene was cut entirely. Whether the 4 mil. $ listed gross only covers North America or the entire world is uncertain. Clark never wrote or directed films again, but turned to a short producing career, beginning with Journey to Spirit Island (1988). Edward Albert (Invasion America (1998, TV series short)) returned in The Littlest Hobo (1981, TV-series)), Today's F.B.I. (1982, TV-series and theatrically in A Time to Die (1982); Erin Moran (Bearcats! (1971, TV-series)) in 7 TV-series prior to her theatrical return in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003) as herself; and Ray Walston (The Sting (1973)) in 4 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in O'Hara's Wife (1984). Galaxy of Terror is rotten at 31 % with a 4.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Galaxy of Terror?

Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) - Cage, cast and LA shine in wonderful Bruckheimer vehicle

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Nicolas Cage's intense stare, Angelina Jolie's sexpot stare and a promise of speed work their magic on this poster for Dominic Sena's Gone in 60 Seconds

When his little brother finds himself in really deep trouble, Los Angeles premier ex-car thief, Memphis, is forced to tread backwards and drive him out of his morass; by stealing 50 cars in one night - without getting caught!

Gone in 60 Seconds is written by Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity (2000)) and directed by Dominic Sena (Kalifornia (1993)), loosely remaking the 1974 mega-hit indie movie of the same name.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer's (Chase (2010-11)) largesse is here perfectly combined with Nicolas Cage's (Bangkok Dangerous (2008)) larger-than-life showmanship, coupled with an ensemble cast with James Duvall (Mission Possible (2018)), Robert Duvall (The Conversation (1974)), Grace Zabriskie (George B. (1997)), Scott Caan (In Enemy Hands (2004)), Angelina Jolie (Playing God (1997)), Delroy Lindo (The Core (2003)), Timothy Olyphant (Meet Bill (2007)) and more. Marvelous car chases en masse and a fairly amusing script, which runs like a masterclass in structure and brother mythology, helps rev the entertaining Gone in 60 Seconds into the 6th gear.

Cage gives an interview about the film here

Cost: 90 - 103.3 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 237.2 mil. $

= Minor flop or box office success (returned between 2.29 - 2.63 times its cost)

[Gone in 60 Seconds premiered 5 June (Los Angeles) and runs 118 minutes. Development began in 1995. Shooting took place in Ontario and in California, including Los Angeles, from May - October 1999. The film opened #1 to a 25.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top % (#2-#4) and grossed 101.6 mil. $ (42.8 % of the total gross). While the film's Box Office Mojo site claims a 90 mil. $, a Slate.com article claims the 103.3 mil. $ number, (which could hint to the film going 13.3 mil. $ over budget), and the numbers make the difference between whether the film ranks as a minor flop or a box office success theatrically. It likely made a healthy pile of money on secondary markets. Roger Ebert gave it a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches harder than this one. Sena returned with Swordfish (2001). Cage returned in The Family Man (2000). Gone in 60 Seconds is rotten at 26 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Gone in 60 Seconds?

Inland Empire (2006) - Dern stands out in Lynch's nightmarish art film epic

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+ Best Art Film of the Year + Best Character Study of the Year + Best Comeback Actress of the Year: Laura Dern

The brights lights of Los Angeles are glamorous on top, - but below lies terrifying darkness. - So this powerful poster for David Lynch's Inland Empire seems to infer

Hollywood star Nikki Grace wins a lead in a new movie, which, however, turns out to actually be a remake of an old, cursed film, which was never completed in the past.

Inland Empire is written and directed as the 10th feature from Montanan master filmmaker David Lynch (The Straight Story (1999)). It may well be Lynch's last major theatrical work, if we choose not to count Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014), which is made up of deleted scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).
Laura Dern (F Is for Family (2015-17)) gives a lead performance which deserves praise; fearless and deeply disquieting, it leads us on the epic excursion into a reality that in both fascinating and deeply disturbing ways crackles down for our protagonist. We sense that we are moving in clearly defined story universes in Inland Empire, which are merely presented mystically and in inexplicable ways to us. In this way the film is never pretentious nonsense, (although Lynch novices may think so and are therefore adviced against beginning their journey into the man's body of work with this particular film.)
SPOILER A very specific criticism: There is a scene in Inland Empire of Dern relating stuff to a man with glasses, which is simply too long.
If this turns out to be the last real movie in Lynch's oeuvre, it somehow seems fitting, since Inland Empire must be the most radical, strange and unsettling film of his since his debut, Eraserhead (1977). Both are fiercely original and rare works that require a lot from their audiences and deserve several revisits. Inland Empire is truly an art film, which at times resembles a performance or an exhibited art piece; it has unforgettably unpleasant scenes and an eccentric and original ugly video aesthetic.

Related posts:

David Lynch: Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World 

Dune (1984) - Lynch heads to space, with an (unsurprisingly) strange result

Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

The Elephant Man (1980) - Lynch's deeply moving second feature

Eraserhead (1977) - Lynch's extraordinary, unconquerably strange and surreal debut

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 4 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Inland Empire premiered 6 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 180 minutes. Lynch co-financed the film himself, (he has only revealed that it had a budget of under 100 mil. $), and shot it over a 3-year period in California, including Los Angeles, and in Poland, - without a script. The actors were given pages of freshly written dialog on the day of shooting them and never knew exactly what Inland Empire was about. It was shot with a Sony digital camcorder by Lynch himself, - the first time he has worked in digital video instead of film. He also edited it himself and stayed involved in its distribution. It opened #52 to a 27k $ first weekend in North America in 2 theaters, where it peaked #44 and in 15 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed 861k $. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 609k $ and the UK with 542k $. It was likely made for somewhere between 1-5 mil. $, but that span is too great to establish whether it was a theatrical hit or flop. Lynch campaigned for Dern to be nominated for the Best Actress Oscar without luck. The film did win an award in Venice. Lynch has stated on the occasion of his Twin Peaks revival season (2017) that he had made his last feature. In between the two major projects, he has made at least 26 short films. Dern returned in Year of the Dog (2007). Inland Empire is fresh at 73 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Inland Empire?