Jeffrey Overstreet - Looking Closer

Snatch (2000)

Snatch reminds me of arrogant basketball superstar Dennis Rodman. It's all attitude, flashy tattoos, muscling about, amoral, foul-mouthed, and it has a rather disturbing connection to Madonna.

Director Guy Ritchie, Madonna's new husband, delivered us the best of the Pulp Fiction wanna-be's, a little crime caper called Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels just a couple of years ago. That stylish, hyperviolent film was like a big cartoon. In it, small, dumb, young men made a bad gamble and got stuck in power plays between big, dumb, malevolent villains. We cared about these poor souls because they were just naive and stupid, and really needed a chance to learn their lesson and go on with their lives, but the major nasties chasing them were like wild dogs. Lots of blood was shed, and somehow the heroes slipped through it all right, in a catastrophic collision of accidents, coincidences, and close-calls that kept us gasping, wincing, and laughing. While the movie was too indulgently violent for me to give it much of a recommendation, I appreciated how its storytelling worked like a well-wound watch, and that it had a conscience (however feeble.)

Snatch is like a remake of Lock, Stock with the moral backbone ripped out of it and the style turned up several notches.

To paraphrase its impossibly tangled multiple plotlines: two brothers get involved in illegal unlicensed boxing where the fights are rigged. When they find out that their fighter is unable to fight, they know that their boss, a tough-talking old godfather of the underworld, is going to have their heads. More accurately, he might feed them to his wild dogs.

Just in time they discover another fighter, a gypsy boy (Brad Pitt) whose accent is so garbled no one can understand him. Meanwhile, a jewel heist has taken place and the chief thief (Benicio Del Toro) decides to go gambling, only to lose track of the enormous diamond he stole. The men who hired him to steal the whopping diamond are displeased, and the obnoxious American (Dennis Farina) who wants the lost rock decides to come to London and get things sorted out. Sure enough, everybody gets involved in one giant confusing dance of violence, misunderstandings, and revenge vendettas.

This time, Ritchie can't strike a good balance between madcap comedy and hard-hitting suspense. There are still cartoon qualities to it. Most characters speak in quick memorable quips and go by a nickname. They're all attitude, bravado, and varying levels of trigger-happy. Watching them is like watching a scavenger hunt in which criminals are given free-reign of the town and a license to kill.

Unfortunately, this time there's no one to root for. There's nobody learning anything, or trying to do the right thing. They all qualify as arrogant selfish men, arrogant violent men, stupid arrogant men, violent stupid men, or selfish violent arrogant stupid men, etc.... The only prominent woman character is the protective mother of the gypsy boxer, and we are led to care for her... which seems almost unfair. Everything around her is so outrageous that, when misfortune comes her way, we can't take it very seriously, even though the movie suddenly turns serious and asks us to become emotionally involved.

I walked away from Snatch feeling battered by violence and disappointed in its lack of redeeming qualities. I enjoyed the hilarious but brief appearances of Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro. And nobody makes tough talk sound better than Dennis Farina, who set the standard in Midnight Run long ago. But I hoped to see Ritchie become a more skilled director, and hoped he would find something more interesting and profound to say. Instead, he has created something rather like the favorite pastime of this movie's most malevolent villain... throwing wild dogs into a pit and watching them fight until there's only one left standing.

by Jeffrey Overstreet

Wonder Boys (2000)

Mel Gibson, take note. Harrison Ford, look at this very very closely. You needn't stay in the narrow confines of your past roles. You can step out. You can break new ground. You can re-invent yourself and remain interesting. Paul Newman did it, in The Hudsucker Proxy and Nobody's Fool after all. And now Michael Douglas had done it.

For years, Douglas has been our most dependable sleaze-ball, a suit-and-tie mephistopheles with a flair for dangerous women and big money. Hopefully, those days are gone for good. Douglas has found a new character, a challenging role, and he's made it the most interesting and engaging character he's ever played. And Wonder Boys may be the best film to bear his name in the credits. It took some humility and good humor to play Professor Grady Tripp. The performance shows Douglas aging gracefully... and willingly, an accomplishment that only a couple of famous leading men — namely, Newman and Gene Hackman — have achieved in recent years.

by Jeffrey Overstreet

On Silence: Reinsma Reviews the Best Novel I've Read This Year

I finished reading Shusaku Endo's Silence a few months ago, and there hasn't been a day that's passed since then that the book hasn't haunted me.

I highly recommend that you add it to your must-read list.Read more

by Jeffrey Overstreet

Who Will Stand Up for The Incredibles?

No mainstream American film this year has earned a higher combination of critical acclaim and audience enthusiasm than The Incredibles.

So, why isn't the film in the National Board of Review's Top Ten of 2004?

Do they consider a film that can impress all ages to be unsophisticated?

What could possibly be the reason?Read more

by Jeffrey Overstreet

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

This review was originally published at Christianity Today in December 2004.

You won't find the word father on the résumé of Steve Zissou.

That's because Zissou, an inventive seafaring documentarian, has been too caught up in his own self-perpetuating mythology to settle down and raise a family. But every dream has its price, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, director Wes Anderson's latest melancho-medy, is the story of a visionary who must reckon with the temporality, and the cost, of his dreams. The ambitious captain of the Belafonte is clearly past his prime. Cracks are spreading through his reputation as a trustworthy scientist. He's burdened by tragedy. And he's struggling to maintain his few important relationships. Life is proving more difficult to "direct" than the movies he makes with his crew. He'll either sink under the weight of life's disappointments, or be lifted up by an unexpected blessing.Read more

by Jeffrey Overstreet