Light Sleeper

Rating:
Summary: Good flick, great acting from Willem Dafoe
Review: Anyone who's seen Willem Dafoe onstage doesn't need to be convinced that the man is a great actor; unfortunately, his film career has been at best patchy. Light Sleeper's one of his best, though, and since Paul Schrader is a man who hasn't been allowed to make as many films as he deserved, it's a pleasure to see both on such good form.

It's one of Schrader's by now sort-of-trademarked studies in urban loneliness, out of noir via Bresson. Dafoe is beautifully quiet and understated as the drug-dealing hero, Sarandon is as excellent as ever and Dana Delany is extremely good as Dafoe's hapless, tragic ex-lover - a very pleasant surprise to one who hadn't been wildly impressed with her female-Alan-Alda trip on the interminable TV series China Beach. Just goes to show that you can mistake bad scripts for bad performances.

It has to be said the final scene is a rip-off twice over - not only is it almost identical to the final scene in American Gigolo, each are all but indistinguishable from the final scene in Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket" (and since Schrader's book "Transcendental Style in Film" was partly about Bresson, I think we can assume that a hommage of sorts is going on here.) Still, respect to Schrader for showing that there was fight in him yet. He went on to make the mighty "Affliction", so clearly the man is not yet ready to bow out. Even a sub-standard Schrader film (I'm thinking of "Patty Hearst") has a lot more soul and imagination than anything by Roland Emmerich.

Rating:
Summary: Willem Dafoe in good movie shocker!
Review: Anyone who's seen Willem Dafoe onstage doesn't need to be convinced that the man is a great actor; unfortunately, his film career has been at best patchy. Light Sleeper's one of his best, though, and since Paul Schrader is a man who hasn't been allowed to make as many films as he deserved, it's a pleasure to see both on such good form.

It's one of Schrader's by now sort-of-trademarked studies in urban loneliness, out of noir via Bresson. Dafoe is beautifully quiet and understated as the drug-dealing hero, Sarandon is as excellent as ever and Dana Delany is extremely good as Dafoe's hapless, tragic ex-lover - a very pleasant surprise to one who hadn't been wildly impressed with her female-Alan-Alda trip on the interminable TV series China Beach. Just goes to show that you can mistake bad scripts for bad performances.

It has to be said the final scene is a rip-off twice over - not only is it almost identical to the final scene in American Gigolo, each are all but indistinguishable from the final scene in Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket" (and since Schrader's book "Transcendental Style in Film" was partly about Bresson, I think we can assume that a hommage of sorts is going on here.) Still, respect to Schrader for showing that there was fight in him yet. He went on to make the mighty "Affliction", so clearly the man is not yet ready to bow out. Even a sub-standard Schrader film (I'm thinking of "Patty Hearst") has a lot more soul and imagination than anything by Roland Emmerich.

Rating:
Summary: Perennial
Review: I can watch this film at the drop of a hat and not mind that I've seen it a million times. It's not my favourite film, and I have more than a few criticisms of it, but overall, it's one that I'm glad I own.

The acting is fine--Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe always are--and Dany Delany does a credible job, but the real star is the screenplay, which was written by the director Paul Schrader. It's endlessly quotable, realistic, funny, and at times thought-provoking.

The soundtrack is marred by having the same no-name singer (who's trying so desperately to ape Bryan Ferry) all throughout--and I thought Vonda Sheppard was lousy--but the incidental music is nice.

Completely overlooked, and well worth the rental.

Rating:
Summary: Perennial
Review: I can watch this film at the drop of a hat and not mind that I've seen it a million times. It's not my favourite film, and I have more than a few criticisms of it, but overall, it's one that I'm glad I own.

The acting is fine--Susan Sarandon and Willem Dafoe always are--and Dany Delany does a credible job, but the real star is the screenplay, which was written by the director Paul Schrader. It's endlessly quotable, realistic, funny, and at times thought-provoking.

The soundtrack is marred by having the same no-name singer (who's trying so desperately to ape Bryan Ferry) all throughout--and I thought Vonda Sheppard was lousy--but the incidental music is nice.

Completely overlooked, and well worth the rental.

Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT CINEMATIC PERFECTION
Review: Paul Schrader has created a moving,startlingly good film,worthy of Taxi Driver. An incredible script, shots carefully framed like oil paintings, and exciting performances by Willem Dafoe,Susan Sarandon and Dana Delany make this one of the best Bressonian efforts from Schrader, a true film artist.

Rating:
Summary: Good flick, great acting from Willem Dafoe
Review: This is a pretty good movie about a drug dealer with a conscience. I enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but felt that the script and storyline struggled at points. In one instance, Dafoe's character relates "White drugs for white people". Also, Dana Delaney puts in a good performance but definitely second to Dafoe's - her performance is not quite complete, and I was left feeling as though the film just had that extra something missing. Still, Dafoe does enough subtle things with his character to make the movie worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Poetic,atmospheric...a must see.
Review: This is the story of a drug dealer(brilliantly played by Dafoe)wanting to go straight and his relationships with his partner(played by the one and only Susan Sarandon)and a woman from his past.This may sound very banal but Paul Schrader's take on this story-most of the action is at night-is nothing short of inspired.There is also a certain degree of suspense in this nocturnal story as the character played by Willem Dafoe struggles to embrace his elusive dreams;also,the portrayal of the relationship between Dafoe and Sarandon's characters as potentially erotic is brilliant making this an above average and thrilling urban drama.

Rating:
Summary: ADEQUATE, BUT DEFINATELY NOT SCHRADERS BEST
Review: This isnt a great movie, but its worth watching. Paul Schrader misses on this one. At certain points the movie hits dead on, but the rest off it just plain dies. All the actors do a great job, but the story and pace lag and falter at times. Technically, some of the scenes are great, particularly the end conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: "It's cologne. I'm a sucker for that airplane stuff."
Review: This movie really is a mixed bag. I'd been looking for it for years, and I suppose expectations had far exceeded the actual film. Paul Schrader never fails to deliver in terms of gritty reality with some actual morals ("Taxi Driver", of course, is the best example), so maybe I expected another "Taxi".

The amazing thing about this film is the sharp, sharp contrast between the plot and the way the characters act. William Dafoe plays a drugdealer, and Susan Sarandon plays his main connection, but at no point do we see either of them as villains. Eating Chinese, yucking it up, laughing with one another about the old days and certain forms of art, there are moments when you think you're watching a sitcom rather than a movie about a guy with a vendetta trying to climb out of the sewer of dealing/addiction.

John (Dafoe's character) has some real bright shiny moments, and I'm not kidding. It's like he's the Mr. Rogers of drugdealers. This fat guy is whigging out on coke and crystal meth and Dafoe goes, "I remember when your wife was here, when you had a life. Come on". What is he, a drug counselor? The jazz music just don't work as well as it did in "Taxi", because nothing is really going on that seems all that dreadful.

There is a reality check, however, amongst the "Friends" atmosphere the film creates. Dafoe's former lover, who now shuns him, gets strung out after her mother dies and jump off a hotel balcony owned by one of Susan Sarandon's customers. Hence Dafoe's decision to buy a gun.

I have to say I've never seen anything quite like this. It manages to turn drugdealers into characters from "Today's Special". It doesn't glorify it or not glorify it. You have to see this movie to believe it.



Rating:
Summary: Humane
Review: Unusual in the usual world of American movie theater. Thought provoking and very consequential, certainly not unpredictable but somehow enriching and very humane. The characters of drug dealers turn out to be very likeable and egzistential.
There are many weaknesses in this plot - violent end seems to be repeating "Taxi Driver" but it is more like "Crime And Punishment," nevertheless it is very simplistic. Drug dealer is apparently more of a character of Paul Schreader than a realistic immersion into the psyche of a drug dealer. Main characters narates too much as if we have a problem to understand his actions, unneccessary in my view. And there is a genuine bad guy to create the vent for the eventual explosion at the end. He is reduced, reduced to inhumanity as if to underline the humanity of others that some of us would have a trouble accepting. All in all a lot of weak places and yet because these types of intelligent movies are so rare, it is so much beyond the usual Holywood entertainment sewer.