Black Snake Moan?
Angel Heart (1987)
directed by Alan Parker
rating: 1 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
"Some religions think that the egg is the center of the soul, did you know that?"
"No, I didn't know that."
"Would you like an egg?"
"No, thank you. I've got a thing about chickens."
1987 is also the year that "Homeboy" Rourke starred in Barfly - pre- plastic surgery, pre- return to boxing Mickey. Angel Heart is no Barfly, but who would want it to be? Better, in fact, to run as far away from Bukowski as possible: a fantasy world where the devil catches up with a man who sold his soul but switched bodies with a shell-shocked soldier from World War II when the time came to collect. No allegories, no last-minute cop-out, plenty of 1950s upstate New York atmosphere.
Oh, and New Orleans. Goodness gracious is that when the vision goes wrong. Jazz funerals, Cosby cast-offs in see-through shifts, timid black musicians who jump at the chicken foot on the urinal. Where to begin? Robert De Niro trying to look menacing while eating a hard-boiled egg is one thing, but the slave revolt in Interview with the Vampire as blood-soaked orgy - one of dozens of racist miscalculations - even takes the pleasure out of mad-eyed Mickey. All of a sudden, he's just not there, and the fun drains away like dirty soap.
directed by Alan Parker
rating: 1 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
"Some religions think that the egg is the center of the soul, did you know that?"
"No, I didn't know that."
"Would you like an egg?"
"No, thank you. I've got a thing about chickens."
1987 is also the year that "Homeboy" Rourke starred in Barfly - pre- plastic surgery, pre- return to boxing Mickey. Angel Heart is no Barfly, but who would want it to be? Better, in fact, to run as far away from Bukowski as possible: a fantasy world where the devil catches up with a man who sold his soul but switched bodies with a shell-shocked soldier from World War II when the time came to collect. No allegories, no last-minute cop-out, plenty of 1950s upstate New York atmosphere.
Oh, and New Orleans. Goodness gracious is that when the vision goes wrong. Jazz funerals, Cosby cast-offs in see-through shifts, timid black musicians who jump at the chicken foot on the urinal. Where to begin? Robert De Niro trying to look menacing while eating a hard-boiled egg is one thing, but the slave revolt in Interview with the Vampire as blood-soaked orgy - one of dozens of racist miscalculations - even takes the pleasure out of mad-eyed Mickey. All of a sudden, he's just not there, and the fun drains away like dirty soap.
posted by NPK at 3:06 PM
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