Sean-Penn Movie Reviews

Viggo Mortenson breaks my heart every time I watch his character, Frankie Roberts, in his brother Joe's car--the night after his violent binge. Frankie's final monologue, a drunken, self-righteous ramble about elementary school math class and the tooth fairy (among other things), is extraordinarily strange and comprehensible. Throughout the film, Mortenson dares his brother and his wife to love him, as he spews abuse (and peas) in their faces. Not only do they continue to love this pitiful monster, but we do, too. In a perfect world, Mortenson and David Morse would have shared the Best Actor Oscar in 1991 (Anthony Hopkins can win any year he wants to) and Sean Penn would have won Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Jack Nitchze's soundtrack and the late-'60s--early '70s song selections perfectly complement the tone of this masterpiece. Midway through the film, Penn and his editor Jay Cassidy give us a scene that astonishes in its bold craftsmanship and beauty. This scene includes David Morse, Patricia Arquette, Viggo Mortenson, Charles Bronson, and some poor schmoe at his Hawaiian-style birthday party (L.M. Kit Carson, I think)--living out their lives in different parts of the Midwest over the course of one night while a singer croons over the soundtrack. One of them will soon kill himself; another goes on a crime spree; one loses his sportscar; another waits by the phone. This is maverick filmmaking, and it leaves you breathless! The scene is played without dialogue, but you still learn so much about the characters through their facial expressions and reactions.

If Sean Penn had never made another movie, he would deserve to be named among the top 10 directors of the '90s for the 127 minutes of no-compromise-storytelling he demonstrates in The Indian Runner. I will never miss another one of his films.

Obviously, this is not a happy film but it is still surprisingly touching and that's largely because of the cast -- the majority of whom have never been better and for that, I give full credit to director Penn. While its obvious, at times, that he still has a bit to learn about pacing, it is also obvious that Penn knows how to get great performances out of his actors. Mortensen, playing a role that could have easily become a flat villian, is quite simply amazing. Even as it becomes clear that this is not someone you'd feel safe living next to, the viewer still can't help but feel an amazing empathy for this fractured human being. Penn, as director and writer, is actually willing to take the time to allow Mortensen to become a real, flawed human being. David Morse, always underrated, is much more low-key than Mortensen but no less compelling. He makes his love for his brother both believable and real and it adds a truly tragic air to his efforts to protect Mortensen. However, for me, the film's most shocking revelation is Charles Bronson, cast here as Mortensen and Morse's father. After several decades worth of films where Bronson was basically a blank slate, Bronson is a revelation here. As the father, Bronson becomes a tragic, haunting father and -- and here's the shocking part for those of us who have seen the Death Wish films -- is actually believably human and vulnerable. His final emotional scene is heart breaking -- largely because of Bronson's own performance.

As I said before, this is a flawed film -- mostly in terms of pace. Sometimes, Penn does seem to be insecure about his directorial and writing choices -- as if he's straining to make sure no one misses the point. But these flaws are honestly just nitpicking. I give this film five stars because it heralded the arrival of Sean Penn as an important director and it featured some of the best acting I have ever seen in my life.

IF YOU LIKE SNL YOU'LL PROBABLY LIKE: SNL 25 YEARS OF LAUGHS (ANNIVERSARY DVD) I RENTED IT AND WATCHED IT 3 TIMES, AND YES IT DOES HAVE CARVEY IN IT!!

My remarks toward this picture
Coming-of-age sagas are frequently burdened with threat, especially because the genre has been so overworked and even pulverized into cliché. Yet young filmmaker, John Fawcett, pulls off a coup with this hip and arresting drama that's full of spit and attitude, and is relentlessly in your face, whether you like it or not. The Genie-nominated, first-time Toronto director, working from Genie-nominated writer, Peter Wellington's edgy, intellectual script, re-invigorates the genre with panache.

He does so by balancing climactic suspenseful elements with authentic human insights. He does it with a first-rate cast, led by Chris Penn as a psychotic cop killer badly affected by a grim childhood who, when he had reached his breaking point, I guess you could say in a sense, had me on the edge of my seat till I was fully assured that he was conquered-such riveting performance was that compelling. A performance so compelling, it earned him a nomination as Best Actor at the 1996 Genie Awards. Here, Penn really delivers his finest since co-starring in Abel Ferrara's elegiac gangster film, The Funeral. (Even the title itself screams of great mourning for that which is irrecoverably past.)

The three youths played by our rising young stars are at loose ends during a teachers' strike that has closed down their small Ontario town's high school. The three friends, who dispute because their social and intellectual instincts tug in three dramatically different directions, find themselves in a quandary one afternoon as they head toward their secluded shack deep into the wilderness where the pressures of growing up do not have to be faced; however, that severely wounded and yet armed stranger in whom they discover hiding out inside may just be their ticket to real adventure. Overriding common sense, they decide to help the stranger, who we find out is named Luke, rather than report the incident to the police.

"If you want something, you just take it, and then it's yours," Luke says, and they do, and they love it. They get themselves into trouble and the thought of getting themselves in insubordinate acts excites them. (spoiler) What is so clever with regards to this piece is that, even when, through the audiences' eyes, we want to wail out the words: Wake up, stupid! when one of our teen heroes is about to make a mistake in judgment, the Fawcett-Wellington team make those mistakes understandable. We sympathize. We comprehend. We're involved.

The ambivalence and complexity of the struggle are why The Boys Club has accurately been called a cross between Stand By Me and River's Edge, two landmark films that explored teen anguish with a piercing intelligence, never pandering to the youths or condescending them.

Fawcett walks the same wobbly tightrope, even if The Boys Club remains as a modest film, at least, in scale, that will not gain the notoriety of either Stand By Me or River's Edge.

On the other hand, Penn is a towering force, a raging bull-of-a-catalyst in our teen protagonists' lives. Dominic Zomprogna-being the one to play the part of Kyle-perfectly essays the confused youth torn between intellect and impulse; Stuart Stone, who plays the part of Brad, is a terrific counterbalance as the practical one, while the charismatic Devon Sawa-a dead ringer for Leonardo DiCaprio-is pure feral instinct. (According to Sawa, his character in the film, whose name is Eric, is so unlike himself that it really puts his acting skills to the test. The Boys Club has generally been his most challenging film yet, and yet he passes with flying colors.) Nicholas Campbell provides a compellingly sad-sophisticated portrayal of Kyle's father.

Their personalities mix, the deeming of both their feud and friendship bond and the palpable danger of the narrative ups the emotional stakes. (spoiler)
The Boys Club is not at all just kids' play. It is an inexorable and deeply powerful film that tests friendships and human insight, and yet it doesn't ever overdraw upon a single factor that would diminish it from being the masterpiece that is, because that's precisely what it is despite of the fact that it was shot as a Canadian film on a skin-and-bones budget, will not be released in most countries-which is a shame-and was shown at only a few theaters in Canada. (Mind you, it, however, is available on VHS and DVD in, aside from Canada, Australia and the U.S. as well.)

The Boys Club, although the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was-for I have now watched it so many times, that it has reached an extent where the amount can no longer be counted anymore-it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; but, in addition, because, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, it instantaneously drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I merely had a VCR-a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered both my experience and outlook upon movie-viewing.

The Boys Club, though the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was, it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; in addition, because it, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I only had a VCR, a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered my outlook upon movie-viewing.

My remarks toward this picture
Coming-of-age sagas are frequently burdened with threat, especially because the genre has been so overworked and even pulverized into cliché. Yet young filmmaker, John Fawcett, pulls off a coup with this hip and arresting drama that's full of spit and attitude, and is relentlessly in your face, whether you like it or not. The Genie-nominated, first-time Toronto director, working from Genie-nominated writer, Peter Wellington's edgy, intellectual script, re-invigorates the genre with panache.

He does so by balancing climactic suspenseful elements with authentic human insights. He does it with a first-rate cast, led by Chris Penn as a psychotic cop killer badly affected by a grim childhood who, when he had reached his breaking point, I guess you could say in a sense, had me on the edge of my seat till I was fully assured that he was conquered-such riveting performance was that compelling. A performance so compelling, it earned him a nomination as Best Actor at the 1996 Genie Awards. Here, Penn really delivers his finest since co-starring in Abel Ferrara's elegiac gangster film, The Funeral. (Even the title itself screams of great mourning for that which is irrecoverably past.)

The three youths played by our rising young stars are at loose ends during a teachers' strike that has closed down their small Ontario town's high school. The three friends, who dispute because their social and intellectual instincts tug in three dramatically different directions, find themselves in a quandary one afternoon as they head toward their secluded shack deep into the wilderness where the pressures of growing up do not have to be faced; however, that severely wounded and yet armed stranger in whom they discover hiding out inside may just be their ticket to real adventure. Overriding common sense, they decide to help the stranger, who we find out is named Luke, rather than report the incident to the police.

"If you want something, you just take it, and then it's yours," Luke says, and they do, and they love it. They get themselves into trouble and the thought of getting themselves in insubordinate acts excites them. (spoiler) What is so clever with regards to this piece is that, even when, through the audiences' eyes, we want to wail out the words: Wake up, stupid! when one of our teen heroes is about to make a mistake in judgment, the Fawcett-Wellington team make those mistakes understandable. We sympathize. We comprehend. We're involved.

The ambivalence and complexity of the struggle are why The Boys Club has accurately been called a cross between Stand By Me and River's Edge, two landmark films that explored teen anguish with a piercing intelligence, never pandering to the youths or condescending them.

Fawcett walks the same wobbly tightrope, even if The Boys Club remains as a modest film, at least, in scale, that will not gain the notoriety of either Stand By Me or River's Edge.

On the other hand, Penn is a towering force, a raging bull-of-a-catalyst in our teen protagonists' lives. Dominic Zomprogna-being the one to play the part of Kyle-perfectly essays the confused youth torn between intellect and impulse; Stuart Stone, who plays the part of Brad, is a terrific counterbalance as the practical one, while the charismatic Devon Sawa-a dead ringer for Leonardo DiCaprio-is pure feral instinct. (According to Sawa, his character in the film, whose name is Eric, is so unlike himself that it really puts his acting skills to the test. The Boys Club has generally been his most challenging film yet, and yet he passes with flying colors.) Nicholas Campbell provides a compellingly sad-sophisticated portrayal of Kyle's father.

Their personalities mix, the deeming of both their feud and friendship bond and the palpable danger of the narrative ups the emotional stakes. (spoiler)
The Boys Club is not at all just kids' play. It is an inexorable and deeply powerful film that tests friendships and human insight, and yet it doesn't ever overdraw upon a single factor that would diminish it from being the masterpiece that is, because that's precisely what it is despite of the fact that it was shot as a Canadian film on a skin-and-bones budget, will not be released in most countries-which is a shame-and was shown at only a few theaters in Canada. (Mind you, it, however, is available on VHS and DVD in, aside from Canada, Australia and the U.S. as well.)

The Boys Club, although the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was-for I have now watched it so many times, that it has reached an extent where the amount can no longer be counted anymore-it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; but, in addition, because, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, it instantaneously drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I merely had a VCR-a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered both my experience and outlook upon movie-viewing.

The Boys Club, though the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was, it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; in addition, because it, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I only had a VCR, a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered my outlook upon movie-viewing.

My remarks toward this picture
Coming-of-age sagas are frequently burdened with threat, especially because the genre has been so overworked and even pulverized into cliché. Yet young filmmaker, John Fawcett, pulls off a coup with this hip and arresting drama that's full of spit and attitude, and is relentlessly in your face, whether you like it or not. The Genie-nominated, first-time Toronto director, working from Genie-nominated writer, Peter Wellington's edgy, intellectual script, re-invigorates the genre with panache.

He does so by balancing climactic suspenseful elements with authentic human insights. He does it with a first-rate cast, led by Chris Penn as a psychotic cop killer badly affected by a grim childhood who, when he had reached his breaking point, I guess you could say in a sense, had me on the edge of my seat till I was fully assured that he was conquered-such riveting performance was that compelling. A performance so compelling, it earned him a nomination as Best Actor at the 1996 Genie Awards. Here, Penn really delivers his finest since co-starring in Abel Ferrara's elegiac gangster film, The Funeral. (Even the title itself screams of great mourning for that which is irrecoverably past.)

The three youths played by our rising young stars are at loose ends during a teachers' strike that has closed down their small Ontario town's high school. The three friends, who dispute because their social and intellectual instincts tug in three dramatically different directions, find themselves in a quandary one afternoon as they head toward their secluded shack deep into the wilderness where the pressures of growing up do not have to be faced; however, that severely wounded and yet armed stranger in whom they discover hiding out inside may just be their ticket to real adventure. Overriding common sense, they decide to help the stranger, who we find out is named Luke, rather than report the incident to the police.

"If you want something, you just take it, and then it's yours," Luke says, and they do, and they love it. They get themselves into trouble and the thought of getting themselves in insubordinate acts excites them. (spoiler) What is so clever with regards to this piece is that, even when, through the audiences' eyes, we want to wail out the words: Wake up, stupid! when one of our teen heroes is about to make a mistake in judgment, the Fawcett-Wellington team make those mistakes understandable. We sympathize. We comprehend. We're involved.

The ambivalence and complexity of the struggle are why The Boys Club has accurately been called a cross between Stand By Me and River's Edge, two landmark films that explored teen anguish with a piercing intelligence, never pandering to the youths or condescending them.

Fawcett walks the same wobbly tightrope, even if The Boys Club remains as a modest film, at least, in scale, that will not gain the notoriety of either Stand By Me or River's Edge.

On the other hand, Penn is a towering force, a raging bull-of-a-catalyst in our teen protagonists' lives. Dominic Zomprogna-being the one to play the part of Kyle-perfectly essays the confused youth torn between intellect and impulse; Stuart Stone, who plays the part of Brad, is a terrific counterbalance as the practical one, while the charismatic Devon Sawa-a dead ringer for Leonardo DiCaprio-is pure feral instinct. (According to Sawa, his character in the film, whose name is Eric, is so unlike himself that it really puts his acting skills to the test. The Boys Club has generally been his most challenging film yet, and yet he passes with flying colors.) Nicholas Campbell provides a compellingly sad-sophisticated portrayal of Kyle's father.

Their personalities mix, the deeming of both their feud and friendship bond and the palpable danger of the narrative ups the emotional stakes. (spoiler)
The Boys Club is not at all just kids' play. It is an inexorable and deeply powerful film that tests friendships and human insight, and yet it doesn't ever overdraw upon a single factor that would diminish it from being the masterpiece that is, because that's precisely what it is despite of the fact that it was shot as a Canadian film on a skin-and-bones budget, will not be released in most countries-which is a shame-and was shown at only a few theaters in Canada. (Mind you, it, however, is available on VHS and DVD in, aside from Canada, Australia and the U.S. as well.)

The Boys Club, although the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was-for I have now watched it so many times, that it has reached an extent where the amount can no longer be counted anymore-it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; but, in addition, because, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, it instantaneously drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I merely had a VCR-a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered both my experience and outlook upon movie-viewing.

The Boys Club, though the affect it has upon me isn't quite as great as it once was, it, nonetheless, is a film that will forever be special to me. Not only because the tension that was generated by these kids in danger influenced me to become a writer, an interest that has drastically altered me as a person, for I now I'm capable of expressing my feelings in a way I never thought possible; in addition, because it, after having stepped inside a video store one glorious day, drew me to purchase a copy of it on DVD despite of the fact that I only had a VCR, a machine that was left setting alone no longer, for I the following day ended up purchasing the player itself, a highly sophisticated machine in technology that has forever altered my outlook upon movie-viewing.

Please watch it or own it so you can play "The Game" to your guests. It's a great movie.

In THE GAME, Douglas is Nicholas Van Orton; a man of great wealth and power and totally devoid of any human compassion (as evidenced by the cold and callous way in which he fires a longtime employee). If this sounds like Gordon Gekko to you, it's because Michael Douglas, at this stage in his career, plays cold callousness like no one else. Call it typecasting; I call it brilliant acting ability and being smart enough to stick with what works. However, Gordon Gekko in the legendary Oliver Stone-directed WALL STREET (1987) didn't have a younger brother; Nicholas Van Orton does. On Nick's 48th birthday (the same age at which his father died, hint hint), his black-sheep-of-the-family brother Conrad, as brilliantly played by Sean Penn, visits him in his sprawling, cherry-wood office and hands his older sibling his birthday present: a business card with the name Consumer Recreation Services (CRS) on it. "What is this," Nicholas cynically asks. The sly answer given by Penn is one of my favorite lines in the film, and one that tells us that his elder bro's life will never be the same, once he begins to play THE GAME.

Along the way, Nicholas Van Orton encounters CRS and its primary spokesman (or so he thinks) Jim Feingold (played with disarming confidence by character actor James Rebhorn), a mouthy cocktail waitress (Deborah Kara Unger) who seems to hold the secret to THE GAME, and a spooky-looking full-size inanimate clown who appears to watch everything he does. Also along the way are near-brushes with death that culminate with Conrad Van Orton's tearful admission that he "didn't know what the $#@! he had gotten them into" when he had signed his brother up for THE GAME. But that's still just the beginning...

Everyone is superbly cast in this film, including BABY DOLL (1956) herself, Carroll Baker, and the always-watchable Armin Mueller-Stahl. But the real star here is David Fincher; he is so adept at guiding us down a labyrinthic path of which only he knows the end, that all we can do is hang on and enjoy the rollercoaster ride on which he breathlessly takes us. He primarily relies on small, subtle signs of foreboding to generate suspense, as opposed to full-blown violence and gore. Although this is one of those films that relies on first-time viewers' lack of knowledge of what to expect, and thusly loses something on repeated viewings, it is still a very good film to re-visit on occasion, if only to experience Fincher's unique style (this film and A PERFECT MURDER are miles apart in this respect, believe me), Douglas and Penn's acting and the production values, which are first-rate.

See and experience THE GAME for yourself.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED