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16. The Outcast (5) - A heterophobia parable where the Enterprise visits a hermaphroditic planet and encounters prejudice when Riker puts the moves on a native. What I really love, though, is a TV Guide (or EW) description of the ep: "The Enterprise visits a unisex planet and Riker still scores."

17. Frame of Mind (6) - Reality shatters for Riker when he is imprisoned in an alien mental hospital whose doctors are intent on convincing him that his life on the Enterprise is a delusion.

18. Deja Q (3) - As punishment for his various transgressions, Q is sentenced by the Continuum to live out his existence as a human, which he chooses to do aboard the Enterprise, which is involved at the time in trying to save a planet whose lunar orbit has been disturbed.

19. Redemption (4/5) - Civil war erupts among the Klingons, with the Enterprise trying to preserve the government against insurgents allied with the Romulans. A Romulan intervention is forestalled and the honor of Worf's family is restored.

20. The Wounded (4) - With a tenuous peace only just achieved between the Federation and the Cardassians, a renegade Starfleet captain discontent with the new status quo attempts to exact his own personal revenge, threatening a renewal of the war.

I really wanted to like this movie because of the performances alone. However, the movie is done poorly in my opinion. The story is good but the movie is to long for no reason. Also everyone raves about Cassevetes directing I didn't care for his style. The edits are bad unless it was just the dvd that I watched. Also the camera shots seem very amateurish at times.Which by the way was the worse dvd I have ever seen. No title menu, poor sound, bad picture, and a flipover! This movie is very hard to watch at times so it has the real feeling that it was going for. It just was to much and too long!

Comments pending.

***.5/****

Pro: The breakdown. The return. The light score. The INTENSITY! Rowlands with a perfect performance. Falk is great too.

Con: Too long. Improvised feel.

A Woman Under the Influence (Cassavetes, 1974)

Gena Rowlands' portrayal of mental illness in Cassavetes' 1974 film is simply the most realistic I have ever seen. Her performance feels completely realistic and completely honest. Ms. Rowlands owns her role, and she is clearly the most important piece of this film. But the film itself is kind of remarkable in it's own way. This is my first experience with a Cassavetes' film, and I don't think I've ever really seen anything like it. Though the film shares a lot of the characteristics of the French New Wave and American Film Renaissance, but something intangible makes it feel entirely unique. Cassavetes' shoots his film with stark realism, and it lends his film a sort of voyeristic quality. It's really quite amazing.

I'm actually a little surprised at how much I liked this film. There is a very thin plot, and there really is no climax or resolution. But Rowlands' has created a character so intriguing and so honest and Cassavetes has shot his film to feel so real that I couldn't help but to get lost in this film.

***1/2

Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995)

Jarmusch's take on the Western is certainly a unique one. He has chosen Johnny Depp to play a lead role that really works off his two biggest strengths. Depp excels at playing the oddball characters and the rather slick, badass characters. Here, Depp gets the opportunity to play both and he does so very well. Other notable performance highlights come from Crispin Glover and Gabriel Byrne whose roles are both very short and very memorable. Jarmusch's film is always interesting and the score by Neil Young definitely gives his film an extra emotional punch but I thought the score ended up being a tad overused and as a result, it lost a lot of its power by the end of the film. Overall, this is a very solid effort that is only slightly harmed by an overused score, slightly choppy editing, and Jarmusch getting a little to metaphorical at time.

***

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Gena Rowlands is Myrtle Gordon, a stage actress who is rehearsing a new play about a woman who is unable to admit that she's aging. Myrtle despises the role because she sees herself in the character, and the reality is too much for her to handle.

Myrtle drinks constantly, much to the chagrin of her director, Manny Victor (Ben Gazzara). Even her ex-lover and co-star, Maurice Aarons (John Cassavetes), finds her difficult to tolerate. The point of change in the film begins when Myrtle witnesses the death of one of her fans as she's leaving the theatre one night. The young girl haunts Myrtle for most of the picture. The trauma of seeing the girls' death drives Myrtle even further into the bottle, so much so that she shows up on opening night completely drunk.

Opening Night is an examination of an aging woman who is forced to confront her fading beauty, and her ability to control the types of characters she plays.

Criterion offers a video conversation between Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands; an interview with the DP; an audio interview with Cassavetes, and trailers. There are essays about the film in the 64-page booklet.

BLEAK FILM ABOUT A WOMAN (GENA ROWLANDS) WHO IS HAVING MAJOR MENTAL PROBLEMS AND HOW IT EFFECTS HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER HUSBAND (PETER FALK). VERY WELL ACTED, ALSO WAY TOO LONG. THE PERFORMANCES KEEP YOU INTERESTED.

What strikes me the most about both The Fugitive Kind and A Woman Under the Influence is that while the main characters have their problems, they are condemned for behavior deemed socially unacceptable. In the former, Valentine 'Snakeskin' Xavier (Marlon Brando) is a former New Orleans "entertainer" who has tired of where that way of life has led, and seeks a new start elsewhere. By fate, he comes upon a Mississippi town he's reminded of the past he's trying to escape, but both looked down upon for it and tempted to go back to it, through the townsfolk and Carol Cutrere. More an inconvenience than a derelict, she's more than happy to be bribed out of her family's company, but at the same time hates the drifting loneliness of being unsavory. She sees that self-condeming spirit in Snakeskin, and seeks a solace in being convenient outcasts. While he understands the grief and shame, he's determined to prove to himself that he's capable of the life change he desires.

At the same time, he's willing to exploit his aloofness when dealing with Lady (Anna Magnani), who is managing the store where Xavier has found work, in the stead of her bed-ridden husband. She is filled with hate, towards a domineering spouse, and towards a town that ruined her past, and now ogles she and Xavier in silent condemnation. Xavier is resistant towards any emotional involvement, both because of the possible repercussions, and out of a recoiling from Lady's arduous spite, although that's really just an excuse for his own fear and belief that he's undeserving of fulfillment in life. The anxiety builds until they realize that taking the risk is worth more than allowing circumstances to define who they are.

The script, adapting from Tennessee William's play Orpheus Descending and co-written by Williams himself, is verbose in describing the characters' predicaments, but Brando and Magnani's performances, as well as Sidney Lumet's assured direction, assure that it plumbs the masqueraded filth of the repressive Southern town, and the liberation of these characters. Unlike the adaptation A Streetcar Named Desire, it is uncompromising in illustrating their society's inability to allow happiness when it makes them reflect on their own malaise and hypocrisy.


In A Woman Under the Influence, Mabel (Gena Rowlands) is the stay-at-home wife of Nick (Peter Falk), who works for the city, and is away at work for indefinite periods of time. She desperately treasures her children, to the point of seeming obsessiveness. She holds so tightly onto what she lives, she tries too hard. She's kind-natured, but is easily misconstrued. She focuses so much on what she desires, how she wants to please her husband and see her children thrive, that she's forgetful of other important details in the day-to-day. She grows easily despondent and detached when she is isolated from whom she cherishes.

Nick may understand her good intentions, and is appreciative of her spirit, but is unable to deal with the uncomfortability of her behavior which may seem different from the social norm. He is easily frustrated by his inability to elucidate on why she is the way she is, and either virulently lashes out at those he loves, or further alienates himself, becoming more undesirable and irresponsible than anything Mabel's been accused of being. Nick, their family, and friends all claim to be magnanimous in their desire for Mabel to seek help for her "problems", but they are insidiously and selfishly forcing her into a mold of behavior which is more comfortable for them to be around, ever more possessive and stifling of her than she of the children. Even after she has been "fixed", their desire for her to act natural, whatever that means, is more for their own comfort. Nick comes to realize that her fixations and idiosyncracies are an undeniable aspect of her character, and struggle as they may, they are able to persist.

It is possible to claim the film's aesthetic as being uncinematic or unpolished, but the fly-on-the-wall experience is exactly what John Cassavetes is trying to accomplish. It is an undeniable talent to have created histrionic, yet naturalistic performances that feel improvised, when they are in fact meticulously scripted. Falk and Rowlands are entirely transparent in inhabiting their characters. Due praise should be given to them and the ensemble for making these characters work, and to Cassavetes for crafting a work that examines personal identity and the influence of one's environment in an indelible manner.