PALMETTO
Grade: B- (Nothing spectacular, but worth a look on a rainy day)
Directed by Volker Schlondorff (The Handmaid's Tale) Written by E. Max Fry Starring: Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Michael Rappaport Year of Release: 1998 Rating: R
After the embarrassingly inept obscenity charge leveled against his 1979 masterpiece The Tin Drum last year in Oklahoma City, Director Volker Schlondorff understandably has some mixed feelings about all things Americana, and this at times hilariously smutty flick, in which an entire town is seemingly populated by nothing but opportunistic sex-crazed weasels, lets him exploit that to the max. (Virtually every character in this film has an aura of 30-weight Valvoline). Woody Harrelson headlines as a none-too-bright journalist just released from prison who gets immediately drawn into an ill-fated kidnapping scheme. It's a plot that's been done countless times before, but Schlondorff's sardonic affection for the cliches and a game cast (particularly Chloe Sevigny who, as the Lolitaish center of the plot, more than fulfills the promise she showed in Kids and Trees Lounge) makes it all seem relatively fresh. The true ace in the hole here proves to be Something Wild scripter E. Max Fry, whose screenplay contains enough unpredictably weird elements to keep even the most jaded noirist interested. Palmetto is nowhere near great - it's a little too hamstrung by the iron-clad conventions of the genre that it's riffing on - but it's not half-bad, either. I have a feeling Jim Thompson would grudgingly approve.
Copyright 1998 by The Critic formerly known as Andrew Wright For more insanely biased reviews, check out http://www.seanet.com/~louk/ e-mail louk@seanet.com
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