CLAY PIGEONS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Gramercy Pictures/Polygram Director: David Dobkin Writer: Matt Healy Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, Georgina Cates, Scott Wilson
As a dark comedy that takes place in a small Montana town--the sort of site an urban traveler avoids even if he needs gas--"Clay Pigeons" recalls the crazy antics of "Fargo." Yet it's a work of considerable originality that has been made, surprisingly, by a first-time director and by a screenwriter who is making a debut in his field as well. Breaking with the typical SmallTownUSA picture, helmer David Dobkin and scripter Matt Healy do not concern themselves a heck of a lot with exposition. Scant minutes into its opening, a guy is pointing a gun at his best friend, whom he accuses of having a torrid affair with his wife, and pulls the trigger. But the fellow on the ground is not the author of the bedroom intrigue but the shooter himself.
The the stick-in-your-throat laughs and unanticipated incidents continue from there without interlude in "Clay Pigeons," an innovative program which manages to lampoon the American pueblo while taking an easygoing, Pulp Fiction attitude toward a captivating murderer.
Like "Fargo," this movie commutes easily among the genres of satire, comedy, and melodrama, giving the scoundrel the best lines and keenest temperament in the story. Only one of the residents of Mercer, Montana (actually filmed in various hamlets of the beautiful state of Utah) is a bumpkin, the others acting as prototypes for stable scout, slatternly slut, laid-back law-officer, magnetic malefactor and caustic cop. The acting is so aw-shucks convincing, backed up by such a bounteous sound-track of 70s country-style music that "Clay Pigeons" delights throughout. But be advised: if you're the kind who shocks easily when you see callous killings treated with a down-home posture, you'll consider this sort of film the sort that's causing the decline and fall of American civilization.
The story opens on a shooting match as best friends Earl (Fregory Sporleder) and Clay (Joaquin Phoenix) test their skills at shattering beer bottles. Earl suddenly turns on Clay, accusing him of having an affair with his wife. In the conventional picture, Earl would either blow his friend away or lose his chance in some hand-to-hand combat. But just about everything in this yarn turns out the converse of what you expect. Clay returns to the newly widowed but conspicuously unconcerned Amanda (Georgina Cates), is disgusted by her lack of distress, and after shifting his libidinous intent to another Montana enchantress is plunged into an ambivalent fellowship with the engaging visitor, Lester Long (Vince Vaughn), whose swollen cowboy Panama matches his towering personality.
If Mercer, Montana is ethnically homogeneous and surely no New York, NY, it is nonetheless filled with characters as varied as those in a large metropolis. The gorgeous, British- born Georgina Cates turns in a muscular baby-doll performance as a hard, chain-smoking trollop who sets her sights on everyone except the guy she married, and Joaquin Phoenix is again reliable, as in "Return to Paradise" as bewildered guy who gets more than he envisioned-- considering his career as a jockey in a dilapidated gas station. He finds himself confronted with the sardonically deadpanned Janeane Garofalo as federal agent Shelby who, unamused at an attempt to pick her up in the village bar assures the lusty cowboy that the seat next to her is taken: "for the first person not wearing denim."
Best of all is Vince Vaughn, who worked together with Mr. Phoenix in a more forthright role in "Return to Paradise," and who shows his depth in a wholly distinct performance. His Lester Long is clap-on-your back clamorous, his congeniality covering a penchant for slashing young women--his contempt excited by the ease with which his victims flock to his all- American allure. Changing easily and frequently from hale- fellow to inflamed slayer, he attacks his unsuspecting prey with a calmness that belies each operation. Also cleverly drawn is Sheriff Mooney (Scott Wilson), an unexcitable peace officer who can fool people into thinking he'd rather build model boats--while prying essential information from suspects and witnesses.
Being the sort of movie in which everything turns out the contrary of what you'd expect, it is also one of the few stories featuring a cigarette that saves lives instead of ruining them. Director Dobkin skillfully retains a light touch, giving the twenty-five songs their chance to be heard.
Rated R. Running Time: 104 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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