SPARKLER (1999) GRADE: D Director: Darren Stein Screenplay: Darren Stein, Catherine Eads Starring: Park Overall, Veronica Cartwright, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jamie Kennedy, Steven Petracca, Don Harvey, Sandy Martin The rise of certain indie filmmakers is somewhat baffling to me. You have a guy like Morgan J. Freeman who directed HURRICANE STREETS, a flick that was lauded as a "gritty" street drama, and ended up being about as authentic as confederated products. His picture was a Sundance Film Festival favorite paving the way for more mediocrity from Freeman (namely, DESERT BLUE). Then you have a talented guy like Larry Fessenden, who directed the chilling urban\gothic horror tale, HABIT on 16mm film, because he could not secure a budget large enough to make it on 35 mm. Maybe this is because of the increasing "mainstreaming" of indie films. Is HAPPY TEXAS (1999's Sundance champ) a clever indie, or a very 80's one-joke buddy movie? It feels an awful lot like the latter, yet it received many accolades for essentially being a low budget throwback to the days of WHAT ABOUT BOB? So many indies are being produced (every major studio has an indie wing that specializes in "alternative" films) that many have began ripping each other off (example: ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE is DRUGSTORE COWBOY minus Matt Dillon plus James Woods). The independent film makers who kick started the "indie revolution" in the early 90's (David O.Russel, Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Todd Solondz) have turned to major studios for their funding, while Tarantino wannabes churn out the junk that now passes for independent film. This brings me to Darren Stein, who directed SPARKLER in 1997, later released in 1999 presumably because of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s rapid rise to stardom. This picture gave Stein a chance to direct the similarly awful JAWBREAKER (also released in 1999). Both films bare the mark of an overzealous film geek with little to say of his own. JAWBREAKER was like a Puff Daddy remix of popular teen flicks from the past and present, incorporating bits form CLUELESS, SCREAM, HEATHERS, the T.V show PARKER CAN'T LOSE, and CARRIE to form a look-at-how-hip-I-am pastiche of bubble-gum teen alienation with nary a genuine emotion to be found amid the stolen celluloid. So, SPARKLER'S gotta be better right? After all this was the film that studio executives at Sony Pictures saw, thus giving them the incentive to sign this guy, and fork over the cash for him to direct JAWBREAKER. Well, it isn't the first time nor will it be the last time that studio executives were wrong. And I knew I was in trouble after the first five minutes whereupon we are introduced to a group of stereotypically cartoonish trailer trash. The SPARKLER is Mattie (sitcom veteran Park Overall) a little girl stuck in a middle-aged woman's body (figuratively of course). She's a head-in-the-clouds dreamer, who finds an opportunity to pursue her dreams after discovering her husband is cheating on her. She dresses herself in a bright green, sparkly get-up and saunters off to a local bar. Meanwhile three city boys on their way to Vegas converge at the bar after a flat tire stalls them. The leader of the click appears to be Brad (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a bossy aspiring Hollywood agent. Joel (Steven Petracca) is a grumpy, hapless fellow with a secret, and Trent (Jamie Kennedy) is the sweet puppy dog of the group. They spot Mattie from far away, commenting on her fashion sense ("Wow, somebody actually morphed a human being and a disco ball"). She approaches the boys querying them for a dance, to which only Trent responds. He is enchanted with her for whatever reason. However the boys find it more difficult to ditch her then they originally thought. Following circumstances too moronic to recount, she winds up meeting them in Vegas, while searching for an old high school friend, Dottie (Veronica Cartwright). Dottie is an ex-showgirl, now a stripper in a scruffy lesbian strip joint, complete with overzealous transvestites. Meanwhile Mattie's redneck husband comes looking for her. At first Stein's movie is like a sweeter, less satiric, more amateurish, John Waters film. Like Waters he pores on the sleaze (we get the aforementioned transvestite strippers, cursing old biddies, and Dottie's attempted molestation of Freddie Prinze Jr.), though unlike Waters he isn't intelligent about it. His sleaze serves no purpose. None of it is well done enough to be entertaining, nor is it thoughtful enough to be absorbing. It's just there. His characters are all caricatures (just like in all Waters' films), but they aren't smartly drawn caricatures. They're simplistic and predictable. It's a shame that Stein had to cast Overall in his hodgepodge of rubbish. She seems to have really invested in her part. Overall has a smokey-hickory southern accent that's both grating and comforting. She's an aged dreamer with a shimmering naïve smile, and the actress sometimes suggests depth and poignancy in simple gestures. It's too bad that it's at the service of this dull tripe. While I actively disliked both of Stein's films don't think I'm dooming his career. After all M. Night Shyamalan directed two completely forgettable formula pictures (PRAYING WITH ANGER, WIDE AWAKE) before turning out the very well made (though still slightly flawed in my book) THE SIXTH SENSE. Sometimes talent seemingly springs out of the places you least expect it to. Maybe Stein will grow up by his next endeavor. Then again, maybe it will take longer than that: His upcoming project has been described as a combo of SEVEN and BLADE RUNNER.
http://www.geocities.com/incongruity98 (Ron's Movie Reviews)
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