JOHNS
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 2/97 (limited) Running Length: 1:36 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, violence, sex) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: David Arquette, Lukas Haas, Wilson Cruz, Keith David, Christopher Gartin, Elliott Gould, Terrence Dashon Howard, Richard Timothy Jones, Arliss Howard, John C. McGinley, Richard Kind Director: Scott Silver Producers: Beau Flynn and Stefan Simchowitz Screenplay: Scott Silver Cinematography: Tom Richmond Music: Charles Brown U.S. Distributor: First Look Pictures
Despite exploring a fascinating and lurid American subculture that rarely gets film exposure, JOHNS is consistently underwhelming. The movie, brought to the screen by first-time director Scott Silver, would have been better served by attempting a low-key character study a la Gus Van Sant's similar, superior MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO. Instead, what we get is a modern-day version of a Greek tragedy with some unnecessarily intrusive and irritatingly obvious religious symbolism thrown in for good measure. If you haven't guessed the film's heavy-handed ending by the half-way mark, you aren't paying attention.
JOHNS takes its name very seriously. Not only is the movie about a pair of male prostitutes roaming the streets of L.A., but it seems that half the characters are named "John," including one of the two leads. The film is an episodic, "day in the life" account of John (David Arquette) and his best friend, Donner (Lukas Haas). Many of the incidents are supposedly drawn from real-life stories, but Silver's film making never attains the level of gritty realism that would have made them believable. His world is sanitized and idealized, and, while life on the streets isn't presented with the rosiness of PRETTY WOMAN, being a homeless prostitute doesn't seem like the worst career choice.
To give meaning to their lives, John and Donner are always working towards a goal. At the beginning, John is trying to earn enough money so that he can spend his twenty-first birthday, which happens to fall on December 25, in a posh hotel. He wants twenty-four hours of heaven. By the end of the film, the objective has changed. Now, it's an East Coast amusement park called Camelot, where the two have been offered jobs by one of Donner's relatives. But the trip, like the hotel room, costs money, and that's something neither man has much of. Plus, even if he did come up with the cash, John has a more serious obligation -- if he doesn't pay off a drug dealer (Terrence Dashon Howard, doing his best Cuba Gooding Jr. impression) he "borrowed" from, he won't survive this Christmas Eve.
David Arquette (the deputy in SCREAM, and a sibling of Roseanna and Patricia) presents an effective portrayal of an aimless drifter. His John doesn't expect much out of life, and his low expectations aren't disappointed. The film opens with his "lucky sneakers" being stolen; after that, nothing seems to go right. He has aspirations of "going somewhere," but both we and he recognize that he'll never amount to much. We know far less about his past than we do his future. When it comes to personal details, all we're told is that John is nominally straight, has an unbearably shrill girlfriend (Alanna Urbach), and is willing to do just about anything for a buck. As JOHNS progresses, it becomes clear that John is a Christ-figure. If the date of birth doesn't tip this off, the crown-of-thorns scarring on his forehead is a dead giveaway.
The most compelling performance is turned in by Lukas Haas (EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU), whose sincerity and optimism as Donner is heartbreaking. With his almost-feminine features, Donner appears very much the innocent, set adrift in Southern California when his parents disowned him after he confessed to being gay. He's hopelessly in love with John, and, no matter how grim things look, he never stops dreaming that someday the two of them can be together in Camelot.
The supporting cast is peppered with familiar faces. David Keith plays a mysterious stranger who wanders around offering a helping hand and a bite to eat to people in trouble. Elliot Gould is wonderfully amusing as a family man who wants to keep his "dark" sexual life a secret, TV veteran Richard Kind is a sympathetic desk clerk at the Park Plaza Hotel, and John C. McGinley is a hard-bitten Hollywood producer who offers the barefoot John a pair of golf shoes as payment for services rendered.
Perhaps the essential theme of JOHNS is summed up in one of John's lines: "People come and go. The only thing that stays the same is the Boulevard." With varying effectiveness, JOHNS chronicles changes to two of the individuals who wander this immutable strip. In the end, however, the film gets caught up in trying to tell a grandly melodramatic tale, when a simple, down-to-earth story of broken dreams and lonely characters would have been more engrossing. Too often, the naturally-effective elements of JOHNS are swamped by the forced, scripted ones, and that curtails the movie's power and appeal.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
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- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
"A film is a petrified fountain of thought." - Jean Cocteau
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