Editorial Review

Probably the most maligned American Playhouse production ever aired,Read more

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Reviews (5)

Its The Frame
This film appears ponderous, with its intermittent shots of marble floors & columns. The characters' references to art & literature seem forced. However these devices amount to the frame around their lives. Inside the frame they are very much alive-& trapped.The French girl,full of charm & intellect, is a self centered user of people - may she wander forever! Her girl buddy is relatively unsophisticated but actually a good person. And the lonely stockbroker so trapped by his life! Very real people that I liked - poignantly framed in a moment of time

A brave independent film
The presence of Vermeer in the art has always been powerful and many times neglected. His works seem to have a weird enchantment in all the viewers inside and outside the painting craft. The delicate equilibrium in the form and the sumptuous employment of the light and shadow seduce inmediatly the soul, the eye and the spirit. Salvador Dali, for instance, stated in a conference that Vermeer was his favorite painter. And it�s interesting to remark how film makers so distant in styles as Greenaway (A zed an two noughts) and Riddley Scott (Blade runner), have shown Vermeers�s paintings as admirable narrative devices in their respective scripts, as clever clues. Jon Jost's All the Vermeers in New York
Jon Jost shoots a little New York film, and bores the heck out of America. Read more

Subjects:  1. Comedies    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Director Jon Jost may have made a few enemies with the localhomebuilder's association and the Mormon Church in this devastating 1993 psychological drama, but then again, hardly anyone has seen it. "Just a one-day drive" from the urban sprawl centers of California, the quiet and beautiful Utah landscape in and around Circleville becomes the gleam in the eye of a struggling real-estate developer (Tom Blair). A middle-aged entrepreneur, with the talent of a certain cheery, common-sense sales-pitch, is, at this late stage in the game, only barely able to contain his raw and mean temper with friends and family. Despite tensions with his wife and friends, he nonetheless forges ahead toward his version of the American Dream. Themes of economic growth versus environmental decay (both in the geographical and community sense) have been visited by filmmakers before, but Jost links his narrative with the locale in a complex, original way: with awesome economy, he pares what we see of human conflicts down to the bone while generously allotting much of his 85 minutes to the rural landscape.A lonely road and a long line of ecstatic poetry appear on screen, but this ain't no hymn to Walt Whitman or Manifest Destiny. No other filmmaker has explored more deeply the dark side of the American entrepreneur.The unforgettable final scene--a weekend hunting expedition in which his son Philip learns the mechanics of a rifle as well as the male code of what "not to tell mom"--is both astonishing and horrifying. Jost dedicated the film to his father. Read more

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Reviews (4)

Fine, disturbing study of cultural decay
This is a an excellent low-budget film about a controlling, possibly psychotic Utah businessman and his eventual meltdown and the way it affects his already tenuous relationship with his family. World Artists should be ashamed of themselves...
This is absolutely the worst DVD I own.The actual film is quite good but for this release World Artists chose to transfer from a video source and the results are close to unwatchable.The image is dark and murky throughout and the poor quality is especially damaging during shots of what are supposed to be beautiful Utah landscapes.I cannot imagine Jon Jost would approve of this.

Break-out performance by Robert "Bob" Nalwalker
Jon Yost may have done it again. Bob Nalwalker is a fresh new actor that will be hard to ignore.His gritty performance as "the sheriff"will leave you breathless.Yost obviously uses Nalwalker as a touchpoint that beautifully ties this movie beginning to end.The humanity he brings to his role is a clever counterpoint to the ramblings of "Wes" played masterfully by Tom Blair.Rural life has never been depicted in such a real yet disturbing manner.Yost sets the viewer free and provides ample time to digest the poignant theme.Fade to black editing is as cutting-edge as it is primative. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-action/Adventure    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

In another of director Jon Jost's American investigations into the dual quest for money and romance, another of his pet themes emerges:a Maileresque study of the male criminal mind via Gary Gilmore. Probably the most sarcastic, sexually explicit homage ever paid to Hollywood (and American society), this imaginative re-creation of Arthur Penn's Read more

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Reviews (1)

Innovation and Humour
This film is another striking example of Jon Jost's boundless creativity. He has a witty, sharp-minded gift of bringing aesthetic pictures alive! You'll see "redwoods" that you won't forget again. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy    2. Movie    3. Mystery / Suspense / Thriller   

Features

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Reviews (7)

lovely and well timed
While the dialogue drags a bit, the deliberate, measured pace of this film enhance the moodiness and the tragic message.It's visually stunning andthe soundtrack by Erling Woldis breathtaking.

Great Film
This film blew me away, but I am a sucker for the excrutiatingly long shot.The best film I have seen in years.

my take on the movie
This was a fascinating film and in my opinion, the whole point of the srtuggle was caused by the rape of the forests by a normal man who did not realize his actions until it was too late.Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie