Recently I checked out Vin Diesel’s (A Man Apart) short, Multi-Facial, that he made back in the mid 90’s that he wrote, directed, produced AND starred in. It’s a clever concept about an actor going on auditions in NYC but due to his ambiguous ethnicity he keeps getting rejected for not being quite right for any role (Diesel himself has said he’s unsure of his own heritage, partially stemming from never knowing his biological father). Anyway, a good effort that shows promising acting and storytelling chops. You should check it out.
What I do not recommend though is his follow up
feature length debut Strays which came out a couple of years after. Diesel takes on the same responsibilities of
writing, directing, etc. It’s the only
time he’s done that on this scale (as of this Talkin’) so it’s his baby. The story focuses on weed dealer Rick
(Diesel) hangin’ in NYC going out to bars every night, boozin’, gettin’ high
and havin’ tons of casual sex. But he’s
tired of this lifestyle and wants a real meaningful relationship. One day he catches a glimpse of his neighbor
down the street and decides to pursue her.
She’s a classy mild mannered mid-westerner (i.e. the opposite of who
Rick normally sees) named Heather (Suzanne Lanza (The Night We Never Met)). How will it go?
Well on their first meeting (like probably minutes in) Rick
tells her to close her eyes and he starts to sing:
When a man's an empty kettle
He should be on his mettle
And yet I'm torn apart
Just because I'm presumin'
That I could be kind of human
If I only had a heart
Yea, fucking “If I Only Had a Heart” from The Wizard of
Oz. And he sings THE ENTIRE GODDAMN
SONG! He’s also gently caressing her
hair during this by the way. Heather
goofily smiles at the conclusion and then Rick continues with their conversation
as if that shit didn’t just happen (later Heather tells her friend it was
wonderful *gag*). This is one of the most
awkward fucking things I’ve ever seen in a movie and I’m really not kidding. It was a huge roll of the dice if that scene
would work but holy shit, that sucker crashed and burned and took out several
dozen innocent bystanders in the process.
I can’t stress enough how Weird this part is. And of course Diesel and Lanza have no
chemistry whatsoever adding yet another layer to this shit sandwich.
Interestingly when Rick and Heather have more of a real date
the next night (dinner, etc.) they’re walking down the street and these two
guys pass by and Rick thinks they’re giving his lady the eye so he starts in
with them. He turns on the macho
bullshit promptly dishing out insults and dropping N bombs. Heather is disgusted and immediately ditches
his ass on the street corner. Good for
her. Now, they eventually reconcile but in
another scene later on she overhears Rick threatening to beat up a dude who owes
him money. Once again, Heather bolts instantly
because this is a scary side to Rick that she doesn’t know how to deal with or
want to tolerate. So Diesel knew the
right way to play out those scenes. Too
bad he didn’t have such good sense with the rest of the film.
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