Movie Review: Deuces Wild

Deuces Wild (2002)

Directed by Scott Kalvert

Written by Christopher Gamble 

Starring Brad Renfro, Stephen Dorff, Fairuza Balk, James Franco, Johnny Knoxville, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Deborah Harry, Frankie Muniz 

Release Date May 3rd, 2002

Published May 3rd, 2002

The troubles of actor Brad Renfro are well documented. Renfro has had multiple run-ins with the law and is also notoriously difficult to work with. What gets lost in Renfro's problems is the fact that the kid is one hell of an actor. Renfro has a Brandoesque persona, handsome with deep soulful eyes that emit a piercing gaze that cuts like a knife. Sadly, Renfro's troubles have kept him from the acting status his work aspires to and is likely the reason he is relegated to such B-release fare as Deuces Wild.

In Deuces, Renfro plays Bobby, a street tough who runs with a gang called the Vipers. The film begins in flashback with Bobby's brother Leon (Stephen Dorff) carrying the limp lifeless body of their brother Al. Al is dead from a drug overdose administered by rival gang members Marco (Norman Reedus) and Franky (Balthazar Getty), members of the Vipers.

Three years later Leon is the leader of the Deuces and Bobby is his thuggish enforcer. The Deuces are dedicated to keep drugs off their block. This comes into conflict with the Vipers and their leader Marco, fresh from jail and looking for revenge against Leon for sending him there. Neither gang can make a move without the approval of a local mobster named Fitzy and played semi convincingly by Matt Dillon.

Deuces Wild is as much a gang movie as it is a love story, as Bobby falls for a Vipers girl named Annie (Fairuza Balk). The courtship between Bobby and Annie would be sweet if it weren't steeped in cliché and bad 50's dialogue. In fact, the whole film is buried under clichés from West Side Story, The Outsiders, Lords of Flatbush and whatever greaser gang movie you can think of.

It gets worse, even with the problems of the ridiculous attempts to ape 50's lingo, the film introduces and dismisses subplot after subplot. Marco seeks revenge on Leon for sending him to jail, while we in the audience find out in a dream sequence that it wasn't Leon who did the deed, a piece of information that makes no difference whatsoever and is never resolved. Then there is Leon's romance with Betsy (Soprano's actress Drea Demateo), which exists solely to provide Leon with something to do while not beating the crap out of people in fistfights.

And why does Leon feel so bad about everything he does? Where is the commitment to the cause? In one scene he watches as the Vipers burn down his block. In another scene he admonishes his gang for acting against a pair of drug dealers moving into their territory. It was interesting to note that gangs of 50's Brooklyn only controlled one block. Literally one block! So, the Deuces kept drugs off of one city block, but if drugs were sold right around the corner, it was all good.

Renfro for his part is uncomfortable with the lame attempts at 50's dialogue, but still communicates with body language and his laser stare. This kid is a contender, as he showed in Apt Pupil and his Tour De force performance in Bully. With Deuces Wild, Renfro signals an attempt to move into mainstream Hollywood roles. Here's hoping he develops the same eye for Hollywood material as he has for his indie work, and that Deuces Wild is just a minor annoyance on the way to an Oscar nomination.

Movie Review Tart

Tart (2001) 

Directed by Christina Wayne 

Written by Christina Wayne

Starring Dominique Swain, Brad Renfro, Bijou Phillips, Mischa Barton, Melanie Griffith

Release Date June 15th, 2001 

Published June 22nd, 2001 

In 1997, at the age of 17, Dominique Swain made an amazing film debut in Adrien Lyne's remake of the Vladimir Nabakov classic Lolita. Swain's performance was universally praised with many critics stamping her as a star of the future. What happened since is anyone's guess, be it poor management or the feeling she has to accept every role she's offered. Since Lolita and her follow up role in John Woo's Faceoff, Swain has been relegated to the straight-to-video market. Her latest straight-to-video feature, Tart, should have gone straight to the garbage.

Swain stars as an outcast girl whose best friend, played by Bijou Phillips, is getting her in constant trouble. After her friend is kicked out of school, Swain befriends a British girl played by Mischa Barton, who is her ticket into her elite private school’s popular clique. Once she begins hanging with the popular kids she gets her dream guy, the big man on campus, played by Brad Renfro. From there the film turns into a community theater version of Cruel Intentions with “too smart for their own good” teens bedding each other, drinking and drugging and generally annoying the hell out of anyone with a brain.

Tart is a mess that makes Rollerball look coherent. Characters appear and disappear and then do things with absolutely no motivation that in the end have no payoff. There are so many pointless scenes that have nothing to do with anything, one being a scene with Swain and Barton sharing a bath together. The scene is all of 20 seconds long and is apparently in the film to appeal to the same dirty old men who rent Tart merely for its video box cover art. The title of the film is absolutely superfluous, there is no reason to call this movie Tart. The only reason the movie is called Tart and Swain is on the cover box with her skirt in the air is to appeal to dirty old men looking for naked teenage flesh. Guess what, there isn't any. HA!

The film's disgustingly exploitative marketing is just that, marketing. The film itself is actually quite tame in the sex department. Why am I spending so much time complaining about the film's marketing and title, because there isn't anything else to talk about. Tart is simply horrid. Bad acting, bad direction from first timer Christina Wayne, bad cinematography, bad sound. The sound is atrocious, there is more dubbed dialogue in the first hour of Tart than in the dubbed version Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Memo to Dominique Swain, you can turn scripts down, it's not illegal. There is still time for you to turn your career around. So the next time some first time director calls offering you a role opposite Eric Roberts or Craig Sheffer or some other straight-to-video superstar, just say no and then pick up the phone and call John Woo, or Adrien Lyne. I'm sure they have room in their next picture for a prep school daughter in a tiny tartan skirt that you would be perfect for.