Movie Review Sunshine State

Sunshine State (2002) 

Directed by John Sayles 

Written by John Sayles 

Starring Jane Alexander, Angela Bassett, Bill Cobbs, Edie Falco, Timothy Hutton, Mary Steenburgen

Release Date June 21st, 2002 

Published June 21st, 2002 

Writer-director John Sayles is the prototype independent filmmaker. He's even been referred to as the Godfather of the independent film. For more than 20 years, Sayles has been making his films his way, with tremendous artistic success and modest box office. Along the way, Sayles has picked up awards, critical plaudits and sorts-of praise. None of that has altered his way of making movies. Sayles has never succumbed to mainstream moviemaking and he's never been co-opted by the studio system. Sayles exists on his own filmmaking plane. His latest work is yet another work of independence called Sunshine State.

State tells the multiple interlocking stories of the people living on the fictional plantation island off the coast of Florida. Formerly a bustling community of semi-affluent African-American and small business owners, Plantation Island is now feeling the encroachment of modern America in the form of big business real estate developers. As we join the story, developers have already begun to dominate the island save for two small communities. In the predominantly African American community of Lincoln Beach, times are tough and the residents are ripe to be picked off by the real estate developers. Not everyone is so quick to move however, especially Dr. Lloyd (Bill Cobbs) who leads the only resistance to the developers.

Dr. Lloyd is living with Eunice Stokes (Mary Alice), another longtime resident of Lincoln Beach not keen on moving. Mrs. Stokes however has more pressing concerns as her daughter Desiree and husband Reggie have arrived from out of town. Eunice has a secret and needs to reconcile with her estranged daughter, not only for herself but also for her young nephew Terrell.

Paralleling that story is that of Marly Temple, a Hotel and Restaurant owner being pursued by developers who want to turn her small businesses into a thriving mini-mall. Marly is quite tempted to sell but can't because her ailing father (Ralph Waite) who though retired from the business, urges her to hold onto the business he started.

Each story plays out as the city that surrounds them is celebrating a citywide festival organized by Fracine Pickney, a silly housewife played by Mary Steenburgen. She is so wrapped up in making a great parade she fails to notice her husband’s (NYPD Blue’s Gordon Clapp) multiple attempts at suicide.

A group of golfers act as the bookends of the film, led by comedian Alan King as the head of the development company trying to buy the island. King has two sensational speeches, one at the beginning of the film and one at the end that tie the story together in its most simple form.

There are so many characters in Sunshine State and so many little connections between each character it would be impossible to explain each of them. The connections are well explained and meaningful, and come together to paint a beautiful picture. A picture of a group of people living their lives and the life that has grown up around them.

At first it seems that Sayles is going to make a statement movie about the environment and evil big business corporate villains. However, by the end of the film Sayles’ broader themes become clear. Corporate greed and social issues are parts of the lives being lived in Sunshine State, but Sayles is far more interested in how those lives are lived. 

Sayles draws intelligent realistic characters that are well spoken and interesting. The scripting is intricate and ingenious, and Sunshine State is simply a joy to watch. A film that respects the intelligence of the audience enough to make a movie that doesn't work in broad strokes, but rather in subtlety. Words that are far more important than action. Humor that comes from reality instead of forced punch lines. While the film’s pace may be a little leisurely at times the performances and dialogue are strong enough that even the most belabored scenes hold the audience's attention.

John Sayles movies do not compromise, they never come off as market-tested. As such, they are nearly impossible to classify by genre. They are simply well made intelligent films. Sunshine State may in fact be John Sayles best film to date.

Movie Review Freedomland

Freedomland (2006) 

Directed by Joe Roth 

Written by Richard Price 

Starring Samuel L Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, Anthony Mackie 

Release Date February 17th, 2006 

Published February 16th, 2006 

In my line of work I see a lot of bad movies. Most are simply innocuous and forgettable. Some are painful but instructive in crafting worst of the year lists. And still some reach a level of awful that seems unachievable in this day and age. A level of awful that only a few, Michael Bay or Uwe Boll or the late great Ed Wood, tread. Joe Roth's Freedomland is one of those, thankfully, rare films. Freedomland is a film that reaches a pantheon of awful next to Armageddon, Bonfire of the Vanities, Hudson Hawk or Howard The Duck. It's a disaster of ineptitude, hubris, and simpleminded idiocy. Freedomland is a shockingly bad film. 

Samuel L Jackson stars in Freedomland as detective Lorenzo Counsel. Respected in the tiny, mostly African American, community of Dempsey, New Jersey, Lorenzo is the wise arbiter of any dispute and the man everyone turns to in times of trouble. So it is, when a white woman, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), from a neighboring white suburb, claims she was carjacked by an anonymous black man from Dempsey, Lorenzo gets the job of investigating the case and keeping the peace.

Unfortunately this is no mere carjacking. According to Brenda her four year old son was asleep in the back of the car. Worse yet, Brenda's brother Danny (Ron Eldard) is a cop from the neighboring district and has begun an all out invasion of Dempsey in search of the kid. Shutting down the neighborhood, Danny and the suburban cops have touched off a potential race riot.

Edie Falco later joins the story as Karen Colucci, the leader of an organization that searches for missing children. Though Brenda is difficult to get through to, Karen finally does convince her to let the group search the area where her son went missing. The search leads to an abandoned children's hospital called Freedomland and a revelation that I'm sure was supposed to shock us but instead draws derisive chuckles.

The film's title and trailer points the focus of the film toward the search scenes, toward the abandoned hospital Freedomland. Various characters along the way deliver horror stories about the hospital, about why it was shut down and a few missing children who have turned up there in the past. Then in a mindblowingly idiotic twist.... NOTHING HAPPENS AT FREEDOMLAND!!!

The stunning idiocy of the crafting of Freedomland is difficult to describe. As rational, intelligent moviegoers we have the fair expectation that filmmakers will adhere to a basic logic. Freedomland director Joe Roth, perhaps in a vain attempt to be unpredictable, throws logic to the wind and instead puts stars Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore into an ever devolving series of brain free conversations that lead to one ludicrous twist after another. 

The one consistently entertaining aspect of Freedomland is the amount of derisive laughter it evokes. The film is grimly serious but because it is so poorly assembled and so mindblowingly, offensively, stupid, one can't help but chuckle at the absurdity. How in this day and age does a movie this bad make it to theaters?

I've rarely asked this question in the past. Films like the misguided hip hop comedy Marci X and the bizarre romantic comedy failure Someone Like You with Ashley Judd inspired the question in the past. Those films however, were comedies and comedy is actually quite easy to be bad at. For thrillers it is a challenge to be this horrendously bad. There are so many fallbacks and cliches a director can employ to turn a thriller from horrendous to merely innocuously bad, like say... Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie or another Ashley Judd failure called Twisted. Both bad thrillers but innocuous and forgettably bad thrillers.

Freedomland is so awful it burrows into your brain and begs to be remembered for its badness. I will refer to Freedomland in the future when citing film making at its lowest points. Part of what makes Freedomland so memorably awful is the cast. Samuel L. Jackson has made bad pictures, in fact he was in Twisted with Ashley Judd, but he has never looked this lost and confused on screen. Poor Julianne Moore hasn't been in anything remotely this horrible since Assassins with Stallone and Banderas. Assasins is Oscar material compared to Freedomland.

Both Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore will survive Freedomland, though it will always darken their resumes, and sadly so will director Joe Roth. The man has already survived after directing Revenge of The Nerds 2 and Christmas With The Kranks so clearly the man has a horseshoe up his ass. At the very least he must have good friends to be able to continue finding work after so many out and out disasters and now the fetid, rancid, shlock that is Freedomland.