Horror in the 90's Jacob's Ladder

Jacob's Ladder (1990) 

Directed by Adrian Lyne 

Written by Bruce Joel Rubin

Starring Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello

Release Date November 2nd, 1990 

Box Office $26.9 million 

Director Adrian Lyne is known best for his sexy, sweat-soaked thrillers about cheating husbands, scheming women, and rich guys who pay for sex. So, seeing that he's also the director of a gritty, Vietnam era horror movie like Jacob's Ladder is a little jarring. Now, of course, he does throw in needless nudity, Elizabeth Pena's breasts are lovingly captured on screen for no particularly good story reason, but otherwise, Jacob's Ladder is a grand departure for the tawdry director of admittedly zeitgeist grabbing sex thrillers. 

Jacob's Ladder tells the story of a deeply haunted Vietnam vet named Jacob, played by Tim Robbins. Jacob nearly died in Vietnam after his unit was the subject of a violent surprise attack. Jacob himself was stabbed in the gut and had to have his intestines pressed back into his body before he could be taken back to the base hospital. Jake remembers being gutted by a bayonet but he also has another memory that he cannot quite reconcile. Just prior to his being stabbed, Jacob's unit seemed to be having severe hallucinations and overdoses. 

Is it a dream or a memory? Jacob cannot tell. However, when Jacob survives a pair of attempts on his life and compares notes with some of the members of his unit, it appears that there may indeed have been more to this firefight than a surprise attack. Meanwhile, Jacob isn't sleeping, he's in desperate pain from a back injury. Thankfully he has a benevolent chiropractor named Louie (Danny Aiello) who acts as friend, confessor, therapist and guardian angel. Louis is seemingly the only one able to comfort the ever-tormented Jacob. 

On top of his traumatic near death in Vietnam, Jacob lost a son before the war. Gabriel (Macauley Culkin), was struck and killed while riding his bike. Jacob's life has been a mess ever since. Despite having two other children, Jacob fell apart, his marriage to his wife, Sarah (Patricia Kalember) fell apart and then Jacob nearly died. It's no wonder that he can barely function and gave up life as a Park Avenue Shrink for a relatively more peaceful and less stressful job as a postal worker. Boomers and Gen-X'ers are making dark jokes right now, millennials are a bit confounded and thinking yes, being a postal worker would be less stressful.  Both sides are right. 

Anyway, that's Jacob's Ladder. Jacob barely functions, survives a few attempts on his life, has a couple more near-death experiences and begins seeing demons. He has meltdowns at any function he attends, when he's not sick he's obsessed with his time in Vietnam. He's slowly destroying his relationship with his girlfriend, Jezzie (Elizabeth Pena), while she may have a secret related to what is happening to Jacob. What is real and what is a hallucination begins to intermingle into a confusing mélange of disconnected horror images that all mean nothing when the ending is revealed. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media 

Classic Movie Review La Bamba

La Bamba (1987) 

Directed by Luis Valdez

Written by Luis Valdez

Starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Joe Pantoliano, Elizabeth Pena

Release Date July 24th, 1987

Somehow, despite having seen the movie La Bamba more than a dozen times in my life, watching the movie on its 30th Anniversary felt brand new. La Bamba was a film of my youth; I was 11 years old when the film hit theaters in 1987. I watched it repeatedly when it was on pay cable and free TV in the later 80’s and 90’s and then the film fell from my memory. You might be wondering how I could have allowed something I must’ve treasured to leave my memories. The answer is more complicated than I had imagined.

La Bamba, the movie, we will get to the song later, tells the story of teenage rock star Ritchie Valens who nearly became a footnote in musical history when he was killed in a plane crash alongside the legendary Buddy Holly and fellow rising star The Big Bopper, on February 3rd, 1959, after having released only 3 hit singles and being a mere 17 years old. Though his popularity was rising in 1959 with people comparing the young Chicano rocker to Elvis, Valens wasn’t nearly the star Buddy Holly was and could have been preserved in history only by his family and community had it not been for this remarkable 1987 biopic.

Director Luis Valdez is a legend in his own right and in his own unique way. Desperate for an outlet for his plays, Valdez approached legendary California union activist Cesar Chavez about creating a theater troupe among the striking migrant workers. Chavez agreed only after Valdez devoted time to union organizing, time which he also took to recruit actors and performers from among the striking union to join him. He founded a troupe called El Treato Campesino, The Farmworkers Theater, which has become the creative home for Mexican Americans of many talents over the past 50 plus years.

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Ten Tiny Love Stories

Ten Tiny Love Stories (2001) 

Directed by Rodrigo Garcia 

Written by Rodrigo Garcia 

Starring Lisa Gay Hamilton, Elizabeth Pena, Alicia Witt, Debra Kara Unger

Release Date December 2001

Published December 17th, 2002 

The title of the film Ten Tiny Love Stories, gives one the impression of a quirky little indie love story. In reality, however, writer/director Rodrigo Garcia delivers something altogether different—a takeoff of Broadway's The Vagina Monologues, as edited by the people at Lifetime television.

The film is a pseudo documentary composed of ten straight-to-the-camera monologues by ten different actresses. Some are well-known indie actresses like Radha Mitchell, Elizabeth Pena and Lisa Gay Hamilton and some are more recognizable actresses like Kathy Baker, Debra Unger, and Kimberly Williams.

Though I compared the film with The Vagina Monologues, not all of the 5-to-10 minute monologues are sexual in nature. The film opens with Mitchell remembering an old boyfriend. Then Alicia Witt remembers her first sexual experience. And from there, each actress shares, confesses, and cries over memories of past relationships.

Lisa Gay Hamilton delivers the best monologue, an actress I don't know all that well (but she has one of those faces I know I've seen before.) The story Hamilton tells is of a blind date, it begins with her being strong and assertive. Gradually, she shows her true self, and bears her insecurities in a way that is shocking and moving.

Later in the film, Kimberly Williams delivers a sad monologue on promiscuity abroad that seems innocent at the start but becomes dark as it goes on. Williams could have benefited from a little improvisation, for, at times, her monologue seems more read than delivered. It is still well delivered and definitely attention grabbing.

The interesting thing about the film is that at first I wasn't sure if I was watching a real documentary or not. Both Mitchell and Witt open the film with very off the cuff remarks as if they were telling their own story.

Elizabeth Pena however is clearly in character as a cold-hearted woman who tells of leaving her husband simply because she was bored. Her delivery is agitated and she smokes as if the cigarette were a weapon. She destroys any pretense of being real through her sometimes over-the-top meanness.

The fact that director Rodrigo Garcia is also credited as the screenwriter indicates these stories aren't true—or at least not the stories that these actresses tell. The writing is good for a man writing for a woman; something historically difficult. The film is, however, a little loosely edited. Some actresses go on too long and keep talking past the point of their story.

I'm not sure what Garcia intended to accomplish with this film. It's interesting on a sociological and conversational level, but in the end it’s somewhat aimless.