The Hot Button by David Poland

Pretty much every day, people ask me what's the best film I've seen so far. Well, now I have a singular answer. Tim Roth's directorial debut, The War Zone, is easily the most powerful work I've seen yet. By a long shot. The subject, based on the book of the same title, is incest and how it affects a family. Now, you may think that's easy pickings, but it's also a subject with the deepest pitfalls imaginable. Some people have had the bizarre reaction (at least, to me) to complain about the film's graphic sex. But the sex is honest and never designed to titillate. And it's true to the subject.

The young woman who plays the daughter, Lara Belmonte, is stunningly beautiful, but that's what makes the pain even more raw. She and her on-screen brother, Freddy Cunliffe, were both non-actors when hired, and Roth, in tandem with the other leads, Ray Winstone and Tilda Swinton, helped them create amazing performances. These two established actors were also great. Swinton even let Roth shoot her a few weeks after she gave birth in real life in order to bring reality to her role and, especially, to tell the truth about what a woman's body goes through after birth. It's daring and effective. And not some stunt. Now, I have to admit, I was wrecked by the film. My nerves were on end for a half hour after seeing it. OK, not just on end. I couldn't keep the tears from coming out of me even as the credits rolled. And then, again, as Roth and Winstone talked about the movie to the audience. There was no incest in my immediate family, but there are secrets. And I felt the young brother's pain. The whole family's pain. But I think that most families have secrets. I think that whatever those weights on our souls, this movie will pull them out. And, if I may be so presumptuous (and when haven't I been), I would guess that people who hate the film on the basis of the sex have got something going on that they had better examine. This is not a movie for young children. Nor will everyone be able to take this movie.

Are you ready for the punch line? There's no piping hot distribution deal war going on. They're fighting over Judy Berlin (duh!) and this one sits. As does Valerie Flake. I don't get it. To be fair, Roth didn't want to make a deal with an American distributor before the film was done (it world premiered here), so maybe something happened at dinner, but you don't here the footsteps a' chasin'. This is the best film Ken Loach never made. Better, in my opinion, than any Loach has made and he's made some good ones. And he has distribution in America. Come and get it, guys.

OK. Enough about that one. Let's get back to the standard format I've been breaking each day. My schedule. Well, today it started with about 30 minutes of The Item, a horror movie shot on video. (That was at 11:00 a.m., a late start, but I decided that after a late, late night last night, I would sleep for at least six hours. So I did. I got a full five-and-one-half hours.) I am told that the last 30 minutes are what make this one worth catching. I hope "they" are right because the first 30 minutes left me wondering. It was a mediocre Tarantino rip-off. Big deal. I had to leave early as I was headed to see The War Zone, so that I might chat with Roth and Winstone in the evening. I had planned on running off to another screening right after that, but I couldn't. I needed some breathing time.

So, I had a leisurely lunch and doubled back to the same theater to see After Life. Again, as with The Item, my schedule precluded a complete viewing. But unlike The Item, I really wanted to stay. Here's the concept: It's set in a middle ground between life and wherever. You go there for one week and you are asked to pick one memory from your entire life. They will re-create it on film and then you move on. Not only do the wide variety of people have to make their decision, but we spend time with the crew who have to help them decide. It's very funny and touching. The ones who are most normal are the most difficult. One man is given his entire 71 years on tape, hoping that he will find a memory worth re-creating. The film, however, is in Japanese, with subtitles. I hope that won't scare distributors, because I want to see the rest of this one. (It didn't stop one woman from bringing her 5-year-old to the movie and reading the subtitles to him during the film. That was a new one for me. But, unlike in L.A, there has been a decidedly lack of cell phones ringing during the films. Maybe it's that nobody's phones are quite working right up here with the mountains and the absurd amount of cell traffic going on this week.)

What caused me to leave was that I needed to talk to a publicist about tonight's chat with Rose McGowan and Rebecca Gayheart for Jawbreaker. Another of the stars wanted to join in, and I needed to float that past the publicist who booked the chat. The search for her took me to a small party at the Riverhorse (again!) for Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, who is in a documentary playing here, Playing with Strings. (No, I haven't seen it yet. I'm still looking for one great doc. God knows I love them.) As I walked in, she was playing (with her piano accompanist) selections from her album Humoresque for about 80 people in a room filled with natural light streaming through the windows. It was just stunning. Glorious music. Just watching her fingers work. God, how I wish I could play anything a one-tenth as well. So, we decide to do the chat as scheduled and to do a separate interview with the other two young actresses from the film, both of whom are coming to Sundance on their own dime to be a part of it all.

So, that leaves me with a little time before I have to go chat live with Roth and Winstone. There's a press screening of Joe the King. I have time for an hour of it. (I can feel the hearts of Val Kilmer fans everywhere beating.) The movie is about a teenager who has an angry mother, a drunk lost soul of a dad and a brother who is also having a hard time growing up. Joe eats food off the plates he washes for nourishment, a nourishment he never gets at home. Joe is also having problems at school that are made worse by the abuse he takes from having a father who cleans the school. And Joe is slowly becoming a hard-bitten thief as a means of escape. That's all I had time to see. The film is nicely made, if a bit unimaginative at times. The kids are really well cast. And the friends of Frank Whaley, the actor turned director, are often a bit too obviously unavailable for more than a few days of shooting. The great John Leguizamo, for instance, appears in the same room with a bunch of different shirts. That said, Val Kilmer is the stand-out amongst the famous, from what I saw. He put on, I assume, 10 to 15 pounds for the role, which has his shirt-free belly prominently displayed a number of times. He plays an alcoholic and his face has the puffiness that rings so true. Also, the role enrages him in a way that I never recall Kilmer playing before. When he roars, his eyes seem to turn black with anger. Terrific. Of course, they clearly shoot around him, too. (There are voices in an adjoining room that we never see... not good enough.) But this, too, may be a good movie. Whereas I'm sure After Life is, this one I'll have to finish viewing to know for sure.

So, the reason I left THAT one was to do my nightly chat. The chat took place in a condo up above Main Street. When I arrived, a movie from last year's festival was playing on TV. It still hasn't sold and still has a "property of" banner on the bottom of the screen. It made a good background to set up to. Roth and Winstone were great. Funny. Willing to pick a fight. (When one chatter asked "Why would you take on this subject?" Tim replied, "Why not? And if you have a problem with it, perhaps you should see somebody." Tough room.) The guys talked Gary Oldman, American classics, great Brit directors, the need for truth about subjects that scare people, finding the talent and more for an hour. Watch for the transcript in the days to come. It was really fun and really intense.

After that, it was a quick dinner at Texas Red's, long enough to read the New York Times on the Michael Ovitz/CAA story. I assume you've heard about it. CAA has decided that L.A. isn't big enough for the two of them in management/agency partnership with any clients. And where did the use of war vernacular first appear to describe this rising conflict. Right here at The Hot Button (THB 1/14). I don't mind patting myself on the back for this one because it's so trippy to see the war headlines that CAA created by calling it a war in their press blitz.

Anyway, next I headed to the party for Sugar Town, which premiered tonight. You know, it's odd. And I guess it explains why I am here writing at 2:43 a.m. instead of having sex with a drunk blonde. I am so focused on work this week, I can't enjoy a damned party. I want to, but I can't. I had a couple of beers (Kids, say no to alcohol!), but I started thinking about the next screening and my 7:30 a.m. wake-up call tomorrow. It ain't right. Others, who will remain nameless, have spent a lot more time and effort dealing with the party scene. I just don't care. And I feel that somehow I'm letting you all down, but how interesting are a bunch of drunk distributors trying to get laid and a bunch of actors trying to sidle up to the famous? I mean, I live in damned Los Angeles. That happens in the In-N-Out Burger drive-thru in L.A. OK, so I'll try to party more for you in the days to come. I've just decided.

The after-party for me, was a screening of Drylongso. The film has gotten a lot of buzz, so I stayed up late (it was an 11:30 p.m. screening) to check it out for myself. Ironically enough, the Hughes Brothers, who missed last night's chat because their publicist thought that it was tonight, were there. We could have done the chat tonight AND seen the screening, but c'est la vie. I'll make it up to y'all someday. So, about the movie. It's not a world beater, but a film that these festivals once lived on. It's about a young black woman who, amongst other things, is photographing the men in her world to "document their existence" with the idea that young black men are becoming an endangered species in our current culture. The film looks like a cheap indie and in some ways, I applaud that. When did Sundance become a slick fest? And the film points out another reality of Sundance '99: black filmmakers aren't coming here anymore. They have become a hot commodity at the mini-majors and if they are willing to shoot pictures with guns, they have a place at the table. As far as I can tell, Drylongso is the only non-documentary centered in a black cultural community at this year's festival, and that's too bad.

Another long column and another call to sleep. Tonight, it's the Jawbreaker duo of heat. And I hope, at least five full movies. (I hate seeing an hour or less of a movie.) Tomorrow, it's Lapdance night. Yee-haw!

READER OF THE DAY: Dexter wrote in: "Go see Trick by Jim Fall! It was bought last night after just one screening!!!! Find Jim Fall and ask him about it. Tori Spelling's in Trick and she's really quite good in a role that's a complete departure from the sort of cheesy image she has from being on 90210. This is her second indie feature -- her first one was The House of Yes -- and she even sings and tap dances in Trick. Christian Campbell -- Neve's little brother -- is darn good, too. If you talk to Jim, tell him that Becky's friend Dexter says 'Hi!' and 'Congratulations!'"