U-Turn

U-TURN (1997)

I love those people who are last to cross the finish line, particularly if they do it with style and sense of humor. It's not necessarily a shame to be last, particularly if the race you're running isn't particularly easy. And the last object in a closed set can be just as helpful as the first in understanding what it takes to be an element of that set.

U-Turn, for example, is Oliver Stone's entry in the neo-noir series of the '90s. Although there are still a few stragglers coming in here and there (A Simple Plan, for example, is the neo-noir thoroughbred of '98), U-Turn feels like the last of the series. Like those runners I appreciate, it crosses the line with such style, wit and charm, it's easy to forget that it's dead last.

The archetypal drifter as archetypal loser In U-Turn, Sean Penn plays Bobby Cooper, a down on his luck guy who ends up in the town of Superior with a busted radiator hose, a bandaged hand and a bag full of money. In the course of trying to get his car fixed so he can get to Vegas for an important meeting, Cooper struggles not to lose everything in his interactions with Superior's citizens. Said citizens include flirtatious bombshell Grace McKenna (Jennifer Lopez), her husband and rancher/real estate maven Jake McKenna (Nick Nolte), and sadistic car mechanic Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton). Sex, murder and doublecrosses come into play. On one hand, your typical neo-noir, struck from the same mold as Red Rock West, Blood Simple and other classic neo-noir flicks. Also like those films, U-Turn has a healthy dose of humor and self-aware style to keep it feeling fresh.

In fact, Stone pushes the humor and style much further into the foreground. U-Turn feels for certain stretches a lot like Scorsese's terrific After Hours, which is similarly about a hapless guy who keeps getting himself out of bad situations into worse ones. The town of Superior is filled with more insane oddballs than any small town could reasonably be allocated, including Clare Danes as a gum cracking flirt who can't understand why Patsy Cline doesn't put out any more records, Joaquin Phoenix as a pompadoured fight-picking tough boy, and Jon Voight as the Blind Man, the town beggar who of course dispenses that patented Stone blend of mysticism, wisdom and horseshit. Pushing forward his style from Natural Born Killers, Stone toys with film stocks, quick edits, non-synched sound, impressionistic flashbacks. In fact, U-Turn strikes me as a better film than Natural Born Killers because Stone's not out to make any big points, and uses the touches to flesh out the characters' emotional outlooks. A scene like Penn taking a shower and flashing back to how he came to this streak of bad luck could have been pretty typical but with Stone's approach has a layer of sadness and genuine pain that's compelling. Lopez's character is also given a few key flashbacks that make the hot and cold nature of her character all too understandable.

However, despite the knowledge that Stone seems to possess of what makes people tick, he really doesn't have much The only one who thrives compassion for them. Despite quite a few amusing moments, Penn's character is desperate and pathetic and not particularly likeable, and the same sadly goes the same for Lopez's Grace. Only Nolte and Thornton seem to know how to thrive in roles that make them repugnant. From what I can tell from checking out his movies, Stone likes to mix up the roles of wise man and wiseass and take a role of provocateur closer to that of an archetypal trickster figure. But his films have more than the laughter of wisdom in them; they have the laughter of the sadist to them as well. I get the feeling Stone loves no one but himself; I've yet to see a movie of his where the characters actually seem to love each other. And without love, there is no real element of redemption in a movie. Consequently, there's not much of a sense of damnation, either. A movie like U-Turn is much more likely to come off as just what it is: a mean joke.

Stone knows lust, but he don't know love In their understanding of this is where the neo-noirs either fall or succeed, I think. Fargo is a cruel movie, but there is a feeling of love the filmmakers have for Marge Gunderson that balances the film out. Likewise, the filmmakers of A Simple Plan love Billy Bob Thornton's Jacob, and Linda Fiorentino's evil character in The Last Seduction is obviously loved by the director and writer. By really caring about their characters, the filmmakers give an extra dimension that no speedy tracking shots or bleached-out backgrounds can ever hope to attain. I was entertained all the way through U-Turn and recommend it to anyone who wants to spend their time engrossed. But if you're like me, all but a few minutes of the movie will fade quickly. As for Stone, I wish he would get religion or something; he could be the inspiring capital "A" artist that he wants to be rather than the cinematic equivalent of the brilliant, mean drunk in a restaurant who you start out being captivated by but ends up making you ask for the check much sooner than you normally would.

More about this movie

A swell American Cinematographer article about shooting U-Turn with lots of fun facts about film stock and stuff