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The Films of Henry Jaglom

A Safe Place

Tracks (December 20/06)

Tracks casts Dennis Hopper as Jack Falen, a Vietnam vet who must escort the dead body of a fallen comrade from one end of the country to the other via train. Much of the film revolves around Jack's misadventures aboard said train, where he encounters a whole host of quirky characters (including a mysterious figure named Mark, played by Dean Stockwell). Although Tracks starts out well enough - Hopper is initially quite effective as the shell-shocked veteran, while filmmaker Henry Jaglom's idiosyncratic sense of style mirrors the off-kilter subject matter - the film becomes increasingly aimless and flat-out weird as it progresses and essentially mutates into a completely unwatchable piece of work. The baffling conclusion certainly doesn't help matters, nor does the inclusion of some seriously dated elements (ie what is the deal with that score?) As a '70s curiosity, Tracks might be worth a look, but the bottom line is that the film - viewed through a contemporary context - simply doesn't hold up at all.

out of

Sitting Ducks

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?

Always

Someone to Love (December 20/06)

Though almost egregiously experimental and freewheeling, Someone to Love is nevertheless a strangely compelling piece of work - buoyed, undoubtedly, by the presence of Orson Welles in his final cinematic appearance. Writer/director Henry Jaglom stars as Danny, a Hollywood type who assembles all his single friends - including his brother (Michael Emil, Jaglom's real-life sibling) and a movie star (Sally Kellerman) - in a soon-to-be-demolished theater and questions them on their life choices. That Someone to Love consequently possesses the feel of a pseudo-documentary doesn't come as much of a surprise, given that the majority of the film's participants speak directly into the camera (one would assume most of this stuff wasn't scripted). The inclusion of several musical interludes only compounds the movie's unevenness, with some of these musings far more interesting than others (Jaglom delivers a poignant and truthful speech on loneliness near the beginning that's undoubtedly the highlight of the film).

out of


New Year's Day (December 19/06)

The revelation that much of the dialogue within New Year's Day was improvised hardly comes as a surprise, as the film is rife with sequences in which characters eschew authentic conversations in favor of increasingly pompous instances of speechifying. The simple premise follows several characters (including Maggie Wheeler's Lucy, Milos Forman's Lazlo, and David Duchovny's Billy) over the course of one particularly eventful day, with Jaglom's Drew the catalyst for a whole host of soul-searching discussions. Stripped of its admittedly strong cast - as effective as Duchovny is here, Wheeler (best known for her stint as Janice on Friends) is undoubtedly the film's strongest asset - New Year's Day can't help but come off as a needlessly avant-garde effort that might hold some appeal for fans of the filmmaker but few others.

out of

Eating

Venice/Venice

Last Summer in the Hamptons

Déjà Vu

Festival in Cannes

Going Shopping

Hollywood Dreams

Irene in Time

Queen of the Lot

© David Nusair