Night at the Golden Eagle

After spending more seven years in prison, the criminal Tommy (Donnie Montemarano) is released and his former partner Mick (Vinny Argiro) is waiting for him to take him home. Mick is an ex-convict that is straight now, working as a janitor in a porno shop and living in the decadent and filthy Golden Eagle hotel in Los Angeles. He tells Tommy that he has saved 2.5 thousand dollar and has bought two tickets to Las Vegas for them. Mick's intention is to find a job in a casino and begin a new life with his old friend in a nice place. The dirty Golden Eagle is a joint where prostitutes meet clients and losers and decadent people live.

When Mick goes to work his last night in his job, Tommy brings the prostitute Amber (Natasha Lyonne) to the room to have sex with her. Amber works with her friend Sally (Ann Magnuson) on the streets and their pimp is the strong Rodan (Vinnie Jones) that is luring the fifteen year-old runaway Loriann (Nicole Jacobs), promising that she will become a cinema actress. Tommy fails with Amber and she mocks him. Tommy gets angry and kills Amber. When Mick returns to his room, he finds her body. Will that be the end of Mick's dreams?

"Night at the Golden Eagle" is a depressing feature with unpleasant characters. The story is awful, without humor or moral, and the subplots are repulsive. The lead plot refers to Mick and Tommy and is neither good nor interesting; the subplot with the young prostitute is depressive; the plots with the lonely old tapper and his dog and the television viewer are melancholic. In the end, "Night at the Golden Eagle" is a movie that will make you feel completely down. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Iniciação" ("The Initiation")

I love low budget films that pay off and are very entertaining, especially Indie ones. Take Clerks as one example. Director Rifkin, is a very interesting movie maker. Just go back The Dark Backward- original genius, or Look, which had some very disturbing and realistic themes, like this one. At the end, of this 90 minute viewing, you feel like you've been slapped around the face a few times. Speaking of slapping: Vinnie Jones's performance here as a brutal and uncompromising pimp, who lures really young girls off the bus, with dreams of stardom, then turns them out on the street, is electric, playing one of the most scariest pimps I've seen, and I've seen a few. Another great pimp playing performance was that of Brian Tarantina in the little but potent straight to video drama, Runaway Dreams. Jones also plays the charm of the pimp, wonderfuly. ANATGE takes place in a run down, but kind of legendary old hotel, that caters for a lot of tricks, a few old people, ex cons, and we see at first sight, how pimps, pros work it, but too as people, we get underneath the characters, and see them as real people. Ann Marguson (Panic Room) is great as the worn hooker who really puts so much into her character, her and Jones really shine in this, while American Pie's Lyonne, really shows us, she can really act, and act up a storm she does. To say there's bad acting in this film, truly warrants 50 floggings. Newbie, Nicole Jacobs (what happened to her) with her fresh hot fifteen old looks, and fresh off the bus, completes the talent chain of great acting, for she really shines as Lorrianne, pimp Rodan's (Jones) newest profitable discovery, and he's a really smooth operator, where the little lass, busts her cherry the same night. Also exuding hotness, sexiness, Lyonne must be praised as the slightly older teen hooker, Amber, blowing us way with her presence. The performances are so believable, where a lot happens in one night, the plot involving two ex cons, one recently released, where they get involved in a real pickle, in an accidental manslaughter, and try to cover it up, which kind of backfires for one of them. The film has been shot in that grainy, brown swarthy color ala: 187 film, and it really works, especially for the atmosphere, where the nights are really hot and a lot indeed, happens over the night, in this low key movie, another gem that must be sought out. It's painfully evident, there was a lot of struggle to make this movie, whether production, or financial, but I'm glad the struggle was overcome. The movie though has more straight to video appeal. Not everyone will like this movie, but again, Rifkin, shows you don't need much moolah, to pull off something engaging or visually viable, and this movie really has moments that affect, with some real moments of unease, thanks to Jones. The outcome of the Lorianne character, coming to accept her life here as a popped virgin pro, is one of those affecting and sadly realistic moments.

This is definitely not your typical family fare. It's the story of a smalltime thug (Mic) with a bad temper, who gets released from jail. He's greeted at the gate by his longtime buddy (Tommy) who has decided to reform. He wants to go to Las Vegas and bring Mic along. Well, the fact that Mic has a bad temper and is an ex-con should tell you enough to know what will go on. The Golden Eagle is a rundown hotel full of poor, depraved people. A place where dreams come to die an ugly death.

None of the characters was very appealing, the filming is very dark and the story moves slowly. It's an exercise in character definition and acting. If that's what you're looking for in a movie, then this is the movie for you. However, my main problem with it, and the reason I rate it a 6, is that it's not entertaining. When I pulled the DVD out of the player, I didn't feel like I enjoyed myself, The movie didn't move me or make me think and that's a big failure in my book.

"Night at the Golden Eagle" is just a few steps away from being a perfect film, we don't get the opportunity to absorb the climax before it ends, so by the time the credits roll it felt incomplete.

The story isn't about resolutions, but instead the opposite, if you ever wondered where the people who don't "make it" go after they've failed, or where society's unwanted leftovers collect, or where those with potential ultimately find themselves on the wrong side of fate's door there are a lot of them out there right now on the streets, and they're getting younger and younger, get your teen to see it they might learn something.

That is how I felt after watching this spectacle of humanity. Completely down. Like I was damaged and left for refuse on the side of the curb. Rifkin did a wonderful job of giving us a side of humanity that we usually see but not at its gritty and gnarly best. This film is right up there with Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" only it feels slightly more polished. The locale for one lent a perfectly hopeless air to the mise en scene. Rifkin played with the color saturation in such a way that it also added an extra layer of desperation to the visuals. Perfection, and this movie is right up there with other modern despair epics like Atlantic City and Requiem for a Dream.