Night at the Golden Eagle

I'm not a fan of Adam Rifkin's lighter, more commercial stuff ("The Chase", "Detroit Rock City") but I was blown away by "The Dark Backward", which is one of the darkest, most transgressive contemporary films I've seen and that made me seek out "Night at the Golden Eagle", which I also really liked. Golden Eagle has the same obsession with darker than dark, hell-on-earth textures as Dark Backward. I'm not sure how Rifkin does it, but I've seen few other filmmakers who really capture that sense that you are truly looking into the bowels of hell. Even David Lynch doesn't quite go this far down.

Basic plot involves two old-time cons, one having just been released from prison. The other has been living a straight life at the titular fleabag motel, home to prostitutes, geriatric Hollywood hoofers, and other assorted weirdos and drug addicts. The two old cons have a plan to head to Vegas in the morning and start fresh lives as blackjack dealers, but when a hooker ends up dead in their room, things get complicated. There's also a subplot involving a very young prostitute being shown the tricks of the trade by a motherly older prostitute (played by Ann Magnuson).

The film is actually a pretty big downer. Some definite shades of Bukowski and Hubert Selby Jr. Comic relief comes in the form of a b.s.-spouting, television obsessional (played wonderfully by old-time soul great Sam Moore) and a much put-upon desk clerk ("EVERYONE needs something! I'm out of milk, fer Christ's sake!").

More than anything this makes me wish Rifkin would stick to the darker, textural stuff he has such an undeniable gift for creating.

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.

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.

"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.

The story of small time crooks, low-income senior citizens and others on the fringe, Night at the Golden Eagle shows one night in their sorry lives. From the ex-con just getting out of prison to the loser desk clerk, everyone in the hotel has some large or small drama going on.

While other reviewers chose to see this as gritty and realistic, I didn't think so; street walkers, for example, are seldom as good looking as Natasha Lyonne, or as articulate. You could expect a lot more drug use and a lot fewer pretty faces in a flea bag hotel, the characters living there wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

The movie is shot in dark tones with a distinct style, presumably to give it more atmosphere; that works, it doesn't distract from the action. The production values are as high as anything else, this isn't a B movie at all.

The film misses the mark, though, it's a decent movie but not a real slice of life as it aims to be. With a couple of quick edits it could easily be the movie of the week on TV.