| When your latest ambitious mini-epic is bankrolled with French money and heads direct-to-video, promoted as yet another film in the long line of urban crime thrillers, you have officially crossed into the realm of under-appreciated genre auteurs.
The auteur in this case is Abel Ferrara, who recently returned to video store shelves with his latest effort, ’R Xmas. For those of you wondering who this Ferrara character might be, I have two simple words: Bad Lieutenant. Anyone who’s witnessed Ferrara’s incendiary 1992 masterpiece has not likely forgotten it (even if they tried to).
Anchored by Harvey Keitel’s masterful emotionally and physically naked performance, Bad Lieutenant was a revelation in early ’90s independent cinema, coming along as the crazy junkie uncle to films like Reservoir Dogs and the Tarantino clones that followed. Few films since have charted one man’s breakdown so unflinchingly.
Bad Lieutenant (and its predecessor King of New York, starring Christopher Walken) led to Ferrara being embraced by Hollywood and tapped to direct the massively underrated Body Snatchers. He then survived working with Madonna in Dangerous Game, and moved back into edgier indie fare with the grainy vampire drama The Addiction. The period mafia epic The Funeral followed, and since then it’s been difficult to keep up with Ferrara’s work. The Blackout was met with a chorus of boos before it could be released theatrically, and New Rose Hotel, his foray into sci-fi, was quietly released on video before anyone could take notice.
Not that Ferrara cares. He seems to be much happier working away from the corrupting influence of Hollywood. ’R Xmas sees the Bronx-born Ferrara back in his ’hood, applying his trademark languid style to an intimate story of a married pair of mid-level drug dealers (Drea DeMatteo and Lillo Brancato Jr). ’R Xmas takes place in New York City around Christmas in 1993, about the time David Dinkins was exiting as mayor, and the city was being rocked by a police corruption scandal. Brancato and DeMatteo (credited as "the husband" and "the wife" respectively) are torn apart by the entrance of an apparent small-time hood (Ice-T, who fits into the Ferrara bad-guy mould quite nicely) who has kidnapped Brancato and is extorting drug money from DeMatteo for his release.
Plot-wise, that’s about as deep as ’R Xmas gets, but the film is captivating in other ways, particularly in the interplay between Ice-T and DeMatteo. She clearly loves her husband, but when the kidnapper reveals he knows much more about her personal life than any small-time hood would, DeMatteo does an excellent job of conveying the doubts she has about her lifestyle, especially when it comes to the safety of her daughter. ’R Xmas is the rare film that has an understanding of why people sell drugs for a living, and DeMatteo’s qualms about security versus safety are part of the richness her character brings to this film.
As usual, Ferrara captures plenty of striking underworld authenticity (which, depending on who you believe, may have a lot to do with Ferrara’s personal experience). The director captures the same sense of reality whether he’s dealing with his street-corner distribution network, or the calm domesticity of the family sitting around the table, preparing tiny baggies of heroin for sale.
Ferarra is too good a director to make much of this particular juxtaposition. Instead, he brings a distinct realism to the film, burying the dialogue low enough in the mix that it’s intelligible, yet indistinguishable enough that the film becomes much more about mood than story. Although he never uses the effect, it often feels like things are happening in slow motion.
Despite the real-life police corruption scandal that changed the city, it’s clear that Ferrara has created a slice of nostalgia for the pre-Giuliani era New York. This is perhaps one of the first films to suggest that the changes that the city has gone through are not entirely positive. |
