With the dusty Western noir Red Rock West (1993) and the fabulous
The Last Seduction (1994), director John Dahl emerged as a fine
“B” movie director in an age when action blockbusters had supposedly
eradicated such distinctions. But Dahl’s subsequent graduation to bigger
budgets and more respectable projects with 1998’s generic poker tale
Rounders was an artistic regression, and now he’s back to where he once
belonged with the boilerplate cheapie Joy Ride.
This sardonically titled film is an entirely familiar mix of
horror and noir, a road-bound thriller that consciously evokes Steven
Spielberg’s Duel as well as lesser antecedents such as The
Hitcher and Breakdown. But Dahl’s film brings its carbon-copy
skeleton to life through often inspired directorial craftsmanship and
characters (and performances) that are sharp and believable by present
Hollywood standards.
The film’s setup is deftly handled and thankfully swift, if a
little unlikely. California college kid Lewis (Paul Walker, who also starred
in this year’s other highly entertaining “B” movie, The Fast and
the Furious, although one that banked “A” box office) buys a
beat-up car in order to pick up high school friend and unrequited love
interest Venna (Leelee Sobieski) at her Colorado campus en route to their East
Coast hometown for the summer. But before he leaves, Lewis finds out that his
troubled older brother Fuller (Steve Zahn, whose calculated goofiness balances
nicely with Walker’s bland good looks) has been arrested in Salt Lake City and
reluctantly decides to pick him up on the way. Dahl is such an ace
practitioner of these scuzzy little genre exercises that you almost suspect
that he named his protagonists after bygone pulp-fiction auteurs Samuel Fuller
(Pickup On South Street) and Joseph H. Lewis (Gun Crazy).
Fuller has a cheap CB radio installed in the car and gleefully
(and recklessly) spouts CB lingo into the contraption, exclaiming to his
brother that it’s “like a prehistoric Internet.” Fuller convinces
Lewis to play along with a practical joke, aping a woman’s voice under the
name “Candy Cane” to get the faceless truckers on the road all hot
and bothered. This prank works, with a trucker calling himself “Rusty
Nail” responding to Candy Cane’s call.
In order to pay back an obnoxious racist at the roadside motel
where the brothers are staying, Fuller and Lewis make another Candy Cane call,
asking Rusty Nail to meet them/her for a “romantic” rendezvous at
the motel and giving him the room number of the aforementioned nemesis. What
follows is the film’s strongest scene, as Fuller and Lewis wait in the room
next door, ears pressed against the wall, a cheap seascape painting between
them, the lightning outside almost making the canvas’ stormy mise-en-
scène come to life. Rusty Nail is never seen and the conversation next
door is heard only in muffles, but Dahl, along with his two actors, finds an
eeriness here often lacking from modern scary movies. Unfortunately, it’s a
style that Dahl sometimes neglects throughout the rest of the film.
Joy Ride may be a return to Dahl’s “B” roots,
but it’s a compromised return. At its best, Joy Ride makes sparkling
use of its seamy, intimate interiors, the shoddy roadside motel rooms and the
interior of the car, where the disembodied voice of Rusty Nail, accompanied
only by the bloody-red glow of the CB volume levels, is extremely
discomforting. But Dahl also succumbs to the sadism and sensationalism that
tend to mar modern Hollywood thrillers, devoting too much screen time to
grisly visuals and relying too much on crashes and explosions when simpler,
more human developments provide the real thrills.
— Chris Herrington
When it comes to fighting crime, is there one moral code or
several? Which do we want more: law-abiding police or police who get the job
done? Can there be any compromise in between?
Training Day director Antoine Fuqua takes us deep into the
world of police and criminals and crime that isn’t always perpetrated by
criminals. Denzel Washington plays 13-year veteran narcotics officer Alonzo
Harris. Years of patrolling the streets have conditioned him to live by one
rule: “In the streets you must figure out which you are, a wolf or a
sheep.” Alonzo has become a wolf but not a lone wolf. With his group of
crooked police counterparts, he has built a reputation for doing whatever is
necessary to survive, even if it means excessive brutality, planting evidence,
or murder.
Ethan Hawke plays a wet-behind-the-ears cop, Jake Hoyt, whose
dream is to be a narc officer. But first he must impress his new boss (Alonzo)
and prove that he, too, can be a wolf.
The film takes place in a 24-hour period, beginning with Jake
leaving home for his first day on the job and ending with his return. During
the course of the day, Jake comes to understand the intricacies of police work
as the lines of justice are continually blurred by Alonzo and other law-
enforcement officials.
As soon as he reports for duty, Alonzo takes Jake straight to the
streets. Here is where his teaching begins as we meet the drug dealers, petty
thieves, and muggers who make up Alonzo’s Los Angeles. These interactions
provide insight into the ways in which Alonzo may have shifted over time.
Hawke does a good job playing the new, naive kid on the block.
It’s easy to identify with his clear-cut form of enforcement and the morals
that shape his actions. He is the perfect foil for Alonzo, who started out
like Jake. The characters make you question your own standards, though the
film never jumps to conclusions. No excuses are made for the criminals and
none are made for Alonzo. Each character truly believes in what he is doing,
and that’s all that matters.
Also, the film is not overdone. Los Angeles is not made rougher
than it actually is, project residents and gang members are portrayed sensibly
instead of as mindless criminals, and as in real life, everyone doesn’t live
happily ever after.
Why did Washington want to play a role out of the realm of his
usual, however imperfect, heroes? Maybe he figured playing a bad guy would win
him an Oscar since portraying a race-harmonizing football coach, Civil War
soldier, imprisoned boxer, and religious leader did not. Or maybe he was just
bored with being the good guy and wanted a taste of how the other half lives.
Either way, Washington delivers a good performance as always, but we still
like Denzel the hero. Some guys just aren’t meant to be bad.
— Janel Davis