Post by The Narrator Returns on Jun 16, 2013 9:44:31 GMT -6
Much of the 90s were not kind to Steven Soderbergh. He started off the decade with the underrated Kafka, which was met with mixed reviews and little box office. His next project, King of the Hill, based on the autobiographical novel by A.E. Hotchner, fared far better with critics, earning Soderbergh his best reviews up to that point, but it died at the box office and it hasn’t even gotten a DVD release yet. This is a shame, because it’s one of Soderbergh’s best, and an excellent counterpoint to those who call his films “cold.”
Aaron Kurlander (a remarkable Jesse Bradford) is a bright young boy in Depression-era St. Louis. His father is an unsuccessful traveling salesman who hopes to get a job selling watches. His mother has previously been sent to a sanitarium. Despite all this, his life is mostly fine until his brother Sullivan gets sent away to make money for the family. And this is just the beginning of the events that will ultimately lead to Aaron being left alone in his family’s hotel room to fend for himself. This certainly could have the workings of a Hallmark original movie, an incredibly sappy, saccharine, and manipulative tearjerker. But that’s not Soderbergh has in mind. He refuses to let this become a pity party. It feels completely natural, much of that due to Bradford’s brilliant performance (which sadly, has not led to anything noteworthy in his present career). Admittedly, the plot itself is episodic, but it’s all hooked together by the overarching themes of the film; growing up, the role of a family. Aaron may be on his own, but his family gets him through all his ordeals. In fact, when he tries to rely on others (Adrian Brody’s Lester, the late Spalding Gray’s Mr. Mungo), it generally ends badly (Lester gets arrested, and Mr. Mungo commits suicide, in a scene which is even more poignant after Gray’s suicide in 2004). His family, or the promise of seeing his family again, is the one thing that he can trust to make sure he survives.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Classic
The Soderbergh Players: Spalding Gray had his first collaboration with Soderbergh here. His monologue Gray’s Anatomy would later be filmed by Soderbergh, and after Gray’s death, he compiled a documentary about his life, told exclusively by Gray through archival footage, entitled And Everything is Going Fine. Joe Chrest, playing a bellhop at Aaron’s hotel, has performed small roles in many of Soderbergh’s films, including Erin Brockovich, The Underneath, and Out of Sight. And Aaron’s father is played by Jeroen Krabbé, who previously had a role in Kafka and would later play the target of the Ocean’s gang in Ocean’s Twelve.
Cinematographer Elliot Davis (Out of Sight, Gray’s Anatomy) worked with Soderbergh for the first time. Cliff Martinez did his third score for Soderbergh (one that would reused for many unrelated movie trailers later on), and Soderbergh edited it, like with his previous two films, although not under the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard, like he did with future projects.
Aaron Kurlander (a remarkable Jesse Bradford) is a bright young boy in Depression-era St. Louis. His father is an unsuccessful traveling salesman who hopes to get a job selling watches. His mother has previously been sent to a sanitarium. Despite all this, his life is mostly fine until his brother Sullivan gets sent away to make money for the family. And this is just the beginning of the events that will ultimately lead to Aaron being left alone in his family’s hotel room to fend for himself. This certainly could have the workings of a Hallmark original movie, an incredibly sappy, saccharine, and manipulative tearjerker. But that’s not Soderbergh has in mind. He refuses to let this become a pity party. It feels completely natural, much of that due to Bradford’s brilliant performance (which sadly, has not led to anything noteworthy in his present career). Admittedly, the plot itself is episodic, but it’s all hooked together by the overarching themes of the film; growing up, the role of a family. Aaron may be on his own, but his family gets him through all his ordeals. In fact, when he tries to rely on others (Adrian Brody’s Lester, the late Spalding Gray’s Mr. Mungo), it generally ends badly (Lester gets arrested, and Mr. Mungo commits suicide, in a scene which is even more poignant after Gray’s suicide in 2004). His family, or the promise of seeing his family again, is the one thing that he can trust to make sure he survives.
Grade: A
Lester Scale: Classic
The Soderbergh Players: Spalding Gray had his first collaboration with Soderbergh here. His monologue Gray’s Anatomy would later be filmed by Soderbergh, and after Gray’s death, he compiled a documentary about his life, told exclusively by Gray through archival footage, entitled And Everything is Going Fine. Joe Chrest, playing a bellhop at Aaron’s hotel, has performed small roles in many of Soderbergh’s films, including Erin Brockovich, The Underneath, and Out of Sight. And Aaron’s father is played by Jeroen Krabbé, who previously had a role in Kafka and would later play the target of the Ocean’s gang in Ocean’s Twelve.
Cinematographer Elliot Davis (Out of Sight, Gray’s Anatomy) worked with Soderbergh for the first time. Cliff Martinez did his third score for Soderbergh (one that would reused for many unrelated movie trailers later on), and Soderbergh edited it, like with his previous two films, although not under the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard, like he did with future projects.