 |
| John Cusack |
Welcome to Alternative to What: a weekly column that tries to find a great alternative to driving to the multiplexes. Based on releases of that week, the selections will either be thematically related or feature recurring cast and crew. The goal is to help you better understand the diversity of cinema and hopefully find you some favorites while saving a few bucks. At worse, this column will save you money. Expect each installment to come out on Fridays, unless specified.
THIS WEEK:
Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
- Alternative To -
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)
If there's something that's surprising in how much it is bothering people, it is the absence of John Cusack from the Hot Tub Time Machine sequel. It isn't that anyone had high hopes of it, but considering that the main draw of the first one was him only adds to the lack of appeal. Yes, the remaining cast members are funny, but what's the point when it's riffing on Cusack's career? While there's not a whole lot to connect this suggestion to this week's movie, there's a sense that it connects more towards Cusack's nostalgia trips to his own career, especially as he grows older and needs to find ways to cash in on his integrity. Also, it features this week's director (Steve Pink) as a writer, so double whammy.
Grosse Pointe Blank came at an interesting time in Cusack's career. With his child star days in John Hughes movies long forgotten, he needed to transition into a thinking man's elder statesman. However, he decided to do it in a very unsuspecting way that managed to be full of nostalgia, but not predicated simply on the gimmick. If there's something that the Hot Tub Time Machine franchise doesn't understand, it's how to incorporate a love for the past into a film about the presence quite like this story that sees a hit man go to a high school reunion, with plenty of madcap results and an impressively 80's soundtrack that will keep things light. Also, it's a one-two punch with High Fidelity that for a moment suggested that Cusack was on a comeback that would last.
However, things were immediately clear from the beginning what type of film this would be. Something feels off when Cusack is on the phone talking to someone as he plans a sniper kill set to "I Can See Clearly Now." It is visually and humorously a brilliant mix of textures that makes the innocence all the more appalling and fascinating. In fact, the film's approach to the subject of death is something that is itself perplexing in a way that only gets more engrossing as the film progresses and the secret of Cusack's personal career comes more and more to the forefront, especially at the aforementioned reunion.
The reason that the film pops is because it does feel reverent of the 80's without being heavy handed about it. When a radio DJ plays The Clash, it packs a punch and subtle references to other bands add a familiarity to the characters. Still, the film is largely in the context of growing up and being forced to revisit a less comfortable time before things truly changed and the apathy to violence became a normative. As a whole, it also reflects Cusack's coolest performance as he manages to shrug off the situations and try to live a normal life. It is a film with a wholly confusing concept that is pulled off in just the right way.
It would seem wrong to suggest that Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is going for the same conceptual realism. However, there's some truth to exploring how each of these films explore nostalgia and wishing to change the past. Absent of Cusack, it's hard to find a clearer through line for the sequel, but it does allow for an understanding of why the past fascinates us. In some cases, we can only look at it and see regret while others can just turn and laugh. There's truth in both, but in Grosse Pointe Blank, the world is allowed to exist alongside the nostalgia without stepping on the toes, which may be why it works as a sadistic love letter to Hughes.
Comments
Post a Comment