Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Never heard of this film. But this guy seems to have liked it a heck of a lot, and maybe there’s something to it. At the very least, let’s hear him out...
Never heard of this film. But this guy seems to have liked it a heck of a lot, and maybe there’s something to it. At the very least, let’s hear him out...
Hey Harry...
Longtime listener, first time caller as they say in sports talk radio. Wanted to tell you about a screening I saw last night for the new DMX movie NEVER DIE ALONE. This wasn't really a research screening per se (thank god - no NRG goons or idiotic cards to fill out), more of an informal showing at a screening room in Santa Monica, CA. I was a guest of... well, I can't really say as I don't want to get shot. This is a VERY rough cut - it was shown on projection video (though it looks like it was shot on film) and the sound/music are rough and temp (as the director, Ernest Dickerson of JUICE/BONES fame explained to us). Still, all that said, I gotta say it kicked some serious ass.
First thing to note: this is not your typical brainless DMX shoot-em-up. This is an actual drama, with a very complex, but interesting, multiple storyline/flashback structure - almost novelistically non-linear, in a PULP FICTION/MEMENTO type of way. There were no credits save for stars, director and producer, but someone told me it is based on a pulp novel from the '70s. I don't know who the screenwriter was, but he did an amazing job with complex material - the movie is taut, ingenenously structured and devastatingly powerful. And let me get this out of the way before I get into the rest of the review: this is the movie that is going to prove to people that DMX is a movie star. The guy has chops. For real. He plays a dark, complex character here, equal parts smooth charmer and sociopathic monster. I really think he's going to surprise people. This is probably the best performance ever given by a rapper-turned-actor (with the possible exception of some of Will Smith's work, but no one really ever considered him a real rapper, anyway). After this movie, no one will ever use the qualifier rapper/actor with DMX ever again. They'll just call him an actor. And a great one, at that.
The basic story, in a nutshell... I don't want to ruin the surprises, so I'm going to leave spoilers out: the movie opens SUNSET BLVD. style, with DMX in a coffin, narrating how he wound up that way. From there, we go to a few days earlier, where the story basically follows an intertwined sequence of events set off by the arrival of DMX's character (KING DAVID) back on the East Coast (NYC, I think, but wasn't sure), after having been on the lam for several years. King David is a drug dealer who's escaping some (at this point) unexplained trouble out west and has come back to set things right at home. First order of business is to arrange to pay back a gangster named Moon, who he ripped off several years back. Meanwhile, a young gangster named MIKE (played amazingly by Michael Ealy, who played Ricky in BARBERSHOP - remember this name, the guy is like a young Denzel), who works for Moon, gets the assignment to collect from King David. It turns out, however (for reasons explained later), that Mike has a long-standing grudge against David and is waiting for his chance for revenge. The other main thread follows a white journalist named PAUL (played by David Arquette, who shows how much better he is in drama than mugging away in goofy comedies - he's great and totally believable here). Paul is a bohemian-type living in the ghetto and trying to secure a job working for a black newspaper. He bears witness when Mike stabs King David nearly to death and takes David to the hospital. Mike, meanwhile, gets in trouble with Moon for botching the job and is now a fugitive, as well, with a goon squad coming after him. After escaping from a huge shootout at a garage (an amazing action scene), he sets off after Moon, hoping to get back at his boss for double-crossing him. Meanwhile, David dies and bequeaths all his worldly goods to Paul, which includes his dictated memoirs. Paul starts listening to them, wanting to know who the man he tried to save was and why he died, realizing it could provide the basis for his story, and learns about David's life in L.A., and everything that led up to his return on the day he gets killed.
This is where the movie gets really interesting and structurally complex: The action proceeds to intercut between the tension of the threads in the present and the various vignettes from the memoirs depicting the past. David sets himself up as a drug dealer in L.A. and starts to seduce, and then string-out, a series of women - one a TV actress on a sub-BAYWATCH-type show (great parody here during the Hollywood scenes); another an innocent college girl who turns out to be anything but - giving them heroin and telling them it's cocaine. It's in these scenes that DMX really shines. It's his character's inability to love that is his undoing. When he gets his heart broken, he uses drugs, violence and control to get back at the women in his life and little by little, we realize what a horrible monster he is. We also learn the true nature of Mike's vendetta against David (though I won't spoil that here). This stuff is bleak and gut-wrenching, but really powerful. Take my word for it. Eventually, the threads converge (I'm not going to say how) and Mike and Paul finally meet, in a very emotionally powerful climax. Paul writes his story (though there's an ironic twist) and we pick things back up again with DMX in the coffin, as he awaits his burial.
Though this was a rough cut, it's a really tight and beautifully put together movie. The look is amazing - gritty, almost documentary-like, but incredibly stylish (afterwards, someone told me the DP was the esteemed Matty Libatique, who shot REQUIEM FOR A DREAM). Though not an art film, the overall feel is very European and un-Hollywood, but in the best possible way. There are a few awkward moments here and there - a few confusing transitions, a death scene depicted in jerky video-style step-frame slo-mo that seemed kinda dated and cheesy, a few parts where the pacing seemed somewhat slack - but again, this is a VERY rough cut, and as such, it's probably 95% of the way toward being all there. This is easily the best movie Ernest Dickerson has made since JUICE, and he's done a great job, working in a guerilla, low-budget manner and making it work for him artistically.
What really sells the movie, however, are the script and the amazing acting. The performances are stellar across the board, and the focus is really on the characters and their interactions, with a great sense of rawness and honesty. The story has a really unique tone - this is definitely not an exploitation movie, though there are exploitation elements – sort of the way RES. DOGS and JACKIE BROWN aren't exploitation movies, even though they sort of are. The script takes what, on the surface, SHOULDN'T be the most interesting material, yet makes it TOTALLY compelling, due to the point of view. In the end, the movie is a kaleidoscopic character portrait focusing on the deeds and misdeeds of DMX's character and how he affects all who come in his path, and little by little, we realize the complexity and utter darkness at the core of his very soul. Sort of like if CITIZEN KANE were about a sociopathic drug dealer, instead of a newspaper baron. I know that sounds weird, but I can't think of any other movie to compare it to narratively.
I don't know when this is coming out, who's releasing it, or any of that, but whoever does pick it up is going to have a real gem on their hands. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea - movies this dark and honest rarely are. But I CAN totally see this movie kicking ass at festivals, garnering amazing reviews and literally dropping the jaws of anyone who ever was a DMX fan or anyone who previously didn't want to give one of his movies the time of day. He's really THAT good. Just see the movie, whenever you get the chance and see for yourself.
signing out,
just call me... ordell
This was either written by the world’s biggest DMX fan or the filmmaker’s mother. Can it really be THAT good? Hmmmm... I guess you can consider me curious now, and I’ll keep my eyes out for the film.
"Moriarty" out.
