Written and directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss, Border Radio is the story of a journalist who asks a couple of friends to help her find her husband who had stolen money at a music club and has disappeared. The film is a road film of sorts set in Southern California and Mexico as it play into a woman dealing with her husband’s disappearance as she and her daughter try to find him with the help of his friends. Starring Chris D., Luanna Anders, John Doe, and Chris Shearer. Border Radio is an offbeat yet engrossing film from Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss.
The film is a simple story about a punk rock musician who had stolen money from a crooked promoter with a couple of friends only to disappear afterwards to Mexico where many are asking about the money. It’s a film with a simple premise from its writers in Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss as it also include improvised dialogue from its cast. Mainly as it play into this musician’s wife who learns that her husband has disappeared over the money he stole prompting her to find him where a young roadie and a musician join in the search as they had helped him steal the money and want their cut. Things get complicated in the search with one of them eventually finding the musician Jeff Bailey (Chris D.) who went to Mexico to deal with his own issues knowing that his marriage is already rocky.
The film’s direction by Anders, Lent, and Voss with Lent being the film’s cinematographer as it is shot in grainy black-and-white 16mm film stock is simple as well as offbeat in its approach towards film noir. Though the film does have a traditional narrative structure, the heist flashback is put in the middle where the directors would emphasize on this mixture of fiction and documentary as many of the characters in the film are interviewed to talk about what Bailey did including his wife Lu (Luanna Anders) who is a journalist that has been disappointed with Bailey’s music and not being around much for their daughter Devon (Devon Anders). There are some hand-held camera shots in the film where Anders, Lent, and Voss emphasize mainly on medium shots and close-ups as it relate to the characters with some wide shots on the locations as it play into this music scene in Los Angeles where much of the film is shot.
Even as the direction play into these odd moments that mixes humor and drama to play with the conventions of film nor as well as its aftermath where the editing by the trio add to the film’s tone in terms of its usage of jump-cuts. Overall, the trio of Anders, Lent, and Voss crafts a quirky yet compelling film about a punk musician who flee to Mexico with stolen money leaving his wife and friends to try and find him.
The sound work of Nietzchka Keene and mixing by Duane Dell’Amico is terrific for the natural sound in its presentation as well as how live music and such sound on a location. The film’s music by Dave Alvin is excellent for its punk-rock based score that has elements of ambient in some parts while the soundtrack features music from many acts from Los Angeles in the punk rock and alternative rock scene from acts such as X, Los Lobos, the Flesh Eaters, Green on Red, the Divine Horsemen, Billy Wisdom and the Hee Shees, the Blasters, and X bassist John Doe.
The film’s superb ensemble cast include some notable small roles from Texacala Jones as a dim-witted babysitter, Chuck Shepard as an American expatriate Bailey meets in Mexico, Julie Christensen as a door girl for a music club, Iris Berry as a scenester who knows a lot about the L.A. music scene in the 1980s, Devon Anders as Lu and Bailey’s daughter Devon, and Chris Shearer as a former bandmate of Bailey in Chris who chats with Lu about music. John Doe is excellent as Dean as a former bandmate of Bailey who took part in the robbery only to have a bad encounter with thugs as he tries to help Lu despite their contentious relationship.
Dave Alvin is fantastic as Dave as a friend of Bailey who also took part in the robbery as he tries to woo Lu. Luann Anders is brilliant as Lu as Bailey’s wife who is also a journalist that is frustrated with their marriage as she tries to find him over the money he stole as well as the chaos of his life. Finally, there’s Chris D. in an amazing performance as Jeff Bailey as a punk rock musician who stole money from a crooked promoter and flees to Mexico by himself where he copes with the direction of his own life both professionally and personally.
Border Radio is a marvelous film from Allison Anders, Kurt Voss, and Dean Lent. Featuring a great cast, a captivating premise, and a killer music soundtrack, it’s a film that play into the conventions of film noir while focusing on the fallacy of crime in the L.A. punk rock/alternative music scene of the late 1980s. In the end, Border Radio is a remarkable film from Allison Anders, Kurt Voss, and Dean Lent.
Allison Ander Films: (Gas Food Lodging) – (Mi Vida Loca) – Four Rooms-The Missing Ingredient - (Grace of My Heart) – (Sugar Town) – (Things Behind the Sun) – (A Crush on You) – (Ring of Fire (2013 film)) – (Beaches (2017 film))
© thevoid99 2018
Four Rooms is an anthology comedy film about a bellboy who works on his first day during New Year’s Eve where he would encounter all sorts of strange things in four different rooms. With segments written and directed by Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino, the film explores a crazy day in the life of a new bellhop named Ted that is played by Tim Roth. Also starring Antonio Banderas, Madonna, Valeria Golino, Jennifer Beals, Ione Skye, Lili Taylor, Alicia Witt, Tamlyn Tomita, Paul Calderon, Sammi Davis, Marisa Tomei, and Bruce Willis. Four Rooms is a whimsical yet chaotic anthology-comedy from Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino.
It’s New Year’s Eve as a bellhop named Ted is working in his first day at the Hotel Mon Signor. For his first assignment in The Missing Ingredient (Allison Anders), a coven of witches take the honeymoon suite to create a potion in hopes of freeing a woman (Amanda deCadenet) who had been a statue for 40 years. When one of the young witches in Eva (Ione Skye) is unable to get one special ingredient, Ted is called upon to help Eva get the ingredient. Later that night, Ted is asked to bring ice to a room where a party’s going on. In The Wrong Man (Alexandre Rockwell), Ted enters a room where a man (David Proval) holds his wife Angela (Jennifer Beals) hostage to confront her about a possible affair where Ted is mistaken to be Angela’s lover.
Following that troubled encounter, Ted is then called to do his next job in The Misbehaviors (Robert Rodriguez) where he’s asked by a man (Antonio Banderas) to watch for his kids (Danny Verduzco and Lana McKissack) for the night as the man and his wife (Tamlyn Tomita) go to a New Year’s party. Ted is getting calls from the kids about strange demands while the kids later complain about a strange smell in the room where they discover the source of the smell. Following that incident, Ted tries to reach his boss Betty (Kathy Griffin) about the things he’s been dealing with as he has to finish one more assignment for the night. In The Man from Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino), Ted brings some things to filmmaker Chester Rush (Quentin Tarantino) for a party that includes Angela, a friend named Norman (Paul Calderon), and Leo (Bruce Willis) about a bet based on a episode from The Alfred Hitchcock Hour that involves Chester’s car and Norman’s pinky where Ted has to play a key role in the bet.
The film is essentially a collection of stories about a crazy first day for a bellhop who encounters four very strange events as they all become more out of control as time goes on. All of it is largely told from the perspective of this young bellhop who has no idea what’s in store for him in the course of a crazy day. Particularly as it’s on New Year’s Eve where everybody is partying and there’s brief inserts that help sets up each story. There, this young man named Ted would be involved crazy events involving a coven of witches, a fighting couple, misbehaving kids, and a filmmaker with a crazy proposition all of which would tempt Ted with money.
In the first segment by Allison Anders, Ted plays to the service of a group of very strange yet eccentric witches who are creating a potion to revive someone yet there’s a lot trouble ensues. Anders’ direction is very playful as she also employs some fun editing schemes by Margaret Goodspeed and Rodrigo Garcia’s bright and colorful cinematography. It’s a segment that doesn’t take itself seriously as it opens the film in a nice start. The weakest segment belongs to Alexandre Rockwell where it has an interesting premise but ends up dragging the film where it involves a lot of strange moments and hijinks that don’t work such as a scene where Ted is stuck between a bathroom window. With editing by Elena Maganini and photography by Phil Parmet, it’s the one segment that doesn’t really get the chance to stand out due to its weak script and lackluster direction.
Robert Rodriguez’s segment is clearly the best one due to the shenanigans of the children where they smoke, drink, and watch all sorts of things where Rodriguez really captures the energy of kids misbehaving. With Rodriguez serving as his own editor and Guillermo Navarro providing some amazing camera work, it’s a segment that really captures the antics of children in all of its insanity that is followed by a very funny insert involving a stoned woman (Marisa Tomei) and a sleepy hotel owner. This would then lead to the final segment from Quentin Tarantino that is the most stylistic segment of the film. Largely due to the few long-takes Tarantino uses for the scene along with some amazing compositions courtesy of cinematographer Andrzej Sekula along with the methodical editing of Sally Menke. Tarantino’s segment ends the film on a high note as the overall work is a very funny and off-the-wall anthology comedy.
Production designer Gary Frutkoff, along with set decorator Sara Andrews and art director Mayne Berke, does superb work with the set pieces to give each room a distinctive look and feel for each segment. Costume designers Susan L. Bertram and Mary Claire Hannan do excellent work in the costumes from the dresses the witches wear to the party clothes the other characters wear along with Ted‘s uniform. Sound designer Lance Brown, along with sound editors Bruce Fortune and Victor Iorillo, does terrific work with the sound to capture the craziness that goes on in each room. The music by Combustible Edison is wonderful for its playful score that adds to the humor of the film as the rest of the soundtrack features a couple of stuff by Esquivel that plays to some of the craziness of the film.
The casting by Russell Gray is brilliant for the ensemble that is created for this anthology film. For The Missing Ingredient, there’s fantastic performances from Madonna, Valeria Golino, Sammi Davis, and Lili Taylor as the four eccentric and experienced witches along with a quirky one from Alicia Witt as the daughter of one of the witches. Amanda deCadenet is terrific in her appearance as the goddess Diana while Ione Skye is superb as the young witch Eva. From The Wrong Man, there’s a funny appearance from producer Lawrence Bender as a drunk yuppie along with Paul Skemp in a small role as a partygoer. David Proval is pretty good as the angry husband Siegfried while Jennifer Beals is excellent as Siegfried’s wife Angela who also appears in The Man from Hollywood.
From The Misbehaviors, there’s an appearance from Salma Hayek as the dancing woman on the TV while Tamlyn Tomita is very good as the wife. Antonio Banderas is amazing as the very intimidating husband while Danny Verduzco and Lana McKissack are wonderful as the two troublesome kids. From the insert between the last two segments, Marisa Tomei is hilarious as the stoned partygoer while Kathy Griffin is pretty good as Ted’s boss Betty. From The Man from Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino is very funny as the talkative Chester Rush while Paul Calderon is solid in a small role as Norman. Bruce Willis is also very funny in an un-credited performance as Chester’s friend Leo. Finally, there’s Tim Roth in a marvelous performance as Ted the bellhop where Roth gets to show a lot of wit and physicality into his role as a bellhop working on his first day on the job where Roth really gets the chance to be funny.
While it is a flawed film, Four Rooms is still a very entertaining anthology comedy from Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, and Alexandre Rockwell. While the film features some great segments from Tarantino and Rodriguez along with a good one from Anders. Only the Rockwell segment is the one that drags the film as a whole though things do pick up after that segment. In the end, Four Rooms is a stellar anthology comedy that features a crazy story in the day of a young bellhop.
© thevoid99 2012
