November 30–December 7, 1995

movie shorts

The Crossing Guard

You keep wanting this movie to be better. Written and directed by Sean Penn, it details the psychological pain suffered by two men. David Morse is just released from prison after serving time for drunk-driving manslaughter and Jack Nicholson is the alcoholic father of the young girl victim. They're supported, after a fashion, by women who can't crack their wasted shells (Anjelica Huston is Nicholson's ex-wife, Robin Wright is Morse's would-be new girlfriend). Like Penn's The Indian Runner, this film displays that he has a talent for quirky visual composition and prying open, Sam-Shepard-like, the ugliness of culturally-prescribed masculinity. Specific scenes are weird enough to be interesting: Nicholson chases Morse with a gun, intent on killing him, and they end up on a city bus, glaring at each other from across the aisle; and when Huston and Nicholson confront each other in a diner, their exchange is excruciating, almost too close to some real emotional bone. But more often the movie is caught up in repetition and overstatement: Nicholson frequents a strip club (dark and smoky desperation), Morse gets a job on a fishing boat (cleansing sea air images).

—Cindy Fuchs