Tuesday, August 29, 2006
HUSTLED
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Gus Van Zant's
I saw this when it came out and did not remember much of it at all. So, it is not memorable, right?
Then how do you explain its impact?
The film is a rich and bounteous gathering of images and impressions of the hustler life style in the Northwest.
It is a tale of unrequited love between two of the hustlers.
It is a meditation on life and its absurdities.
It is very complex. There is hardly any plot. I think this is why it does not stick. To get it you have to sit and experience it and you get it and then it is gone.
I liked it.
I didn't like all of it.
It was Van Zant's first film and so he threw in everything but the kitchen sink and I think that I saw that once.
There are some great ideas here.
All the sex scenes are tableaus. Not photos. The people are holding their poses. Their stuff shakes a little. Tableaux vivant!
The photo here is not a sex situation. The boys are conning the cops.
Stuff like that.
Great fun.
It gets a 5 out of Netflix5 for shear daring and the absolute originality of almost all of it.
It works.
