SummaryHe's a small-time gambler with a backpack full of cash, an overdue debt in Vegas and a broken radiator hose. She's a hot-and-cold vixen caught in the grips of a twisted relationship with her powerful husband. Both of them just want to get out of town. And after you meet the citizens of Superior, Arizona, you'll understand why. (Sony)
SummaryHe's a small-time gambler with a backpack full of cash, an overdue debt in Vegas and a broken radiator hose. She's a hot-and-cold vixen caught in the grips of a twisted relationship with her powerful husband. Both of them just want to get out of town. And after you meet the citizens of Superior, Arizona, you'll understand why. (Sony)
Yet for all its unmistakable visual trademarks (hypersaturated colors; mad-scientist tinkering with film stocks and editing technique; sudden presentation of enigmatic, troubling images), this is also the most radical departure Stone has ever made in terms of basic sensibilities.
In U-Turn Stone is reaching for the pulp without the politics. He's trying for noir as ritual dance. But Stone is too frenzied a filmmaker to keep the dance steps simple.
Styled very similarly to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, the neo-western/neo-noir film U Turn is a grimy, dirty, and thoroughly distasteful watch. That said, U Turn plays it in such a way that it actually does entertain and engross instead of Natural Born Killers, which just repulses. With Robert Richardson handling the camera work and Ennio Morricone on the score, it is nearly impossible to not come away partially impressed by Stone's U Turn even if it does seem to try every taboo in the book to put you off its scent. An edgy crime thriller that tries so hard to be edgy, U Turn benefits from its great cast who keep this from becoming absolute slop. As it stands, it is decidedly a mixed bag and a film that seems more intent on cutting than really providing entertainment or thrills.
Focusing on Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn), who just recently lost two fingers to some bad dudes who he owes $30,000, the film shows him roll into Superior, Arizona, after his car breaks down. With the money in a bag and on his way to Las Vegas to pay the men, Bobby must deal with the people of Superior and cope with all of their idiosyncrasies. Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton), the car mechanic with his face constantly covered in oil and a shirt that exposes his midriff, is only the first face he sees in this psycho town. Sheriff Virgil Potter (Powers Boothe) is a typical western sheriff with spit constantly being propelled from his mouth as he cruises around town. Toby "TNT" Tucker (Joaquin Phoenix) is the local tough guy, constantly threatening to kick Bobby's ass when Toby's main squeeze Jenny (Claire Danes) tries to run off with him. A homeless blind man (Jon Voight) with his dead dog (until the dog is magically alive) only adds to the weirdness of this town. That is, until he meets Grace (Jennifer Lopez). Married to Jake (Nick Nolte), Bobby immediately hints it off with Grace. But, after losing his money in a robbery, the friendship takes a sinister turn. Promised $13,000 by Jake to kill Grace and then promised upwards of $100,000 by Grace to kill Jake, Bobby finds himself in a far stickier situation than expected. Even worse, now the Las Vegas crime bosses are coming to Superior to take a few more fingers. The situation this poor man finds himself in is sticky to say the least.
Displaying the desperation of Bobby's situation as the sun burns a hole in the pavement, U Turn is a film that shows that crime certainly never pays. Instead, it just presents more opportunities for pain and anguish for Bobby. Constantly facing pushback from all over town and unable to avoid getting new cuts on his face, this is a man who seems to be cursed he is so unlucky. Whenever it seems as though he is set to get away, things always find a way to get worse. Lost in this small Arizona town with the temperature flirting with 100 degrees, it is hard to not see his situation as entirely hopeless, as if he were a lobster just dumped into a boiling pot of water. It may take some pain and suffering before he finally dies, but make no mistake, he is not getting out of the pot. Tragic to watch unfold, U Turn is like watching a man mill about until he dies. There is no going back, as he must face what is next up on the road.
While a compelling character study in this regard with some genre elements, such as constant twists and turns, seedy characters around every corner, and the brand of dissatisfaction only found in noir films where things seem to hang open at the end except for the fact that the protagonist is screwed, U Turn is flawed in one major area: the director. Taking Robert Richardson's gorgeous cinematography, bending it over his knee, and ruining it entirely, Stone seems to take glee in taking the beauty of Richardson's work and making it look how he wants it to: bad. Richardson creeps under from underneath Stone a few times with shots of the horizon, the purple/orange light created by the setting sun, and a gorgeous shot of Lopez walking on a bridge with that as that background, but otherwise, he remains muzzled. Stone's incessant cutting, changing of camera angles, and other effects to cause discomfort in the viewer is distracting, cheap, and greatly unwatchable. It is the same style he used in Natural Born Killers and it makes the film feel uncomfortable and frantic - both of which he intends to do - but it is wholly unpleasant. It makes U Turn feel like a low-budget B-movie directed by the same guy in charge of some network talent show. It, like those talent shows, seems to be on a quest to have the most cuts in one single film. The end result is a work that is largely unwatchable, no matter how engrossing it can become with the murderous and incestuous web it weaves.
Oliver Stone se fait plaisir avec cette galerie de personnages qui se complaisent dans la caricature tout en rajoutant un dose de satire non négligeable ; la brillante distribution est là pour l'aider dans cette entreprise de démolition à Plouc-land, hormis bien entendu Mademoiselle Lopezzz qui ferait mieux d'aller promener sa silhouette de baleine ailleurs, merci pour nos yeux (rarement vu une endive pareille). Son talent d'actrice est d'ailleurs à l'aune de son gros cul : grotesque.
Bien que U-turn se révèle au fil de ses incroyables et inopinés rebondissements souvent drôle et percutant, ses vilains relents et effluves de tarantinade le desservent considérablement et le temps finit pas sembler bien long après une heure et demi comme si le film ne parvenait pas à conclure ce qu'il a commencé. La fin, cela dit, est une petite apothéose dans son exagération omniprésente et a le mérite d'assumer jusqu'au bout... son jusqu'au-boutisme délirant.
La façon de filmer veut nous faire ressentir une ambiance particulière, outrée comme le reste du film, abusant des gros plans, des répétitions de plans, d'un montage un peu nerveux et de mouvements incessants comme si la caméra avait la gerbe. Heureusement, aucun filtre bizarroïde n'est utilisé et cela reste tout-à-fait regardable... bien que bizarre et toujours vaguement désagréable.
La musique d'Ennio Morricone est surprenante : elle reprend quelques vieux tics de ses gloires passées du poncho mais sur un ton grinçant, presque ou même carrément ironique : elle tombe à point pour l'illustration sonore de ce western moderne décadent. Alors pourquoi la polluer à intervalles réguliers avec des chansonnettes de musique américaine à deux balles ?
Sean Penn est vraiment un excellent acteur et le prouve encore, le démontre ici avec brio, suivi par Nick Nolte et l'inénarrable Billy Bob Thornton (ce mécano !), Powers Boothe en flicard névropathe, Joaquin Phoenix en débilos consanguin et Claire Danes en cruche épouvantable ne sont pas en reste. A noter une apparition heureusement très fugitive de la gourdasse Liv Tyler qui ferait presque passer Mademoiselle Lopesse pour une actrice.
U-turn est un film tourmenté qui ose ici et là, qui provoque, qui fait rire mais qui agace aussi énormément. Il aurait fallu être plus prudent.
Boooooring!!! Expected a better flow in the storyline from this director. Characters are flat and bizarre. Like the stars in this movie, but the script is lacking emphaty in this viewers opinion. I don't understand what's going on in some parts of the movie.
U Turn is possibly one of the worst films I've ever seen. How Sean Penn can fall off a cliff or rock face regardless if he was pushed or slipped, how he can fall from that height, land on rock below and pick himself up and walk like a normal person with no pain and just a few missing teeth is so laughably bad, unrealistic and stupid because he'd of either died in real life or been in worser shape. Absolute junk of a film and full of bad performances and a hideous storyline and plot so considering Oliver Stone directed this film it's embarrassing since he directed Platoon and that's a classic and excellent film. U Turn is just simply a crap film ... Stars also Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte and Claire Danes.. U TURN was made in 1997 and what bothers me the most about the film is Sean Penn is a great actor but he was crap in this and that's very concerning!