Since its publication in 1971, Tulsa, photographer-turned-filmmaker Larry Clark's seminal photo essay on Midwestern drug and street subculture of the
60s and early 70s, has influenced such films as Taxi Driver and Drugstore Cowboy. Now, in his second feature, Clark takes inspiration from those he inspired to create his own outlaw drama based around a surrogate junkie family.
Another Day in Paradise opens with a bungled attempt at a vending machine robbery by teenage delinquent Bobbie (Kartheiser). Covered in blood he
staggers home where he is administered to by his girlfriend and his
flatmate Danny's uncle, Mel (James Woods). When Mel offers a recovered
Bobbie the chance to graduate "from the school of screwdrivers and vending
machines to some serious larceny" along with the prospect of some serious
cash, Bobbie and his girlfriend Rosie (Natasha Gregson Wagner) soon hit
the road with Mel and his junkie partner, Sid (Melanie Griffith), who
takes the kids under her wing.
But this is no ordinary family with the parents up front and the kids in
the back. Clark's subject matter is coruscating stuff. But this material,
which would in other hands ooze shock value, is presented in such
innocence that it almost becomes dreamlike. This feeling is helped in no
small part by Kartheiser and Gregson Wagner who, despite their fine turn
as the fractured pair, are the epitome of heroin chic, too heart-achingly
beautiful (Wagner is the daughter of Natalie Wood) to be real-life
junkies. Similarly, Griffith is engaging and melancholic in a heartfelt
performance, but too peachy-skinned and buxom to convince. In contrast,
James Woods looks the part but overacts in his role of dangerous and
dynamic renegade. It's as if a Reservoir Dog has gatecrashed the film.
Despite using the same assured realism and edgy camerawork that was
employed in Kids, Another Day in Paradise fails to live up to the promise of Clark's debut. Where Kids was fresh and vital, this is revisited territory, and Another Day in Paradise doesn't quite capture the imagination.
Reviewed by Monika Maurer
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