8MM
Scripted by Seven screenwriter
Andrew Kevin Walker, Joel Schumacher's tedious, suspenseless thriller
centers on a suburban private investigator (Nicolas Cage) and
his obsessive search for the truth behind the murder of a teenage
girl in a snuff film found in a deceased millionaire's safe. The
detective's case takes him into the seamy and violent underground
porn scene. Meanwhile, Cage's author wife (Catherine Keener) waits
at home with their baby daughter for his return and fears he's
drifting away from her when he stops returning her phone calls.
For a film that claims to be a character
study about an ordinary man's discovery of his own dark side,
there's about as much character development here as there was
in Schumacher's superficial, disgraceful Batman movies.
8MM's most interesting character is Cage's likable sidekick
and guide (Joaquin Phoenix), an L.A. porn-shop clerk and failed
rocker who sits behind the cashier's desk reading a copy of In
Cold Blood hidden in a porno novel. Phoenix's jaded, witty
character is a relief in an overly dour, pretentious film that's
like Schumacher's apology for sapping the darkness and depth out
of Batman in Batman & Robin. Premiere's current
cover story about 8MM and the hardcore porn industry, which
features interviews with porn-media moguls like Larry Flynt and
Al Goldstein, tells us more about this twisted world than Schumacher's
movie does.
© 1999 Jim Aquino