Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

chaos-rampant Legend goes that after the studio took from his hands Wild Side to recut in something resembling a commercial picture, Donald Cammell shot himself in the head, survived for 45 minutes, and asked his wife (co-screenwriter in this and White of the Eye China Kong) for a mirror to watch his last moments. I say legend because there's the same scene in his previous film White of the Eye, and Hollywood loves to print the legends of its heroes and antiheroes. Whether or not it's true, Donald Cammell killed himself over his art and that should say something. As with every man who takes his own life, there was violence in his soul and as a true artist (not just a technician) naturally there is violence in his art.People may like this simply because it's outrageous, because the human behavior is demented, like a crazy man in the street will always attract a crowd. There's a 15 minute scene where Christopher Walken threatens to rape Steve Bauer at gunpoint and it's amazing to see something as gleefully audacious captured on film. But there's more to the film for me than outrage, or even emotional and moral devastation. There's a camera that disorients and distorts our gaze, editing that cuts across time and space and thoughts, and a glimpse at a world that is alive and vivid. I love how Cammell photographs his electric night, it reminds me of what Wong Kar Wai was doing at around the same time, or the drenched neonoirs of Takashi Ishii, and it prefigures Michael Mann's journeys into the nights of Los Angeles in Collateral and Miami Vice. The nightsky is humming with deep blues, the lights blur and bleed, and walls are painted in vibrant reds or sickly greens.Like White of the Eye before it, Wild Side threatens to make no sense yet it does, there's a plot and a resolution, but none of it is very important (I'm still undecided that Cammell thinks that). It's a strange film made stranger yet by the fact that it doesn't purport hidden insights to be unlocked. Sometimes it flails and convulses in a monstrous almost-Zulawskian way but there's little meaning behind that flailing, it's the flailing itself that matters, the violent anarchy of emotion and expression. Christopher Walken's unhinged overacting is a prophecy of Nic Cage to come and must be seen to be believed. The film itself is not so much a prophecy, but rather the ramblings of a crazed mind that yearns and aches. See it if you've stepped out of the box.

paulbritton Well practically, actually it's a film called 'wild side', but it should have been a porn film, then it could have excepted it's ridiculous plot, overpowered characters and cheesy soundtrack. unfortunateley we were just left with two hours of confusing cinema and a few soft porn shots that didn't satisfy anybody. Saved from being dire by some great acting (especially by walken) and some good camerawork. Overall though, not very good.

Geofbob The following comments are based on the Tartan DVD entitled "Donald Cammell's Wild Side", also referred to as the director's cut, though it was produced after his death. I made the mistake of initially thinking this was a plot-driven movie while watching it, and only later realised it was intended to be character-driven. Cammell and his wife and co-writer, China Kong, bamboozle us with a convoluted plot about laundering vast sums of money, computer viruses etc, but all this counts for little. The real focus is the tangled relationship between the four main characters, and especially between the two women - Anne Heche's bank employee/callgirl Alex, and her lover Virginia played by Joan Chen. The scenario treats both female characters sympathetically, in contrast to the two men - Bruno, the unbalanced, crooked high financier, menacing and whining by turns; and Tony, his equally unbalanced but cruder bodyguard/undercover FBI agent, played by Christopher Walken and Steven Bauer respectively. Walken convincingly portrays a man who has so lost touch with reality that he can only communicate by playing a role, and usually playing it badly. It isn't clear whether Bauer is imitating Walken's acting style, or his character Tony is imitating Bruno's persona; either way it emerges as over-acting but without Walken's charisma. If in terms of the characters the women are treated more fairly than the men, the same cannot be said about the movie's treatment of Heche and Chen as actors; they suffer much the same sexploitation as the actresses in a soft porn film. Overall, the film has curiosity value, and the photography is superb; but there is little else to commend it. However, a good reason to rent the DVD is because it contains Cammell's long-lost amusing short, The Argument, set in superb Utah scenery.

aidan-12 It's addictive, once you get into it - Christopher Walken's Bruno uckingham - a multimillionaire money-launderer - is dangerous and unpredictable.A casual sexual encounter between him and call girl Alex, played by Ann Heche, develops into a love triangle, or rectangle if you include Walken's obnoxious and predatory driver, played by Steven Bauer. The driver turns out to be working undercover. Walken's wife/girlfriend arrives on the scene and you have a passionate all female sexual encounter between her and the Ann Heche, who is also leading a double life.But there's a scam going on - Bruno Buckingham plans to disrupt the banking system with a computer virus and use the opportunity to transfer millions of dollars of ill-gained funds. A sting is planned by the police, but will it be successful?A simple plot, but complex encounters between various characters, captured on a hand-held camera, and with the beautiful and haunting background music of Ryuichi Sakamoto, make for a highly intriguing and watchable film, if you like this sort of thing (I do). I loved the momentary flashbacks of sex scenes in the character's head as she's in the office. A little bit quirky, like the films of director Nicholas Roeg.Christopher Walken is remarkable, with his menacing and almost other-worldly on-screen presence. Ann Heche is captivating, and the love scenes between her and Buckingham's wife/lover, played by Virginia Chow, are quite passionate, and have the quality of a real encounter.If you're expecting a simple dénouement, don't. As in real life things aren't cut and dry, though the ending is satisfying.