Poetry for Southern California

source: http://poetix.net/reviews_108.htm

"..."

by Jaimes Palacio

If the director and writer of Fighting Words E. Paul Edwards actually went to a slam it certainly doesn't show from his efforts here. Slam is treated like a  fad too unimportant to carry it's own story. Just like CB radios, rollerblading, pinball, Disco, etc., etc. Slam is relegated to the back of the room while a tacky cardboard cutout of a story takes center stage. It could possibly be the worst example of this kind of filmmaking. (Hey, at least CB radios had the interesting Jonathan Demme directing one movie and the interesting Kris Kristofferson acting in another!)

As a movie it's bad enough. You know that really awkward moment in Gremlins where they try to stuff a PSA about child molestation (!) into the mouth of the otherwise excellent Phoebe Cates, and the movie, up to that point good, nasty fun, stops dead in its tracks (though quickly recovers, thankfully).

This movie is that awkward PSA moment prolonged to 98 minutes. It is clumsy, lazily directed and written, and contains howlers that are probably meant to be profound like "You are afraid of your own heart." and "He has a heart as big as the ocean!" In truth, for a movie that throws around the word "heart" all over its shaky sleeves, it has very little of it: The characters are one-dimensional archetypes not allowed any complexities or layers. It is one of those movies where you can't tell if the actors can actually act because they are just not given enough to work with.

Take Jake, played by Jeff Stearns, the "angry poet" suffering from fashionable stubble. Jake lives in a garage (how Bohemian!) and mumbles some angry verse at a slam run by Gabriel (action-star Fred Williamson) and frequented by Benny The Heckler (Michael Parks), a once-upon-a-time great poet who missed his chance at the spotlight. Enter the publicist, Marni (Tara D'Agostino), who harbors a dark secret ailment (hint: It's not Bird Flu), and who almost instantly falls in love with Jake's fashionable stubble, even though she has a boyfriend, the famous poet David Settles as played by C. Thomas Howell. Settles is a hack, (judging by what I heard) who sports a pretentious goatee and who (like Rod McKuen or Bruce Sievers), has somehow convinced a stupid public that he's actually decent. Women strategically cross their legs for his approval and illogically swoon in his godlike shadow.

Jake, also illogically, makes women swoon with his poetry, and before you can say "Shakespeare didn't write this!" Marni is in bed with the guy and spilling her dark secret. He reacts like a typical jerk, but it is supposed to be OK because he is so tortured and look! he's getting drunk on Jägermeister and walking through the city alone because he's so tortured! Oh the drama!

Actually, not so much. Even the obligatory topless scene is ho-hum and saddled with a score so banal it can make even beautiful semi-naked people boring. Add to this the contrived moments where the writer attempts to give Jake some character by attempting to sway his angry landlord with a poem, or the moment where Jake gets fired by the stereotypical hothead, proto-Neanderthal (who's been watching Taxi lately I wonder?) and violently hits back with...a poem (!), and you have an ill-fitting mess, like the cool kid forced to wear a Mariachi uniform to the prom.

But where the movie really goes wrong is in its handling and disrespect of the guest spoken word artists it peppers throughout the movie, and the actual atmosphere of a Slam Competition. What do you say about a movie that is purporting to be about performance but buries the vocals of the great Jerry Quickley and Bridget Gray in a montage and gives only a minor non-performance role to the wonderful storyteller Tucker Smallwood? Only Mona Jean Cedar, who, as is her custom, signs for the deaf while performing, seems to escape with any relevance whatsoever.

Then there is the finale, struggling hard to be exciting but generally just being tedious and ignorant. Tedious because any sort of excitement is drained by sloppy direction and writing. When the wonderful Fred Willard, brought in at the last minute in an apparent attempt to give the proceedings some humor, can't make a line amusing, than there is a problem.

As to the slam itself, conveniently held at Gabriels' venue, it was fairly unrecognizable from any slam I've ever been involved with. Starting with the judges (which includes Settles' new publicist!) and continuing with a never-ending series of head shakers: Correct me if I'm wrong, but when someone is proven to be a plagiarist, aren't they immediately disqualified? Of course, there was no mention of score creep, and the scores throughout were fairly even; this in itself highly suspect. And with a $25,000 jackpot! Where? Just point me!

The final bout between Settles and Jake was odd and included the famous poem "The Plagiarist." Ironic for a movie that seemed to be attempting to steal the best parts from every underdog movie ever made, but sadly not finding the right tone or voice to make it its own.

FIGHTING WORDS DVD 89 mins
Written and directed by E. Paul Edwards
Starring Jeff Stearns, C. Thomas Howell, Tara D'agostino, Fred Williamson, and Michael Parks. Cameos by Fred Willard and uncredited performers Bridget Gray, Jerry Quickley, Mona Jean Cedar, Rives, and Susan Han (among others).
DVD extras: Cast & crew interviews (but no interviews or performances by any of the uncredited spoken word artists), image gallery, sneak previews and a theatrical trailer.