U-Turn didn't deserve those Razzie nominatons

It's not a great movie, but it's still one of my all-time favorites. I've seen it at least fifteen times.

Human being ain't only just human, you know—they got animals living inside of ‘em, too. —U-Turn

"A noir in broad daylight" -- love that! :-)

Here's my review of the movie, if you're interested. (May contain spoilers)

Plot Summary:
Bobby Cooper is a hapless drifter who owes $30,000 to a Russian thug from Las Vegas who’s already taken two of his fingers away from him and threatens to take some more should he not receive his money on time. But Bobby doesn’t want to lose anymore fingers: Driving along on a stretch of a deserted highway in his treasured Mustang convertible, Bobby’s determined to bestow what he owes, and isn’t about to let anything obstruct him from doing so… but something does—and that something is a broken radiator hose, which strands him in a remote desert town called Superior.
Things only get from bad to worse when Bobby runs into the town’s oddball and maddeningly infuriating residents, who range from an insincere and ignorant hick mechanic to a boisterous and hotheaded adolescent man who’s eager to start throwing punches at him for evidently trying to “make time” with his dopey and flirtatious girlfriend, who’s convinced that Bobby is the man for her. Even when Bobby thinks that his luck has changed after a sultry young woman by the name of Grace invites him into her home so he can help her hang her drapes, it only gets worse when an indignant, bewhiskered man by the name of Jake comes charging in, and it is revealed that he’s her husband. Consequently, Bobby gets a punch thrown at him before leaving and being exposed to the sweltering desert weather, only to get picked up by the very man that hit him, in the ensuing moments.
After Bobby gets picked up by Jake, he’s offered some money to kill Grace because, according to Jake, Grace is a very manipulative and deceptive woman who’s enough to drive a man downright mad. But Bobby, unethical but not a murderer, rejects his offer. However, soon after having virtually all of his money inadvertently shredded from a shotgun blast by a grocery store owner during an unforeseen burglary, Bobby finds himself approaching Jake, a wealthy land boss, and demanding $20,000 to claim Grace’s life. But Grace is full of stories, and soon has Bobby turn against Jake. What will happen? Will this story have a happy ending?

The Lowdown:
Oliver Stone has made some exhausting and extraordinary films in the past, like the biographical, poignant and angry anti-war drama, Born on the Fourth of July, and the satirical, hallucinogenic, experimental and angrier anti-violence dramedy, Natural Born Killers. U-Turn isn’t in the same level of greatness as those films, because it’s s simple, formulaic genre movie. But that isn’t a disadvantage, so for a film critic to maul it for being what it is, as Roger Ebert has, for instance, shows a flaw in judgment. Ebert has stressed that his critiques are always based upon what the films intended to accomplish, and U-Turn is primarily concerned with entertainment, so what it intended to accomplish was a movie that was fun to watch. Stone has even said that it’s the type of movie that would’ve appealed to him as an adolescent, and he’s used such words as fun to describe his movie, which is even advertised as an Oliver Stone movie—instead of an Oliver Stone film. And yet… The movie, however, has social relevance, as it’s meant to be a scathing attack towards mainstream society. U-Turn may be a genre movie, but it’s a socially conscious one. Bobby’s The Loser, and in mainstream society, virtually everyone loves The Loser because of what he can do for them: kill. The movie shows us how people’s cynicisms can drive someone to kill.

U-Turn is a wryly and wittily written, snazzily and tautly directed, and convincingly and colorfully acted exercise in film-noir. It may be derivative—narratively it’s very similar to John Dahl’s Red Rock West, with Nicholas Cage—but it’s a lot of fun, so entertaining, in fact, that it’s one of my favorite movies (albeit I’d be the first to tell you that it doesn’t even come close to reaching the same level of greatness as Stone’s politically charged, bigger, more ambitious projects).

The cast was flawless, particularly Joaquin Phoenix in a downright side-splitting and scene-stealing performance as Toby N. Tucker, the ill-tempered and obnoxious teenager, that had me howling with laughter. I’m glad that he finally got the recognition that he so richly deserves, because he’s a great actor.

Sean Penn is the exception: He was good, but he could’ve been better. He was able to be empathetic and was able to convey his star-crossed character’s lust, desperation, and increasing agitation and indignation, but he wasn’t always at his greatest and at his most focused because he wasn’t as committed as he could’ve been, because his heart wasn’t in the movie. He was still good, and fiery in a scene where, just a little bit short of money, his character tells the Bus Station ticket attendant that “I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!” but he wasn’t great, as the rest of the cast was. He could’ve done a better job had he understood the ins and outs of his character a little more.

If I have another complaint with the movie—besides Sean Penn’s half-hearted effort—it’s that its continuity is a mess. But other than that, I was happy with the picture.

Now true, the movie’s anti-heroic central character may be flawed, but he’s such a morose bundle of bad luck, that you can’t help but to root for him. I felt sorry for Bobby, and wanted him to get out of that nightmarish desert town known as Superior as much as he did.

And to add further praise: Since the movie was under the direction of Oliver Stone, it was a feast for the eyes, and an intense experience from a visceral standpoint, as well. Stone changes film stock; he employs bizarre filters, jump-cuts, quick-cuts, off-kilter camera angles and kinetic camera movements; he infuses his movie with slow-motion; and gives us unsettling aerial shots of the desert. This technically intricate movie is yet another impressive directorial effort for Stone.

A lot of skill was put into U-Turn: This is a viscerally exciting and thrilling, unpredictable, visually polished and excruciatingly funny murder story that drips with mood and style.


Human beings ain't only just human, you know—they got animals living inside of ‘em, too. —U-Turn