Search - 'R Xmas on DVD

Mid level Ferrara - amazing commentary track

12/16/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Abel Ferrara director of Bad Luitenant and Driller Killer is probably one of the most consistently singular American filmmakers working today. His work has been shifting towards blending fragmentation and expressionitic flourishes with his patented hyper realist style more and more in the last few years -- cresting with the underrated New Rose Hotel and Blackout. 'RXmas is a step sideways, but if you have gotten into any of his later work, this is worth your time. It's Ferrara's most drifting film since The Funeral, but still pretty compelling and emotionally hard-edged stuff. Not to mention another great score from Schooly D.Now the really juicy part of this DVD, and the reason I'm boosting the rating to 4 stars, is the commentary track with Ferrara and some other guy who I think is the DP or production designer, it's not specified on the box or in the menus. It's refreshingly candid, freewheeling, funny and for the most part down right outlandish with Ferrara noticing the strangest things and saying stuff like "I wish the stuffed animals would come to life and just strangle this guy". Highly recommended."

Waste of Talent

mobby_uk | London United Kingdom | 09/16/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Abel Ferrara is the type of director that it is 'hip' to admit following, giving you a certain intellectual air among friends and family. While, Ferrara is definitely not a bad director, his films and cinematic language are not for everyone.
RXmas is his latest film to date, and one of his weakest by far.
The themes of Ferrara's cinema are all there yet again,
Drugs,gangs, gloominess,despair,more drugs, inner demons, religious icons and images, redemption and yes still more drugs.In fact there are so much drugs in Ferrara's movies, that I suspect there is none left for any other movie!
With Driller Killer (banned in the UK for ages), he gained a reputation as a cult director with an eye for psychological violence and an unrelenting dark atmosphere,and this was reinforced albeit more subtely with King Of New York, his finest film to date, mainly because of Chris Walken's performance,(with Harvey Kietel ,his actor of choice).
Bad Lieutenant was yet another controversial visit to familiar territory and themes (yes you guessed it..there is lots of drugs there too), a film so depressing I needed to watch Bambi a couple of times to wash it off!
Ferrara made other films that alternated between the good (Funeral, New Rose Hotel)and the'what on earth was he thinking about? type ' (Blackout, with a tintalizing but empty promise of more than a peck on the cheek between Beatrice Dalle and Claudia Schiffer).
I have to say that RXmas falls directly in the latter category. Not only because Ferrara's themes are all revisited one by one, but because there is absolutely no life in the camera or story. The first half of the film I waited for any action to start, to be disappointed by scene after scene of copious amounts of er..drugs..being placed on a glass table. I got the feeling that Ferrara's heart and mind were not in this film at all! The only saving grace was The Sopranos's Drea de Matteo who gave a solid performance.
You should totally forget about this film,and if you like Ferrara's style stick with his better output, and hope that his next film would be light years better than this one, and yes with less drugs!!"