by Yazmin Ghonaim

HURLYBURLY Anthony Drazan (1999) Director Anthony Drazan re-creates "Hurlyburly", a film based on the Tony Award-winning play by David Rabe, who also wrote the adaptation for the screen. Hurlyburly is a film whose title appropriately describes the turbulent and disorderly lives of Eddie, Mickey and Phil (Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey and Chazz Palminteri). Two "successful" casting directors in Los Angeles, Eddie (Penn) and Mickey (Spacey) work together, live together, and share the same women. Their financial success is evident from the house they live in, the cars they drive, and the coke they rely on "for entertainment purposes only". The film, however, is more than the decor that houses the characters' and their friends' late night parties: "It's meant to be a roller coaster ride - not of action, but of emotions and language and human motivations", states Drazan. This claim, accurately supported by the protagonists' extraordinary performances, treats the viewer as a witness of a chaos that can find no home in comedy nor in tragedy, but a chaos which does present itself as a viable alternative to the commonly held perceptions of the meanings of life and death. Hurlyburly also stars Garry Shandling, Robin Wright Penn, Anna Paquin and a disappointing Meg Ryan in her counter-role as a charmless prostitute.		DVD Music Books Search by keywords:
Outstanding Features: Acting Hurlyburly Movie Review © 1999 Cinephiles - All rights reserved.