"Sid and Nancy, Cox, 1986" Tue Aug-08-17 03:13 AM by denny
I dismissed this film right out the gate when I first saw it. There are two fatal flaws. Johnny Rotten is horribly miscasted and the sound production for the live performances is so terrible it burns. If you watch this movie as a Sex Pistols fan...you will hate it. It's a very unhip take on the punk rock scene and can't be taken seriously as an archivist's source on that culture.
But I revisited it and I've done a complete 180 on this flick....It's an absolute masterpiece. The shots are long and very few edits. The pivotal scenes contain 2 to 4 shots maximum and the editing is minimalist. It's not about punk rock. It's about co-dependency and tainted love. I'm not sure where else we can find a more poetic and beautiful depiction of that in modern films. It's also hilarious and contains alot of camp. Inversely....it gets heroin and opiate use right. Hard to put in words because it's art....but this movie conveys opiate addiction very accurately...small details like the terminology in the dialogue.....the character's physical symptoms.....the underlying psychology of withdrawal.....it all rings very very true. A rare feat.
The two lead performances can't be understated. This is one of the greatest accomplishments of Gary Oldman. Dude's resume has to be the most diverse and eccentric list of film roles. Even when I dismissed the movie on first viewing I acknowledged how incredible his performance is here. I hated Chloe Webb as Nancy but in retrospect....I hated her because she was SO GOOD in that role. The chemistry between the two of them is something we don't see as often anymore. Partly because of the editing.
I really miss movies like this. For each scene....find 2 to 5 SPECTACULAR shots and commit to them. Then edit them sparingly. Let the actors act. Here's a clip that eventually shows one of the best phonebooth scenes ('the birds' is probably best ever). I included a short tracking shot the leads to it with one of the original score pieces. A San Fran score team called 'Prey for Rain' provided 5 pieces....like haunted Kraftwerk music with alt-guitar. There's around 4 or 5 scenes that are just stunning to look at while a 'Prey for Rain' track accompanies:
I had thought it was mostly trashed by critics but apparently not. Never really hear about this movie unless someone's bashing it because it's disappointing to punk rock fans.
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