One ball goes up in the air: it’s grimy, gritty New York City. A second ball joins it: it’s High and Low. A third ball: hot dogs. Now we’re juggling.
Sad-eyed, bearded, ferocious James Brolin stars as Sean Boyd, a divorced dad who wants to make his daughter’s birthday special. (The plan, in case you were wondering, is a hot dog breakfast in bed, followed by the ballet.) But he doesn’t count on kidnapper Gus Soltic (Cliff Gorman)—who also, to be fair, doesn’t count on him.
Soltic wanted to abduct the daughter of a wealthy developer, a man he loathes with a furious intensity: he’s the symbol of all Soltic’s rage about being wronged by an exploitative socioeconomic system … and the mere presence of people of color. (“You had me going there for the first part. The second half, it kinda threw me.”) But he grabs the wrong girl, though he doesn’t know it. Cycling unpredictably between vicious outbursts and emotionally needy grasping means Soltic is exactly who you don’t want getting all cozy with Boyd’s curly-haired moppet. He has a lot of thoughts about how she’s like this dead mother. He also has a nightgown for her.
Boyd, thank God, is en route: the film’s incredible poster envisions him literally tearing the city apart to find his daughter. In Night of the Juggler, that means an Inferno-esque tour of New York, but at least he meets a few Virgils on his way. Julie Carmen’s Maria is the one who becomes a full-on companion in his quest, but if you want pure bang for your buck, you’re here for Mandy Patinkin as a Puerto Rican cab driver. No one should cast Patinkin as Puerto Rican. But they should always cast him as an enterprising, pedal-to-the-metal driver who cheerfully takes on one hell of a car chase as soon as Brolin tells him he’s got a missing kid on his hands.
I’ve seen reviews that suggest this car chase is up there with the one in The Seven-Ups. I wouldn’t go quite that far, but it’s good—and one of its strengths is a flexibility most movie car chases lack, which is that it loses the cars completely for long stretches, letting Boyd and Soltic hoof it (while Soltic drags an unfortunately cooperative teenager along. Go limp, kid!). The moral of the story is that you can kidnap a child in broad daylight but not jump in a turnstile in same. Everything I’ve heard in life has led me to believe that this is indeed accurate.
But one of the best presences here is a kind of lesser demon in the form of Dan Hedaya. Hedaya plays Sergeant Barnes, an openly off-the-rails cop; Boyd used to work alongside him, until—as we learn in a reveal that shows how well-founded this often-wild film’s grit is in reality—he reported Barnes and a few others. Barnes got suspended, but when budget cuts forced layoffs, guess which one of them got fired? This is all handled as backstory the film barely pauses for; it assumes you know what the world is, and that the “disloyal” get the boot while the vicious thrive. It also knows that the vicious don’t appreciate it. Barnes isn’t basking in his victory; like Soltic, he’s still panting for revenge. And unlike Soltic, he can open fire on a crowded street with absolute impunity and get nothing worse than a talking-to.
If you want to immerse yourself in a world of cheap diners, peep show booths, corrupt cops, blasted landscapes, and sewers, you need Night of the Juggler. It looks filthy and fantastic, and it feels like being plunged straight into a feverish but surprisingly well-textured nightmare—deliberately, gleefully, darkly unreal, but dreamed by someone who knew a lot about reality.
Night of the Juggler is streaming on Kanopy.
About the writer
Lauren James
Lauren James is a writer who wears many different hats (and pen names). She lives in Connecticut with her wife and two cats.
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Anthologized
Dan Duryea gets a shave and a second chance.
Anthologized
A little slice of American folklore that feels like it's been here all along.
Streaming Shuffle
You make your royal bed, and you lie in it.
Anthologized
Alone in vast space and timeless infinity: one man in a ghost town.
Department of
Conversation
What did we watch?
Justified, Season Four, Episode Seven, “Money Trap”
This is interesting for being mostly an episodic plot in the middle of a serialised story – if it’s not completely classic television, it’s at least one of the first-third-of-the-season Buffy episodes, showing up in the second half of the season, and it would upend the pacing if it wasn’t so much fun.
Opening scene is a classic case of Justified turning the plot twice over in a few minutes.
“You workin’ lunch? Go get ‘em, tiger!”
The little gag of Kenneth taking beers off the table makes me laugh.
“Baby, you give as many handjobs as you need tonight.”
“That’s not funny.”
He’s wrong, it’s hilarious.
Any other show, you’d call what happens to Raylan’s ex fridging, which makes me realise this whole show effectively runs on fridging random characters – that is to say, building a character up to make it matter when they get shot. I’ve been rewatching Tarantino movies in my free time and his movies are hangout films that get interrupted by a plot; I realise now he took this from the same place Justified did, Elmore Leonard.
“The man’s name is actually Reno Nevada?”
Boyd’s story has become one of upward mobility so far, and predictably, it’s a matter of favours.
Sam Anderson!
“This drama! You use this to make the best movie ever!”
Biggest Laugh: “You’re doing that thing that makes me think you don’t have high hopes.” / “The raised eyebrow thing?” / “Yeah.” / “Maybe I don’t have high hopes.”
Biggest Non-Art Laugh: “I’ll just kill myself! I’ll get laid and I’ll kill myself!” Kenneth being fairly open and honest to try and skate by with the fewest amount of consequences is fantastic. He insults himself but he might be the smartest Justified dipshit in the whole show.
Top Ownage: Nevada defending herself.
Men in Black 3 – Funny that the second used a Roman numeral and this used a number (and in fact it was superscript). I wonder what the next one, assuming it happens, does. Anyway. this one is a bit flatter on second viewing, since the surprises aren’t as surprising, even if they are as clever. The high octane fun of the first two is replaced with a much smarter plot and a lot more heart, but also somewhat lower energy. I would say the original is the best but not by a lot. Josh Brolin’s impression of Tommy Lee Jones is spot on but he also puts his own spin on things as we see the younger and less melancholy K. Will Smith – who looks maybe three years older while Jones looks 20 years older – is his usual self and carries over the soulfulness we saw in the second one. Jermaine Clement is a memorable villain. And Michael Stuhlbarg just about steals the movie with his performance as an alien who can see and relish all possible timelines. Plus we get to see both Apollo 11 and the Mets winning the 1969 World Series, which says they made this just for me. But as clever as the “Warhol is actually an undercover MiB” gag is, I will never love it that much for its glib dismissal of the struggles that the real Warhol had in his life. (Also, there is a sublime subway joke in the name of the alternate timeline partner of J, AA. Since NYC subway buffs know that the current C line was once the K line, and before that the AA line.)
The Practice, “Honor Code” – Jimmy and Eugene are brought in by an insurance firm to help defend someone in a hit and run case, but while the trial is going on, a doctor for the insurers discovers that the victim in the accident has a life threatening aneurysm. Which none of the lawyers can disclose until settlement papers are drawn up. But Jimmy puts the life of the boy ahead of his obligation to his clients and tells the family. And then is called before the bar. Because Eugene called it in! On the one hand, a lot is forced here, especially the conflict between Jimmy and Eugene, who I would not have said were even friends till now. And frankly, Jimmy should have been disabrred. But as usual, Michael Badalucco’s performance is stellar, and we are back into the show’s strength, the constant interrogation of what legal ethics should and should not be. Jeffrey DeMunn guest stars as the insurance company lawyer.
I was completely blown away by MiB3 first time around but I’ve yet to rewatch and did wonder if it would pack less of a punch without the surprise element. The more emotional story reminded me of some of the best Futurama episodes.
Yeah! And how it approaches time travel is just a bit Farnsworthian.
There already was a next one, Men In Black: International.
True, but given that one’s underwhelming reception, I would take odds they start numbering again with 4 if somehow they get Will Smith to come back.
“Good plan, didn’t work” is all timer dialogue from a time travel story. Boris the Animal would probably have fit in well in the animated series, where he’d no doubt have been voiced by the actual Tim Curry.
Only had time last night for Happy Endings. This show and New Girl are both guilty of casting a man of very average weight and pretending he’s fat or chubby. (Every millennial girl fell in love with Nick Miller, which was great for me given that I vaguely resemble Jake Johnson.) I know, however, that no one in California can grasp that there are people who weigh 300 pounds or (gasp) more.
I didn’t watch all these last night (in fact, I only watched one that I’m saving for tomorrow’s daily article), but I kept putting off episode write-ups, so have a complete breakdown of my thoughts on series 1 of Inside No. 9 (a half-hour anthology show, often involving dark comedy and suspense/crime/horror/thriller plots):
Inside No. 9, “Sardines”
I’ve talked about this before. It’s a perfectly constructed, beautifully tight bit of suspense and black comedy; it aggravates me that I didn’t write this. It also feels like a capsule summary of the value of including (a lot of) jokes alongside your simmering tension, since the wall-to-wall entertainment factor keeps you from intellectualizing what your nerve endings are doing and trying to predict where the plot will go.
Inside No. 9, “A Quiet Night In”
A mostly dialogue-free farce about two inept cat burglars attempting to steal a painting. A lot of the comedy in this is solid gold, from two men trying to mime an estimate of how long it would take someone to take a shit to a surprisingly hilarious dog death. (My favorite joke may be when the robbers try to lead one small, yappy dog out of the house with a trail of breadcrumbs only to wind up leading a bear-sized dog inside. The reaction shot to that second dog’s appearance is incredible.) But like a lot of stylistic exercises, it’s marred by how obvious its constraints can be, and like all too many comedies, it’s also marred by some transphobia. The ending is a bit weak, as well. Still, the good parts are very, very good.
Inside No. 9, “Tom & Gerri”
Apparently a lot of of people rate this one quite highly, but they shouldn’t. At first, it seems like a kind of dark morality tale with slightly wobbly underpinnings, but it turns into an even wobblier exercise in pulling off a triple reveal. Not at all bad on a moment-by-moment basis and often a bit like a more acerbic version of The Servant, but it has no aftertaste.
Inside No. 9, “Last Gasp”
And apparently a lot of people rate this one quite low, and they shouldn’t. Very fun offbeat crime story setup here, as a pop star doing a Make-a-Wish-style visit for a sick little girl’s birthday has an embolism blowing up one of her balloons, trapping his last breath, which her dad, the charity rep, and the pop star’s security all instantly recognize as a very marketable commodity. Lots of terrific jokes: the Billy Joel riff almost had me on the floor, as did the foundation representative’s initially touching story about a previous wish.
Inside No. 9, “The Understudy”
Macbeth’s understudy gets the chance to wear the crown for a night, much to the delight of his ambitious fiancée (a fellow understudy). The parallels are obvious, and the episode probably makes the right choice in subverting them only a tiny bit, even though that also means it can only really feel like a weaker echo of the true dramatic powerhouse here. Steve Pemberton is especially fantastic as the original blustery and sublimely annoyed Macbeth actor.
Inside No. 9, “The Harrowing”
An exuberantly playful Gothic take on House of the Devil–we have an old house dripping with atmosphere and some scenery-chewing performances from a brother and sister pair who are asking a spirited teenage girl to stay over for a few hours (pay no attention to their very ill brother upstairs, he never-ever-ever rings the bell for help)–turns into surprisingly effective true horror in the last few minutes, as it becomes clear that the jokes were all on someone in the story, and nothing will ever be funny again. “Mischief!”
I keep meaning to go back to this show, what I’ve seen (this series, plus maybe a couple of random later episodes) has been consistently fun.
I was looking up something about the show and found someone asking about which episodes had cats, and for a second, I said, “…vomas?”
I’m really enjoying it! I’d like to write it all up for Anthologized at some point (maybe cover series 1 after season one of AHP, and so on).
Seinfeld, S6 – “The Pledge Drive” and “The Chinese Woman”. Wouldn’t say either of these was a classic but the first episode’s running joke about eating inappropriate food with a knife and fork is wonderful, and I enjoyed how odd the central plot of “Chinese Woman” was – Jerry dating a woman who isn’t Chinese but possibly wants people to think that she is. Interesting that Elaine’s friend Noreen gets a two episode arc here despite nothing else really being connected.
Twin Peaks, E7 “Realization Time” – a lower-key episode after the brilliance of the previous one and before the big first season finale, but it still has some great stuff. Cooper dealing with an emotional, naked Audrey in the most sensitive yet appropriate way and also giving Harry the best advice, Ed getting dressed up for undercover work, Audrey doing some impressive detective work at the department store. Also RIP to Waldo, gone too soon.
I don’t remember this episode, sounds like an Ariana Grande situation.
It’s also the episode in which George’s parents announce their divorce, and Larry David plays his father’s lawyer who wears a cape. An odd one.
Alas not on the version of Kanopy from the NY Public Library. I wish I knew how it worked.
I’ve had that happen before with Hoopla, but never with Kanopy. I don’t care for that at all!
On YT.
Year of the Month update!
Coming in February, we’ll be looking at 1957, including all these movies, albums, books, TV, yadda yadda.
Feb. 2nd: Tristan J. Nankervis: Throne of Blood
Feb. 6th: Gillianren: The Story of Anyburg, USA
Feb. 13th: Gillianren: The Truth About Mother Goose
Feb. 16th: Tristan J. Nankervis: The Incredible Shrinking Man
Feb. 20th: Gillianren: Our Friend the Atom
Feb. 27th: Gillianren: Sleeping Beauty’s Castle
And there’s still time to sign up for January! Here’s some of the movies, albums, books, TV, and games you can write about.
TBD: Ruck Cohlchez: Tim and/or Fables of the Reconstruction
Jan. 23rd: Gillian Nelson: The Golden Girls
Jan. 26th: Bridgett Taylor: Lonesome Dove
Jan. 29th: Cori Domschot: Jewel of the Nile