Film Review: KING OF NEW YORK (1990) *** and a 1\2 out of *****

Abel Ferrara is a maverick. Ever since he burst onto the scene in 1979, with his controversial punk slasher, Driller Killer, he has been making movies that are, in turn, stylish, thought-provoking, repulsive, and always fascinating.

Ferrara, dubbed the poet gangster of cinema, by actor Laurence Fishburne, has a tendency to overdo, to push things too far, sometimes to the detriment of the picture. But he rarely makes a film that is without merit, and is an artist to be reckoned with.

King of New York, released in 1990, is one of Abel Ferrara’s most accessible films. Part crime thriller, part social drama, it’s a strange and mesmerizing mishmash of genres and styles that is nothing short of compelling.

Frank White, played by a hypnotic Christopher Walken, is a former drug lord who returns to New York city after being released from prison, seeking to take total control of the criminal underworld, in order to give back to the community and help the poor of the city.

White, as played by Walken, is a fascinating character. Imagined by Ferrara to be a cross between Nicky Barnes, a Harlem gangster, and Joey Gallo, an Italian mobster, White is a brutal, complex figure, who revels in using force and violence, while seeing himself as a kind of dark knight in shining armor, who gives the poor and the lost, especially from black neighborhoods, a second chance, by recruiting them for his drug operation. He is an ends justify the means kind of guy, who would stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

Ferrara, and writer Nicholas St. John, try to tell a multifaceted story about the drug wars, government corruption, loyalty, and personal courage in the face of evil, and fill the film with characters that range from the realistic to the cartoonish.

Despite being shot quickly and on a modest budget of 5 point 3 million dollars, Ferrara, a visual stylist extraordinaire, manages to portray New York in the film in a way that is rarely shown in movies. As a beautiful, nocturnal landscape. Part noirish dream, part hellish nightmare. His vision of drug cartels as a kind of dressed to the nines tribal groups, who mostly speak through guns and violence, is alluring but somewhat fantastical, and his tendency to linger on the seedier aspects of criminal life borders on the distasteful.

But that is Ferrara’s style. Plenty of style, a dash of philosophical musing, and a touch of vulgarity. It’s a potent if not always palpable mix, that nonetheless makes his movies look and feel like no one else’s.

The terrific cast, led by Walken at his most ebullient and eccentric, includes an understated Wesley Snipes, and Laurence Fishburne, in an over the top but highly enjoyable performance.

Upon release, the film was criticized for its violence, and rightly so. As Ferrara’s tendency to push things too far and let some scenes overstay their welcome, is present here. And the sprawling story, covering a multitude of issues and characters in under two hours, make the film feel unevenly paced and, to some degree, tonally erratic. But these flaws don’t take away from the overall effect of the film, which is to mesmerize and captivate.

With the glut of movies made about the drug lords in the 1990s, King of New York stands out, because of its style, its sheer visual and aural power. It grabs you, and doesn’t let go, right up to its haunting final shot.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2024.

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Movie Review: A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM (1990) **** out of *****

(C) Corsair Pictures.

Adapted for the screen by Andrew Klavan (from a novel by Simon Brett), and directed by TV and stage veteran Jan Egleson, A Shock to The System (1990) is a strange creature: a Hollywood movie made at the tail-end of the Regan years, yet one that approaches its subject matter - greed - with a subtlety and wit rarely found in the reactionary filmmaking of that era.

The premise is simple: Graham Marshall (Michael Caine), a middle-aged, modestly ambitious man, leads a moderately successful life, both professionally and personally. But when he is passed over for promotion by a brash and much younger colleague, he is shocked. And, slowly, Graham finds himself being drawn to a darker way of doing things, as he slowly but surely reaps the rewards of his misdeeds and climbs the corporate ladder.

The story, of the older, meek man slowly going dark, is a hoary, tired concept that, by the 1990s, had been done to death. But in the hands of screenwriter Klavan and director Egleson, this exhausted concept becomes fresh, compelling, and wryly funny. Egleson's direction, in particular, is so steady, so visually elegant, that it lends both the darker and darkly funny aspects of the script a surprisingly refined tone, making A Shock to The System one of the best films about corporate greed to ever come out of Hollywood.

But writing and direction aside, this is Michael Caine's show, as he takes a difficult role, and one which could have easily become a grating caricature in the hands of a less capable actor, and turns it into a believable, charming, and disturbing character that is always threatening to spiral out of control into the realm of the absurd, but never does. With dry humor and tremendous restraint, Caine portrays Graham as a man who gets a taste of evil by accident, and, as a result, transforms his life into a marvel of devious design; a man who sees himself as some sort of dark sorcerer who has found the keys to the world.

Yes, some of the twists and turns are a bit far-fetched, and Egleson lays it on a bit thick when it comes to depicting what greed has done to the New York city of the 1980s and 90s. But, for the most part, A Shock to The System tells a riveting tale about the decay of corporate culture, and how a new generation of morally bankrupt over-achievers created a system that breeds greed and immorality. And like its corrupt protagonist, A Shock to The System manages to fulfill its ambitions so well, it's almost a magic act.

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Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast

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Quick Review: LISA (1990)

Well-written, well-crafted thriller from writer/director Gary Sherman (Poltergeist III, Dead and Buried), with strong characterization and good performances. One of the most underrated horror-thrillers of the 90's.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2016.