Rent Trouble in Mind (1985)

All Atmosphere, Not Much Engine - Trouble in Mind review by griggs

Trouble in Mind is mostly an excuse to look at Rain City, and honestly, that's enough of a reason to show up. Neon everywhere, fog rolling through like it's billing by the hour, and a cast of extras who all seem to be auditioning for Best Supporting Streetlamp Smoker. I'd happily watch a whole film that was just this set with the sound off.

Kris Kristofferson turns up as the ex-con nobody quite wanted back, and he barely has to do anything — that gravelly, worn-out energy does most of the work for him. Keith Carradine is the bigger swing: small-town innocent gone small-time crook, and it's fun to watch him get there, even if the film rushes him through the transformation before I'd fully bought it.

Lori Singer gets sidelined a bit, which is a shame — you sense she matters more than the script lets her prove. And Divine, playing it straight, is probably the strangest casting decision in the whole thing — and the film does precious little with it.

The real issue is tone. It's trying to be noir homage, sincere melodrama, and dry comedy in the same breath, and some scenes never settle on which one they're meant to be. By the middle act, it just sort of... drifts, and a moody, occasionally overcooked soundtrack can only paper over so much.

Still, the ending earns more goodwill than the road there really deserves. All atmosphere, not much engine.

Rain Dogs - Trouble in Mind review by Steve

Ultra-stylish mood piece from arthouse writer-director Alan Rudolph's brief period of critical acclaim. It's an ensemble crime story which is much bigger on atmosphere and eccentricity than suspense. It should really have built up a cult following among noir aficionados, but it hasn't happened yet...

Kris Kristofferson plays an ex-cop released from a stretch inside for murder, who goes back back to Rain Town, which is Seattle, made more noir by neon and drizzle and broken dreamers. He takes up the case of a beautiful young mother (Lori Singer) whose partner (Keith Carradine) can't get a break.

So dad drifts into violent crime which transforms him into a decadent, narcissistic freak. Geneviève Bujold owns a diner where much of this ambient pessimism occurs and her customers exchange poetic aphorisms while served all day breakfast and coffee. Meanwhile, the army patrols the streets...

Which is curiously like the US now! The nucleus of all this fatalistic atmos. is the heartbreak torch ballads sung by Marianne Faithfull and scored by Mark Isham, including the title song, a blues standard from the 1920s. I love this stuff- and also looking at Lori Singer's eyes- but it never found an audience.