Delirious

Toby (Michael Pitt) had been living for awhile off the street. He is running away from some sort of abuse when he meets Les (Steve Buscemi). Les is a papparazzi and at first wants no part of Toby. Soon Les likes having a guy to talk to and brag a bit about his work when in reality Les is just barely getting by. So Toby becomes Les's assistant on a job working the "Music Awards." Toby gets caught up in an entourage of popstar K'harma (Alison Lohman) and soon the two strike up a relationship. Toby finds his friendship tested as he wants to follow his love, while not losing his best friend.

Mostly this is the same song and dance about a loser who find someone who looks up to him. Toby has no other friends so he looks past the parasitic nature of his collarboration with Les. A talent director (Gina Gershon) soon "discovers" Toby on the basis of his tryst with K'harma. The story takes a dark turn later... that maybe doesn't completely jive with the tone of the earlier film. It seems from the convo with writer/director Tom DiCillo and Buscemi accompanying the film might shed some light on that. Some of the script was toned down and perhaps that is why it comes out of nowhere.

DiCillo and Buscemi first collaborated in Living in Oblivion back in the early 90's which was the toast of film fests everywhere. He has since whiffed on many a fastball with the failures of The Real Blonde and Double Whammy. Clearly DiCillo knows what is ripe for satire in show business. The problem with Delirious is that the jokes aren't all that funny and doesn't go for the jugular. Buscemi has just done something similar with Interview - which takes on a budding actress being interviewed by a "real" journalist.

What really works for Delirious is the cast. Buscemi is always spot on so put that aside. Michael Pitt and Alison Lohman are both at the top of the list in terms of good young actors. They both can bring a realness to the characters that you just do not get with most of the souless names coming out of Hollywood. Both Pitt in The Dreamers and Lohman in Where the Truth Lies, have staked their claim in the role of serious actors. Here they get the tone of the film and try to give more than the perfunctory performance called for from the script. You actually want these two people to end up with each other.

75/100

Things We Lost in the Fire

Audrey (Halle Berry) loses her husband Brian (David Duchovny) to a senseless attack while trying to break up a domestic dispute. Audrey turns to Brian's best friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) for support even though she has resented him for years. Audrey just wants someone around to keep that since of her husband there for herself and her two children. They are mostly selfish reasons because Jerry is trying to fight his addiction to heroin all the while he provides a father figure.

Jerry starts going to meetings to get help and befriends a younger addict named Kelly (Alison Lohman). He also becomes a sympathetic ear for Brian's other friend and neighbor Howard (John Carroll Lynch taking time off from scaring the shit out of you in Zodiac). As Jerry becomes a bigger part of their lives will he be accepted or perhaps he will relapse under the strain...

Things We Lost in the Fire has a contrived screenplay that puts these characters into a situation and seems lost on what to do from there. Halle Berry is trying way too hard to run the gambit of emotions - which she can do two. Her subpar skills are much more noticable with the power of Del Toro's performance. He plays Jerry with a subtlety that Berry could never grasp. He can provide more depth with a look than with all the lines Halle has in the script. It would have been nice to see someone like Maria Bello or Naomi Watts (very 21 Grams-ish)in the lead... actresses who actually can act. Lynch and Lohman are top notch here in key supporting turns.

The basic idea of a heroin addict staying with a family in a time is loss is quite prepostorous... but if you can get by that detail you actually get an involving story of recovery. Only the Audrey part is flawed with everything else being very well done. It seems frustrating for this film to hinge on an actress who can bring the goods. I think that is my only real problem with the film. It has an awkward start with a slow set up... and a somewhat disjointed opening only adds to this feeling. The overall pacing gets better later on when the story becomes Jerry's. Del Toro should have received a nomination for best supporting actor for his work here and the fact he didn't is frustrating.

65/100