Search and Destroy

Fri.26.May.95

Christopher Walken tap-dancing and singing karaoke. I could leave it at that, since that's not much more than I needed to know to see this film. I went so see Search and Destroy on the last day of its run before Denzel, Bruce, Mel, Val, and Sly (from one direction) and the Seattle International Film Festival (from the other direction) totally transmogrify Seattle's cinematic landscape. It's a perfect little "ready for cult status" movie that is more of an homage to Martin Scorsese (who conveniently produced it) than anything else. Another flippant one-line description: a more-or-less fruitful hybrid of After Hours, The King of Comedy, Mistress, and The King of New York. John Turturro comes out of nowhere, somehow more over-the-top than anything I've seen, including "the Schmata". Robert DeNiro dominates this film by his absence.

Griffin Dunne is Martin Mirkhein, a small-time Florida booking agent who desperately believes that he was meant for something more. Mere money means little to him; he wants to accomplish "Deeds." The desperation is perfectly met by the writings and late-night cable broadcasts of Dr. Luthor Waxling (Dennis Hopper in a rather somnambulistic performance), a latter-day L. Ron Hubbard hawking pop Nietzsche dressed up as Ernest Hemmingway. Mirkhein takes it into his head that his Deed, the achievement that will redeem his up-to-now worthless existence, will be to make a film adaptation of Waxling's book, "Daniel Strong." Throughout Search and Destroy, plot developments are denoted by clips from a hypothetical Daniel Strong film, complete with quotes from the book inserted as subtitles, creepily reminiscent of both Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will and 1950s Boy Scouts "docu-dramas." Dismissed by Waxling as a nobody, Mirkhein sets off to New York to ask Kim Ulander (Christopher Walken, who is increasingly making his living as a self-parody) to help him finance the venture, bringing along Marie Davenport (Illeana Douglas), Waxling's abused former receptionist (and would-be screenwriter). Search and Destroy thrives on the same dark optimism that drove Tapeheads, The Player, and Mistress. This movie is a must-see for devotees of absurd plots and scene-chewing performances, displayed without an ounce of shame.