Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Written by: Andrew Kevin Walker
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Anthony Heald, Christopher Bauer, Catherine Keener
Produced by: Jody Hofflund, Gavin Polone, Joel Schumacher

The Nutshell

A private detective is hired to find out if a murder committed on film is real or a hoax.

The Review

    A quick look at the biggest headlines of 1999 reveal that evil can lurk in anyone's heart. The Littleton, Colorado school shootings and subsequent attempts to copy them by others across North America are the prime example. Filmmakers have long tried to get this message across to their viewers. Films like Happiness and Heavenly Creatures are perfect examples of films that successfully get this message across to us. We get revolted by certain characters in Happiness because they remind us of people we know, and they do unspeakable things. If only Joel Schumacher understood the concept of subtlety, 8MM could have joined this list. A quick look at Schumacher's last few films (notably Batman & Robin) shows that he has lost any touch he once had for small-scale film making. In 8MM, the characters who commit the evil deed (killing a girl on film) are not normal, everyday people, but rather porn stars and seedy lowlifes. One character, a perpetually masked man called Machine, is clumsily revealed to be a normal guy, but how normal can a guy be who acts in perverse fetish films?

    Nicolas Cage is Tom Welles, the private detective contacted by Mrs. Christian, the elderly widow of an ultra-rich businessman who had recently died. It turns out that the old man had an 8mm roll of film in his private safe, which shows what looks like a young girl getting raped/murdered. Mrs. Christian's request is simple but difficult: find out who the girl was, and whether she really was killed on film. We learn that this is called a snuff film, something which "doesn't really exist". Welles takes the case since Mrs. Christian is hands-down the richest client he has ever had.

    Thus begins a quest for truth that will lead Welles from the safety of his home to L.A. to find the girl, into the underground pornography industry, then to New York to meet people from the porn industry. Along the way he picks up a sidekick in the form of Joaquin Phoenix, an adult shop employee who is willing to take him wherever he needs to go and show him everything he needs to see, as long as he gets paid. Various sickos and lowlifes appear during the course of the film: Eddie Poole (Gandolfini), a recruiter for and director of pornography, Dino Velvet (Stormare), an "arty" porn maker, and Machine.

    8MM has plenty wrong with it. The dialogue is basic and shoddy. Clichés abound (Welles grabs one character and yells "Why?!?!?!", followed by the classic response, "Well I'm going to die anyway, so I may as well tell you..." This is a scene so often used that even Scooby Doo cartoons gave it up after a while. Another problem is the story itself. The concept itself is plausible, but the film's plot twists are often so obvious that it's sad. Joaquin's character, Max California, is another anomaly. Through dialogue we find out that he wants to be in a band and that he isn't into porn at all. Yet, somehow he knows every twist and turn of the extremely dangerous porn underground, displaying vast knowledge of what to say and to whom. If someone weren't into pornography and was only working at a pornshop because it was a job, how on Earth would he ever be so knowledgeable about porn? Pornshops undoubtedly get their films from established sources and would never resort to heading into the "underground". The occasional attempt at humour is much needed but often falls flat. .

    Catherine Keener is handed a poorly written character similar to the "wife" character in writer Andrew Kevin Walker's earlier work, Se7en. Walker's two scripts lack any strong female role, a weakpoint in this promising writer's resume. Schumacher brings his usual mix of brazen colour and darkness to the film. As in the Batman films, he creates a dark world with the occasional blinding displays of colour. His films are almost blacklit in the way his colours shimmer in the darkness. He is obviously aiming to disturb his viewers here and it works. Unfortunately, there's disturbing, and then there is disturbing. Good disturbing would be Saving Private Ryan. The carnage is so real in Ryan that it makes you think about War and its downside. In 8MM however, the viewer is simply turned off of watching anymore. The porn world doesn't make for a very good post-film topic of conversation. Andrew Kevin Walker's dark, dismal story coupled with a director who seems to have lost his cinematic vision makes for a depressing, dismal and unprovocative film.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

Press "back" to return to the previous page, or click on a link:

Adventures in Cinema front page        The O.F.C.S.        Max'd On Movies