Cahoots
(2001)
Wow. What the fuck can you say about "Cahoots?" On
the one hand, it's poorly photographed and features
some really bad acting from the likes of David Keith.
On the other hand, it's got one of the most ballsy scripts
I've ever seen/heard and features a pretty damn bold,
albeit not always on-target, performance by Keith Carradine.
The film concerns Carradine as Matthew, a sort of
asshole manchild in a sort of suspended maturation.
He blows back into town, after hanging out in Alaska,
and hooks up with childhood pal Harley (Keith) upsetting
the more stable man's suburban existence. Keith plays
both an architect and a husband and seems totally inept
in both roles. He is even worse when he has to react
to Carradine's Matt's outbursts. "Cahoots" often degenerates
into rambling bullshit goofiness in its exposition of
Matt as a lost man masking his inability to cope with
the world with bravado and homoerotic male bonding bullshit.
It's no accident Matt comes from and continues to talk
of escaping to Alaska as the state represents both ruggedness
and isolation.
But just as often, the script find moments of pure
creative male angst. Carradine can just as often rip
off a monologue about women, marriage, work and responsibility
that is devastating in it obvious honesty. Matt is a
prime example of a man masking his fear and insecurities
in his bravado and Carradine can often perform this
role with a bitter contempt and a swagger that perfectly
personifies the themes of the film. At times, it is
one of the most remarkable and bold performances to
be seen. The character of Matt is one of the most complex
and troubled males to be found in film.
A particularly poignant moment comes when Carradine's
Matt visits his estranged 10 year old daughter and the
two sing a song together. In order to explain his wanderlust
to her, he reminds her of the song "The Bear Went Over
the Mountain" citing he is the bear who must go over
the mountain to see what he can see. The daughter respond
singing the rest of the song reminding him that "the
other side of the mountain was all that he could see."
It's a beautiful moment and one that perfectly encapsulates
exactly what Writer/Director Dirk Benedict (yes, that
Dirk Benedict) is trying to convey here.
With its theme of male bonding and arrested maturity
in males, Benedict in many ways is exploring the dark
side of the issues discussed by Kevin Smith (in comedy).
This film, showing at the Austin Film Festival, also
has a similar theme to the competition film "Living
in Missouri" which also deals with this. But other films
have taken a much more humorous approach to the material,
even if they often have serious moments. Here, Benedict's
film is lensed and paced in the same manner as its antagonistic
protagonist Matt. And, as is the case with Smith, homoerotic
moments dent in the theme of the film. But here they
are distasteful, overt and troubling. The love between
Matt and Harley eventually becomes too focused and too
much the focal point of the film. Is Matt's ultra-macho
facade masking his homosexual love for Harley? Or is
this just more of the bullshit. Matt talks with terms
like "faggot" also punctuating his discourse. He is
obviously unable to cope with male sexuality. even though
his braggart stance and macho facade indicates otherwise.
It is no accident, as well, that the film continually
makes homosexual moments a indication of violence with
blowjobs or anal sex indicating the power of one man
over another no less than 3 times in the film. Matt
even engages in an anal rape of a woman to further this
troubling theme of sex as power vs. sex as love.
In the end, the film finds itself taking on a much
more pathetic note, echoing the 1968 John Flynn film,
"The Sergeant." Here, homosexual love between two grown
men, or even the mere suggestion of it, leads to anger,
fear and death. I thought we'd grown past all this stuff
in the last 33 years, but perhaps I was optimistic.
Perhaps "Cahoots" doesn't truly have the balls to discuss
the issue. Then again, perhaps that is the point.
This Film Reviewed
from the 2001 Austin Film festival!
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Report
Card
Script:
B+
Acting: B-
Cinematography\Lighting: D-
Special Effects\Make Up: C+
Music: B-
Final
Grade: B
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