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Six
Ways To Sunday review by Lee Peterson
Based on Charles Perrys 1962 novel "Portrait of a Young Man Drowning," Six Ways To Sunday is the story of Harry (ex- Prada model Norman Reedus), a sexually repressed eighteen-year old living with his domineering mother Kate (Deborah Harry from Videodrome) in Youngstown, Ohio. When Mom discovers a sex-education textbook hidden under Harrys mattress, she gives him a lurid, sex-charged lecture on the evils of women (and the importance of keeping his genitals clean). When not busy dodging his mothers Oedipal advances, Harry spends his time reading dog magazines and hanging out with his childhood buddy Arnie (Adrien Brody from Summer of Sam), a fuck-up errand-boy for the local Jewish mob. Tagging along with Arnie during the shakedown of a local strip joint, Harry gets aroused by the violence, flips out, and beats the owner to a pulp, earning him the respect and employ of mob boss Varga (Jerry Adler from The Sopranos) and his lieutenant Abie "The Bug" Pinkwise (Peter Appel from The Professional) He fucks up a job ditching a getaway car when he leaves his copy of "Dog Enthusiast" in the back seat (with his subscription mailing label on the coverdoh!) During a brutal interrogation from Sgt. Bill Bennett (an underused Isaac Hayes, who gives us the films title in a throwaway line), Harry refuses to squeal on his new "family", thus insuring his quick ascension in the ranks of the organization. He stumbles into a failed sexual encounter with a hooker (the kind with a heart of gold, natch), then into an awkward relationship with Varga's crippled maid Iris (Elina Lowenshn from Nadja). To complicate things, Harry has developed an imaginary friend/split personality named Madden (Holter Graham from Two Evil Eyes), who shows up and takes over whenever Harry is turned on (whether hes watching Mom take a bath or tossing a guy a beating). Adam Bernsteins sophomore feature (after the Tarantino ghost-polished It's Pat), cant decide whether it's Goodfellas directed by John Waters or Pulp Fiction directed by David Lynch. It ends up just plain heavy-handed. On the plus side, the performances are generally good, especially Deborah Harry as the Mom-who-loves-too-much. Adrien Brody occasionally threatens to breathe life into the proceedings with his gangsta-rapping Jewish street thug, but isnt given a lot to do. There are a couple of busted noses and a throat slashing for the easy-to-please gore fans. My advice is, skip this one and give Jackie Brown another try. On the DVD end, the 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is very good. The blacks are black, the colors are not too bright, but look accurate. The no-frills menu resembles the DVD cover art and is easily navigated. Included is the original "R-rated" trailer, which gives away more of the plot than I have. You can choose between a 2.0 Dolby Stereo and an AC-3 Dolby Digital audio track.
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Like it or not, Quentin Tarantino is the most influential filmmaker
of the 90s. His quirky, self-aware characters and snappy, pop-culture-referencing
dialogue (punctuated by blasts of graphic violence), may not be
wholly original, but they have spawned a wave of films both good
(Go, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels) and not so good
(Clay Pigeons and, well, this one). 