The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 132

42 MOVIES The Record 1 December 18, 1998 'One Of The Best Films Of The i Stn Edwards, NBC-TVBOSTON A killer stalks lonely highways BtSI UIHtUIUH viir vmm ctm riaaBM Mr mmm ur inc mr itn riuvis ur isas Hbuwu. Bub Revem ELIZABETH OLD CHURCH CULTURAL CENTER Paking, Couage, DtAWMG, SCUPTUK, Phoiogsapht, Fauk FNStMG, Basket Wewng, DECOtAINE PaMWG, PtNTMMMG, Amsfs sooks, Qass Beads, Sianed and Ml HEMONT SOAD DEMAftEST, NEW JERSEY MOffi Matr ft tosanswrns BROOK GNEMA BOUND ttOCK 469466S SONTTWATtES OeMACENTBtS BKKTOWN 2A22O0 SONYWAT1FS EAST HANOVBt 515-1200 OEAffVEWCMMAS 852390 flOHCBATrVf MONTGOMBtYCBITBI KXKYHU. 9247444 tocws NEW BRUNSWICK 18 15 US. HKjHWAT I S469200 PASCACKQUAD WESTWOOD 663200 fi ttrnt nun iHtitTkuwn unt MNK747fl3j3 I FOR CRAMERCY cm mrouui rukd btbtw HALTOCKMAS WESTHE1D 2321288 ONEnncooeoN ROUTtTTWPlEX PAAAMUS 777 1583 OEARVCWarCMAS TWSOtTONGZOM QEAJMEW ONEMAS WASHNGTON IOWNSHP ONEMAS WASHNGTON IWP. 6664020 ttOOOAHO ONEPIEXOWON MOVES NANUET MONTQAlc 509-0238 777AM f6)8 MOVIE REVIEW OUTSIDE OZONA: Written and directed by J.S.

Cardone. Produced by Avi Lerner. Photographed by Irek Hartowicz. Edited by Amanda Kirpaul. Music by Taj Mahal and Johnny Lee Schell.

With Robert Forster, Kevin Pollak, Sherilyn Fenn, David Paymer, Penelope Ann Miller, Swoosie Kurtz, Taj Mahal, Meat Loaf, Lois Red Elk, Kateri Walker, and Lucy Webb. 98 minutes. Rated (for grisly violence and gore, sexuality, nudity, and language). ICAU fO CATALOG SHOWTIM ES TICK ETS Kt WKS I 201 767-7160 Special Engagement Spanish Dubbed Films! Now Playing Exclusively at When I say that all the plot threads in "Outside Ozona" come together in one closing scene, you can't imagine how literally I mean that. The movie builds up an incredible series of coincidences, in which the good are rewarded, the evil are punished, the lovelorn are thrown into one another's arms, all mysteries are solved, and a homeless dog named Girl lives to bark another day.

An ending like this is either naive or deeply profound. After all the slick formula movies, it's refreshing sometimes to see a film that isn't working from the rule book. J.S. Cardone. who wrote and directed, provides clumsy parallels and too many speeches that sound written, but his heart is sound: He's going for something touching and sincere, and some of his scenes get there.

The movie takes place during a long night on the lonely highways outside Ozona, Okla. The local radio deejay (Taj Mahal) calls this area the "badlands," and indeed it's so far from anywhere else that everyone has to listen to the same radio station. In movie theory, much is made of "offscreen space," which is the implied environment outside the frame. Cardone creates an almost palpable sense that the off-screen space is dark, hostile, and abandoned to the wolves. We meet a lot of characters.

The movie will cut between their stories. Many of the scenes are conversations in the front seats of cars which are allegedly traversing the lonely badlands highways, but are obviously on darkened sound stages. This is a stylistic decision, not a weakness; it increases focus as the film breaks out into dialogues between the people whose lives we glimpse. Among them are a circus clown (Kevin Pollak) who has just been fired and his girlfriend, an ex-lap dancer (Penelope Ann Miller). They have a clever scene in For A I Limited I Time I -3 Only jj which she interrupts his robbery attempt and makes him apologize.

Then there's a lonely trucker (Robert Forster, who stepped into the role after J.T. Walsh died) and a Navaho woman (Lois Red Elk). He gives her a ride, and there is mutual attraction. Later, in a car with her grandmother (Keteri Walker), she learns the old woman's lessons about love. Sherilyn Fenn plays one of two sisters who pick up a hitchhiker (David Paymer) who may or may not be the serial killer haunting these highways.

And we meet a truck stop waitress (Swoosie Kurtz), a radio station manager (Meat Loaf), and the FBI. The dialogue exchanged by these people doesn't further the plot, because there is no central plot; the strategy of the movie is simply to watch and listen as its characters speed toward their rendezvous with destiny. There are some grisly interludes (the killer's victims are left holding their own hearts), some heavy-handed preaching (the deejay uses the killer's calls as his cue for a political rant), and some oddly low-key FBI work. I'm not sure what the movie thinks its purpose is; at the end, we are pleased with the outcome but not enlightened. But there are moments I will remember, and Cardone evokes a real sense for the deserted night highways.

Off Tonnelle Avenue on 69th Street tECfflL ITS MORE THAN A MOVIE! wvvw.rt3gaicinernas.com All Stadium Seat Auditoriums 13 Wall to Wall Screens Over2600 Seats Credit Card Sales High Back Chairs accepted at box office with retractable cuplwlder armrests 7345 1 Digital Sound In Every Theatre 2 Day Advanced Ticket Sales large Concession Stand iil! Video Game Room li'i! in Penelope Ann Miller and Kevin Pollak flee a crime scene..