MY BROTHER'S WEDDING (1983) (C) - This is the follow-up to Charles Burnett's obscure classic "Killer of Sheep." Whereas that first film (his UCLA thesis) used nonprofessional actors to underscore the travails of the working class, this follow-up is undercut by wooden performances and a script (by Burnett) that goes nowhere.
Characters are difficult to follow, and there is no hint of a plot during the first half of the film, which follows Pierce Mundy (Everett Silas) as he rejects his brother's lawyerly life of privilege for the grittier life of his buddy Soldier and the street life of Inglewood, Calif. It isn't until nearly the end that Pierce is faced with a dilemma, having to choose between those two worlds.
Most of this makes little sense. Minor characters pass through with no purpose other than to provide a little quirk. This is the kind of movie where multiple characters are told of the death of a central character and no one asks how or why that person died, like people do in real life. In that way, this exercise is more artificial than it would have been had Burnett hired professional actors and collaborated with another screenwriter.
This film was withheld from distribution after its initial tepid review. We watched the director's cut (thankfully a half hour shorter than the original) that he released in 2007. A classic example of a sophomore slump.
THE EXILES (1961) (C) - More artifact than art, this fictionalized documentary about Native Americans in late '50s Los Angeles endures as a curiosity about a certain place and time. This is a day (more like a night) in the life of actual Angelenos, transplants from Arizona, as they smoke and booze and roughhouse. It was shot by Kent Mackenzie, himself a British exile, in 1958 and released three years later; he had previously made a short student film (included on the DVD) about the same neighborhood, Bunker Hill, which was undergoing urban renewal in the '50s.
The problem here is the artifice of the production. It seems almost entirely dubbed. While that is not unusual for the era and can be overcome (see "Spring Night, Summer Night"), it is a distraction here. Admirably restored at UCLA in 2008, this film still feels undercooked and unfocused. Mackenzie hopscotches between his subjects, goosing their situations and dialogue in an attempt to pump up the action or drama. Yet, he is left with scattershot stories and underdeveloped characters. It feels repetitive despite a slim 72-minute running time. The story of Yvonne, pregnant and disappointed in her mate's uncaring attitude, goes nowhere. The rest of the action is essentially a night of partying, ending in some whooping and braying on the hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Those howls feel unearned here.
BONUS TRACKS
"Wedding" features a couple of songs by our favorite melancholy crooner Johnny Ace, "Anymore" and "Never Let Me Go":
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