ELVIS IS EVERYWHERE: THE THING CALLED LOVE, TRUE ROMANCE
The problem is the story, or lack of one. It's just basically a love story, which would be okay were not the motivations ill-defined at times (Bogdanovich was not the original director, which may have led to some of the problems). And there are some unbelievable scenes, like when Miranda convinces Kyle to break into Yearwood's truck to give her a song. Even more unbelievable is Yearwood eventually records it, and Kyle can hear it on the radio. The performances are also uneven. Bullock may be playing a cliched character, but she's awful doing it. Mulroney doesn't have much to work with, but at least he sings well. On the other hand, Mathis also sings well, and is quite engaging and moving (as with her reaction when she sees Wilder has put up a lyric from her song on the motel billboard). As for Phoenix, some critics, using that old 20/20 hindsight, speculated they could see Phoenix was already on the road to ruin here, but I think he stays within character the entire time, and looks very comfortable here. And he sings well. THE THING CALLED LOVE loves country music just as Elvis did, and that eventually gets it through the rough spots.
TRUE ROMANCE was actually written by Tarantino before he made RESERVOIR DOGS, making it a first screenplay, and it shows; it goes all over the place, and may leave you wondering what it was all about. For me, however, it's still a lot of fun.
Clarence (Christian Slater) is a clerk at a comic book store who is a huge Elvis fan, and even talks to the King (Val Kilmer) at crucial moments in his life (he tells a potential date he'd sleep with Elvis if he had to with a guy). He tends to live a lonely existence, however, until one night, when he meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette) at a Sonny Chiba triple-feature. They go out, he takes her to where he works, they have sex, and all is fine, until she reveals he's a hooker. That part doesn't bother him so much - he figures fate wasn't involved (his boss paid her to show him a nice time) - and they fall in love and get married. What does bother him is she has a pimp named Drexel (Gary Oldman) who mistreats her, so he aims to get her stuff, the money she's owed, and just leave.
Unfortunately, it
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