{"id":13085,"date":"2016-02-15T23:08:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T04:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13085"},"modified":"2016-02-16T12:35:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T17:35:22","slug":"beta-heartbreakers-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13085","title":{"rendered":"Beta: Heartbreakers (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Heartbreakers_Beta_cvr_s\"Film<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label:<\/strong>\u00a0Vestron Video<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0NTSC<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a01984<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A long-standing friendship between two womanizers is threatened by career crises and a sultry French seductress.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 n\/a<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

First: The Look<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although not emotionally deep with dark dramatic moments for its characters, Bobby Roth\u2019s drama of two competitive, womanizing best buddies taking baby steps towards transitioning into adulthood \u2013 wanting romance instead of easy sex, yearning for long-term relationships instead of egotistical conquests – manages to transcend the conventional plotting through the personalities of its cast, and a peculiar sense of humour that celebrates absurd twists of fate.<\/p>\n

Before becoming a prolific TV director (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/strong>, Revenge<\/strong>, Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/strong>) Roth began as a feature film writer-director, with Heartbreakers<\/strong> originally distributed theatrically by Orion. That same year, he also scored his first directorial job on TV with an episode of the Michael Mann-produced series Miami Vice<\/strong> (\u201cGive a Little, Take a Little\u201d), and it\u2019s pretty easy to see aspects of the Vice<\/strong> house style being incorporated into Heartbreakers<\/strong> (even the credits make use of the era\u2019s obsession with thin Arial fonts<\/a>), but with a more selective colour palette.<\/p>\n

The bachelor pad of rich boy Eli (Nick Mancuso) is industrial moderne – a stack of steel, glass, and concrete white boxes overlooking pretty Los Angeles – and as the managing CEO of a women\u2019s sportswear wholesaler, Eli makes sure he\u2019s always wearing suits that are likely the equivalent of a few months rent of best friend Blue (Peter Coyote), who lives a cliched life in an industrial warehouse loft that also has a view of the city, but looking upwards from treeless pit within the valley.<\/p>\n

In both homes, white walls and surfaces fills up the background, with colour coming from clothes, furniture, or art hangings and oddball objects, and this visual veneer is augmented by an electronic score by Tangerine Dream, then at their most productive state, scoring a variety of genres but having made their breakthrough a few years earlier with Miann\u2019s Thief<\/strong> (1981).<\/p>\n

Roth was extremely fortuitous in getting cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (The Fabulous Baker Boys<\/a><\/strong>, The Color of Money<\/strong>, The Departed<\/strong>), and both seemed to be extra careful in adopting the chic Vice<\/strong> look, aiming for softer pastel colours and off-whites; and minimizing clothes to cleaner, simpler designs, making the film much less dated than Mann\u2019s TV series, and still quite pleasing to the eye.<\/p>\n

Ballhaus\u2019 patented gliding camera resonates throughout the film, as well as his fine sense of composition which is surprisingly less affected by the existing full screen home video transfers (such as the Betamax tape used for this review). The film\u2019s cinematography, lighting, colours, d\u00e9cor, and mono soundtrack (which includes some period songs, such as Pat Benatar\u2019s \u201cLove is a Battlefirld\u201d) make up an unusually beautifully produced film, and a deliberately refined attempt to match the era\u2019s look with the work that struggling artist Blue creates over the course of Roth\u2019s drama.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Second: Naughty Boys<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reportedly inspired by fetish \/ pinup painter Robert Blue<\/a>, Roth\u2019s filmic incarnation similarly draws erotic fetish portraits of assorted alluring poses which have minimized\u00a0his efforts to become accepted by noted critics and connoisseurs, and the works Coyote creates were painted by the real Blue, some borrowed from private collections.<\/p>\n

The core drama focuses on Blue\u2019s attempts to \u2018get serious\u2019 about his art, pounding the pavement and assembling enough new works to fill up his first show in 4 years. His long-term relationship with Cyd (Kathryn Harrold) disintegrates, and she quickly shacks up with rival abstract painter King (Barney Miller<\/strong>\u2019s Max Gail). Woven into Blue\u2019s messy romantic life is Eli, who shares a prior history with Cyd, and now finds his own fixation, pretty art gallery assistant \/ dancer Liliane (Carole Laure) caught in Blue\u2019s headlights.<\/p>\n

The men have \u2018shared\u2019 other women during their epic friendship, and naturally one particular fling will seed a potential dissolution, which forces both boys to confront their juvenile behaviour, and grow up.<\/p>\n

While sex is treated with humour and moments of candor (with strategic object placement to obfuscate certain private parts to appease the MPAA), the women are never developed beyond the classically obvious, like the frustrated lover (Cyd); the mysterious foreign beauty (Liliane) who is professionally dressed during the day, but apparently spends her nights in aerobics classes and<\/em> practicing aerobics at the closed gallery. Cyd remains a third wheel, while Liliane has neither a past nor a future with either man, and exists to tease (if not as pliable Danskin-clad d\u00e9cor) instead of developing into a memorable character.<\/p>\n

Blue and Eli have an amusing near-threesome with model Candy (Carol Wayne, in her final film), and Eli maintains a friendship with aerobics instructor Libby (Falcon Crest<\/strong> and Just Before Dawn<\/strong>\u2019s Jamie Rose) in spite of an aborted (and ridiculous) soiree, making Heartbreakers<\/strong> more provocative than expected, but still fixed to the perspective of two emotionally immature men.<\/p>\n

The finale, Blue\u2019s big confession & breakdown outside of their regular diner hangout, and the pair\u2019s realization they\u2019re no longer twentysomething studs all happens fast before the End Credit scroll, but as friends, the men are seemingly closer than when the film started, having confessed seething jealousies and fears with almost juvenile angst.<\/p>\n

In the final wide shot with Eli and Blue\u2019s cars parked in parallel but facing opposite directions, Roth suggests the friends may go in separate directions \u2013 there\u2019s an ongoing motif of the pair splitting and walking in opposing directions after a game of squash, lunch, or coffee \u2013 but at the very end each has a new career path to consider: Eli taking over a company wholeheartedly after his father\u2019s death, and Blue ready to start a new series after having expunged his most tormented demons on canvas and earning a substantive income.<\/p>\n

Blue\u2019s creative and financial success happens somewhat gradually, but it still feels too neat in Roth\u2019s narrative, as old associates and contacts give him the perfect chance that helps him focus and create the magnetic show that restores his reputation and<\/em> sells every painting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the real art by Robert Blue \u2013 seeing each striking, commercially rendered piece \u2018created,\u2019 finalized, and showcased during the narrative \u2013 that makes the film an attractive hermetically sealed snapshot of 1984. Roth may not have intended to make a pleasing time capsule, but he lucked out in getting the right creative collaborators for this minor classic which unfortunately remains unavailable in a proper DVD or Blu-ray release.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little film worth revisiting in HD, and ideally with Roth contributing a commentary track which, not unlike Twilight Time\u2019s Baker Boys<\/strong> release (also an Orion release), showcased a struggling writer-director who managed to parlay several indie films into a prolific career.<\/p>\n

Heartbreakers<\/strong>\u2019 cast is a fine blend of veteran character actors and emerging stars, plus the unique pairing of Mancuso and Laure, both of whom had co-starred in the CanCon classic Maria Chapdelaine<\/strong> (1983). Laure had appeared in several international-styled art \/ cult films (Sweet Movie<\/strong>, Fantastica<\/strong>), whereas Mancuso had roles in several Canadian and U.S. films and TV productions, notably the cult classics Nightwing<\/strong> (1979), Death Ship<\/a><\/strong> (1980), and the Vice<\/strong>-styled TV series Stingray<\/strong> (1986-1987) and cult mini-series Wild Palms<\/strong> (1993).<\/p>\n

Coyote would play a more victimized character in Roman Polanski\u2019s twisted psycho-sexual black comedy Bitter Moon<\/strong> (1992), and reunite with Roth on the underrated corruption drama The Man Inside <\/strong>(1990), which co-starred Jurgen Prochnow in one of his last memorable dramatic roles. Roth would also engage Tangerine Dream to score Man Inside<\/strong> and his\u00a0TV movie Dead Solid Perfect<\/strong> (1988), co-starring Kathryn Harrold.<\/p>\n

Roth\u2019s feature films include Independence Day<\/strong> (1976), The Boss\u2019s Son <\/strong>(1978), Circle of Power<\/strong> (1981), Heartbreakers<\/strong> (1984), The Man Inside<\/strong> (1990), Amanda<\/strong> (1996), Jack the Dog<\/strong> (2001), Manhood<\/strong> (2003), and Berkeley<\/strong> (2005).<\/p>\n

Also available<\/em>: bonus short video (see Editor’s Blog<\/a>\u00a0or go directly to\u00a0Vimeo<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— Soundtrack CD Review<\/a> — \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although not emotionally deep with dark dramatic moments for its characters, Bobby Roth\u2019s drama of two competitive, womanizing best buddies taking baby steps towards transitioning into adulthood \u2013 wanting romance instead of easy sex, yearning for long-term relationships instead of egotistical conquest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4232,4236,4234,4237,404,4235,4238,615,4233],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3p3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13085"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13148,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions\/13148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}