Saint John of Las Vegas
By Saint Gary Dean Murray the First
One just has to love the independent comedy, those works done by visionary directors who want to give pause as they entertain. Sometimes these exercises come across as brilliant (see the Coen Brothers) and sometimes they just come across as weird. Saint John of Las Vegas falls more toward the latter.
The film starts with John (Steve Buscemi) in a convenience store trying to buy a grand worth of lottery tickets. Between his testimony to the store clerk and his background narrative, we discover his story. John is a bad luck gambler but a guy who believes that you make your own luck. After flaming out in Las Vegas, he drives as far east as his car will take him. Ending up in the Western desert, he takes a job at the Townsend Insurance company. It is more of a job than a career, but he has the best place to sit in the office, next to Jill (Sarah Silverman). He keeps getting mixed signals from her, running her affections hot and cold.
One fateful day, Mr. Townsend basically throws John into the fraud division. He is partnered with Virgil (Romany Malco), the top dog of the fraud department. He says to John, “Welcome to fraud. It’s one hell of a ride.” And what a ride Virgil gives him.
The two have to investigate a claim from a stripper called Tasty D Lite (Emmanuelle Chriqui) She claims that she was hit by another car which prevents her from performing lap dances at the Wild West A Go-Go. She is looking for $200,000 in wage compensation. Her place of work is on the outskirts of Sin City, a place that John doesn’t want to go back to. The story of the crazy road trip and of the investigation is the major bulk of Saint John of Las Vegas.
What kind of a film is Saint John? A perfect example is one scene were a side show performer/wrecker driver is stuck in his flame suit. The suit is malfunctioning and he cannot get out because the suit keeps flaming up. John has to question him about the whereabouts of the wrecked car and the guy just wants a cigarette. John comes up with a unique idea of lighting the pack on fire and letting the trapped man just enjoy the menthol delight from inside his flame suit. Call it Dante with Sterno. This kind of quirky, lapsing logic bit of madness fills every beat of Saint John. It is a world where strange-looking Steve Buscemi is the most normal element of the feature.
As much as I dislike The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central and her stand-up act, I truly liked Sara’s performance as Jill. With smiley faces painted on her nails, she is all sunshine and good feelings. In the ‘opposites attract’ logic of film, she is smitten by sad sack John. She is also the single breath of brightness in this exercise of quirks.
Steve Buscemi is playing that same mopy character he has done so many times before. There is very little that is original in the depth or breath with his reading of John, nothing we haven’t seen many times before. We get that he is trying to stay sane and stay away from the temptations of Vegas, but it is just beaten too much.
The film is unusual for the sake of being unusual. John is to be our solid anchor in the world spinning in directions he never truly understands or comprehends. There is no rhyme or reason to the how or the why in the world of Saint John of Las Vegas. We get weirdos being weird for weird’s sake.
Director Hue Rhodes captures all the strangeness needed for a film like this, but he misses the mark in finding the humanity. Strange for strange sake is not what makes an offbeat comedy. We have to care about someone somewhere in the world of the movie in order to make it work. That is the fatal flaw of this piece. Without having a caring character, we just get a stranger in a strange land.
Saint John of Las Vegas is more for those looking for the odd bird flick, not a mainstream patron. There are some laughs peppered throughout the exercise, but it is not the gem one would hope for.
