Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway
Tiger Eyes
A film based on favorite Key West author Judy
Blume's controversial novel "Tiger Eyes" has arrived at the Key West
Film Festival. "Tiger Eyes" is especially poignant because it is
directed by the author's son Lawrence Blume, while The Tropic's own George Cooper
is the Executive Producer. It is a genuine holistic creation with spirit.
The film focuses on Davey, a young girl who is
coping with the sudden loss of her dad slain during a random shooting. Gossip
Girl's Willa Holland does an excellent turn here showing Davey's mercurial
temper. Dark haired and sly, Davey is a preternatural hawk both ethereal and
feminine, that has lost her way. Together with her mother, (Amy Jo Johnson)
Davey relocates to New Mexico and becomes alienated by the vast red rock fauna
and florid cultures that surround her. When she wanders alone along a burgundy
sky that turns navy blue before her eyes its as if the towering rock formations
have teeth.
In the canyon, Davey meets the existential and
charismatic Wolf (Tatanka Means) who is imbued with a cosmic self awareness and
a quirky, deprecating manner. Wolf takes care of his ailing father who is
played by Tatanka's real-life father, the iconic Native American actor and
activist Russell Means. This is Tatanka's first feature film, though he
has more in the works and he possesses a warmth and a poetic mystique that
recalls a young Johnny Depp.
"Tiger Eyes" is a sensory experience
with many highs and haunts. The nimble cinematography weaves back and forth
like a shapeshifter. We reach into the blue horizons of sky only to go sideways
climbing the walls of an adobe house with more dark corners than Polanski's
Dakota in New York City. Davey is cut off from her reticent and emotionally
challenged uncle (Forrest Fyre). who stands over her like an imposing effigy
of 'The Rifleman' while the Luminaria in
brown paper hover like gingerbread stars that she cannot reach, and shine to
mock her.
It seems more like Halloween than Christmas in
Davey's New World.
One of the highlights of "Tiger Eyes"
is its stirring and immediate use of local color from the scalloped boardwalks
of Atlantic City, the incarnadine plains
of Los Alamos that are as Exotic as Planet Tatooine in "Star
Wars", to a Pueblo ceremony that places us in the realm of the numinous
and psychedelic. This is due to the bubbling cinematography by Seamus Tierney (Liberal Arts) that weaves a literal maze upon the eyes.
And let us not forget the legendary Russell
Means who gives this spritely film a generous gravitas. In his last role, Means
simmers as a benevolent volcano. Under his eyes art is life, and life is art. History
is within.
The audience will also be treated to a cameo by
none other than Blume herself who flashes a knowing Pajarito smile.
"Tiger Eyes" ultimately puts us in the
spectrum of a kaleidoscope. We are a prismatic fly on the wall, seeing Davey's
tricolor tempests firsthand, and it makes for a satisfying push and pull on the
tumble of hearts.
Write Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com
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