'R Xmas (2002)

The biggest compliment I can pay this film is to say that I didn't despise it. That's bigger praise than you'd think, since this film comes from none other than Abel Ferrara -- the man who, until this film, was my pick for World's Worst Living Director. (That award has since transferred to talent-free Woody-wannabe Eric Schaffer.) I've never had a problem with Ferrara's intellectual pretensions, honestly. It's just he elucidates them in films that are nonsensical, pushy, unpleasant and aggravatingly, well, pretentious. (I still have nightmares about New Rose Hotel.) But here he's managed to take his trademark obsessions with guilt and redemption and harness them to an actual plot -- you know, a series of setpieces that have a logical progression. In doing so, he's made his best film (and perhaps his only watchable one, though I haven't seen King of New York) since his attention-getting breakthrough Ms. 45. I won't say much about the actual plot, since seeing the film cold might be even more effective, but it works for what Ferrara wants to get across. And in the moments where he threatens to wander, he's anchored by a fiery performance by Drea de Matteo, who alone makes the film worth seeing. It's -- dare I say it? -- too short, and it flames out with a non-ending, but it's a promising step. For the first time in my life, I'm anxious to see what Ferrara's got next.

Grade: B