A casual and sundry approach to current viewing, along with Oscar predictions in sum…

Passion Fish is a quiet, compassionate film. It is funny, insightful and wise. It is also set entirely in Louisiana. Written, directed and edited by independent filmmaker John Sayles, Passion Fish concerns the plight of a paraplegic soap opera star who must learn to adjust to the demands of suddenly and inexplicably being rendered handicapped.

Filmed in telling episodic vignettes, Passion Fish unfolds as naturally and as realistically as any movie in recent memory. Nearly every character is important, with even the most minor characters carrying a three-dimensional weight about them. This very literate screenplay was justly nominated for an Oscar.

Likewise, Mary McDonnell’s solid performance as the crippled Mary-Alice was also cited by the Academy for a Best Actress nomination. Unfortunately, Alfre Woodard’s equally strong interpretation of Chantelle, the in-house nurse, was not nominated.

That quibble notwithstanding, Passion Fish is a TV-movie theme that becomes bigger than life before your very eyes.

There are some movies which are very hard to recommend to a general viewing audience. Taxi Driver; Deliverance; Liquid Sky; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and The Exorcist come immediately to mind. Even this year’s One False Move was an iffy bet at best. The Bad Lieutenant is another of those tough-to-take films. Featuring a devastating, no-holds-barred performance by Harvey Keitel in the lead, The Bad Lieutenant offers an unblinking look at a police officer spinning out of control and wallowing in his own degradation. Even Keitel’s hard-body-gone-sour speaks volumes about his outlandish excesses and the tolls that indulging in them have extracted. Directed by Abel Ferrara (The King of New York), The Bad Lieutenant is arresting cinema for those who can stomach it.

Falling Down is the kind of movie that you really want to like more than you actually do. Maybe it’s the solid performances turned in by Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. Maybe it’s the theme concerning America gone to hell-in-a-handbasket. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the carcinogenic cinematography employed to cast Los Angeles in a day-glo haze that perfectly resonates the fears of everyone currently suffering from a bad case of twentieth century angst.

Falling Down is not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just that it is always self-consciously a movie, always calling attention to itself with what seems like figurative little arrows constantly pointing to things and some character exchanges that sound like they’re being read from cue cards.

The movie begins with our anti-hero (Douglas)—identified as D-FENS on his personalized license plate—mentally blowing a headgasket during a typical L.A. freeway jam. So he leaves his car where it sits and begins making his way for home, suitcase in hand.

In a series of escalating urban encounters designed to enlist our sympathies and fuel our jingoistic tendencies, D-FENS ultimately passes the point of no return—that moment within a journey when it is easier to finish what is started than to return to the beginning. As the deranged Everyman trudges his way through violence and mayhem, a robbery detective (Duvall) is marking his last day on the job. As played by Duvall, this retiring cop has his own set of problems, the most pressing of which is his neurotic wife, played by a surprisingly plump Tuesday Weld. Their parallel paths ultimately merge into one deadly confrontation on a Venice Beach pier.

Directed with some flashy style by Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Flatliners) and written by newcomer Ebbe Roe Smith, Falling Down is a post-Howard Beal Network world where everyone is “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!” What we’re left with is a Death Wish with humor.

On paper, Mad Dog and Glory looks like a can’t miss—two heavyweight stars in Robert DeNiro and Bill Murray; a streetwise script from Richard Price (Sea of Love, The Color of Money); Martin Scorcese producing; and direction by John McNaughton, who helmed the chilling, low-budget feature Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

Instead, the result of this high-octane cross-pollination is a rather lifeless anti-buddy movie that really only works when some of the supporting characters, notably David Caruso as DeNiro’s pugnacious sidekick and Mike Starr as Murray’s star-struck henchman, are involved. The paper-thin plot stretches plausibility to the limit. When “Mad Dog” Dobie (DeNiro) interrupts a hold-up in a neighborhood grocery, he inadvertently saves the life of Frank Milo (Murray), a local gangster, loanshark and sometime comedian. Milo, after conferring with his shrink, is grateful to Dobie and presses him into accepting Glory as a “gift” for a week. Glory, played by Uma Thurman, has her own reasons for serving as the proffered prize, but that doesn’t prevent her and Mad Dog from falling in love.

Neither Falling Down nor Mad Dog and Glory are a waste of your time—it’s just that when you see these high concept films alongside small, independent features like Passion Fish and The Bad Lieutenant, it’s quite easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.

The man with no name should be hearing it used quite often this year as the Oscar race corrals the ultimate loner back to the Hollywood fold. By the end of the Academy Award telecast, Clint Eastwood should have a saddlebag full of little golden statues. Eastwood’s Unforgiven should earn Best Picture and Best Director (although I wouldn’t be too upset if my personal favorite, Robert Altman, won for The Player).

I think Al Pacino will be somewhat of a surprise winner in the Best Actor category for Scent of a Woman. I believe Emma Thompson will take the Best Actress award for Howard’s End. In probably the most competitive category of Best Supporting Actor, Jaye Davidson could squeak out wild victory for his work in The Crying Game, but I think Jack Nicholson (A Few Good Men) and Gene Hackman (Unforgiven) will battle it out, with Hackman (fingers crossed) winning in a close one. Toss a coin in the Best Actress category with (maybe) Miranda Richardson scoring a victory for Damage.

Other probable winners include: Best Original Screenplay, David Webb Peoples’ Unforgiven; Best Adapted Screenplay, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala for Howard’s End; Cinematography, A River Runs Through It; and all the music awards going to Disney’s wonderfully imaginative Aladdin.

We shall see.