[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]
Connection to The January Man: Both star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Premise: A small town sheriff accidentally becomes part of an FBI investigation.
Complete transparency here. I was racing to finish this “Century in a Month” project in a month, and prioritized watching the movies to writing the Reactions. So, I’m writing most of these about a week or two after watching them. There are benefits to doing that sometimes. It gives my thoughts time to crystalize about a movie. I might come up with an angle that I didn’t have right after watching. The problem is that some movies just slip away in my mind. That’s White Sands. At best, this movie is OK. I might’ve had some interesting initial thoughts after watching it, but most of what’s left now are pretty broad.
The cast is what I found most notable about the movie. Like, Willem Dafoe. I forget about his leading man era. Sure, there are the art films like The Last Temptation of Christ, but they also tried to pitch him as a populist movie star. The kind of guy who could’ve been played by any actor and not specifically by Willem Dafoe. There’s a reason why they didn’t last. He’s a very specific actor. It’s strange to me how Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio just kind of went away. I don’t think she had big bombs attached to her. I don’t think she was black balled by anyone. After 1995, her work got very sporadic. She had a couple children at some point and started working on the stage more. I wonder if this was a natural shift for her or did she hit her mid-30s and the roles dried up? It’s a shame though. She’s generally pretty good in stuff. Mickey Rourke I just don’t like. Even in his star days he seemed off. More accurately, he seems like a prick and I’d believe he was no fun to work with. He’s not even interesting to me as a villain. It’s kind of like how I can watch Ed Norton play a neo-Nazi in American History X and appreciate the performance, but if the role was being played by an actual neo-Nazi it would be off-putting. I can’t watch Mickey Rourke be a prick in a movie because it feels too much like his natural state.
Anyway, White Sands is a pretty enjoyable forgettable movie. There’s a brand of crime movie from the 90s that would probably be forgettable TV series today. They are character-based and feel episodic. It’s very easy for me to imagine the 8-episode limited series of this movie that would be about 3 episodes too long. It makes me realize that when people ask where the mid-budget movie for adults went, the answer is “to streamers as series”.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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