Stern's directorial debut explores issues of violence in American society through three intricately connected stories concerning the ubiquitousness of hand guns. Seven strangers (Allen, Daniels, Sinise, Braugher, Forster, Schwimmer, Brolin, Paquin, Ribisi), must confront deep currents of rage, fear and injustice when a gunshot brings their lives together for a series of unexpected--alternately frightening and funny--scenarios. Based upon Reddin's (THE ALARMIST) stage play.
(4 votes)
2.
No, it's the cast. A homeowner (Jeff Daniels) shoots an intruder, who turns out to be his business partner. A police officer (Robert Forster) suspects a setup. His wife (Joan Allen), who didn't know they even had a gun in the house, she gets a job with a reclusive computer billionaire (Gary Sinise). The billionaire's former assistant (Josh Brolin) has left the company to work in the movies, and he falls for a street waif (Anna Paquin). Daniels's lawyer (André Braugher), who is gay, also falls for the waif, much to the chagrin of his unstable partner (David Schwimmer) as well as the waif's unstable brother (Giovanni Ribisi). Based on a play by Chicago playwright Keith Reddin (who also wrote the screenplay) and directed by theater director turned first-time movie director James D. Stern, It's the Rage never transcends its theatrical roots. Instead of a character type, each person in the story represents a different (but equally shallow) facet of rage. It's all just an elaborate setup to preach about gun control and how our society is increasingly a society of rage. What the world needs, the movie is saying, is a little more self- control and understanding. Obviously, what it also needs is a better use of such a talented cast. --Andy Spletzer
(4 votes)
3.
When everyone's armed and dangerous, one wrong move can get you killed. Enter into the world of seven strangers - each of whom find their lives changed when their fates collide at gunpoint. Helen (Joan Allen) and Warren (Jeff Daniels) Harding are an affluent couple on the brink of divorce. Their seperation causes their lives to intersect with eclectic and tormented individuals including a paranoid computer mogul (Gary Sinise), an adulterous lawyer (Andre Braugher), a disillusioned cop (Robert Forster), a jilted lover (David Schwimmer), a video store manager (Josh Brolin), a street urchin (Anna Paquin) and her schizophrenic brother (Giovanni Ribisi). Through a series of coincidences, this unpredictable story touches the lives of each of these strangers, lovers and acquaintances and examines the anger within us all.
(3 votes)
4.
Mixing a superb cast with a serious salting of dark humour "gun culture" comedy It's The Rage is that rare thing, a genuinely outstanding film which went straight-to-video. Like Magnolia (1999) it makes coincidence a virtue in telling the stories of a group of disparate characters, and how their lives are entwined and sometimes ended because of America's obsession with firearms. When Jeff Daniels shoots his business partner, his wife, Joan Allen, leaves for a job with a software billionaire, Gary Sinise, and the film expands to encompass brother and sister punks (Giovanni Ribisi and Anna Paquin), a video store assistant, a pair of detectives and a gay couple. Adapted from his own play, Keith Reddin ensures the script remains pointed, while Sinise delivers a wonderful performance of supreme eccentricity recalling Peter Seller's Dr Strangelove. Indeed, there is much akin to Kubrick's tense, pitch-black humour in this anti-gun parable, while in various ways, from the central Daniels/Allen couple to the sardonic detachment of the music to Paquin's "almost-relationship" with an older man It's the Rage parallels the contemporaneous American Beauty (1999). It's actually the more powerful film, and though made for cable deserved all the praise it received on its festival screenings.
On the DVD: The trailer doesn't capture the spirit of the film at all, while the 13-minute making-of documentary is routine promotional material. The commentary by first time film director (but veteran stage director) James D. Stern is exceptionally good, both enthusiastic and packed with information; the fact that It's The Rage really bites can almost certainly be attributed to Stern's college roommate being shot dead. The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and while this isn't the sort of film to show-off a sound system,it's atmospheric and the diverse music score becomes almost a character in itself. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 image is good but a little grainy and shows occasional compression artifacting. --Gary S Dalkin
(3 votes)
5.
At thirty-one, he's gliding through life, celebrating himself as the 90's gay playboy ideal, without ever realizing what a mess he's become. All this changes when he finds himself drawn to Stewart, who spends a little time at the gym as he does choosing his wardrobe.
(3 votes)
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