A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III: movie review (R)

Time Out says

Tue Jan 29

Big daddy Francis will always be the godfather, while Sofia has become an unexpectedly potent Michael Corleone, taking care of business film after film. Obviously, this makes 47-year-old Roman Coppola the Fredo of the family: He’s directed only two features (and a ton of music videos), but they’re so laced with shag-era nostalgia and hipster retro passion that you wonder if he’s been unable to face the present. Make your own destiny, royal scion! Coppola casts post-tiger-blood Charlie Sheen as the mysterious title playboy, a mid-1970s L.A. graphic designer with a penchant for blonds and aggressively kitschy decor (a hot-dog couch sits prominently in his office). But the sex-addled Swan is dumped by Ivana (Katheryn Winnick), so it’s time for a movie-long wallow.

What exactly are we mourning? Nothing about our main character and his failed relationship is moving—or conveyed beyond the conventional shoes-throwing breakup scene—so your eye wanders to an exquisitely re-created bachelor pad or a Jewfro-topped Jason Schwartzman on a horse. Fellini used to get away with such slender crises, but he had Marcello Mastrioanni behind the shades, as well as a more vivid penchant for psychosexual fantasy. Coppola and Swan are stuck in their obsessions with dorky album art and old-man cocktails at Musso & Frank. A precious, arid thing, Glimpse arrives pinned to Styrofoam like a prize arthropod.

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Author: Joshua Rothkopf