Running On Empty (1988), Little Nikita (1988)
And we thought James Dean had parental trouble in "Rebel Without A Cause"? Hah!
We could have easily applied Dean's iconic, primal wail( "The two of you are tearing me apart!") to the staggering family dysfunction faced by teenage River Phoenix in two of his films released almost back to back in 1988.
Dean only had to cope with a mother and father who didn't understand him. Big whoop.
Phoenix, on the other hand, dealt with two sets of parents who, for one reason or another, were hunted fugitives, forced to live, along with their unlucky offspring, a clandestine, secretive life.
"Running On Empty", directed by Sidney Lumet is obviously the more high profile, carefully crafted of these two films, a deadly serious drama that combines ripped-from-the-headlines American politics with the ripped-asunder bonds between parents and children.
Arthur and Annie Pope (Judd Hirsch, Christine Lahti) are most-wanted 1960's Vietnam protestors who've been on the run from the FBI for decades. (Their bombing of a napalm lab resulted in the blinding of an innocent watchman they didn't count on being there.)
Staying on step ahead of the feds by constantly switching locations and identities also involves a life on the lam for their two sons.......including their older 17 year old Danny (Phoenix), schooled in music by his mother and who's become a gifted pianist with a shot at admittance to Julliard.
As an actor, Phoenix possessed the same natural, instinctive abilities as the other classic movie rebels before him like Brando and Dean. And you ache for him as he warily navigates a tender first love with his music teacher's daughter (Martha Plimpton) while facing the inevitable breaking away from the undeserved criminalized life given him by his parents.
Since it's a Sidney Lumet film, all the acting on view here is nuanced and superb and one can only imagine what heights River Phoenix could have attained if his life hadn't been tragically cut short. In his filmography, this one stands as a 4 star (****) must-see.
Maybe it's just an odd coincidence 1988 also saw the release of director Richard Benjamin's purely popcorn thriller "Little Nikita", which once again featured Phoenix as high school senior afflicted with parents (Richard Jenkins Caroline Kava) leading a dangerous double life.
Only this time, since the film functions as a high concept suspense story, Phoenix's character has no idea his mom and dad are actually deep cover Russian "sleeper" agents who've been living an all-American apple pie life without ever being activated by their Moscow handlers.
The poor kid's world turns upside down when a veteran FBI agent (Sidney Poitier) reveals the startling truth to Phoenix about mom and dad while on the hunt for a rogue KGB assassin nicknamed 'Scuba' (Richard Lynch, one of our favorite direct-to-video madmen).
Lynch's Scuba a wild-haired psycho in flip-flops, has been running around killing off the embedded Russian 'sleeper' spies which doesn't sit well with either Poitier and a KGB bigwig (Richard Bradford, another top-of-the-line character actor) And the deeply conflicted Phoenix finds himself a pawn in all the chasing that ensues.
Normally in a thriller like this, the actors stay at the mercy of the plot mechanics, but director Benjamin, as actor himself, and armed with terrific cast, never lets the story's various twists and turns become the entire reason for the film existence. It's always about the people.
And once again, River Phoenix, in the role of a young adult whose family life is a sham, brings a sense of reality and genuine sensitivity to the situation, no matter how far fetched it is.
While not considered one his best films in his all too brief career, he still makes it a watchable 3 star (***) entertainment. Unlike James Dean, Phoenix didn't have to actually scream out how his parents were tearing him apart. You could see it in him without him saying a word.......
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