Last year, the writer behind such landmarks of American cinema as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull made an unexpected move into the fashion industry. Paul Schrader’s first and only clothing design was a promotional T-shirt for his new movie Dying Of The Light, dutifully modelled on his Facebook page by the film’s stars Nicolas Cage and Anton Yelchin, as well as executive producer Nicolas Winding Refn. But rather than featuring the film’s title, the shirts instead bore a single declarative sentence: “No publicity issued by artist or lender, whether personal publicity or otherwise, shall contain derogatory mention of company, the picture, or the services of artist or others connected with the picture.”
The line is an excerpt from Schrader’s non-disparagement agreement, which prohibits him from openly stating his opinion on Dying Of The Light, which he claims “was taken away from me, re-edited, scored and mixed without my input”. This week, the film hits DVD, allowing UK audiences to imagine the vitriol that might have been spilled had Schrader’s hands not been so restrictively tied.
Against drab grey cinematography and a clumsy orchestral score, Cage plays veteran CIA agent Evan Lake, who develops a form of dementia that we’re told will cause “mood swings” and “inappropriate reactions” (two central tenets of Cage’s acting style that finally have a reason for being). The diagnosis inspires Lake to knuckle down and finally solve That One Case that’s haunted his career for decades, despite his colleagues’ quite reasonable assessment that he’s no longer equipped for the task.
What follows is an unsteady riff on Homeland, complete with a cartoony terrorist ringleader and a gravelly voiced agency sidekick (in this case, Anton Yelchin, lowering his voice by at least an octave like a teenager at the off licence). Whatever his culpability, Schrader was wise to wash his hands of it all.
Signature Entertainment
Also out this week
Mr Turner Sputum-flecked Romanticist portrait from Mike Leigh.
Pride Fun and forthright gays-and-miners romp.
Nightcrawler Heavy-handed TMZ satire with a greasy Jake Gyllenhaal.
