Afterglow

Alan Rudolph's films have a strange hold over me. Ever since I saw what I still think is his best film, Trouble In Mind, in the 1980s, I have not found another film maker that creates such a unique look and builds such off-centre stories. Another plus point is his use of the city and architecture to create the feelings of alienation for the characters. His films are always grounded in a real place, Seattle as Rain City in Trouble In Mind, and this time for Afterglow we are very much in Montreal.

In a way it's a hommage to four actors. Julie Christie gets the full on star treatment by the camera. There are some wonderful glamour static shots of her waiting at a table, sitting behind dark glasses and so on. But also there are honest scenes of her with no makeup, sitting in nightclothes watching her younger self on VHS in what looks like a hammer horror movie – though in the credits it says that the film was The Pit and the Pendulum I cannot find a reference to this in IMDB, nor could I see an appropriate film in Christie's filmography. The final scene of her character crying in bed I found quite disturbing, as the actor is evidently trying so hard to cry her guts out. It's a bit uncomfortable and also a bit false. Anyway, it was a deserved Oscar nomination.

Nick Nolte I just find irritating. I guess the character was not likeable but showed some redeeming features, I just wish it had been a different actor.

Lara Flynn Boyle was equally irritating (so hurruagh for the English actors!) but this suited the role. The character was really just a little girl in a big bad world type thing.

Jonny Lee Miller is a very strange person indeed. It shouldn't work – his face is so impassive and the acting is on the surface extremely wooden. Yet somehow it does work. I don't know what he does, but it is some kind of gift. I remember feeling the same in Regeneration. Somehow he shows a real rounded character underneath the mask. It's no coincidence I'm sure that the softly spoken English actor was married to Angelina Jolie at the time of the film, who described him as wild.

But mostly with Alan Rudolph's films it's about the setting and mood. And it's all very well captured.