San Francisco Independent Film Festival 2019

[Chris Knipp]

MELORA WALTERS: WATERLILY JAGUAR (2018)


JAMES LE GROS IN WATERLILY TIGER

James LeGros as a slick writer bored with his success

Bob (James LeGros), a writer in Los Angeles, is shutting down in this first feature directed by the busy actress Melora Walters, whose ninety-nine credits include Magnolia and Boogie Nights and who has the support of Paul Thomas Anderson as executive producer here. As the opening title appears, Bob is being feted for something at a rich lady's house full of "wonderful art", an experience he likens to his wife to an "endless colonoscopy." His British agent Bill (Dominic Monaghan)congratulates him; his wife Helen (Mira Sorvino)comforts him. Why the ceaseless tinkly Bach piano in the background, we don't know. Music for a colonoscopy? Next morning he grumpily orders his overdressed, uppity (and entirely too sexy) lady assistant Will (Stacey Oristano) to investigate a cave man era Tar Pit hologram lady he learned about at the party. Material for some edgy, hallucinatory new writing? "Waterlily jaguar" are words he spins by a pool musing on the Tar Pit lady, which eventually become the title of the new novel. "This is the book I've always wanted to write," he says."Finally some literature. Something that will come out of me." Oh gosh! We know that's not going to go well. Now the tinkly piano music is Chopin.

Bob has made himself and others rich writing his bestselling novels of the "airport" variety, successful potboilers. The success is attested by his posh appearance and spacious surroundings. I remember LeGros best as Matt Dillon's doofus sidekick in Gus van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (where it was Dillon who was the "Bob"). LeGros is a veteran of a great many widely different roles, the consummate character actor. The giant leap from villainous retard to slick writer is a big one that he seems to make with perfect ease. Bob is a milder fellow than the hype for this movie, which speaks of a "spiral of obsession," would have us believe. It's partly a meltdown, partly a mid-life crisis, and evidently fueled by years of too much drinking, which those near him want to stop. So he does stop, more or less.

There is confusion, certainly, lack of communication. We feel a twinge of pity for the bestselling author who wants to go quirky and offbeat. But what a nice house he has, and that classic Porsche! And he has "families to support."

After the Tar Pit visit choppy editing tells us Bob's had a mental breakdown. That's when his wife puts him on a kind of cure, special diet, no alcohol, and a shrink. He writes poetry: his new novel is in verse. It's beautiful," says Will, admiring now. The tinkly piano music turns to what sounds like Eric Satie. And now we learn that Bill, though married, sleeps with Will. And by the way, the worried Helen is a painter,with a flirtatious gallerist, who's in love with her, Jackson, is played by Christopher Backus, Sorvino's longtime real-life husband. They have a conversation in a gallery that I can't make heads nor tails of.

The accoutrements of this movie are fine, the cast is good, but the theme is a tricky one to put over to begin with, and with the irrelevant affair of Bill and Will, things go astray. Partly Walters wants them to. But what is she getting at? It's not a good sign that the basic theme is being stated all over again, and fully for the first time, in a scene between Bob and his agent, two thirds of the way through the movie. But what's clear is that nobody supports Bob in his new direction. Are they right? Who knows? Come to the last night of the SF Indiefest, at the Roxie Theater, and decide for yourself.

SF IndieFest: Waterlily Jaguar: Upcoming Showtimes
February 14 7:00 PM SF IndieFest at the Roxie

Waterlily Tiger, an admirably slim 87 minutes, was the opening night film of the DTLA (Downtown Los Angeles) Film Festival last October, and is to be the closing night film at SF Indiefest, in connection with which it was screened for this review.