Keys to Tulsa (1997)

 Are there instances where you just want a film to get to the point and get on with it? It was 40 minutes in before Spader reveals to Stolz that he plans to blackmail a racist rich oil exec responsible for the death of a hooker. There is unstable woman-beater, Rooker...Big Oil means Rooker has deep pockets. Rooker and Stolz are friends, but Unger is off-limits so Stolz getting in bed with his buddy's sister is a big no-no. Going as a stripping, dancing junkie pulled into this whole mess due to her romantic attachment to drug-dealing, shades-wearing, Elvis hair Spader just seems like a square peg...when I see her opening scene my jaw was dropped. I couldn't help but wish her agent had convinced her this movie was a bad idea.

Unger as the sultry sister of Rooker (who has incestuous yearnings for her), married to Spader (who seems perfectly okay with her flirtatious, promiscuous ways), often teasing Stolz, is my personal highlight. I mean Unger's introduction has her in a scanty tennis outfit, spread out sensually on top of Stolz' red convertible...it's definitely a helluva introduction.

Mary Tyler Moore is the mom who has endured so many disappointments and fuck-ups from son, Stolz, she eventually tells him he's on his own and not inheriting anything.

Movies aren't always easy when every last person is horrible, even if the cast portraying these characters are phenomenal elsewhere. I'm not a Stolz guy, and the film really tries to translate him as this chill anti-hero always lighting up a cigarette, ditching his movie review newspaper job every chance he gets, and assorting with unsavory types certain to only sink him further into the abyss.

Coburn is Daddy Warbucks who wants Stolz nowhere near his daughter after messing her up in the past. Damn guy's charisma and remaining movie star power fucking rips Stolz apart limb for limb. How the casting agent was able to secure him and Moore for this has to be applauded.

Spader just isn't around enough to make a dent into this but he's probably salvaged by that. This fucking movie meanders for nearly two hours and with Going getting nude as much as she does, there is no reason it should be this trying. My attention span can take a long movie as long as it attempts to go somewhere.