late last night: a Fairy Tale for the 90's


A reading of Emilio Estevez` recently screened TV movie. Having watched this deliciously wicked movie I felt that it had a lot to say…many motifs and images. As so little mention has been made of it, I set out to put things right! This is not a critique and I’m not a critic…nor do I wish to be one! This is a reading, an analysis of the content. Apologies for the length of this piece, but nevertheless it is (slightly) abridged and if anyone out there would really like to punish yourselves with the full version: please email me! Carole Zorzo, Film Writer/Historian and Emilio fan.


ENTERTAINMENT attorney Dan (Emilio Estevez), his marriage apparently over, storms out of his Beverly Hills home, thus giving his wife the chance to load her belongings into a hired U-haul and leave him. He doesn’t have his car keys. First mistake in a city where no one walks. Leaving the safe cocoon of his luxury home and minus the relative security of his Mercedes, it soon strikes Dan that LA, all the more poignant as it’s the Holiday Season, can be a very lonely place. All his `ex’s` and pre-married-life pals have themselves either married or moved on with their lives…afterall he didn’t need them until now, they were part of a life he left behind when he met and married Jill. The only one for whom it appears that time has stood still is Jeff (Steven Weber), a super-cool nocturnal creature who takes desolate Dan for a night on the town he’ll never forget and turns out to be his decidedly off-white knight in shining armour. Late Last Night is a very bizarre tale to say the least, yet at the same time it is strangely captivating, unnerving and spellbinding. All this plus a generous smattering of home truths for the 90`s and a lesson in the role that responsibility plays in our adult lives, thrown in for good measure. The scene is set even before Dan meets up with Jeff: when he gets off the bus, he leaves Beverly Hills where he’s apparently not allowed to do anything, ` no loitering, no hitching, no transients, ` and arrives in Hollywood where `it’s a free world` and anything goes. The crazy world of Hollywood after dark barely stands still and Dan doesn’t have the time to take in one situation before Jeff whisks him off somewhere new, where the surroundings and their inhabitants become more outlandish by the second. The constant changes of pace and scene are important, making the audience feel as disoriented as Dan. Encounters with transvestite hookers, coke whore strippers, drug dealers and dopers might be a normal night out for Jeff, but not so for Dan who doesn’t know how to fit in; at least not now. There are hints, such as the tattooed penis story, that the pre-married Dan was a different person altogether. In many ways, Dan resents the loss of his bachelor status, “you get married, you lose all your friends and your wife keeps hers” he moans. But whereas Jeff can steal a car, sniff out an undercover cop and bribe a nurse with ease, the one time Dan tries to blackmail a cop, albeit one who earlier in the evening had tried to `come on` to him, he ends up in the LAPD psycho wing. As the all too laid back and mysterious Jeff, Steven Weber is excellent. Jeff makes all the right moves and says all the right things and Weber plays him with sardonic confidence. Jeff, it seems doesn’t work, or have long term relationships. He gets by through `borrowing` cars, inviting himself to parties and getting others (tonight Dan) to pay his way, but at the same time we detect a hint of envy: in reality he craves exactly that which Dan is in danger of throwing away. A loving, lasting relationship. The importance of a relationship driven by love as opposed to just sex is cleverly played out in the music. Much of it is disco and 70/80`s retro, to blend with the trashiness of the Hollywood club scene and return thirty -somethings, Jeff and Dan to the euphoria of their youth. This musical message is especially significant when Jeff and some of the party people burst into a rendition of Queen’s “I need somebody to love.” A highly memorable scene which leaves the audience wondering if this really is Dan’s marijuana initiated hallucination or could Jeff be sending a message to his buddy via the exposition of his innermost feelings? It is however Dan to whom we want to reach out, give a protective hug and urge to get swiftly back to his wife and do his damnedest to make amends. We desperately need him to see that in this underworld of booze, drugs and whores, where neither the words relationship nor responsibility exist and his name is barely even remembered from one moment to the next, he won’t find the answers to his problems. Much is made of Dan’s `shadow side`, the Gemini with a very different twin: when he is turned on, for example, by his naked magazine model fantasy, he wants to be with his wife. The excitement of a quick thrill, versus the stability of a wife and home? Dan can’t decide which he wants. But he obviously hasn’t wanted the other life that much; he hasn’t had an affair….yet. Emilio Estevez steals the sympathy because he makes us feel his confusion, pain and loneliness. We can identify with Dan’s faults: he works too hard to maintain a lifestyle. Money has become his driving force, resulting in the neglect of his marital relationship. Suddenly romantic thoughts of having a family have been pushed aside through fears of there never being enough money to provide for children, whilst at the same time keeping up with others who share the same Zip code. This is why Dan has had fantasies about a life less motivated by paying the bills and supporting his wife and that’s why in her parting note, Jill says she doesn’t know him any more: it’s a sad fact of 90`s life. The `Yuppie` syndrome constantly referred to as an 80`s phenomena in the movie, is in fact still very much alive and not just living in LA. Money is very much Dan’s motivation: “enough is never enough,” he says. Work is all consuming to him. So much so that life outside has passed him by, and this is beautifully played out in cynical observations, such as his ignorance at the building of the Hollywood Subway: “When did they build this?” he asks Jeff. “At night when you were asleep” is the glib reply. Dan seems to be the wage earner and perhaps he has come to resent this. At times in the flash backs he appears unsympathetic to his wife’s needs and personality. When he comes home and catches her crying over the pet dog video, his attitude is that she is not living in the `real world`. When she thinks she may be pregnant he’s insensitive bordering on downright cruel, “it wasn’t me who forgot my birth control” he says. This is not my fault, why should I take any responsibility? Dan has become `the boss, ` also the nickname of their favourite rock singer. He pays the bills and so makes the decisions. “I was always there, in front of her” he confesses to the LAPD Shrink as his thoughts go back to the control he had over the TV remote. Their relationship, has become a metaphor of the title of their favourite Springsteen recording, `Thunder Road`. Only now, in the experiences of his late night foray into the shallower side of life, comes his realisation that a marriage is made of give and take and mutual respect. At the same time we shouldn’t completely dismiss Dan’s situation as being entirely his fault: we don’t glean enough information about Jill, to judge Dan. Estevez, an actor who can do as much with a facial expression - a mannerism - as with words in a script, is often at his best when, as with Dan, his characters have an excess of nervous energy to expend. They may find themselves in situations, which they have instigated, but are now beyond their control: remember Andrew in The Breakfast Club? So reticent until he cleanses himself of his guilty detention secret, or the wary punk in Repo Man? As the over zealous Billy the Kid in Young Guns, Estevez excelled, making us truly loathe ourselves for rooting for him, and lately as edgy, disturbed Vietnam Vet Jeremy in The War At Home, we know virtually from the first frame that this young man is a walking time bomb. The tension builds with every scene, until the climax we are all the time dreading. You can’t ask much more of an actor than performances like these and this is why I yearn to see him directed by the master of nervous energy: Woody Allen, or for someone in Hollywood at least to wake up and realise his talent again. In Late Last Night, Dan needs answers as to why his marriage is in tatters. At the beginning of the movie he really doesn’t understand what it is that he is supposed to have done wrong, but through hard hitting thought flashbacks and a series of `hit you right in the balls` experiences, Dan completes a thoroughly uncomfortable learning process. His tension builds to a crescendo only to be released in manic outbursts such as the very funny emergency room scene, when he can take no more of the coke-whores incessant and hysterical screeching. In a later scene, his reaction to the lecture he is given by the two cops following his arrest is equally as desperate and wonderful to watch. This is part of Estevez the actor’s charismatic charm. One could never be truly mad at him for long.

Late Last Night carries the audience along in the surreal haze of drugs and sleaze of the Hollywood club circuit. Everyone does what he or she wants and with whom they want. Love is a dirty word. Dan’s experiences take him to a hellish environment below Jeff’s friend, Ponzo`s party with the man himself holding court to an orgy of sex and drugs. Dan is physically sickened by this and leaves his buddy for the upper floors, where a group of spaced out coke users are discussing mans` contribution to the world and the need to find God. Once again opposites are discussed, with the group deciding that everything and everyone has two sides and one side needs the other for survival. It is here that the beautiful, almost angelic and virginal looking, Mia tempts Dan. Heaven and hell are two more opposites that play a major role in this movie, with constant references to good and evil. Whilst Ponzo holds his orgy in the depths of the earth, Dan is on the verge of losing any chance of saving his marriage high up on the roof. One of the coke whore strippers is called Angel (Leah Lail), the Hells Angels break up the party and down in Ponzo`s purgatorial hellhole a doper appears to be attempting to crucify himself on a cross for the sake of art. Constantly temptation is put in Dan’s way, until as with the coke and with Mia, the incitement to participate is too much.

Mia is the siren with whom Dan faces probably his toughest temptation and without Jeff around to save him all seems to be lost. She is the one who inwardly relaxes him to the point where all his frustrations and his worries are relinquished. She is the one who serves to release his tensions and even though outwardly Dan may appear to be at his most tense, this is purely a sense of release. Throughout, Dan has kept on his jacket and tie showing that he is not about to surrender himself totally to his darker side; by slowly and seductively removing his clothing, Mia is also ridding him of his inhibitions. She increases his anticipation and brings him dangerously close to his other self. Interestingly during this time the viewer is tested: our `other side` comes through. Certainly part of me, caught up in the moment was saying “go for it Dan.” Emilio Estevez` body language and delivery is perfect. I could almost taste Dan’s anticipation, but my adult, responsible self was already dreading the consequences. Had coke whore Tristan (Lisa Kelly) not rather clumsily broken her arm back at the Sunset Vista, Dan may have experienced a rather trashy and decadent fall from grace. Here however, the feeling is both sexual and to a point sensual and we are forced to concede…well if it’s got to happen tonight, it may as well be here and now. Fortunately, fate intervenes. That Jeff is invisible during the Mia episode is significant: it’s the first time in this night that Dan has been out there on his own. It’s a test if you like… a test that he would easily have failed and all would have been lost. But perhaps more significantly, not once do we see Mia and Jeff share a scene. Mia`s first appearance is immediately after the “I need somebody to love” intermission. As soon as Jeff almost glides off camera, Mia appears, her `come on` eyes immediately captivating the particularly vulnerable Dan. When Jeff re-materialises, Mia disappears and when Dan next hooks up with her, Jeff is down in the basement at Ponzo`s alternative party. So what am I saying here? That Mia is an incarnation of Jeff? Maybe. Mia isn’t as coy as she might first appear. Although she professes that women should stick together and that she wouldn’t take another woman’s husband, the mood she creates with her seductive pout forces Dan to say, “my marriage has ended…it’s ending.” And what of his admission, that `not unhappy` is the best he has ever felt? Very different to earlier in The Formosa, where he earnestly reminisced with two strangers that the first time he met Jill, he felt as if he had won more than a prize. “I felt like I was on air and I finally knew what that meant,” he says with a lot of feeling, “your mind is all her, your heart is flying, everything seems….to fit.” Whilst at other times during this night, when Dan has had the urge to `let himself go` his mind has flashed back to incidents during his marriage, with Mia there are no such flashbacks to instil feelings of guilt or otherwise, inside him.

Dan is arrested and thus saved from actually experiencing `true happiness` - because he should have known better. According to the policemen who bust him, certain people are not expected to know any better and as long as they are only a danger to themselves, what the heck! But the likes of Dan should be responsible (there’s that word again) and never allow themselves to get into such a risqué situation in the first place. One more lesson, in a long night for our fallen hero.

Dan’s face-to-face with the police psychiatrist (Catherine O’Hara) is interesting. He is restrained - handcuffed to the chair and this sums up how married life has been making him feel. He has been trying to escape Jill, or rather his responsibilities. He feels both nothing and everything. He has a sense of importance because he earns good money and protects his wife from the outside world; the earthquake flashback serves to remind us of this. But at the same time he is restrained, there are things he wants to do that he no longer can and he has been running away long before tonight. His feelings towards Jill are that he wants to `caress and crush` her at the same time. He resents the constraint marriage puts on him and this is where Jeff has been his release. “Jeff says and does things I can’t” explains Dan. “So Jeff represents this other side of you?” replies the Shrink and she is right. Interestingly having told Dan that she is pleased with their `chat` and declaring him sane whilst at the same time committing him to a night in the drunk tank, as she leaves her office, closing the door behind her, a faint `wail` can be heard. “Get that freak out of my office.” Obviously, she wasn’t as convinced as she had led Dan to believe.

As for Jeff, could he really be Dan’s alter ego as the police Shrink suggests, or even some sort of Guardian Angel? Time and time again had fate not intervened, as with the incident on the roof, Dan would have succumbed or fallen headfirst into a state of no return - or was it fate? We know nothing of where Jeff comes from; in fact he materialises rather than arrives at The Formosa and where does he go? After showing Dan that a loving relationship is not worth trading for the life-style he has just experienced, Jeff is no longer needed and disappears into the night. After his release from jail, as directed by the Shrink, Dan makes his stand - against Jeff. But Jeff is not ready to let go, “Don’t close me out” he says, “not yet.” What he is saying is “ If you dismiss me now when my work is not complete, all will be lost” The drive through the Christmas light grotto is an attempt to calm Dan, a `light relief` as the exit lights inform us. The twinkling lights add to the fairy tale element of the story. Dan no longer needs to take one of Jeff’s `never mind` pills, because his mind is now beginning to clear on its own and he is finally beginning to notice the world around him. Jeff knows that Dan still hasn’t quite `got it. ` ”The woods are lovely, dark and deep but you have miles to go before you sleep” he declares aloud. Dan is still ready to give up all too easily: when he loses the golf balls in the final scenes played out on a Beverly Hills golf course, he sees it as losing money because he wanted to play for a bet. “You look like a prospector” declares Jeff as Dan hunts aimlessly for his lost golf balls. Money is still his motivation and at this point I suspect Jeff wonders if he has failed in his quest to re-educate his old buddy. He tells Dan that he has what he deserves…. NOTHING… and forces Dan into a corner. Dan makes a stand again, and opposites collide. The peace and tranquillity of the starry night serve to change the mood, enabling Dan to clear his mind and reassess his life and what he wants from it. Before Jeff leaves he points out two stars to a tired Dan. Binary stars: `two stars are locked into each other’s orbit, circling each other forever. They are each other’s everything - their grace. ` Is he referring to the way Dan should approach his marriage or saying that Dan’s `two sides` will always be with him? The `Jeff` persona will always be there for him but should be allowed to lie dormant. That’s his saving grace. A little of both I think. Jeff’s parting words are “Just think about what I do and do the opposite - and don’t call me again` or put another way, there’s a beast in each one of us, but part of becoming a rational adult is learning to control it. Last night is over and a new day has begun. Dishevelled and disoriented, Dan is rudely awakened by a golf ball bouncing off his head. An elderly couple, obviously as much in each others orbit as the day they met and almost oblivious to everything but each other, are Dan’s final proof that what he really wants is at that moment loading her final belongings into a U-haul back home. The only evidence of the previous night is the abandoned car on the green. No Jeff, because Jeff never existed, not in the real world. Neither did Angel or Tristan, beautiful Mia, the vile Ponzo, nor even the Shrink. They were all `summoned` by Dan as part of a dream world that he craved as an easy escape from his problems. “You deployed me,” says Jeff at one point, “ you have a responsibility to me.” In the light of day, however, Dan realises they are not the answers and that facing his responsibilities and being the man his wife married, is far more important that a one night stand with a spaced out nymphet.

Fairy tales are meant to have happy endings and this is a fairy tale. We have the heroine (Jill) waiting to be saved by her Prince Charming (Dan), who in turn is forced to fight his way through a long and difficult journey to earn his right to claim her love. We have witnessed plenty of dark and evil temptations along the way and a Mentor (not fairy Godmother in this instance) in Jeff. However as Dan runs home, remembering happier times with Jill, to the lyrics “ the world we live in is a strange strange place, but I’ve found a saving grace in your smile” it is left to the viewer to make the final decision: has he passed the test? Does he deserve a second chance? Can he now be her everything? Or is he still just the sorry, hurt, husband? The moral of the story is that we all have a side to us that lusts after something unattainable, something from our past perhaps. A wild side, that needs to be harnessed. There is no harm in having fond memories and cutting loose - enjoying ourselves is downright healthy. But at the same time, we have to be accountable, we have to think ahead -of our future not the past and live in a way that will both sustain us and keep us happy for the rest of our lives.

In a similar vein to the 1985 movie After Hours, this film is a gem, with the viewer uncertain with each change of scene, about how to respond. We know that things can only get worse as the night goes on and as the events become increasingly bizarre. The performances are superb with excellent comic timing and chemistry from both lead actors. As are the characters different, so are the actors` styles and because of this, Weber`s laconic Jeff and Estevez` tension led…just about to go over the edge Dan, bounce superbly off each other. The superb comic performances of Leah Lail and Lisa Kelly as the two coke whores should also be noted. Steven Brill`s story is engagingly different, with a sharp dry wit and taut script, making this a highly memorable and wickedly funny black comedy, without a sentence wasted. His direction is spot on and I understand that he (very wisely) allowed these experienced and talented actors to improvise, resulting in a movie that everyone looked as if they enjoyed making. Brill`s use of night-clubs bursting at the seams with party people, emit an intense claustrophobia, thus increasing our perception of Dan’s feelings of confusion. In the scene in Ponzo`s dungeon, the camera alternates between Ponzo, his companions and Dan. All the time they are urging him to join them and the shots are getting closer to Dan’s face. In this scene particularly the claustrophobia Dan feels is intense, emphasising the way he feels about his life at the moment to the extent that he has to turn away. Brill also makes excellent use of Estevez` ability to relay his character’s feelings via facial expression and mannerisms throughout the movie. Brill contrasts the heavy atmosphere of the clubs with scenes that are more contemplative for Dan. The subdued lighting and distant music on the roof of Ponzo`s party is a direct contrast to the rooms from whence Dan and Mia have come: there is a feeling of openness and tranquillity. The scene ends with a two-shot of Dan about to kiss Mia, succumbing to her seduction and for a few moments we are tricked into a sense of release. Similarly, the final scenes played out on the golf course encompass a sense of finality and like Dan we emerge with a feeling of satisfaction that there is the possibility of a new beginning. Good use is also made of the flashbacks, which are important to the narrative, because they reveal Dan’s inner feelings and allow us to eavesdrop into his private anxieties about this transitional period in his life. Brill has worked with Estevez before as writer and executive producer of the Mighty Ducks films, but was keen to work on something more adult in content. Raised in New York and educated at Boston University, for screenplay ideas Brill drew on his experiences when he first came to LA from the East coast. He penned the script quickly whilst producing D3 and had been keen for Estevez to take on this role (which frankly could have been written with him in mind). As soon as Emilio read the script, it seems he wanted very much to film it. Look out for Late Last Night. It is far better than some theatre releases I’ve paid to see recently and is well worth viewing. Enjoy and beware!

CAROLE ZORZO - carolezorzo@compuserve.com