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New Rose Hotel

1998, Movie, R, 92 mins

New Rose Hotel: Review

NEW ROSE HOTEL
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Highly anticipated by fans of highly eccentric director Abel Ferrara and Italian actress Asia Argento (daughter of horror legend Dario), this adaptation of pioneer cyberpunk author William Gibson's short story is a curious and not altogether successful bit of business. In a future that's barely a mouse-click away, industrial spy Fox (Christopher Walken) specializes in seducing top-flight programmers away from their employers: Why steal software with a limited shelf-life when you can get the guy who writes it, and collect a hefty fee from his grateful new boss? Fox senses that cyber-superstar Hiroshi (artist Yoshitaka Amano) is almost ready to jump ship, and enlists the help of old associate X (Willem Dafoe) and honey trap Sandii (Argento) to give him a little push. Sandii is supposed to seduce Hiroshi, and X is meant to teach her how to do it (just go with that part — it doesn't bear much examination), but of course X falls in love with her himself. For an atmospheric, globe-trotting thriller (there's action set in New York, Tokyo, Morocco, Vienna and Berlin), this is a painfully claustrophobic picture. That's very true to Gibson — the irony of his future vision is that all the potential vastness of cyberspace actually does is shrink the real world; in the end it all comes down to cramped hotel rooms lit by the glow of computer screens. The smoky voiced Argento is arresting and Dafoe's solid presence almost holds the whole thing together, but not quite: The film's last third appears to be composed almost entirely of outtakes of earlier scenes, and Walken gives the most discombobulated performance of his career, which is really saying something. Thank goodness for the numerous footage of red-clad prostitutes and live porn-show performers; they don't further the narrative, but they're raunchy fun to watch. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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