R Xmas

Director: Abel Ferrara
Year Released: 2001
Rating: 0.5

This is a pointless drugs-and-violence charade by Ferrara masquerading as an art film (note the dissolves), taking a place in time (police brutality in New York circa 1993) and using it to frame the story of a coke dealer and his wife. Little is added in terms of content by showing the husband and wife away from their job as dealers - it's Christmas time and they're looking for a rare doll for their daughter – since it's not only familiar subject matter (The Sopranos has a monopoly on showing criminals-as-people-too) but so unstructured it's as if the actors are improvising all their lines without a clue as to what the scenes mean (the dialogue is repetitive and expletive-laden; 'fuck' takes the place of relevant conversation).