Night at the Golden Eagle
Over the course of a long night at a decrepit L.A. hotel, a cross-section of equally decrepit people live out their desperate, dead-end lives. This is the jaundiced vision of director Adam Rifkin, best known for the raucously enjoyableDetroit Rock Cityand the cult curiosityThe Dark Backward. He's corralled some good people for this low-budget offering (Natasha Lyonne and Ann Magnuson as hookers, Vinnie Jones as a cruel pimp), but the lion's share of screen time goes to a pair of small-time crooks (Donnie Montemarano and Vinny Argiro) planning to split for Vegas in the morning. It's diverting for a while, but the bleached-sepia look and unrelenting rancidity take their toll, grinding the picture down. Even a soft-shoe shuffle for Fayard Nicholas (of the awesome Nicholas Brothers), a grace note if there ever was one, can't lift the movie out of its determined sense of gloom.--Robert Horton