"Welcome to LA" Review

 

by Daniel White

Brave Geraldine Chaplin furnishes us with full frontal nudity in Alan Rudolph's Welcome to LA (1976). Unfortunately, the movie is not worthy of such a bold (reckless?) gesture. If you're going to expose yourself for all the world to see, be sure you disrobe for a laudable project. Not that a large percentage of the Earth's populace is going to watch this uneven, at times contrived film. Rudolph, who also wrote the screenplay, is a talented guy and there are flashes of brilliance. But, unfortunately, it's only moderately engaging. Striving for the grandeur and complexity of Nashville (which it resembles), Welcome to LA falls short.

Comparison to the fabled flick is inevitable, for Robert Altman, who helmed that magical opus, produced this pale copycat. An ensemble piece, also set in the music business, it follows a group of Angelenos and their less-than-compelling sexual/emotional exploits. What saves Rudolph's ass is the extraordinary group of actors he's employed. Along with Chaplin, playing an unhappy housewife whose marriage and sanity are in question, some of the finest film players from the seventies and beyond do interesting work.

Keith Carradine has been saddled with a role that's an extension of his selfish singer/songwriter in Nashville. As in the Altman classic, he has a bevy of quirky, unique ladies lusting after him. Viveca Lindfors, Sally Kellerman and Sissy Spacek all flesh out their underwritten parts and make them far more riveting than they have any right to be. Harvey Keitel is also very good as an ambitious executive married to Chaplin. Unfaithful and callous, his sudden awakening and attempt at reconciliation is poignant.

Richard Baskin provides the music, as well as performing some of it on camera. It's an uninspired, annoying score. Unlike Nashville, where the actors juiced up the soundtrack with their own exciting stuff, here it has been undermined by limiting it to only one man's voice.

There's nothing wrong with making a movie about shallow, disconnected souls. Just make sure your flick is not vapid as well. Alan Rudolph blurs the line between the two, giving us moments of inspiration, with plenty of tiresome fodder in between. Hey, I know I'm just a mouthy, opinionated movie guy and Alan Rudolph is an artist entrusting us with his vision. An early effort which I wanted to like, I look forward to catching some of his later endeavors.

Distributed by United Artists, with excellent cinematography by Dave Myers and featuring Lauren Hutton, Denver Pyle, and John Considine, Welcome to LA is currently streaming on Tubi.