Affliction (1998)

  
AFFLICTION takes a while to get going.  The meat of the movie, 
though, is 100-percent, grade-A, must-see material:  Oscar nom-
inees (and likely winners) Nick Nolte and James Coburn as an 
angry, alcoholic son 'n' father whose long-abusive relationship 
is about to come to blows.  Nolte's in nearly every scene, Co-
burn has maybe a dozen, and together they seethe with a collec-
tive rage that will leave you affected (afflicted?) long after 
you've left the theater.  Smashing small-town-in-the-winter 
photography, too.  With Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt, and Sissy
Spacek who, these days, is looking more and more like Skeletor
from "Masters of the Universe."  Shudder.  (Rated "R"/113 min.)

Grade: B-                

Copyright 1999 Michael J. Legeros
Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros    

Originally posted to triangle.movies as MOVIE HELL: February 28, 1999