The career of James Woods has become something of a cosmic joke. He's dynamite in a bad movie (Ghosts of Mississippi), nobody sees it; he's dynamite in a good movie (Another Day in Paradise), nobody sees it. Woods doesn't need a better agent, he needs better karma. As heroin-dealer/petty thief Uncle Mel in Another Day in Paradise, Woods revisits familiar turf: fast-talking, addictive outsiders are his specialty. His performance remains fresh this go-round because his character is a mentor to aspiring crooks. There's an air of authority in his voice; Uncle Mel isn't simply after big scores, he wants to pass the torch to Bobby (Vincent Kartheiser), the young, submissive junkie-scavenger who is quietly desperate for financial and familial stability in his life. While Uncle Mel is somewhat fatuous, he has charisma to spare. Woods is able to spin bad advice to sound like wisdom, which is crucial to the success of the character.

Woods is well matched with aging sexpot Melanie Griffith as Mel's exhausted girlfriend, Sid. Mel turns out to be a selfish (and loathesome) bastard, which may lead some to wonder how or why Sid has stood by his side for so many years. Others will see Sid for what she is: the prototypical abused spouse. Griffith subtly plays Sid as someone too old and too tired to turn her life around; unlike her beau, Sid has accepted her fate as a dope fiend and a killer. She also sticks around out of nostalgia for palpable moments of joy: Mel is generous and genuinely happy whenever he's begun a new project. The twinkle in Mel's eyes during the film's opening scenes, as he takes Bobby under his wing, hints at what Mel could become (as Sid sees it) if he learned to be less obsessive.

Griffith and Woods upstage young Kartheiser and Natasha Gregson-Wagner. Kartheiser does appear to grow up before our eyes, but he hits too many false notes along the way. Director Larry Clark encouraged his cast to improvise, and Kartheiser can't keep up with Woods, with whom he shares much of his screentime. He also lacks physical presence: though skinny enough to pull off the body of a heroin-lover, his baby-face--and his fixed, eager-beaver expression--seem curiously unravaged by the drugs, junk food, and violence that have supposedly punished his system.

The button-nosed Wagner looks too old to be dating Kartheiser. But her turn as Rosie, Bobby's girlfriend, is more problematic than that. There are moments that hint at Rosie's awful past (especially during the director's cut, in which Rosie reveals a pathetic need to be dominated by begging Bobby for the rawest kind of sex), but on a scene-by-scene basis, one cannot gauge Rosie's motivations. Wagner just doesn't have the chops to mold her into a cohesive whole. The most tragic thing about Rosie's eventual downward spiral is that it's ultimately moot.

Clark also helmed the controversial Kids, the source material for which was more suited to his freeform style. A rambling, slice-of-life skater-punk flick, Kids had its roots in Clark's early street grit photography work. With a still camera, Clark is fearless. His most famous collection of photographs, Tulsa, is brutally honest and very American. With a moving camera, however, Clark doesn't quite know what to hone in on--the very unpreparedness of his imagery only enhanced Kids' anarchic tone: its more brutal passages felt (appropriately) immediate and random. Another Day in Paradise is not as fragmented than Kids; its roots are in road movies and crime movies. Subsequently, Clark's documentary approach this time out is at odds with the traditional and unnatural elements of the picture. (See comments relating to Kartheiser and Wagner above.)

Yet when Another Day in Paradise works, I can't imagine anyone else but Clark behind the lens. He brings spontaneity to the sex and violence, and suprising the audience in a picture like this, I think, requires a loose cannon who hasn't seen/made enough films to let genre norms colour his vision. Clark is definitely not a hack, and nothing hammers this point home clearer than Another Day in Paradise's loosey-goosey final shots: the film's ending is uncommonly beautiful, gutsy, and romantic.

I'm sorry to say that Another Day in Paradise got an unimpressive-looking DVD transfer. The 1.66:1 letterboxed, non-anamorphic image is too soft, as if you're staring through layers of gauze, which I don't believe is the case. Black-level is wanting, though contrast isn't awful. I was startled by the clarity (especially after watching both versions of the movie--more on that later) of the band close-ups in one of the disc's supplements, a Clarence Carter music video: unless I'm mistaken, and its gaussian blur was intentional, that's how the rest of Another Day in Paradise should have appeared on DVD.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, on the other hand, is enveloping. Clark has employed several obscure, '60s soul tunes (including one previously unreleased solo effort by "Sam" of Sam and Dave) to great effect, giving Another Day in Paradise a sense of timelessness. The music resonates from all speakers. (That opening guitar chord startled me!) Gun-blasts sound very realistic, with an emphasis not on bass but volume. Dialogue never sounded compressed or hollow; Woods is blessedly audible as he utters endless streams of vulgarity. (Aside: the trailer and the Clarence Carter clip are both in Dolby 2.0.)

Trimark offers two versions of the film on one double-sided disc. Side A contains the theatrical cut, side B the director's. Longer by one minute, its only addition is the aforementioned "love" scene. As Clark says in a separate, gappish commentary track (included only on side B), "If Michael Douglas did this scene...the MPAA wouldn't have a problem with it...I think they're still pissed off at me for Kids." Clark is very frank as he riffs on whatever occurs to him as he watches the movie. (On cinematic experimentation: "I look for fuck-ups.") Clark's monologue will probably offend those who disliked Paul Thomas Anderson's profane Boogie Nights DVD commentary. Then again, if you can't take the word "fuck," why would you spin either title?-Bill Chambers