Coyote Ugly
USA 2000
Reviewed by Mark Olsen
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Leaving behind the security of life at home with her widowed father in suburban New Jersey, Violet Sanford moves to Manhattan to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter. Mistaking him for a music booker, she gives grill cook Kevin a tape of her songs; the two soon begin dating.
After her apartment is robbed, Violet nears the end of her tether, emotionally and financially. She learns that there might be a job opening in a bar called Coyote Ugly. Dropping by, Violet is offered a position by the owner Lil. When she returns at night, Coyote Ugly is swarming. The bartenders get up to dance on the bar but Violet refuses to join in; Lil sends her home. Seeing Violet break up a fight on her way out, Lil gives her a second chance.
Soon Violet gets used to the demands of her new job. She continues to attempt to realise her song-writing ambitions although she is plagued by stage fright when she has to sing for people. When her father drops in at the bar on a rowdy night, they have a falling out. Soon after she loses Kevin and her job. Later, Violet finally overcomes her stage fright, wins a song-writing competition and reconciles with her dad and Kevin. In the end, Violet and country-music star LeAnn Rimes perform their hit song in Coyote Ugly.
Review
Pity the young director who works for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The man behind such films as Con Air, Enemy of the State and Gone in Sixty Seconds, Bruckheimer creates movies with such a distinctive style one imagines it must be difficult for a director to exert creative influence. Typically, the producer plucks his directors from the world of commercials and music videos, and his films tend to show the kind of quick-cutting, high-sheen aesthetic characteristic of television advertising and MTV.
In Coyote Ugly it is at once startling and no surprise at all that Bruckheimer and debut director David McNally tell the relatively small story of young Violet Sanford moving to the big city to pursue a career as a songwriter in a high-impact manner. Essentially treating the story like an action picture, they map the big-fisted, hyperbolic dynamics of the action set-piece on to Coyote Ugly's bar-room sequences (where the glamorous bartenders dance for their spirited customers). Instead of blowing up cars or buildings, Bruckheimer and McNally create a film in which the girls themselves are oversized, larger than life - and it's their over-the-top antics which sustain the film rather than the scant character and plot development.
It's hard then to see Coyote Ugly as a back-to-basics exercise for Bruckheimer, although the film ostensibly revisits the smaller scale of such works as Flashdance (which he made with fellow producer Don Simpson in 1983). The characterisation is kept at an elemental level so as to keep the story moving, and in an effort to prove it has a healthy attitude towards the modest degeneracy it features, the screenplay (by Gina Wendkos, based on a magazine article by Elizabeth Gilbert) repeatedly falls back on the so-called empowerment of contemporary shake-that-thing feminism to the point of a certain guarded defensiveness in a number of the dialogue exchanges. Throughout, Coyote Ugly tries hard to maintain its appeal to both male and female audiences, just as it strives to veer between winsomely light-hearted and inspiringly dramatic tones.
Relative newcomer Piper Perabo in the central role of Violet exudes a certain charm but is ultimately sunk by the schematic nature of her character's rise. Her fellow bartenders (Izabella Miko, Bridget Moynahan and Tyra Banks) are ridiculously underdeveloped, with only Maria Bello's tough/tender bar owner making any sort of lasting impression. John Goodman tries hard in the role of Violet's overprotective father, but he can't overcome the material at hand. Stalwart character actors such as Victor Argo and Bud Cort are similarly underused in small roles, though Bruckheimer collaborator Michael Bay (director of Armageddon and the upcoming Pearl Harbor) pops up amusingly as a newspaper photographer.
More laughably misguided than outright offensive, Coyote Ugly ultimately has such an odd good-naturedness about it that it is difficult to take it seriously, let alone grow angry at it. Some sort of achievement in the ongoing oeuvre of Jerry Bruckheimer, Coyote Ugly is distastefully irresistible, a product that delivers more or less what it promises.
Credits
- Director
- David McNally
- Producers
- Jerry Bruckheimer
- Chad Oman
- Screenplay
- Gina Wendkos
- Director of Photography
- Amir Mokri
- Editor
- William Goldenberg
- Production Designer
- Jon Hutman
- Music
- Trevor Horn
- ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.
- ©Touchstone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer, Inc.
- Production Companies
- Touchstone Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
- Executive Producers
- Mike Stenson
- Scott Gardenhour
- Associate Producers
- Jennifer Krug Worthington
- Pat Sandston
- Jeff Eamer
- Executive in Charge of Production
- Jerry Bruckheimer Films:
- Kristieanne Groelinger
- Production Supervisors
- Christine C. Fransen
- Additional Photography:
- Diane Sabatini
- Production Co-ordinators
- Melissa Wiechmann
- New York Unit:
- Shell Hecht
- Unit Production Managers
- Alma Kuttruff
- New York Unit:
- Carl Clifford
- Location Managers
- Janice Polley
- New York:
- Robert T. Striem
- Michael Nickodem
- 2nd Unit Director
- Darek Wolski
- Assistant Directors
- Tom Mack
- David Kelley
- Andrew Ward
- Jack Steinberg
- New York Unit:
- Gregory G. Hale
- Denis Doyle
- Eric Yellin
- Script Supervisor
- Julie Pitkanen
- Casting
- Bonnie Timmerman
- ADR Voice:
- Barbara Harris
- Associate:
- Alison McBryde
- Script Co-ordinator
- Gary Reick
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Darek Wolski
- Camera Operators
- William A. O'Drobinak
- Stephen St. John
- 2nd Unit:
- Kenn Ferro
- Simon Jayes
- Steadicam Operator
- Stephen St. John
- Special Effects
- Co-ordinator:
- Joe Ramsey
- New York Unit, Supervisor:
- Steve Kirshoff
- New York Unit:
- Robert J. Scupp
- Art Directors
- Gae Buckley
- Bruce Alan Miller
- New York Unit:
- Ray Kluga
- Richard Butler
- Set Designers
- John Warnke
- John Perry Goldsmith
- Set Decorators
- Rosemary Brandenburg
- New York Unit:
- Beth A. Rubino
- Storyboard Artists
- Richard Newsome
- Gerald Forton
- Illustrator
- Richard K. Buoen
- Costume Designer
- Marlene Stewart
- Costume Supervisors
- John C. Casey
- New York Unit:
- Jill Anderson
- Barret P. Hong
- Make-up
- Artist:
- Kris Evans
- Key:
- Darla Albright
- Hairstylists
- Voni Hinkle
- New York Unit:
- Rose Chatterton
- Additional Music/ Arrangements
- Jamie Muhoberac
- Garry Hughes
- Steve Bartek
- Featured Musicians
- Jamie Muhoberac
- Garry Hughes
- Tim Pierce
- John Robinson
- Curt Bisquera
- Mac Robinson
- Alan Pasqua
- Strings Orchestrator/ Conductor
- David Campbell
- Music Supervisors
- Kathy Nelson
- Bob Badami
- Music Co-ordinator for Trevor Horn
- Mary Anne Campagna
- Music Editors
- Shannon Erbe
- Tami R. Goldman
- Supervising Music Production Mixer
- Joseph Magee
- Music Playback
- Earl Martin
- Music Recordist/Mixer
- Tim Weidner
- Steve MacMillan
- Music Programming
- James Banbury
- Music Pro-tools Operators
- Sara Lind
- Robert Lind
- Brian Golding
- Damian Legassick
- Eric White
- Greg Morgensteen
- Strings Recordist
- Robert Fernandez
- Soundtrack
- "Fly"; "I Will Survive"; "Wherever You Go" - Alex Band and Aaron Kamin; "That's Me"; "Lies" - Adoree; "The Power" - Snap; "Didn't We Love" - Tamara Walker; "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" - Georgia Satellites; "Boom Boom Boom"; "Pour Some Sugar on Me" - Def Leppard; "Devil Went Down to Georgia" - Charlie Daniels Band; "Unbelievable" - EMF; "It Takes Two" - Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock; "Out of My Head"; "Never Let You Go"; "Beer: 30"; "Follow Me" - Uncle Kracker; "Need You Tonight" - INXS; "Love Is Alive"- Anastacia; "One Way Or Another" - Blondie; "Battle Flag (Lo-Fidelity Allstars remix)" - Pigeonhed; "Tony Adams"; "Cowboy" - Kid Rock; "Rock This Town" - Stray Cats; "Cailin" - Unwritten Law; "Rebel Yell" - Billy Idol; "All She Wants to Do Is Dance"; "Love Machine"; "Can't Help Falling in Love" - Elvis Presley; "We Can Get There (Almighty Radio Edit)"; "Please Remember", "The Right Kind of Wrong", "But I Do Love You", "Can't Fight the Moonlight" - LeAnn Rimes
- Choreography
- Travis Payne
- Additional:
- Lavelle Smith Jr
- Sound Mixers
- Petur Hliddal
- Bob Eber
- Re-recording Sound Mixers
- Kevin O'Connell
- Greg P. Russell
- Re-recordists
- Dan Sharp
- Tom Burns
- Supervising Dialogue Editor
- Teri E. Dorman
- Dialogue Editors
- Karen Spangenberg
- Ulrika Akander
- Supervising Sound Effects Editor
- Randle Akerson
- Sound Effects Editors
- Adam Kopald
- Suhail Kafity
- David F. Van Slyke
- ADR
- Recordist:
- Rick Canelli
- Mixer:
- Thomas O'Connell
- Supervising Editor:
- Juno J. Ellis
- Editors:
- Nick Korda
- Stephen Janisz
- Denise Horta
- Foley
- Artists:
- Alicia Irwin
- Dawn Fintor
- Mixer:
- Dave Betancourt
- Supervising Editor:
- Victoria Martin
- Editors:
- Matthew Harrison
- James Likowski
- Fred Burke
- Bartending Consultant
- Jennifer Curran
- Consultants
- Liliana Lovell
- Elizabeth Gilbert
- Research
- Vanessa Bendetti
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- New York:
- Danny Aiello III
- Los Angeles:
- Buddy Joe Hooker
- Animal Handling
- Critters of the Cinema
- Cast
- Piper Perabo
- Violet Sanford
- Adam Garcia
- Kevin O'Donnell
- John Goodman
- Bill
- Maria Bello
- Lil
- Izabella Miko
- Cammie
- Tyra Banks
- Zoe
- Bridget Moynahan
- Rachel
- Melanie Lynskey
- Gloria
- Del Pentecost
- Lou
- Michael Weston
- Danny
- LeAnn Rimes
- herself
- Jeremy Rowley
- William Morris receptionist
- Ellen Cleghorne
- music publishing receptionist
- John Fugelsang
- Richie the booker
- Bud Cort
- Romero
- Grant Tuskerud
- Eddie Anisko
- Jason Jacobs
- Patrick Yonally
- Finale Club lead-in band members
- Robert Ahlers
- Orlando Sims
- Barry Michael Duff
- William Ritter III
- Chanda Bailey
- Finale Club back-up musicians
- Freeze Luv
- Fiji Mermaid Club bouncer
- Alex Band
- Miles Mosley
- Aaron Kamin
- Vic Vanacore
- Fiji Mermaid Club band members
- Greg Pitts
- Fiji Mermaid waiter
- Whitney Dylan
- Fiji Mermaid worker
- Marvin Krueger
- surgeon
- Victor Argo
- Pete
- Peter Appel
- John Mondin
- pizza customers
- Frank Medrano
- Walt
- Elizabeth Beckwith
- management office receptionist
- Diane Hudock
- open mic woman
- Tara McLean
- open mic singer
- Eric Ritter
- Thomas R. Martin
- Arlene's grocery audience members
- Ken Campbell
- biker
- Jorgen De Mey
- Coyote Ugly customer
- Jimmy Shubert
- Greg Ginther
- Coyote Ugly drunks
- Jeff Michalski
- fire marshall
- Kaitlin Olsen
- Jennifer Jean
- Susan Yeagley
- Jill Gettelson
- bidding customers
- Jack McGee
- pitcher
- Paul Davis-Miller
- Sam Ash salesman
- Johnny Zander
- Roy the busboy
- Wali Collins
- Critch
- Scott Russo
- Rob Brewer
- Steve Morris
- Wade Youman
- Patrick Kim
- Elbow Room band members
- Natasha Reulet
- Sarah Morris
- Jennifer Day
- Nava Plotsky
- Alicia Sorell
- Jennifer Manalo
- girls at the surprise party
- Nicole Ghastin
- Lyndsay Morgan
- Jonathan Klein
- manager
- Alexandra Balahoutis
- hostess
- Johnny Knoxville
- Chris Wylde
- college guys
- Mandy Amano
- Carla Alaponte
- Stephanie Hodge
- Allison Ford
- Kathy Nowrey
- dancing girls in bar
- Michael Bay
- photographer
- Chip Chinery
- Nick Vallelonga
- cops
- Joseph Patrick Kelly
- Greg Collins
- Coyote Ugly bar patrons
- Stephen Snedden
- customer, fancy drinks
- Chris Soldevilla
- man ordering shots
- Joseph Bucaro III
- James T. Sale
- Finale Club drunks
- Heather Shannon Ryan
- sorority girl
- Biljana Filipovic
- bar fight girlfriend
- Tara Wilson
- Violet dance double
- Nancy Anderson
- Cammie dance double
- Angela Stover
- Rachel dance double
- Jessica Vallot
- Zoe dance double
- Laura Grady Peterson
- Violet body double
- Thekla Roth
- Cammie leg double
- Danielle Burgio
- Rachel fire leg double
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 9,070 feet
- 100 minutes 47 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- In Colour
- Prints by
- Technicolor
- 2.35:1 [Super 35]