U-Turn

We've been down this road before (most notably with Red Rock West): A drifter (Sean Penn) is stranded in a remote desert town. A scumbag (Nick Nolte doing a mean Gary Busey) offers him money to kill his seductive wife (Jennifer Lopez). She, in turn, offers the drifter money to kill the abusive husband. Throw in a blind Native American (an unrecognizable Jon Voight) and his dead dog, the local Lolita (Claire Danes) and her pathologically jealous boyfriend (Joaquin Phoenix), a sheriff (Powers Boothe) with a surprising family tree and a grunge-crusted mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton) and you can sympathize with the drifter's query: "Is everybody crazy in this crazy town? That signpost may say Superior, Arizona, but the gratuitous stylistic excesses indicate that we are in Oliver Stone country. Optional. (K. Lee Benson)