The Grim Truth of NATURAL ENEMIES

Sometimes you don't want grim, you don't want utter, hopeless darkness, but sometimes you do, you're ready -- at last -- to take the plunge. For those times, there's Jeff Kanew's NATURAL ENEMIES starring the wonderful Hal Holbrook.

Made in '79, at the end of an era when films like this got major studio support, this is a (still) very timely piece about a family man (Holbrook) who tells us at the film's outset that he's going to kill his wife, kill his young children, and kill himself. "Every man thinks about killing his family at some time," he says, pretty much setting the tone for what's to come.

The events of the film take place over eight to ten hours. 

Holbrook, a magazine publisher in a marriage polluted by mental illness, fills his day lamenting -- in voice-over and with colleagues -- the rotten state of his marriage, his career, and a future he can't perceive as anything but terrible. From these laments and ruminations emerge existential vomit trails that no intelligent viewer could fail to relate to. In fact, the film does a knock-up good job of covering pretty much every dark corner of the human journey, and offers enough food for thought to fill the cranial belly.

Holbrook takes an afternoon detour into group sex and extracts some female perspectives from naked females before returning home to meet with a concerned wife (Louise Fletcher in top form) who's made a discovery that may or may not impact on her longevity. You'll have to watch the film to find out.

The film's tone, nihilistic narrative, and rigid, formalized compositions reminded me of Buddy Giovinazzo's COMBAT SHOCK, Richard Mahler aka Roger Watkin's MIDNIGHT HEAT (with Jamie Gillis), Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER, and Gasper Noe's I STAND ALONE.  The way the film presents a society that is becoming more and more aware of its own inevitable destruction is a great deal more honest than today's portraits of a world too busy tapping cell phone keyboards to know or care about greater issues. 

This is one powerful movie from the director of EDDIE MACON'S RUN,  REVENGE OF THE NERDS(!), TOUGH GUYS, and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL (TV series).

Based on a novel I must read by Julius Horwitz.

Thanks to Mark at Soiled Sinema for the recommendation.

The Theatre Bizarre

 The Theatre Bizarre is an ambitious showcase for the work of six directors, an anthology-style piece of cinema that borrows the structure of Amicus movies such as Tales From The Crypt, The Vault of Horror, The House That Dripped Blood, and Asylum. There is a traditional wrap-around segment from which the individual short films are launched, and this segment, in itself, is visually impressive. The British spelling of 'Theatre' in the title is indicative perhaps of the British background of the film's originating producers.

 The film was made for a very small budget and is a terrific example of what can be done with love, passion, sacrifice and commitment. The feel of the introductory segment is Grand Guignol-inspired, but the six films themselves don't necessarily adhere to that theme, and better represent the individual, unfettered dreams of directors Richard Stanley (The Mother of Toads), Buddy Giovinazzo (I Love You), Tom Savini (Wet Dreams), Douglas Buck (The Accident), Karim Hussain (Vision Stains), and David Gregory (Sweets).

 What you, as a viewer, will take from the film will depend on where your tastes lie as far as horror goes. Stanley's segment, which references Bava, Argento, Fulci, and Warren publications, is a Lovecraftian journey into witchery set in a foggy, visually stunning section of rural France. Lacking structure, it even feels like some of Fulci's more puzzling works. Giovinazzo's I Love You, set in a Berlin apartment, is an intimate essay on the disintegration of a relationship that ends as you would expect a Giovinazzo movie to end. Referencing Zulawski's Possession (at least tonally), its greatest asset is its strong cast of two. Wet Dreams, directed by Tom Savini, delivers a tasty feast of gore, sex, and sleaze. A cheating husband pays for his deeds with foul, paranoid dreams. Without a doubt, this story is in closest proximity to the spirit of the old EC-inspired anthologies. The Accident, by Douglas buck, opens with images that echoed, for me, Agnes Varda's Vagabond. Probably the most deeply disturbing of the offerings, it plays and feels like European arthouse horror, and involves an accident that affects a mother and daughter.

 Director Karim Hussein, who also shot Stanley's Toads, serves up Vision Stains, a pleasingly subversive and wet entry with a strong premise that, unfortunately, is not as well explored dramatically as it could have been. Some additional writing might have helped. Still, it's visually invigorating, and the lead performance is strong. Finally, David Gregory (also one of the anthology's producers), follows up with Sweets, his first directorial effort since Plague Town. Of the bunch, this was the most outright entertaining for me, and its subject of extreme gluttony had me squirming. Reveling in a cinematic form of Grand Gastronomic Guignol, it consciously or unconsciously references the surreal excesses of Marco Ferreri's La Grande Bouffe with its lurid tale of a  young couple and their sweet tooth. As its focus is a familiar subject, the "relate" factor to its putrid, vomitous horror is high.

Anthologies directed by one person (Creepshow, for example) are difficult to rate because success is based on the effectiveness of multiple stories, not one. Anthologies directed by six directors, such as this, are an even more difficult proposition. The Theatre Bizarre is an appropriate title because each tale is bizarre, and the theatre serves as a gallery for the exhibition of multiple genre efforts with very loose thematic connections. Also worth mentioning is the fine atmosphere and strangeness director Jeremy Kasten achieves with his wraparound segment in which a young woman is drawn to a strange theatre filled with mannequins, odd machinery, and Udo Kier. I couldn't help thinking that there is a story about this theatre and its inhabitants somewhere.

Not as consistently Grand Guignol as the title suggests, this unusual anthology is, nevertheless, well worth the admission price.

A DVD (from Image) with excellent commentaries on most segments and some brief behind-the-scenes snippets is now available. Unfortunately, Image didn't deem the film worthy of a BluRay release. Hopefully, they'll get a clue and address that error in judgment.

The Scariest Film of the Year

The trailer for Precious, a drama about a fat, black schoolgirl, pregnant for the second time, living in Hell with her braindead mother, sells the film short. I had to drag myself to see it because the trailer turned me right off. It was so well-meaning and self-important and Oscar-baiting that I wanted to burn the theater down.

Check out the full title: Precious - Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Get the fuck out of here, right?! That was my first thought. Why that title? Why not go further and include a synopsis as part of the title, too? Or better, add complimentary adjectives about the flick.

Try this: The Amazing Precious - The Heart-Rending Motion Picture About the Mountainous, Knocked-Up Black Chick Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, the Black Chick Herself.

Does that do it for ya?

I'm sure you'll understand why I was driving around theaters to avoid this in its first week. Then, because I'm curious and because Paula Patton is hot, I decided to take the plunge.

It didn't help matters that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry's names were on the credit roll. I've seen two Perry films and I never want to see another Perry flick again. As for Oprah, I didn't figure her for a producer of anything but warmed-over cinematic milk. Then again, that view is unfair to Winfrey because she did produce Jonathan Demme's powerful, dark, and confronting Beloved in '98. I guess we're so saturated with Winfrey's talkshow image that anything contrary fails to penetrate the prejudice.

Perhaps I should have been thinking of Beloved instead of The Color Purple when the Precious trailer was doing its rounds; Bastard Out of Carolina wouldn't have been far off the mark, either.

What I wasn't prepared for was a drama that has more in common with Buddy Giovinazzo than a talkshow host turned producer. I kid you not. This is one damn fine drama with a dark, dark heart and a consistency of vision. It's depiction of a black family of degenerates is uncompromising, and some of its grittier revelations floored me.

Gabby Sidibe (who is amazing) plays the illiterate teenager Precious. Though she takes some getting used to when she first appears on-screen, her spot-on portrayal of the character quickly fleshes her out (pardon the unintended pun). We learn that Precious has been impregnated by her stepfather for the second time. Her mother Mary, played by the combustible Mo'Ninique, is cool with the pregnancy, and is unsympathetic to the rape Precious endured. Abandoned by her partner, Mary spends most of her time beating Precious and destroying her self esteem with words and fists.

Suspecting foul play at home, Precious's teacher (Paula Patton) takes an interest in her well-being and encourages her to transfer to a school for socially disadvantaged slow learners. Despite her mother's protests, Precious begins a frightening journey that ends up ripping her world and the world of her mother apart.

In synopsis, I know it sounds like typical Oprah material, but, in execution, the events of this film are as graphic as any Buddy Giovinazzo film -- or an early Hughes Bros. flick like Menace II Society.

Details of Precious's abuse at the hands of her stepfather are surprising for a mainstream release. When questioned about sexual abuse by a social worker played with grim determination by Mariah Carey (who is virtually unrecognizable)...

... Mary recounts how when she would have sex with her lover, he would drag the baby Precious into bed with them and fondle her as an appetizer. She also describes how the same man would steal the milk from her nipples after Precious was born, depriving the child of sustenance. A flashback of the underaged Precious being raped is intense and disturbing, and reminded me (visually) of the dog scenes in Spike Lee's Summer of Sam (my favorite film of his). Mo'Nique's portrayal of Precious's mother is incredible and ranks right up there with great screen debuts such as Angela Bassett's bombastic bitch mother in Boys 'N' The Hood.

Director Lee Daniels sticks to the meat of the plot, keeping things visually and aurally interesting without overstylizing the details. Precious's penchant for daydreaming while being threatened or beaten is skilfully realized with a series of dream-like sequences.

Does the film finally collapse into cliche? No. I loved the ending. It's not what you expect at all.

Precious is being sold as something far less than what it is. Reviews have been positive, though, so perhaps it'll get seen.

Screw the horror remakes. This is the scariest film of the year.

A reader below (Mike Smith) has pointed out that Winfrey and Perry only came aboard the film after it was finished in support and distribution capacities respectively.

Cracktown Not So Hot

It really pains me to say this, because I love the work of Buddy Giovinazzo, but I didn't find much too much to like in his new film Life Is Hot In Cracktown.

Settling in for the screening at Laemmle's Sunset 5

Written by Giovinazzo, it is based on a collection of short stories he wrote under the same title. The original stories were set in New York.

In the film, the setting is now Los Angeles, and we follow four groups of people whose lives have been impacted by the shitty economy, drugs, bad choices, and dysfunctional family structures. We see the cycles being repeated, and we see more bad thrown after bad. The picture Giovinazzo paints is grim, but not entirely hopeless.

Shannyn Sossamon

The director's great talent is his ability to tune in on life at its lowest ebb and make it compelling. In his previous films, he has demonstrated great sympathy for the fallen, the beaten, the abused and the flailing. These qualities are present in Cracktown. Unfortunately, the material has a too familiar ring. If you've seen Menace II Society, Keane, Juice, and Last Exit To Brooklyn, you've seen Cracktown.

There are a couple of very tense sequences involving a junkie who pulls a gun twice on a store clerk, and Giovinazzo uses drone-like scoring to great effect at times, but the good stuff is washed away by the stuff you've seen before.

Victor Rusak

Giovinazzo's Combat Shock, a study of a forgotten veteran's hellish existence back in America after Vietnam, seared my brain because it took, once again, a familiar premise, but stood it on its head with a subplot about a mutant baby, a quest for a job, and a tragic father-son relationship. Its power was its singular, unrelenting focus and audacious desire to penetrate the most sensitive of flesh.

The director's Maniac 2 - Mr. Robbie, a short subject, took the William Lustig original and totally upended i. It made its killer the host of a children's TV show whose mission was to kill parents who were abusing their children.

Both films, as well as No Way Home, possessed enormous power. Cracktown lacks that power. Perhaps it's because Giovinazzo is intercutting between four different stories, possibly diluting each one. Unlike Crash and The Dead Girl, the stories here don't intersect. They share a common milieu, but they're not moving towards an inevitable collision. To be fair, they do all reach climactic moments that are cut in parallel, but there is no sense of one resonating with another.

Kerry Washington delivers a strong performance as a pre-op tranny.

Some of Cracktown's visual gimmicks seem out of kilter with the subject. There are frequent jump cuts that rub against the emotional build of the material. Some of the music cues feel like they've been dropped on top of scenes. They don't emerge organically from the personal gristle.

Vondie Curtis Hall strikes again!

A final point is the lack of explicit content in this cut of the film. The director is notorious for his uncompromising set pieces and refusal to turn away from the grotesque. The result of a backyard abortion is shown, but it is short, dark, and a bit of a throwaway in terms of its relevance. Several shootings are off-screen or suggested. If the content wasn't so familiar, the lack of visceral imagery wouldn't really matter. But because the content isn't fresh enough to resonate, the more bashful depictions of violence and tragedy further dilute the overall impact.

The very believable Evan Ross.

The performances are pretty solid all 'round. Fifteen year old Ridge Canipe, who was probably thirteen or fourteen at the time of the shoot, is terrific as 'Willy', a resourceful young boy whose unemployed, strung out parents leave him constantly to protect his little sister.

Ridge Canipe

Canipe has a natural, electric presence. Desmond Harrington makes a forceful impact as the junkie boyfriend of pre-op tranny Kerry Washington (another strong turn). The scene in which he accepts that she will leave him is beautifully performed and written. Other standout perfs are Vondie Curtis Hall, who is always great, Shannyn Sossamon (as a weary but strong wife and mother), Evan Ross as a scary, ambitious gang member...

Edoardo Bellerini

Edoardo Bellerini as a sinking patriarch...

...and Victor Rasuk (pictured firing gun above).

I really wanted to love this. I wanted to get on here and write about how amazing it is.

I was disappointed. Perhaps Giovinazzo set the bar too high for me with his previous work.

No problem. I look forward to his next film.

I was still there when the final credits rolled.

Kudos to Lightning Media for giving Life Is Hot in Cracktown a small theatrical run.

Their website is at:
http://media.lightning-ent.com/index_new

I blogged about Cracktown's talented director here also:
http://phantomofpulp.blogspot.com/search?q=buddy+giovinazzo

Buddy Giovinazzo's New Film Is Imminent

Finally, Buddy Giovinazzo's Life Is Hot in Cracktown has a US theatrical release date courtesy of LA-based Lightning Media.

I am a big admirer of this original and innovative director.

His Combat Shock, No Way Home, and Maniac 2 - Mr. Robbie are stellar examples of dark, compelling cinema. His The Unscarred is not too shabby, either.

My imdb review of Combat Shock ('86) went thus:

Originally titled American Nightmare and released by Troma in the States, this is a grim, depressing, heartfelt portrait of one Vietnam vet's rage. Unemployed, penniless, and father of a deformed infant (possibly the result of Agent Orange spraying), leading man Frankie (Rick Giovinazzo) walks the streets of New Jersey like a shambling corpse and encounters various miscreants as troubled as himself. Harassed by his fat, complaining wife (a great performance from Veronica Stork), chased by thugs he owes money to, and threatened with eviction from an apartment that looks like it should have been razed a decade ago, Frankie finally snaps and begins a campaign to erase his problems forever.

Giovinazzo's triumph is his believable creation of a bleak, hopeless, fascinating world, a world that eats its weak, neglects its old, and turns its back on its history. New Jersey, as seen through the lens of cinematographer Stella Varveris, is a metaphor for the rot in America's soul, a wasteland of trodden-on ambitions, poisoned dreams found in needles, and lingering death and disease.

The film employs Vietnam war footage, brutal recreations of Frankie's tour of duty and a pulsing, disturbing, electronic score by lead actor Rick Giovinazzo. The film's low budget enhances the grim subject matter and the stark interior lighting never allows the poverty to be romanticized.

The performances are all excellent and one sequence, where Frankie calls his broke father for a favor, is shattering on so many levels.

Combat Shock is a very powerful, amazing achievement.

Maniac 2 - Mr. Robbie ('89):

The bleak world view that Buddy Giovinazzo brings to every one of his films is why this "sequel" to William Lustig's Maniac ('80) is so damn rich. It's only short, but Giovinazzo and star Joe Spinnell create real magic from a premise that could have easily sustained a full feature -- TV host Mr. Robbie receives cries of help from abused children in the form of letters he reads on air. In his spare time, his visits the abusers of these children and murders them.

The letters from children that Robbie reads on air are voiced (cleverly) by talented adult actors, and are truly moving and painful to hear. Robbie's own history as a victim is economically conveyed and Spinnell, looking terribly ill (which he was at the time), is totally believable as Robbie.

This is like a shortened feature, a half dozen scenes in search of a financier. Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie never did become a feature, and it's a great pity because the material is so potent and adroitly handled by Giovinazzo, New Jersey's Dark Prince of Human Decay.

The violence is gloriously revolting and the film's sound design is a real asset. Shot in grotty greens and blues and boasting garish, deliberately ugly surfaces, this unofficial follow-up to the 1981 original has a stronger premise than its predecessor ("Jaws on Land") and would have made a better film.

Consistently dark and creative.

Go here to experience it: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1519911193/

No Way Home ('96)

With the exception of The Unscarred, this is Buddy Giovinazzo's most technically accomplished piece. It does share thematic similarities with Combat Shock, but it is a solid character drama that would not be out of place on a double bill with the Australian The Boys. Being a Giovinazzo flick, it's about deeply flawed characters living in a personal hell. They see no way out of their situation and are too emotionally paralyzed to act.

Deborah Kara Unger, who is a dynamite actress (and seriously sensual), is terrific as Lorraine, the girlfriend of James Russo's Tommy. Tim Roth plays Joey, who has just been released from jail and relies on his brother's goodwill to provide him with a roof and bed until he gets his act together. Complications arise when local criminal elements encroach on Joey's rehabilitation.

The plot is nothing new and hardly worth a mention. The drama's the thing here and it burns like a bolt of lightning once the the film's niceties are out of the way. Russo, who was also in The Unscarred, is hard as nails and scarily convincing as Tommy. Roth never disappoints, unless the script's not there, and in this venture he makes us feel his pain.

Another vacation in hell, with a great score, from one of cinema's darkest contemporary directors who is as seriously underrated as Ferrarra is seriously overrated.

The Unscarred ('99):

Buddy Giovinazzo is a consistently interesting filmmaker. Combat Shock and No Way Home are my favorite Buddy films, and his short Maniac 2 - Mr. Robbie is very good also, but The Unscarred is a more mainstream film and certainly the director's most technically polished.

It boasts so many twists and turns that anything but a basic plot synopsis would do it damage. James Russo, a resident of New Jersey, is seriously in debt. When he is invited to come to Berlin by old friends, he accepts the offer.

Giovinazzo is adept at depicting violent, visceral scenes. He isn't shy of blood and he doesn't neglect the emotions behind violence, either. This film's bloody set pieces are handsomely shot and the performances are strong. The beautiful Ornella Muti (the unforgettable female star of Tales of Ordinary Madness) is still gorgeous in this outing, though her delivery of the English dialogue is a little stilted.

A weak section of the narrative sees Russo irrationally instigating a short police chase. Clearly an example of something not carefully thought through, it is one of the few missteps in this otherwise effective suspense drama.

There are too many gratuitous travelogue shots of Berlin, probably a concession to the film's co-financiers.

The Giovinazzo novel on which Cracktown is based

I have been aching to see Life Is Hot in Cracktown since the movie's production was announced. I enjoyed Buddy's ultra-grim, powerful novel immensely so am confident the film will be a powerhouse.

Life is Hot in Cracktown will open for a one week engagement on the 26th of June, 09, at Laemmle's Sunset 5, which is at 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 90046.

Why only a one week engagement? Variety of possible reasons.

Lightning Media has the film for theatrical and video, so this one weeker is probably honoring their commitment to the producers to provide a theatrical release. A theatrical also guarantees (usually) a higher cable TV premium and greater video/streaming/on-line exposure.

I'm not surprised that the film isn't going wide, although I thought it would go wider than this.

Perhaps it will.

Often, distributors test their movies' strength by unspooling at theaters like the Sunset 5.

Because I no longer live in LA, I will still happily drive the 50 miles each way to see Life Is Hot in Cracktown.

A scene featuring actress/Exec Producer Melissa Wilfley is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap2bwy6j0Ws&feature=related

...and here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eOC3kTBnjs&feature=channel_page

Director Giovanazzo currently lives in Berlin and has been directing gritty crime thrillers for TV.

When I reviewed his The Unscarred on imdb a couple of years ago, he contacted me to ask me where I'd gotten a DVD. I told him that I'd fished it out of a discount bin at an Aussie supermarket for the amazing price of $3. Buddy assured me that the copy I'd bought was a pirate copy because the film hadn't been licensed to any Australian distributor at that time.

Buddy is one of the very few truly original, consistent, exciting filmmakers of dark material. Abel Ferrara is a member of the same club, but I find his films wildly inconsistent. Most of his recent ones bore me. Not so Buddy Giovinazzo.

I'm counting down the days until I see this film, and will scribble a full review when I do.

This is a filmmaker who has found has found greater appreciation outside the US.