This movie just kinda broke the DMR. I can usually do a review in a couple revisions. This one’s past the fourth rewrite. Beer does not seem to help the situation. It doesn’t help the poster for this film is on a wall of my house downstairs, where A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now hang nearby. I haven’t revisited this one in decades. It was a rough watch. I was a very different person when I saw this almost 30 years ago on the big screen. It had all the cool elements working for it. Interesting accomplished director Stone at the helm. Based on a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino (though revised to the point it basically wasn’t his anymore), soundtrack compiled by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and some interesting actor choices. Is this going to be one of those reviews that are like a recipe article that are 8/9th about how the recipe has such an interesting story and personal anecdotes only to finally tell you the fucking recipe in the last 1/9th? Yeah, it’s one of those, so strap in.
I tried to stay away from fucked up movies for a bit, but dammitall, here we go again. Is it just a movie about some serial killers, or mass murderers, as they technically are? Or more a look at the culture at that time, and the effects it was having on society. It’s an interesting perspective to remember seeing this film when first released and thinkin it was cool and shit. Now, to see it more as a snapshot of things to come, and it ain’t pretty. Dammit, Oliver Stone. You’re still kinda whacked, but you don’t lie with the lens. It may be distorted a bit, but, eh, horse-shoe and hand grenade rules, it’s Close Enough.
The plot revolves around the love story of Mickey and Mallory Knox, and the havoc upon society which that wreaks. It’s pandemonium. Lots of people die (mostly offscreen, but a lot of grisly ones shown too), but, you know, they love each other. Rodney Dangerfield makes a helluva appearance here as Mallory’s father. Just because there’s a laughtrack, doesn’t mean it’s funny. Fuckin dark shit there. Asshole Creep Cop Scagnetti who may be a psychopath, go figure. Prison Warden McClusky, who is a delusional authoritarian. And egotistical TV Personality Wayne Gale (Robert Downy Jr. with an Australian accent, making him even more ridiculous, chasin the leads for fame and fortune and maybe a hot pepper up his ass. Maybe somebody else’s ass, but that’s inconsequential). They are all a part of the show, the warped media perspective and how it portrays the news, how it shapes the narrative. Fans love Mickey and Mallory. But, you know, the killers thing. Strange to make that popular, to put on a pedestal.
While chaotic and ugly in themes and broken characters, the style it’s presented in helps reflect that frenetic horror, a product of the culture of the times. Oh, the mid 90s, so quaint. This was kind of the last old-school media snapshot as the MTV generation threw up its last hurrah to die a mediocre death in the wrappings of reality TV, and the internet was still just an alien egg waiting to burst forth and wrap itself around society’s face. Ah, good times.
This ended up being a lot heavier of a movie to dive into than I anticipated. I knew there were some twisted plot points but this one hit me sideways, not quite sure why. You don’t just casually stroll into something like Requeim for a Dream or Irreversible. This one isn’t quite that bad, but the flashy facade is cunning, sidling up to you with a grin and then shivs you in the liver just because it can. I have a feeling the current social, political and global environment has something to do with this feeling. Probably doesn’t help that the non linear editing of the story hides a script that probably could’ve used a few more revisions itself.
Ultimately, the movie itself is a pretty scathing look at the media apparatus and, well, some fucked up prison situations. It’s Chaos.
