Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 33/52 | Crown International
A woman walks the streets at night, back to her car. An LAPD police car sits hidden in the shadows, Sergeants Fontain and Buckhold keeping lookout. The woman takes off her fur coat to put it in her trunk, revealing a police wire running up her back. An ice pick stabs through her throat. The police officers hear her choking on the wire. The police arrive to find Charlie, the undercover cop, his blonde wig removed, the ice pick still in his neck.
Adrian arrives back home from a run and sees the headlines about the serial murders. He jumps in his sports car and races into the city to see his shrink, Dr. Curtis. Adrian has been having dreams that worry him. Also, his encounters with women are horrifying, as demonstrated by his encounter with Mindy, where he follows her to her car, begging her to have dinner with him. Inexplicably, Mindy not only relents but appears to enjoy the harassment despite her repeated nos and go-aways.
We get some b-plot — Adrian’s brother, B.J., drives a car or something; the police chief reams Fontain and Buckhold for getting Charlie killed; Adrian’s date with Mindy is a smash hit. Adrian has another one of those dreams: he’s doing a photoshoot with a swimsuit model who can’t swim, and he drowns her. He confesses his dreams to B.J., who tells him there’s nothing wrong with him. But Adrian is having trouble telling the difference between what’s real and what’s not.
The film follows Adrian and the police officers as the murders stack up. Is Adrian the killer? Or is it his brother? Like, it’s obviously his brother, right?
The movie starts off feeling like it’s following a rigid formula, but the script is so clunky. Things get muddier as we suddenly see Adrian with different women at random times of day. In some ways, I appreciate the blurring of dream and reality and the feeling of being a little lost. When it feels like the movie is clearing things up for the audience, it turns out to be a dream.
The score is doing a ton of work to remind us how we’re supposed to interpret each scene. Like, the first dream we see isn’t clear that Adrian has any ill will at all, but the music is ominous long before the scene gives us any hints as to why.
Also, I can’t tell if I’m supposed to find Adrian endearing at any point in the movie. We see his creepy behavior get him a date, and the movie seems to suggest he’s a romantic. Then, he’s misogynistic and exploitative to the models he works with — are we supposed to laugh? Or are we seeing into his fucked up psyche? The music is notably absent from these moments. Still, Michael Callan’s intense performance is pretty entertaining.
I wish the movie’s nonsense added up to a better final product, but it loses its intrigue once everything is revealed. Still, I can’t knock a film that kept me this engaged.
Stray Thoughts / Spoilers
- The Six Million Dollar Man-esque opening credits are trippy. Like, it’s supposed to suggest double exposure, but it just comes out blurry.
- Because we need to fill some screen time, we watch Adrian take pictures of a car racing around for nearly 2 minutes.
- Adrian’s brother, B.J., is incredibly homophobic.
- Clevon Little is doing the best rendition of a hothead police chief.
- Adrian’s first date idea is drinking wine in an abandoned parking lot? Mindy loves it, though, poor thing.
- Why is Mindy sitting on one of the nursing home residents’ laps?
- “You gonna give me a neck massage?” the sex worker says in the alley to the man she just met, who hasn’t given her a dollar yet.
- SO MANY ex-wife jokes.
- The “snake in a trash bag” kill is outrageous.
- Joanna Pettet reminds me of Jenna Maroney from 30 Rock.
- Seeing a shrink is tantamount to murder.