Admittedly, "Cry-Baby" is a very silly movie, and that silliness may not
appeal to everyone. I for one found myself consistently bored by the
campy goings-on, and found little to like about delinquent greaser
'Cry-Baby' (Johnny Depp) and his redneck family, when the movie insists
we cheer on their successes and 'gee-whiz' at their failures.
It's 1960's Baltimore, and prim, perfect Allison (Amy Locane) has it all- social status, wealth, and a dapper boyfriend (Stephen Mailer.) But, gee, the 'Drapes' from the wrong side of the tracks seem to be having more fun, and Allison is doomed to be a 'Square,' destined for a life of courteousness and decency. Or is she?
Everything changes when Allison meets Wade 'Cry-Baby' Walker (Depp,) a singing, dancing, rocking Drape bad boy who wins her heart. But a series of rivalries and misunderstandings strive to keep Cry-Baby and Allison apart. There will be a lot of music and a lot of fights before a customary happy ending, and for me they couldn't get there fast enough.
Ralph Bakshi's innovative post-apocalyptic vision of ruin and technological warfare is not for the kiddies, despite the PG rating. Instead, it offers creative hand drawn animation and food for thought for adults and teenagers who might find it's content a springboard for discussion.
Thousands of years after nuclear war, most of mankind has transformed into disgusting dribbling mutants. Meanwhile, the ancestors of the earth have come to stay- fairies, dwarves, elves, and the like. One night, a fairy woman gives birth to twins; one, Avatar standing for all that is gentle and good, the other, Blackwolf, representing evil and corruption.
After growing up and defeating Blackwolf (voiced by Steve Gravers) once in battle, Avatar (voiced by Bob Holt) retreats to live a life of access with his female companion Elinore (voiced by Jesse Welles.) Meanwhile, the evil Blackwolf lingers underground and plans his revenge, using Nazi Germany and Hitler as his inspiration for a reign of terror.
"The Forbidden Zone" takes place in a world entirely unlike our own. From the bizarre recreation of California to the freaky-deaky "Forbidden Zone" of the title, nothing looks the way it should look and none of the characters act the way a normal person would act under any given circumstances.
This is absolutely one of the weirdest movies I have seen in my life. If this intrigues you, this may be the movie for you. If not, maybe not. This bizarre surrealist musical follows Susan B. "Frenchy" Hercules (Marie-Pascale Elfman), a Californian with a pretentious French accent, who passes through a door in her parents' basement to the "Sixth Dimension" a bizarre world ruled by a jealous queen (Susan Tyrrell) and amorous dwarf king (Hervé Villechaize,)
Frenchy quite willingly becomes the dwarf's sex slave, but the queen, Doris, becomes determined to destroy her. Meanwhile, Frenchy's dunderhead brother Flash and Grandpa enter the Sixth Dimension, hoping to rescue her.
Buddy Boy, Mark Hanlon's debut, is a haunting and potent film about dead end lives that provokes more questions than answers but remains bizarrely interesting throughout.
The film provides a look into the surrealistic existence of emotionally stunted, stuttering misfit Francis (Aidan Gillen), who lives with his trollish invalid stepmother (actual amputee Susan Tyrell), in a squalid apartment.
Suffering from overwhelming guilt concerning his sexuality, his religion, and himself, he goes to confession monthly, admitting every impure thought and indiscretion.
The contrast between faith and the id is revealed in the opening, which presents the viewer with a montage of religious imagery followed by Francis, uh... pleasuring himself to a pair of voluptuous breasts in a magazine.
Allegedly, it took director John Albo six years to distribute this pseudo-art film to the public. He should have waited longer. Or better yet, not distributed it at all. Flexing With Monty is an unappealing, unlikable, incomprehensible, badly written mess. It's not the acting that's the problem. The actors try their best (Rudi Davis being the weakest) but are weighed down by a bad script. Very little of the dialogue seems like something anyone in the real world would say.
Stylized dialogue can be an asset -- it can be witty and smart (Juno) or deliberately enigmatic and formal (The Living and the Dead, an art film which I loved, by the way.) The dialogue in Flexing With Monty is stiff, pretentious, overly sexual-minded, self-indulgently perverse, and shocking for the sake of being shocking. There are several characters in this movie, and I didn't like any of them, and that includes the masturbating guy in the cage, the tattooed nun, and the cockatoo.
Monty is the center of this film, and as nasty and unlikable a character as you can come across. Monty, played by the deceased Trevor Goddard, is a misogynistic, hateful bodybuilder who works out constantly but who's mind is dull and doltish. His brother Bertin (Rudi Davis), who is described as "sensitive, gay, and intellectual" by reviewers, seems like a character I would like, but he isn't. He's nearly as obnoxious as Monty. And I'm not entirely sure he's gay, as he harbors incestuous fantasies about his birth mother.
The movie is full of incestuous overtones. Monty and Bertin show inappropriate impulses towards each other, their one-eyed grandmother gave them (naked) rubdowns, and when Bertin finally discovers the identity of his birth mother, a make-out session commences. I'm no fan of Harmony Korine, but the similarly incestuously themed Julien Donkey-Boy was way better than this. Bertin purchases an "exotic animal," which turns out to be an Aborigine man who wanks, makes moaning sounds, and, in one scene, sings harmoniously. His part in the story is never explained. Why would it? He's there to enhance the cultish quality movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show strive for.
A nun appears on the scene. She is collecting money to stop a nuclear holocaust, and Monty tells her to piss off. But the nun keeps coming back, insisting on seeing the brothers. "What is the connection between them?" the movie wants us to ask. Do we even care? A prostitute is mysteriously sent to the house, and she and Monty engage in some role-play (in which bear-rape comes to the table). In one scene, Monty bangs an inflatable doll while watching a slide show of himself flexing (one of the few witty parts, as it shows him in all his masturbatory grandiosity.) Bertin and Monty fight and engage in weird sexual tension. Not much happens, and what does happen is in equal parts bewildering and inexplicable.
There are some attempts at controversy, such as the knitting-needle abortion dream sequence and Monty's brutal attack on the gay man, but they seem kind of silly compared to movies like Audition. Another problem is the soundtrack -- the music turns on and off as it pleases and has no sense of dramatic tension. Someone online described it as a satire of American Values (not a direct quote), but even as a film that pokes fun at Americans, which never gets old for some people, it's a dreadful mess of a movie that should not be watched under any circumstances.
