A heavy, but engrossing film about a journalist working on a book about serial killers, who decides to visit infamous murder sites in order to better understand the nature and roots of violence.
David Duchovny is on form as the obsessed author whilst the highly underrated Michelle Forbes plays his photographer girlfriend, Brad Pitt (excellent, as the uncouth redneck serial killer) and Juliette Lewis (doing the ‘white trash’ routine again) join them to spilt the costs on a surreal road trip that soon turns bad, when psycho Brad decides to give yuppie couple David & Michelle an extreme intro into the grim world they’re researching.
‘Kalifornia’ went unnoticed back in 93, and was overshadowed by the infantile, tripped out absurdity of ‘Natural Born Killers’ a year later, this movie is far superior to ‘NBK’ in almost every way imaginable. An above average, slow burn thriller which isn’t afraid to take risks or challenge our perceptions, and though I could never quite grasp the notion that an upper middle class couple didn’t have the gas money needed to go on a road trip, this is still an excellent film and defiantly worth seeing.
Brad Pitt proves himself as a serious actor, Michelle Forbes is simply stunning in her icy aloofness whilst director Dominic Sena is the one who surprised me the most, after making his debut with this dark, rathur complex thriller, chose to go back to directing music videos only to return with glossy action flicks 'Gone in 60 Seconds’ and ‘Swordfish’.Strange.
Posted by MotleyRulz (Member # 3598) on :
This was an awesome movie! I saw it in NY during spring break while visiting my college roomy. I agree that it was better than NBK and very much overlooked. It also brought the phrase "I gotta see a man bouta mule" to the limelight...
Posted by Kash (Member # 297) on :
Its been a while since I've seen this, may have to to dust off the old VHS and watch it again.
Posted by Muffy Tepperman (Member # 1551) on :
I so have a old VHS of this one.
Duchovny at his yuppieness.......and Brad Pitt at his whitetrashiness.
I watched it a little while back again and I don't know it lost it's greatness for me. It just seemed to run slow towards the middle and end.
I love the use of Sheryl Crow's "No One Said it would be Easy"..........'it's obvious the trouble we're in...'
Posted by pettyfan (Member # 2260) on :
Good movie. I watched it again this past summer, it was on the Movie Channel or Showtime...one of the two. Juliette Lewis's character was so....dumb, I guess I should say. You had to kinda feel sorry for her, though.
