Somewhere in the back of my brain, I knew this movie was originally a book. I'm not so sure I have the courage to read it though after this viewing experience. Let's check out the classic story:
Oh god.
I really had no idea what I was getting into with this one. But based on what little information I did take a peek at, I was pretty confident that I was going to get sucked down some sort of David Lynchian madness, mixed with a healthy dose of emotional chaos, and a hearty meal of existential dread.
Guess what?
I Was Right!
I'm never fully prepared for these experiences, however. This one is no exception.
Opening with an eerily familiar
Mulholland Drive vibe, where folks are arriving to LA to find their fame, we are greeted with a cast of characters that only rivals the cast of characters I have an uncanny knack to find when I leave my house. This is all to say: very interesting, curiously comedic, and often tragic.
It's 1930's Hollywood and the hustle for the lime light is real. "Spoiler alert" but to no one's surprise - things don't go well for our little cast of characters...
This entire film is chaos, heartbreak, the celebration and horror of our collective delusions about life/ourselves/our dreams, and rubbernecking consumption of our failures. A real charmer, this film.
I was quite impressed with the tiny little nods to prior LA tragedies, legends, etc. For example, when some of the folks take a tour by the Hollywood sign, the tour guide talks about a woman who jumped to her death from the sign. I knew immediately they were talking about the tragic case of
Peg. Entwistle.
And when they went to a church sermon - as soon as the woman started shouting and preaching from the stage, asking for money - they were in the company of the controversial (and in my opinion, cult leader)
Sister Aimee.
Countless other Easter eggs too, no doubt, but I didn't catch all of them. There is A Lot going on in this stylish, memorizing, and fantastically well made film.
While this film is bleak, odd, morbidly funny, and just downright shocking in many ways, what really gave me chills was realizing what happened to the author of this story.
Nathanael West, while not well known at the time, produced profound works observing our absurd life landscapes. Particularly the shadows of tinsel town. Arguably, a poet for piercing social commentary.
So yeah, while the entire film (which doesn't *exactly* have a plot) gave me chills, it's knowing that this author - who was friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald (there's an irony there I can't quite place) - when he got word of Fitzgerald's sudden death, him and his wife raced in their car back to LA from Mexico for his funeral.
And it's on that trip where both passed away in a car accident. One day after Fitzgerald's death. This news gave me quite a shiver down the spine.
Okay, to wrap up, if the chaos and horror of the ending of the film
mother! gave you all the nightmares then tread carefully with the ending of this film. It's.... something else. It took me all the way to the end of this movie to realize what this film was
actually about, though....
So there you have it, folks. Best watched with your most unstable friend. Pairs with alcohol, ice cream, a really fancy charcuterie board. (preferably with flies buzzing around).
I rented this film from
Scarecrow Video or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this film that will absolutely haunt my head for the rest of my days.
