Lunatics - Duell der Alpträume

Lunatics is a great example of how you can tell a sensitive, funny, crazy story with two basic sets. You can have not the millions of Spielberg, but you can make a good movie with a good story.

The day every time in Hollywood come back from nonsense to senses, they realize that is a guy named Josh Becker, the director of this movie. Becker's films are really clever, funny, and change something in you. I am his fan from that night some years ago when I see "Lunatics" in TV.

Then I did think he was some Sam Raimi sidekick, but NO. Becker is the original thing, he's real real, and love the cinema how nobody more in the world. If you is a wannabe of filmmaker go to his site and read his manifesto, "Dogma 2006". He's our great hope for better movies. Becker's better.

The epitome of a Sam Raimi film, this movie is not for everyone. If you don't like Raimi's film making, stay away, but if you do you're in for a treat. Ted Raimi does a fine job as a quasi-sane recluse who just wants to be loved, but still has some psychological issues to work out.

"Xena" star Ted Raimi (Sam's brother) plays Hank Stone, a formerly institutionalized mental case who (when off his medication) suffers from rather nasty hallucinations and has a phobia that he will be attacked if he ventures outside his apartment. Sort of "Repulsion" (1966) meets "The Secret Lives of Dentists" (2002). It is titled a romance and is inaccurately billed as a comedy.

When he is not dealing with the imaginary spiders creeping around it his brain, the rappers that appear when he plays music, the "hot" billboard girl who seduces him, and the mad doctors prodding him with needles; Hank finds the time to feel lonely and impulsively invites an unseen girl he has dialed on the phone to come up and see him sometime.

The girl turns out to be Nancy, a neurotic but squeaky-clean damsel in distress (she has p....d off a local street gang). Hank is extremely pleased when Nancy arrives (not surprising as she is played by Deborah Foreman-arguably the most beautiful of all the young Hollywood actresses of the 1980's). This was one of Foreman's last films, she wasn't getting quality stuff and had begun to fade a tiny bit physically; director Josh Becker unnecessarily compensates for this by limiting her extreme close-ups.

Hank and Nancy discover they share both an interest in poetry and a tendency to lash out violently at each other during moments of mental disturbance. But Hank's love for Nancy will inspire him to face his demons and venture into the world to save her.

Josh Becker wrote and directed the film, not Sam Raimi of "Evil Dead" fame. Raimi produced the film and Becker was one of his close associates, which may account for the confusion.

The low budget special effects are actually an asset as they give a unity to the expressionistic feel of the film; as does the wonky jazz score.

While some viewers really connect with this film, mainstream viewers will be either bored or irritated. Bored because this is a minimalist movie in which what little happens does so in an unconvincing manner and without a build-up of suspense or real tension.

Irritating because the story is structured wrong. It is supposed to be a romance yet the characters do not meet until minute 42 of the 87 minutes running length. They are only together on the screen for about 20% of the film. This also means that the story be told from two separate points of view, which distances the viewer and makes it necessary to expend a lot of energy achieving a strong identification with either character.

Nonetheless, there is a lot of originality here and the overall the viewing experience is a pleasant one.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Deborah Foreman has been dumped on the street by her boyfriend; she's a jinx. As she is about to be assaulted by a street gang, the telephone rings, and it's Ted Raimi, trying to call a help line; he hasn't left his apartment for six months because of his natural fear of giant spiders, extra-terrestrials, mad doctors, and of course, rappers. He invites her over, but the street gag is blocking her, so he puts on his superhero costume and sallies forth.

Josh Becker's movie is quite a clever little romantic comedy, that satirizes.... well, to be honest, I'm not sure what. Is Miss Foreman a jinx? Is Raimi insane? Apart from his delusions, I mean, and do their delusions include love at first sight? And just because you think the mad doctors are out there -- and the film maker cooperates by showing them to the audience -- what's a crippling insanity? It's a question that afflicts us currently, not just personally, but politically.

In any case, the performances are good, the camera work watchable, and I had a good time.

What a hoot! Sort of like watching a boring golf tournament on the first tee at Florida's TPC Sawgrass and then suddenly a herd of alligators come out of nowhere and you laugh your a$$ off as everyone in the tournament tramples over each other running away from the snapping alligator jaws.

Lunatics starts off weirdly (and that is usually what dark comedies do) with the two main characters Hank (Ted Raimi) and Nancy (Deborah Foreman) showing us that they are two losers with a capital "L" and just by chance the desperate Nancy picks up a ringing pay phone on a street corner only to hear Ted's desperate voice reaching out for a girl, "any girl" to come over to his place.

Much like a Woody Allen's romantic comedies, these two main characters Hank and Nancy get to know each other under very strange circumstances rather quickly and I am surprised that this 1991 film didn't end up being a trilogy of films as their characters and their acting were top notch.

Yes it is a dark comedy. And yes it is a really quirky story. But yet the film kept me entertained throughout and it ended so quickly that I wanted more of Hank and Nancy. I tried purchasing this film but it is not available in North America but I will put this film on my wish list and hope it is released in Blu Ray format soon.

I give it a funny and respectable 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.