Mad Cowgirl

This movie really stands out from all the rest that screened in San Francisco. Enough buzz to gain a special third screening! My husband and I were stunned when we saw it.

It's was such a refreshing experience! It totally shakes your mind as the movie leads to more sweet madness and hilarious absurdity for Therese (played with such bravery by Sarah Lassez). And, despite its novelty, it's a well-acted and, surprisingly, dramatically-driven movie, too! When we thought it was all over, the last part of the movie totally pays off!

Whether it's a statement of our current socio-political culture or our fascination of all things entertainment, it's just riveting. A food for thought, perhaps? One thing for sure, this movie totally rocks!

In MAD COWGIRL, a kung fu-loving, incestuous, preacher-dating meat inspector named Therese (Sarah Lassez) goes on a long descent into madness, when it clicks in her head that she's TV's "Girl With The Thunderbolt Kick". On a mission to destroy her enemies, bloody horror erupts. Sort of.

In a weird, convoluted way. This could / should have been a classic. Disturbingly, it grinds on forever, going nowhere, causing actual CJD (the human variant of Mad Cow Disease) in the viewer. Watching the entire movie unfold, one can feel the holes developing in the brain. This mind-vaporizing movie is simply too lethal to recommend! Walter Koenig is pretty good as the slimy Pastor Dylan, and could induce a sort of anti-salvation in the viewer. So, split the difference...

I'm come to the conclusion that there needs to be a new rating added to the system: APC, "Artsy Poser Crap". Characteristics: No straightforward plot development, completely unlikeable and undeveloped characters, elements tossed in for no reason at all, designed with smirking, jaded "Film Appreciation 201" grads in mind. That's right, I'm completely unimaginative, totally bogged down in traditional petite bourgeoisie story telling methodology--probably even (gasp!) straight, gender-preference-wise. But see, here's the thing: when I see a movie I like, it's because it succeeds by having a real story, real characters and real atmosphere. It doesn't have to toss together a bunch of disjointed shots and rambling dialog adorned by a hodge-podge score, then hope no one notices the absolute emptiness that results--or else is too afraid of being labeled as "unappreciative of art" to admit it.

Well, at the risk of being so pigeon-holed--"Cowgirl" is crap. Phony, jumbled crap. Interesting idea completely ruined by someone who apparently thought he would make "art".

So, please, Hollywood: APC. For those of us who prefer or creativity to have both content AND form, instead of cinemagraphic cuisinart.

Patooie.

What a damn shame! Never before I encountered a movie with such potentially brilliant story ideas, and yet somehow it ended up being an indescribably irritating and tragically dull mess! The main character, as well as most of the supportive ones, is probably the most fascinatingly eccentric person to ever lead a modern horror adventure and the situations she encounters are inventive and freaky as hell. Sounds terrific, but then what went wrong? I tell you what went wrong; director Gregory Hatanaka keeps on interrupting his own fabulous concepts with pseudo-artistic nagging and visual gimmicks that totally ruin the pace and the low-budget exploitation atmosphere. The young, intelligent and sexy Therese is the ideal woman. Therese is a nymphomaniac, desperately in love with a sinister TV-evangelist, but she also won't say no to some lesbian sex or even an incestuous relationship with her crazy brother Thierry. She's a food inspector and he imports meat of questionable quality standards. Convinced she's infected with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating one of her brother's Canadian steaks; Therese slowly loses her mind and starts to believe she's the Kung-Fu fighting heroine of her own favorite grindhouse movie "The Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick". The plot is so demented it becomes brilliant, like Tarantino on acid, especially when Therese considers herself to be on a mission to annihilate the Ten Tigers of Kwan Tang, or whatever they're called. It's a really regrettable to announce that – according to me personally, at least – the ingeniousness of the plot is brought down by experimental editing, exaggeratedly hectic camera-work and the director's super massive ego. "Mad Cowgirl" is gory, sleazy and surrealistic, but it quite isn't the homage to rancid 70's exploitation director Hatanaka intended it to be. It's more reminiscent to Gregg Araki's "The Doom Generation", only with even more nastiness and dementia. Sarah Lassez is a rather talented young actress and I hope she'll be offered some better screenplays in the near future. Young cult icon and inexplicably cool dude James Duval is his usual confused self as Therese's brother and I'm sure nobody expected Star Trek veteran Walter Koenig to appear in a production like this, and definitely not in the unconventional role of uncanny TV-preacher. The film contains loads of unexplained – but rather fascinating – little elements, like some of Therese's acquaintances speaking foreign languages (and she being able to understand them) and brief flashes of Japanese news reports. Weird … but too obviously wannabe-intellectual for no reason. "Mad Cowgirl" has quite a large fan-base and the most fanatic admirers will probably claim that I completely don't understand the underlying brilliance of Hatanka's filming style, but whatever. The film could have been much better.

You won't see too many movies like this one. In fact, it's so unusual in places that a good brief description is hard. Think Tarantino does Surrealism and you'd be on the right track, at least. As such, it's understandable that this never had a theatrical release, but don't let that dissuade you. This is better than most of what makes it to the big screen... it's just not commercially viable.

Having said that, there are places where it's easy to get lost in this movie, especially toward the rather gory conclusion. There are also quite a few bits that a lot of people are bound to find offensive. There's incest, sex in a public place with a priest, homosexuality, and a couple of what can only be termed severely botched circumcisions. There's also a whole lot of red meat from end to end. You'll certainly never look at steak the same way.

Still, if you like Tarantino's recent stuff, you'll probably like this movie, too. Considering that this is only the second effort from director Gregory Hatanaka, it's a very good sign. I hope to see more of what he can do.