Wanda's Café

This is a great piece of atmospheric mid-budget film-making. Alan Rudolph and his production team successfully utilize the architecture of Seattle and its rain-slicked streets to bring to life the funky Neo-noir metropolis known as Rain City, inhabited by a set of off-beat characters, my favorite of which is a gangster played by the one and only DIVINE, in his only male-gendered role. He even gets to say the films best line: "Everyone wants to go to Heaven but no one wants to die!"

This is a film that is just begging for a DVD release. As others have mentioned, the audience for this film is definitely out there.

The forecast is overcast. Director Alan Rudolph sets the tone early on and TROUBLE IN MIND never once strikes a sour note. The cinematography is superb: the camera never stops moving, drifting slowly toward or pulling slowly away from the ex-con, Kristofferson, the country bumpkin-cum-Big City thug, Carradine, his mentor, Morton, the naive engenue, Singer, the survivor, Bujold, or the king of queens, Divine. The story unfolds gradually, logically. The music is appropriately moody. THIS is the way to tell a story. Anyone seriously interested in writing or directing needs to add this one to their list of must-see movies. To miss it would be to miss out.

Divine, just a couple years before she died. And not in drag for this role! Coop and georgia move to the big city to try to have a better life for their new baby. But the big, shiny city has become tarnished with crime. All the little thugs are expected to give a cut to the bigger thug hilly blue. And these people all meet up at wanda's diner. Female nudity. Adult situations. And some of the songs are done by the awesome marianne faithfull! Gawds i love that scratchy, mournful voice. SO good. The film is okay. It's mostly atmosphere and sad music. Pretty basic story. Kind of another world, like dark city. Fun, in it's own weird way. Written and directed by alan rudolph.

Trouble in Mind is a VERY interesting movie, and self-consciously so. Somewhere between gratuitously-quirky and a flawed masterpiece, everything about this movie is just a little off.

And that is also its charm. An exotic casting choice results in a character that is more intriguing than convincing; Another character transforms, gradually, completely beyond recognition without comment. Alternate-Noir atmosphere in a different Pacific Northwest. An inventively-bizarre murder and my nomination for the funniest shoot-out in film history.

And lots of atmosphere. A moody Mark Isham soundtrack with an even moodier Marianne Faithfull partially channelling Billie Holiday. Rain and rain and more rain that does not appear to have required any equipment. And ending in a lingering, scenic shot that has nothing to do with the story but meshes exquisitely with the mood and music, and seems as if it was orchestrated by mother nature exclusively for the film crew. I can't tell whether the weather was incredibly cooperative, or if Alan Rudolph just knew exactly how and when to use it.

The overall effect is a unique but cohesive viewing experience that sticks with you long after the movie is over. It strives, a little too pretentiously, to be quirky, but it is also beautifully humanist.

A terrific, quirky film by Alan Rudolph. As an earlier reviewer wrote, he has weird things going on that are never explained. They are just features of his "alternative future". Remember that so much of the world we live in goes by, unexplained. It helps break this film away from the Hollywood-spoonfed blandness.

A real treat not commented on is Keith Carradine. A veteran of Alan Rudolph films, he has a wonderful transformation. Without any commentary, he goes from a rural-type (flannel shirt & jeans) to a denizen of the city (wild clothing, make-up, boufant hairdo). And his behavior gets more bizarre with his change in locale.

Also, watch for one of cinemas most unique murders. Let's just say it involves water, a major feature of the movie, but it takes place in a location you would never fathom.

This is one film I would love to see get the deluxe DVD treatment. Widescreen, director commentary, deleted scenes. It is an overlooked wonder.