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How could this film have been passed by during Oscar nominations? Perhaps they didn't understand that Kristina Fulton's expressive instrument is not her voice or her face, but is instead her wriggling butt. Couldn't they see that child-actor Davis could almost read his lines without smiling at the camera? And how could they ignore director Jon Jacobs' daring (and humble) casting decision to cast himself as the mysterious hunk who is lusted after by the sexy witches?

I suspect that the Academy just couldn't see past the superficial rough edges of this film: incredibly inane dialog, laughable acting, and a plot that would be comfortably (and possibly more competently) filmed as pornography.

Although I liked surreal 50's comic style look of the film, the plot itself just couldn't hold my interest. There are no interesting twists and the plot could be dreamed up in a few minutes by anyone who has seen any other Full Moon production. The acting is generally pathetic and the thrills are few. I liked the weird world Elfman created, but I'm afraid that vision alone can't carry such a bland story.

Black Rainbow is a low-budget mystery with supernatural overtones, a rare genre that I'm particularly fond of. The sound and the picture quality on the print I saw was not great but was certainly watchable. I really enjoyed the premise: a fake psychic starts actually prophesizing people's deaths -- both the why and how -- which makes her a target for a hit man. Arquette is pretty good in the role -- kind of a mystical and ethereal nymphomaniac and Robards is great as always. The plot meanders a bit and sometimes gets a little slow, but I still enjoyed it. The ending didn't really make a lot of sense to me -- maybe I missed something earlier in the movie -- but I was surprised by this ending and liked it even if though it didn't seem to be supported by the rest of the movie.