The Dark Backward

You can't knock knock this film's originality. Dark, at times disturbing, this movie is, like watching Bill Paxton eating containers of take out, way over their used by dates, or sucking the breasts of a naked corpse in a garbage dump, which isn't that funny, and pretty offensive and improper. Seeing Judd Nelson, in a preview of this, make me wake up to just a what a cool and good actor this guy really is. In my opinion, even though Wayne Newton is very good here, as a heartless talent agent, Nelson also should of got some friggin' award, as the unfunny, 'stars in his eyes, stage struck' comedian, who should wake up and smell the coffee. His ailing Mom tells it like it is, saying "You're not funny Marty". But the real joke there is the obvious underlying sarcasm that comes across in just unfunny he really is -the below zero 'suck' quality of his jokes, that don't even make sense, and are are so unlaughable, where in reality, after a test run, no one would hire this guy, if even feeling sorry for this geek. But again, there's the joke, the satire, of him being hired, where in the story's world, we get the notion, he would has been hired by some people who would of felt sorry for him. Here's a most different contrast of character, to the ones, Nelson usually plays. He's so good in this. But luck has turned his way in the form of a small lump growing out of his back which becomes a third arm. In the early phase of it, his useless doctor, who has a kinky assistant, slaps a band aid on it. Days later, Nelson returns. The doc (James Caan) goes ape at him for coming in, with, what he calls a little problem. Here he becomes an overnight sensation, where him and Paxton, an accordian player, become double act. I'm sure, people would certainly pay good money, to see a guy, with a authentic third arm growing out his back. It's all too absurb, or bizarre to consider. But this is quite a bizarre film. Another one of those, that stand alone, which we'll be distasteful to a few movie goers out there. Others will love it cause of the idea and it's originality, but mostly it's dark side, it's title, most suiting. Rob Lowe is impressive here too, as another talent agent, a smarmy sort, where Lara Flynn Boyle as a cafe worker and Nelson's love interest. Panic strikes too, when Nelson's third arm starts to disappear. But he comes up trumps in the end, as an overnight real comedian, partly thanks to his brief third asset. Yes, this is a distasteful movie, but sometimes things in bad taste are entertaining to many are few, where some of surely would be missing one short of a dollar. Check this flick out, just for it's originality.

Yes. What can I say. I liked this movie. Slimey, sleazy, often crude but kept me interested. It's the kind of movie you feel you need a shower after. The plot is bizarre. The cast are just right. Bill Paxton is superb! Can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

This movie is creepy and amazing. It's like an overlong Liquid Television sketch. The actors, the sets, everything looks dirty and depressing. Bil Paxton is never clean, Jud Nelson never stops sweating, Laura Flynn Boyle never looks happy, and the town never has sunlight. It'll throw you off if not prepared, but honestly, it's a great movie. It makes no sense, except in the world it created, and that's the beauty of it. This movie is great.

Adam Rifkin has a resume of films that could have been. They are inspired, ambitious, original, but at the same time almost incomplete. The Dark Backward encompasses all these qualities and more.

The film opens promising enough. Judd Nelson as Marty, looking something like Crispin Glover in Back to the Future, sweats on stage delivering some horrible stand up comedy. We then meet Gus, Marty's "friend" played with villainous comic timing by Bill Paxton. He urges Marty on to keep at the stand up.

The film plays off like a twisted moral anti fairy tale. It's the almost rags to riches story gone awry, as Nelson plays a horrible stand up comic who's only talent seems to be an extra appendage out of his back.

Rifkin's allegory is great and the ending is a spectacular take on show-business and what it truly takes to come to fame. But it's the middle that sort of fails. It's painful to watch. Such pains are great to see in some films when writers are able to spice it up with great dialogue or endearing characters, but most of it is just revolting schlock. Rifkin goes to great lengths to show how pathetic the lives of Gus and Marty are. It's a bit much.

The saving grace of the film is Bill Paxton. He makes some of the disgusting material work, going from pure disgust to some shocking laughs. Sadly, Paxton doesn't do much comedy. For better or worse, this film may be the reason why. He is unbelievable and the way he sinks into the material (and other things) makes the film almost work.

Adam Rifkin seems to be full of half baked ideas. They're good ideas and strange ones at that. His projects never seem to have a fullness to them, but they are full of strange inspired moments that are unlike any other film. I don't know if we'll ever see Rifkin's material reach their maximum potential as these ideas don't sell to the mainstream, but we should enjoy strange sick gems like the Dark Backward from time to time.

I really love "The Dark Backward". Does that make me some kind of weirdo? Perhaps, but I don't think so. Frankly, I consider people who watch "American Idol" weirdos, so there you go.

Anyone reading this review probably knows the basic storyline. Mary Malt (Judd Nelson) is a garbage man who moonlights as a (really awful) stand-up comic. Audiences hate his act but his disgusting best friend and fellow garbage man Gus (Bill Paxton) keeps assuring him he's great and that the crowds love him. One day an arm starts growing out of Marty's back and Gus, who plays the accordian during Marty's act, convinces him to work it into their routine. They get a talent agent (sleazy Wayne Newton) and a succession of bookings follow. The whole things plays out as a coal-black parable about the foibles of decency in an oportunistic world.

The plot is simplistic, really. What this film is is texture, texture, texture. And that texture is filth, evil, and scum.

There is more scum and evil in this film than in ten David Lynch films. Marty and Gus live in a parallel universe (by way of Newark, New Jersey) comprised of vast amounts of garbage and shrugging indifference. Three-quarters of the characters in this film spend their time on screen asleep. The remaining two-thirds are hysterical, conniving, moronic, or flat-out sinister (with the exception of a child-comprised studio audience we see briefly).

Marty spends the film bent over as though his spine were warped and with his face drenched in sweat. Gus is so dirty he practically blends into the garabage he and Marty dig through at the dump. When Gus opens Marty's refrigerator he can only find some green and toxic chicken that looks left over from Mesolithic era (he eats it anyway).

When Marty and Gus get their big break is when the film really broke the mold for me. Marty has a three-armed suit made and during their act (after each joke) he does a slow turn so the audience can see his extra appendage and it's really amazing. It's looks totally surreal!!! It's beautiful!!

I can't totally explain why I love this film so much, except to say that I find it beautiful when someone puts so much work into making something so absolutely pure.

In many ways the world that we live in is beautiful. There are things that are special and fragile and new. However, this world is also filled with great deal of hatred and rage. We have made this world a very toxic place (and I mean that in the literal sense) Life can be (and is, for some) hell. It would be incorrect to assume expression only need represent the happy skippy joys of life.

Personally, I think this is one of the best representations of a "hell on earth" ever on film.