American Perfekt

I saw this film in a film festival in Montreal a long time ago and I was amazed at the quality of this film. First of all, the screenplay is well written and the characters are well defined. Furthermore, the way it is shot proves that the director knew what he was doing.

Unfortunately this film never made it to theater here in Montreal and it is very hard to find. I am surprised to see that such a good movie couldn't get any distribution, but I guess that's the way the system work. So many good films don't make it while so many bad films gets released...

I hope it will be easier to see it on DVD. I recommend this film to whoever wants to watch an intelligent movie.

American Perfekt is a disjointed yet darkly compelling little nightmare of a road movie, a dusty ode to bowers of the American southwest left unchecked and decayed, populated by wayward souls with perpetual heat delirium, vixens, psychopaths and hustlers alike, who saunter through lurid story lines that often end in bloodshed and madness. In the vein of stuff like Oliver Stone's U-Turn and Kalifornia, we once again pair up with some extremely off colour characters as they navigate both the tangled web of highways that lace the States as well as the human capacity for greed, lust and heinous physical violence. The characters, and actors for that matter, who populate this stretch of highway are an especially bizarre bunch, starting with Robert Forster's vacationing criminal psychologist Jake Nyman. Forster is quite the unpredictable guy, usually found in calmly benign protagonist roles, yet just as capable of stirring the pot with evil antics. Here's he's opaqueness incarnate, driving from one place to another until he runs into two sisters played by another couple of acting hellcats, Amanda Plummer and Fairuza Balk. Jake is basing each decision of his trip upon the flip of a coin a-lá Harvey Dent, a tactic which simultaneously causes trouble and indicates how unhinged he might really be.

Plummer is weird and Balk is weirder, but neither as weird as David 'Professor Lupin' Thewlis as an awkwardly placed character who seems to exist just to jump into a scene and throw the mood off kilter. There's others running amok too, including Geoffrey Lewis, as well as Paul Sorvino and Chris Sarandon as a pair of state troopers who serve as comic relief. Forster is scary here, playing a guy who is psychologically hard to pin down or get a read on, and he's got some dynamite scenes with Balk in the third act, the two talents lighting up the frame. It's pretty far south of coherent though, mostly just these freaks terrorizing each other and engaging in puzzling romantic flings that only make sense to them, I suppose. If feverish, borderline abstract, sun-stroked neo noir is your thing, go for it. You can certainly do worse than spend a certifiably bonkers ninety minutes with this terrific bunch of actors.

Robert Forster is good as Jake, a psychiatrist who picks up a woman named Sandra, after her car is run off a desert road. Jake likes to make most of his decisions on the toss of a coin. The duo run into a confidence trickster named Santini, and that's when the fun and games begin.

Jake soon hooks up with Sandra's sister Alice, who is supposed to meet Sandra in a diner. Jake then has a few surprises in store for Alice. The film isn't very long, and doesn't out stay its welcome. A blackly humourous road movie that is well worth seeing. The film clearly has its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.

"American Perfekt" is a lukewarm psychodrama which spends its run time on a four travelers of questionable character bound by circumstance and highway in an arid Nevada desert. A slow starter, the film requires a whole lot of faith to get into and a broad attention span to stick with. However, for viewers who can suspend disbelief at the drop of a body part, "American Perfekt" may prove captivating. An okay no-brainer now on cable. (C)

Quality Rating:**(two stars) out of ***** American Perfekt is the kind of thriller that is going to be a cult appreciated for few. I rented this film because of Robert Forster, he had just been nominated by the Academy for Jackie Brown (in which he was great), and American Perfekt seemed to have an interesting plot, with elements of suspense, horror and drama. The film follows the story of a woman who is seeking for her problematic sister, and ends up getting involved with a seemingly normal guy, who actually turns out to be a psychopath (Forster). American Perfekt is a violent road-movie, with moments of unbearable brutality (like the scene in which Amanda Plummer's body is found) and special participations by David Thewlis, Paul Sorvino and Fairuza Balk, all of them playing (very) weird roles. Film director Paul Chart tried to balance drama and suspense, but he forgot that the film needed a more consistent and strong noir story. Forster is excellent as a gentile psychopath, he decides his luck with a coin, and is capable of make the most atrocious violence, unlike Fairuza Balk, who is clearly terrible as the "sister". American Perfekt is a B- horror flick, with some known names, and it will soon become a cult for few.I recommend Outside Ozona, that has a similar, but better, plot, and also counts with the great Robert Forster.