Fast Sofa

Crispin Glover rocks! The rest of the film on the other hand . . . does not. In fact, the rest of this flick was the minor millipede getting squashed by the crispy rock. Interesting enough to keep you until the end but for some reason the movie forgot to deliver.

I read some of the reviews on IMDB before taping this movie, and didn't expect to make it very far in (still needed to tape because of Natasha Lyonne) but ended up watching the whole thing and enjoying it.

The first third is so sleazy and stupid it actually entertains. For the rest of the film, Crispin Glover is fascinating and funny as an naive intellectual who's seemingly left the house for the first time. Through a chance encounter, he hits the road with wildman Jake Busey (who is also excellent and likeable in this role).

Jake Busey's character gets into a number of quandaries throughout the film as a result of his drunken or selfish behavior, and those serve as the mini plots in a film that has no larger one. But it was enough to keep me tuned in, along with the delicious film characterizations.

So you're couchin' out one night at the ol' crib, semi-inebriated and seekin' some kick-ass passive entertainment of the televised variety and ya notice this film on your tv listings cable crawl, and so you check it out because it says Jake Busey, Crispin Glover, Jennifer Tilly and Eric Roberts are in it. How bad can THAT be, right?

Two hours later you're cross-eyed and tentatively aroused but more than that, thoroughly confused with what you've just witnessed. What stands out most in your mind is the kinked-out-to-the-nines bondage scenes, of course, with Eric Roberts sticking his gun in Jake Busey's mouth while Tilly (as his wife, a strangely UN-sexy porn star) straddles him and Roberts warns him menacingly not to - ahem - enjoy it, shall we say - or he'll blow his brains out. Fun stuff, boys and girls. And then we have Crispin as a traumatized bird freak who accidentally killed a hawk when he was a child and he's still a virgin with an excellent vocabulary who invites himself along on Busey's deranged road trip to hell. It doesn't end too happily and it doesn't make much sense getting there, but, hey, the closing credits are dangerously creative, and Busey is still alive at the conclusion (at least I THINK he was), so all's well that ends well.

This is a very strange movie. Lets get that down first. It is similar in that regard to recent films like Doom Generation and Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trick Baby. It is violent, can be repulsive and disgusting, and is not for everybody. But if you like this type of film, this is a great film. By all means I recomend it highly, especially if you want to see more of Jennifer Tilly than you have before. Definately an unusal but fun (if you are into this type of film) ride.

When I was kid growing up in Scotland, there used to be a really cool cult film show called MOVIEDROME. It was hosted by Alex Cox (director of Repo Man) and each week he would pick a film, talk about it very honestly (often pointing out shortfalls and foibles of the production) and then show it. This was before DVD of course, so it was a great opportunity to see some pretty weird and wonderful films, things like RIVERS EDGE, NEAR DARK, and something with Dennis hopper escorting a dead body across the united states on a train(don't remember what this was called).

This is exactly the kind of film that would have been on moviedrome, great and improbable casting (Crispin Glover and Eric Roberts together at last!), unachieved potential etc. Busey really impresses as Rick, he really takes his character on a journey, and towards the end he really starts to impress. I think the pairing of Busey with Indie film legend Crispin Glover, helped Busey achieve this performance. Whether because of the good on screen chemistry they obviously have or because Glover sets the bar pretty high acting wise.

Other plus points include the credible and snappy dialogue, and a great cameo by Eric Roberts as Jennifer Tilly's husband/manager/pimp. On the downside, we have a pretty uninspired performance from Tilly, and a meandering plot that doesn't seem to get its act together until the last 20 minutes or so. There also parts by played by Goldberg and Lyon (is that right?, the girlfriend) that are so underwritten that they could almost have been left out they do that little to forward the action. The terrible split screen sequences are extremely half-arsed and should have been left on the cutting room.

All in all very interesting failure. BBC bring back moviedrome and might even pay my license fee this year.