Wanda's Café

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.

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 one of those movies that only reveals its greatness about the third time you see it; a wealth of details which, on first viewing, strike the perceptive viewer as scatterbrained or irrelevant, unfold on closer inspection into a rich, lushly imagined fantasy world, and dialogue which at first sounds precious or forced becomes endlessly quotable. It's hard to be an Alan Rudolph "fan," as his work is decidedly uneven; but on this picture, which followed the critical and commercial success of "Choose Me," he is at the peak of his powers. And, if none of this convinces you, you should check this one out for the performances, not least among which is Divine's startling turn as coldblooded (male) gangster Hilly Blue (worthy of awards, in a better world than this).

The person who compared this film to Bladerunner is not only doing this film a disservice, but is so far from the mark as to be untrue. The chief protagonist is a cop true, and though initially spurned, he does get the girl in the end, but that's about where it ends...

From the opening strains of the muted trumpet, and Marianne Faithfull's beautifuly broken voice, this film is a masterpiece, it's moody, quirky, low key and not without a little menace, especially when Hilly Blue "puts the anchor" on Solo, "they should all blow each other's balls off, make my life easier..." to quote Lt. Gunther.

It's everything that Bladerunner isn't, if anything it's set in some alternate vision of a disfunctional 50's & 80's combined, down at heel low life's, trashy outfits, too much drab neon & hairspray, allied with a little mob glamour and modern art.

I guess I just feel for the characters, Hawk's hunger for a life he never had, the Zen stillness of Wanda, the wild eyed innocence of Georgia and the weirdness that is Coop, Solo freaking out as a Bhudhist, and last but not least, Divine in a suit... "let everybody get what they deserve..."

It's not a fast movie, or an ensemble piece, but at some deep level it resonates.

"what are you looking at?" "you a cop?" "you know damn well I'm not a cop" "that's what I'm looking at then, a woman who isn't a cop..."

It's the film I watch when I get down, I've lost track of the number of times I've watched it, I caught it first at the ICA West Bank in London, on it's last showing before they started a series of Mexican masked wrestling bario movies :) I bought it recently on DVD in a shop in Schipol airport after being delayed in Amsterdam for two hours, I'd been looking for it for years at that point... Even Amazon had it on back order.

It's really a wonderful movie, from icy lake to mountain road, I always come away from it happy, I guess you can ask no more from a movie than that.

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.