Mad Cowgirl

This movie gets a 9 from me for the bizarre, unusual concepts portrayed throughout this film. It is one of the most unusual films I have had the opportunity to see. The plot is twisted and very entertaining. The lead actress played the part exceptionally well, and the part itself seemed to be extremely challenging. She had so many difficult scenes that were completely outrageous, and she never hesitated once to perform even the most unusual, frightening, and horrific scenes that most actors would never have the guts/balls to do.

The crowd left the theater, excited, confused, and somewhat horrified. This is a true indie film that I hope people will get the opportunity to see.

You won't see too many movies like this one. In fact, it's so unusual in places that a good brief description is hard. Think Tarantino does Surrealism and you'd be on the right track, at least. As such, it's understandable that this never had a theatrical release, but don't let that dissuade you. This is better than most of what makes it to the big screen... it's just not commercially viable.

Having said that, there are places where it's easy to get lost in this movie, especially toward the rather gory conclusion. There are also quite a few bits that a lot of people are bound to find offensive. There's incest, sex in a public place with a priest, homosexuality, and a couple of what can only be termed severely botched circumcisions. There's also a whole lot of red meat from end to end. You'll certainly never look at steak the same way.

Still, if you like Tarantino's recent stuff, you'll probably like this movie, too. Considering that this is only the second effort from director Gregory Hatanaka, it's a very good sign. I hope to see more of what he can do.

What a damn shame! Never before I encountered a movie with such potentially brilliant story ideas, and yet somehow it ended up being an indescribably irritating and tragically dull mess! The main character, as well as most of the supportive ones, is probably the most fascinatingly eccentric person to ever lead a modern horror adventure and the situations she encounters are inventive and freaky as hell. Sounds terrific, but then what went wrong? I tell you what went wrong; director Gregory Hatanaka keeps on interrupting his own fabulous concepts with pseudo-artistic nagging and visual gimmicks that totally ruin the pace and the low-budget exploitation atmosphere. The young, intelligent and sexy Therese is the ideal woman. Therese is a nymphomaniac, desperately in love with a sinister TV-evangelist, but she also won't say no to some lesbian sex or even an incestuous relationship with her crazy brother Thierry. She's a food inspector and he imports meat of questionable quality standards. Convinced she's infected with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating one of her brother's Canadian steaks; Therese slowly loses her mind and starts to believe she's the Kung-Fu fighting heroine of her own favorite grindhouse movie "The Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick". The plot is so demented it becomes brilliant, like Tarantino on acid, especially when Therese considers herself to be on a mission to annihilate the Ten Tigers of Kwan Tang, or whatever they're called. It's a really regrettable to announce that – according to me personally, at least – the ingeniousness of the plot is brought down by experimental editing, exaggeratedly hectic camera-work and the director's super massive ego. "Mad Cowgirl" is gory, sleazy and surrealistic, but it quite isn't the homage to rancid 70's exploitation director Hatanaka intended it to be. It's more reminiscent to Gregg Araki's "The Doom Generation", only with even more nastiness and dementia. Sarah Lassez is a rather talented young actress and I hope she'll be offered some better screenplays in the near future. Young cult icon and inexplicably cool dude James Duval is his usual confused self as Therese's brother and I'm sure nobody expected Star Trek veteran Walter Koenig to appear in a production like this, and definitely not in the unconventional role of uncanny TV-preacher. The film contains loads of unexplained – but rather fascinating – little elements, like some of Therese's acquaintances speaking foreign languages (and she being able to understand them) and brief flashes of Japanese news reports. Weird … but too obviously wannabe-intellectual for no reason. "Mad Cowgirl" has quite a large fan-base and the most fanatic admirers will probably claim that I completely don't understand the underlying brilliance of Hatanka's filming style, but whatever. The film could have been much better.

This movie really stands out from all the rest that screened in San Francisco. Enough buzz to gain a special third screening! My husband and I were stunned when we saw it.

It's was such a refreshing experience! It totally shakes your mind as the movie leads to more sweet madness and hilarious absurdity for Therese (played with such bravery by Sarah Lassez). And, despite its novelty, it's a well-acted and, surprisingly, dramatically-driven movie, too! When we thought it was all over, the last part of the movie totally pays off!

Whether it's a statement of our current socio-political culture or our fascination of all things entertainment, it's just riveting. A food for thought, perhaps? One thing for sure, this movie totally rocks!

Watching this movie my first thought was "Was that guy on Star Trek?" And my last thought was "I gotta get outta here!" It's probably not fair for me to critique this movie since I did not see the whole thing. That said, let me warn anyone who is thinking of seeing it that this is not a "regular" movie. By this I mean one that generally has a clear path or plot development that you can follow (or want to follow) from beginning to end. It has an off-beat independent film look and feel to it. Maybe it is. I didn't care enough to take 2 minutes to check.

No one in this movie seemed to have their head screwed on tightly. They all seemed as dysfunctional as the script which seemed to randomly stitch scenes together and toss images at you, with the recurring theme of the lead character bestially gorging herself on meat. Less anyone get the wrong impression, I am not without range: I do like SOME "quirky" and "offbeat" films and support experimental and independent film making. I believe they serve a good purpose towards the expanded expression and development of the art and human consciousness. I just "personally" couldn't get into this one.

Finally, for me this movie was like a long walk that was taking me nowhere (or nowhere I wanted to go, I'm not sure which). So half way thru I bailed. Lost my appetite, I guess. Love, Boloxxxi.