Rebecca 2

Watching this film is like being licked on the face by a filthy, rough- tongued drag queen with a Hitchcock fetish. And I loved it. It is funny, beautiful, disgusting, irreverent, confusing (not to mention seriously smart) and has a lead actor whose combination of dead-pan humour and jaw dropping beauty will haunt you. The casting decisions, John Waters references and fierce feminist porn stars will find you wondering if you've died and gone to queer heaven. After an initial period of uncertainty the extended melodramatic exchanges quickly become the highlights of the film for me, with some of the dialogue so funny I nearly choked on my drink with laughter. There are scenes in Rebecca 2 as beautiful as anything I've seen and as trashy as anything I'd want to. Get a hold of it. Believe me. It'll feel good.

Can't think of much I'd change about 'Rebecca 2'. It contains various surprise goodies for people familiar with 'Rebecca', 'Vertigo', John Waters, Fassbinder and others, but they're just the neat trimmings. The film works extremely well on its own merits, mixing camp humour, carefully deployed melodrama, a raft of memorable one liners and striking edits, and quite diverse locations & situations (the gambling streak in Auckland, narcotics mishaps in rural New Zealand, the mysterious dominatrix in New York, and an "erotic" hospital sequence that is probably inappropriate to describe here). Reminded me a lot of 'Pink Flamingos' or 'Female Trouble', but a few more plot twists and some surprisingly beautiful shots (that is, given the pretty raw treatment of the more shocking sequences in the movie). Highly recommended.