Kalifornia

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I can't remember when I first saw this movie, but from the moment it began, to the credits, I was held hostage by the excellent plot. David Duchovny has always been one of my favourite actors, and he shines in this early 90s thriller as a writer detailing the lives of notorious serial killers. He seems like a very sensitive young boyfriend to the character played my Michelle Forbes (who also gives an excellent portryal of a "hip" artsy photographer).

The chaos starts when Early Grayce, a killer with a southern drawl and a habit of snorting a lot, trys to escape the cops after he gets 'rid of' his trailer park owner. Along for the ride, is "Adelle", Early's young, sunny girl friend.

The trouble starts up when Carie (Michelle Forbes) begins to get nervous around Early. Early is crude, obnoxious and vulgar, but their is more to her aversion than ettiquette. Early creeps her out. When she gives her boyfriend, Brian (David Duchovny) an ultimatum...either Early and Adele stop travelling with them, or she leaves... Early has a break down and kills a gas station attendent. From this point on, the movie really heats up, and to review anymore would give away the great ending!

If you like movies about serial killers or things pertaining to criminology, you'll love "Kalifornia"!

Rating:
Summary: A change of pace
Review: This movie haunted me. Yes, there's Brad Pitt playing against type. David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes are excellent too. But Juliette Lewis is a standout(as usual), and it is her character of Edele who broke my heart; her simplicity, impossible innocence, and sad fate are brought to excrutiating life by a wonderful performance. Despite the fact that she's never caught a break in life, Edele gets up every morning with a sweet disposition, never suspecting that she was born to lose. So sad!

Rating:
Summary: Get ready for the ride of your life!
Review: If you've always thought of Brad Pitt as the sexy, rugged, boy-next-door you'll be SHOCKED! Personally, Pitt is not one of my favorites but he gives a scintillating performance as a serial killer, with Juliette Lewis as his trashy, dingy sidekick. Lewis also starred in "Natural Born Killers", another movie about serial killers; she plays the white-trash role very well! David Duchovny is sexy as Brian, a yuppie writer with Michelle Forbes as Carrie, his beautiful, fiesty photographer-girlfriend. Carrie relies on her instincts regarding Early's character from the first time she sees him. The only negative I can say about this movie is that it moves slowly - it isn't until well into the last half of the movie that the pace picks up and the killing spree REALLY begins!

Rating:
Summary: On the road again; life is a highway; long hard road out...
Review: A journalist couple who want to tour famous murder sights leading to California in the interest of a book, pick up two ignorant white trash yokels and their fun road trip turns into a murder spree when (who else but) Brad Pitt turns out to be a serial killer. Excellent road side film (which might be a bit too long for it's type) has all the elements it needs but kills off everyone's favorite character just to speed things up. What does something like that suggest about a movie?

Rating:
Summary: Duchovny and Lewis in the same film? Oh dear!
Review: This is one of the most boring films I have ever had the misfortune to watch. Duchovny is awful as a murder writer who gets a bit too personal with his work. Michelle Holmes is extremely bad as his girlfriend, and Juliette Lewis puts in one of the most cringeworthy performances I have ever seen. Brad Pitt is the best thing in this movie, and even he is bad as the demented hick serial killer.

Awful!

Rating:
Summary: This is THE BEST film in its genre!!!!
Review: First of all, the movie starts out with something that we all had wondered at some point in our lives- What would happen if I do "this"?; just out of curiousity, of course. That's for the movie watcher(I hope!)but for Early Grayce(his name is embedded in my mind everytime I hear, "Are you getting up early tomorrow?"), its a thing he does with full knowledge and he knows the possible outcome, yet he makes it happen. It seems this guy has no remorse for what he can and does do to other people. Everyone should know what this movie is all about, so I won't waste time! The movie is about one couple meeting another couple by chance of a share a (ride/gas money) trip to California. One couple is from an educated background and the other couple, it would seem, is from the wrong side of the law, a hard life and from broken homes. The four main characters are: Early Grayce( a young man from the wrong side of the tracks, recently paroled, wants to start a new life and just happens to manifest a dark side), Edele Conners( a young woman who had a hard life and was saved and rescued by Early and is a lot naive to the world and her boyfriend but is usually cheerful and "happy go lucky", Brian Kessler( a young aspiring writer who wants to write the Great American Coffee Book and is fascinated and intrigued with the dark side that dwells in mankind and is very open-minded) and then there is Carrie( a down on her luck photographer who just cannot accept people's first motives and is very skeptical towards anything she hasn't experienced). These two couples, when they first see each other, quickly judge one another but they all agree to the trip. They introduce themselves with polite mannerisms and the ones they hate at first, they like, later. The car is a convertible and they ride off into an adventure that is sure to inspire a Coffee Table Book! They spend the time away in the car, going from famous murder sites on their way to California, by Edele and Carrie playing cards of which Carrie wins all the time at this first time game of Edele's; Brian and Early talk about what motivates serial killers in the first place. Slowly, we get to know the real Early, as the film goes back to that Trailer Park and the authorities find Early's dark side. Brian narrates thoughout the film and it is well placed because one tends to wonder the same thoughts as the narrator. They stay at motels along the way but one motel visit, the two couples bond along the gender lines. The girls stay at the motel room and paint toe nails, drink beer, smoke and tell about their lives. A very touching scene is where Edele's teenage tragedy is revealed to Carrie of why she is with Early. Carrie cuts Edele's hair like hers(because Early cut it at the other motel, to change her appearance) and Edele gets to look at Carrie's portfolio of posed tortured naked women(Carrie's poses), they like and admire each other in different ways. The boys go out to the bar and drink and play pool. There is an altercation of which Brian witnesses the swift brutality that Early possesses. Early wins a bar brawl because he thought a guy was going to be trouble for brian. They bond outside in the rain in the parking lot and share the last "reebs" of the night. They get to know each other and admire one another in their own way. The next day, a gun is found in the back seat of the car in Early's suitcase. The possibilities set in for Carrie but Brian reserves his judgement, fresh from his rescue at the bar. They go to an abandoned warehouse and Early teaches him how to shoot(broken windows). Edele says, "Boys will be boys." Carrie is not amused at all. They continue on their trip to the murder sites but Early and Edele stay in the car and have a rendevous. Brian and Carrie continue to talk about the recent change in attitudes they have of Brian. They agree(after Carrie sneaks up on the other couple, photographs them and gets a glimpse of her attraction towards what seems impossible to even entertain the thought) that the couple must leave at the next gas station or she goes. Brian realizes why they are going to California and realizes another set of priorities. When they get at the gas station, Early and Carrie enter to pay the gas and buy cigarettes, while waiting, Carries gets a glimpse of a serial killer on the t.v. set. This is where the attraction is replaces by cruel reality. The trip continues but on a different path; they head to the next site of which everyone sees everyone for who they really portray. Edele-sees the truth but can't accept it and tries to cover it up at all costs, Carrie-sees the truth and wonders if she knew the truth, Brian-sees the truth and wonders if he wants the truth, and Early reveals nothing to see the truth! The Coffee Book gets published but the educated couple will never forget how real that book became in their first-hand educated lives! I've watched this movie 30 times but recommend watching it 60 times!

Rating:
Summary: David is sooooooo good
Review: This was the first movie I ever saw David Duchovny in. And he was soooo good, even though at the time i was a Brad fan. but I noticed David too and I am so glad he has become what he has. he is a great actor and mighty fine too.

Rating:
Summary: "An intense ride into mayhem"
Review: Kalifornia's tension builds as the road trip progresses. This movie allows the characters to develop and build to an exciting climax. Finally a film that creates a story instead of force feeding the audience one. Outstanding acting by all the cast members, especially Pitt (hilarious). Another hidden gem.

Rating:
Summary: A twisted Heart-of-Darkness pastiche with a bitter-sweet end
Review: For a former music video producer this is a thematically successful movie.

The interesting psychological aspect of in this movie-of-travel-and-quest is not the violent "Natural-born-killers" couple (Lewis and Pitt), whoes identity is in their violence towards other people.

Far more interest is attached to the development (or perhaps lack of such) thoughout the story of the middleclass "hero" couple, who set out to what they expect to be a museum-visit to famous serial-killer "attractions". But it turns out they have unexpectedly embarked with two first-hand-museum guides to these scenaries.

The movie thematizes - as Heart of Darkness - whether or not the hero couple at the end of their quest and trials have come out with more insight into themselves and human nature.

It can be argued that the very short closing scene is too short to form a real basis of any interpretation.

However, it is my opinion that the film proves that the couple have failed the aim to gain this insight. The hero couple's search for knowledge about serial killers across US turns out to be of no avail - even if they unexpectedly get a first-hand view into the soul of a serial killer. No better chance to discover exactly what they set out to do.

The key scene being the closing scene, where it is proven that the couple have gone to the bottom of their own souls, but have only found that there is nothing there. They are strangers to each other and themselves. Their lives and work go on exactly like before their ordeal. There is even in the closing scene a glimpse of proven, further distance between the male and female hero than in the beginning. They have faced the utmost cruelty of the world - and defeated it, but it has brought them no further insight into themselves or human nature - contrary to Marlow in Heart of Darkness.

This twist - I guess - is also the reason for the strange title of the movie. Even in American, it is a strange way of spelling California, underlining the heroes' strangeness towards temselves. This is probably also why the dramtic klimax of the movie takes place in a fake, mannequin town for nuclear tests. Here the male hero kills the violent opponent and justice seems to be done - the scene where the male hero kills being, by the way, almost identical to Marlow's killing of Kurtz. However, the last laugh is laughed by the dying Pitt and the laugh is clearly on the male hero. Piit evidently knows the darkest corner of himself and accepts his own destiny to be inevitable. Pitt also knows that this is not the case for male hero - unlike Marlow.

The movie does not hold it against the hero couple as such that they start out with no knowledge of themselves and real world. This is a situation everybody experiences. The problem for the couple is that they do not learn from their experiences. Ironically, the male hero in the closing scene is still listening to the words of Pitt, the serial killer, and is still trying, in vain, to understand the nature of his violence. His wife is still occupied with by the same nonsensical art photographs - partly photographs of herself, the irony being her lack of self-insight. Apart from being thematically interesting, the movie also produces fine castings, locations and dialogue that all together splendidly form the foundation of the hero couples trials through out the movie.

These instruments - plot, location, casting and dialogue - can't, however, do the job for the hero couple. The final and ultimate trial is solely within themselves - like Marlow - to go to the border of your own soul and face the dark powers within yourself, reject them and return to life as a whole and wiser person, who must never forget his own capacity. Here they fail.

Carsten Lang-Jensen - March 12, 1999

Rating:
Summary: intriguing
Review: I've seen this one twice, it's much like Kiss The Girls, freakish and intriguing at the same time, one you can watch over and over