Review Wanted: "Clean Shaven"
11-11-99 | 01:42 AM
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From: The Dark Side of New Jersey
Alright!!! I've been wanting to see this film after seeing the disturbing trailer and reading the glowing Fangoria review. Anyway, having never seen the movie I'll provide the review from Fangoria(there are some spoilers):
Clean, Shaven(Fox Lorber): If you're in the mood for one of the creepiest psychofests in recent years, look no further, because director Lodge Kerrigan has given us a blazing art-house horror that will leave the most jaded viewer physically drained. The highest praise goes to the film's star, Peter Greene(best known for playing the pawn-shop deviant in Pulp Fiction and his villianous turn in The Mask) who paints a raw, nerve-jangling portrait of mental illness, and is so believable you almost forget you're watching a movie. This is an undiluted descent into demetia, with Greene playing Peter Winter, an ex-mental patient in search of his daughter, who's been put up for adoption. This guy is a jittery nervous wreck who hears voices, covers his car's windows with newspaper and indulges in moments of ritualistic cleansing, like scrubbing himself raw with steel wool. Then there's the unexplained matter of large bundle in his trunk, which looks suspiciously the same size and shape as a child. Greene shows us the world through Winter's deranged eyes and commands our attention every moment of the way as a man barely able to function in the real world- even the simple act of making a sandwich is a Herculean task. As we follow him on his journey, he visits his mom, has seizures, frightens townsfolk and finally tracks down his lost little girl. Don't let the film's leisurely pace put you off guard, though, because isolated sequences are the most gruesome ever put onto film stock, as when Greene gets the sudden urge to pry his fingernail off with a penknife. Kerrigan unfortunately loosens the film's stranglehold with the introduction of a local detective(Robert Albert) who thinks Winter is a brutal child killer and, by the end, seems as misguided as our loopy lead. But no wrong turn can put the brakes on this grim, unsettling tale. Clocking in at a tight 80 minutes, this small, uncut gem gives us a devastating dose of human horror in the purest sense. Without question not the feel-good movie of the year.
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I can't wait. I already preordered it!!!
Clean, Shaven(Fox Lorber): If you're in the mood for one of the creepiest psychofests in recent years, look no further, because director Lodge Kerrigan has given us a blazing art-house horror that will leave the most jaded viewer physically drained. The highest praise goes to the film's star, Peter Greene(best known for playing the pawn-shop deviant in Pulp Fiction and his villianous turn in The Mask) who paints a raw, nerve-jangling portrait of mental illness, and is so believable you almost forget you're watching a movie. This is an undiluted descent into demetia, with Greene playing Peter Winter, an ex-mental patient in search of his daughter, who's been put up for adoption. This guy is a jittery nervous wreck who hears voices, covers his car's windows with newspaper and indulges in moments of ritualistic cleansing, like scrubbing himself raw with steel wool. Then there's the unexplained matter of large bundle in his trunk, which looks suspiciously the same size and shape as a child. Greene shows us the world through Winter's deranged eyes and commands our attention every moment of the way as a man barely able to function in the real world- even the simple act of making a sandwich is a Herculean task. As we follow him on his journey, he visits his mom, has seizures, frightens townsfolk and finally tracks down his lost little girl. Don't let the film's leisurely pace put you off guard, though, because isolated sequences are the most gruesome ever put onto film stock, as when Greene gets the sudden urge to pry his fingernail off with a penknife. Kerrigan unfortunately loosens the film's stranglehold with the introduction of a local detective(Robert Albert) who thinks Winter is a brutal child killer and, by the end, seems as misguided as our loopy lead. But no wrong turn can put the brakes on this grim, unsettling tale. Clocking in at a tight 80 minutes, this small, uncut gem gives us a devastating dose of human horror in the purest sense. Without question not the feel-good movie of the year.
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I can't wait. I already preordered it!!!
