A flawed movie with some incredible weirdness...
In his Psychotronic Video Guide to FIlm, Michael Weldon singles out the 1985 neo-noir film Trouble in Mind, so I had to scout it out for Weirdhouse Cinema. Unfortunately, it turned out to be kind of a mixed bag and I was left unsure if we actually wanted to tackle it.
Because despite all the splendid weirdness in this one (more on that in a sec), the film centers around a protagonist absolutely dripping in toxic masculinity that we're somehow supposed to root for see as a romantic lead. I had a lot of trouble with this character. Kris Kristofferson does a perfectly fine job in the part and the part isn't terribly written or anything, but deliberate choices were made to portray him as a sexual predator and it soiled the entire movie for me.
But while I can't recommend the film, I can still complement the inherent weirdness of pretty much every other aspect of the film. While Kristofferson's character Hawk (an ex cop just released from prison) is a total write off, the cast on this one is incredible. Keith Carradine plays an up-and-coming criminal, steadily and visually corrupted by post-punk criminal subculture of Rain City (by the end of the movie, he essentially looks like the Joker). Joe Morton plays a poetry-spouting cyberpunk rogue and Dirk Blocker chews a lot of scenery as the mob enforcer Rambo. But my absolute favorite part of the film is the casting of drag legend Divine as the mob boss Hilly Blue. Here's a scene involving all of these characters (and no Hawk):
I love this scene -- and it doesn't even deliver all of the film's weirdness. Because the whole thing takes place in a near-future Rain City where a mysterious military police presence haunts the backgrounds and an 80s future-punk style permeates much of the night life and crime world. There are also a series of obvious city models that may or may not connect to the protagonist's time in prison and did I mention that Hilly Blue's signature hit style is to drown people in their car? I'm not talking about driving their car into the river, either. He just has their car filled up with a hose.
So there you have it: A really weird film that I wish I could have enjoyed more. I didn't even mention to the Mark Isham score or the original music by Mariane Faithful. It had so much going for it. Still, Hilly Blue is my new favorite mobster.
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