Hot Picks
|
|
|
Vortex
USA 1982
produced by Jonathan Auerbach, Vittoria Tarlow for B Movie Inc
directed by Beth B, Scott B
starring James Russo, Lydia Lunch, William Rice, Bill Corsair, Haoui Montaug, Scott B, Brent Collins, David Kennedy, Ann Magnuson, Richard Prince, Chris Strang, Tom Webber, Richard France, Kai Eric, Kristof Kolhofer, Gideon Horowitz, Dani Johnson, Bill Landis, Andy Whyland, Dick Miller
written by Beth B, Scott B, music by Adele Bertei, Scott B, Beth B, Richard Edson, Lydia Lunch
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
Two weapon manufacturers, NavCo and FieldsCo, are fighting over a
gouvernment contract - and when corrupt congressman White (David Kennedy)
decides to give the contract to NavCo, FieldsCo boss Fields (William Rice)
orders to have him killed. The death of the congressman calls private eye Angel
Powers (Lydia Lunch) onto the scene, who soon figures out that FieldsCo
simply has to have something to do with the dead politician, but it's not
easy to get to old and wheelchair-bound Fields himself since he - very
Howard Hughes-like - shields himself off the outside world almost
completely but has a watchful eye on it all via closed circuit TV. The
only man whom Fields accepts near him is Demmer (James Russo), and he has
grown almost completely dependent on Demmer, which is why Demmer tries to
make him his puppet. But the dependence goes both ways, since Demmer needs
Fields as much as Fields needs Demmer, and thus he has to do all of
Fields' menial jobs. Eventually, Demmer even stages an assassination attempt on
Fields to show him who's the boss. Angel has soon figured out the only
way to get to the bottom of the whole thing is to throw in with Demmer -
and thus she starts an affair with him. However, war is going on not
only between FieldsCo and NavCo (which Demmer has eventually blown up),
but also inside FieldsCo, where Demmer is eventually attacked by a
colleague (Tom Webber) with a gun, and where another colleague (Bill
Corsair) has long planned Demmer's demise, and thus he has Angel's former
partner (Haoui Montaug) killed and evidence left at the scene of the crime
pointing to Demmer - and thus everything culminates in a rooftop
confrontation between Angel and Demmer, during which he rapes her but she
is able to electrocute him and throw him off the roof ... and with him,
Fields also dies, but does that resolve anything ? An
interesting piece of low budget underground avant-garde science fiction
film noir that's just a little too convoluted in story and too firmly
rooted in early 1980's underground aesthetics in style (think neon lights
and predominance of cold colours) to really be considered a classic,
and the relative lack of camera movements and several long single-shot
sequences also might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a nice trip
back to the early 1980's just because of that and it comes out as a
fascinating piece of nostalgia - and punk- and goth-rocker Lydia Lunch as
hardboiled private eye is at least worth a look, right ? Just don't expect
the best film ever, though.
|