Title: The Bad Batch
Director: Ana Lily
Amirpour
Released: 2014
Starring: Suki
Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Yolonda Ross,
Giovanni Ribisi, Jayda Fink, Diego Luna, Cory Roberts, E.R. Ruiz
Plot: In the near
future criminals and other society rejects are dumped in a fenced off
area of desert wasteland outside of the Texas. The latest addition to
this community is Arlen (Waterhouse) who soon finds herself having to
traverse the landscape of scavengers, cannibals and cultists if she
is going to survive this dangerous and lawless world.
Review: Following on
from the critically adored “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night”
director Ana Lily Amirpour chooses to follow it up here with this sun
soaked dose of dystopia while at the same time seemingly channelling the cinema
outlaws Harmony Korine and Greg Araki to craft a fiercly unique
vision which will likely prove too abstract for the mainstream movie
goer but there is unquestionably something here.
Bringing to mind
Richard Kelly’s fiercely diversive “Southland Tales” here
Amirpour clearly sets out with a vision for her sophomore effort,
though at the same time its one which will either enthral or bore you depending on your own opinion of the film
the former of which I certainly found myself in even if at times its
hard to actually know what is supposed to be happening other than a
whole lot of cannibalism and desert wandering and this of course
makes it the sort of film as a critic you kind of dread encountering.
I mean how are you supposed to write about nothing? Still as I sit
here writing this two days after I first watched it this is a film
which continues to run through my head so that I feel compelled to
get something down about it.
Opening to Arlen
being dumped into this world we are mere moments into the film before
she is set upon by one of the resident cannibals who quickly relieve
her of one of her arms and a leg before she sets out to escape across
the desert on a skateboard reminiscent in a scene reminiscent of the
opening of “There Will Be Blood” whose record of no dialogue for
the first 14.5 minutes this film smashes by none of the characters
actually talking till we are 30 mins in. Its also during this
sequence that we are introduced to the Hermit played throughout the
film in complete silence by Jim Carrey just one of a series of
interesting casting choices which also sees Keanu Reeves showing up
as the cult-like leader of the town Comfort known only as “The
Dream” who runs a sideline in pot with his harem of pregnant
ladies.
Across the desert
landscape we encounter a number of settlements which has sprung up
with Amirpour following in the footsteps of George Miller as the
residents have constructed shanty towns out of aeroplane parts and
broken down trailers, creating a new society for themselves and one
seemingly styled by the same costume department Harmony Korine uses
from Arlen’s winking booty shorts to Jason Momoa’s “Miami Man”
chest tattoo which serves like an alt-culture name tag, though why
she went with that name like so much of the film is a complete
mystery.
Arlen though is
quick to adapt to this world as the film skips forward six month once
she arrives in comfort to were has she gained a prosthetic leg and
spend her time wandering the wasteland which is were the main story
of sorts begins when she picks up the Miami Man’s daughter Honey
(Fink) after killing her cannibal mother. From here though its really
a lot of wandering as Miami Man tries to find his now missing
daughter before further wandering with Arlen when Honey gets picked
up by Keanu Reeve’s cult leader “The Dream” during an acid
infused rave sequence.
Miami Man on the
other hand is a slightly more complex character as Momoa spend the
film wandering around shirtless and looking like he was carved out of
wood, a cold warrior hardened by the enviroment around him, who feels
nothing about keeping a woman chained up in his yard to use for food,
inbetween painting detailed paintings of his daughter, though its a
connection more confirmed in the wikipedia plot summery than in the
film, were she comes across like a girl from his camp. He however
like the other characters is a fascinating to watch on screen with
Amirpour only giving us small hints of details about these characters
and leaving us as the audience to figure things out, which while
certainly a bold choice is also the kind of thing which put off
audience not wanting to sit through something so abstract.
Now if any of this
is sounding like a confusing mess then you probably would be right
and yet its a fascinating mess which Amirpour allows you to get lost
in using minimalistic dialogue and instead attention grabbing visuals
to tell her story if you can even really call it that. Instead what
it often feels like is more of a snapshot of these characters lives
as we follow them like ghosts in this world and much like with “Ghost
World” we are just along for the ride as events play out acting
more like the observers than actually being part of this world. Of
course if David Lynch can get away with telling a story on the latest
season of Twin Peaks over 18 episode when he really only needed four,
then why can't we enjoy a visually arresting and minimalist desert
romp? Yes this really isn’t going to be for everyone and already I
can see this film ending up like “Southland Tales” as its as
hated as its adored.