Plot
This debut feature film from music video director Dominic Sena is a romp through the world of serial killing, which in its bleakness and moral bankruptcy looks backwards to Terrence Malick's Badlands and forward to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers. Michelle Forbes plays hip, Mapplethorpe-esque photographer Carrie Laughlin, who wants to move to California for a fresh start. Her boyfriend, Brian Kessler (David Duchovny), is a writer who has an idea for a new book, a travel tome on the sites of serial murders. The two plan to go on a cross-country tour of the murder sites, with Brian writing the commentary and Carrie taking the pictures. But they need a couple to share the driving expenses; enter Grayce (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend, Adele (Juliette Lewis, in a warm-up for her role in Natural Born Killers). Grayce is an ex-con looking to jump parole, while Adele is a childlike naïf. Soon the four are off to California, but the yuppie couple doesn't realize how close they are to their serial killer topic. It seems Grayce has murdered his landlord before their trip and bodies begin piling up disturbingly behind them as they make their way across the country. ~ Paul Brenner, RoviReview
Half-assed in its edginess but full-on trashy, this blood-drenched road movie features an over-the-top Brad Pitt in his Method actor phase; a dead-on Juliette Lewis as yet another special-ed Lolita; a pre-X-Files David Duchovny warming up his Fox Mulder persona; and an icy Michelle Forbes as a castrating intellectual poseur. Pitt's Early Grayce is the most unlikely and over-the-top collection of cheekbones, tics, abs, and guttersnipe slang ever to grace the silver screen. The actor allegedly broke a tooth while opening a beer bottle with his teeth to get into character, and such dedication shows in every nasal snort and lascivious leer. Duchovny's Brian Kessler narrates with incessant banality, lending more sympathy to the serial-killer antagonist than to his own stupid yuppie self. Lewis shows off her considerable skills in a role designed to be sexy, tacky, and pitiable at the same time, while Forbes is a study in minimalism -- all scowl, severe bangs, and artistic pretension. Dominic Sena, who moved from music videos to Kalifornia to a career as a would-be action auteur, infuses each frame of his film with flashy shades of dread, but he never achieves the disturbing grittiness of later Pitt vehicle Seven or even the amphetamine overkill of the Lewis-starring Natural Born Killers. In fact, Kalifornia actually works better as a comedy: a violent and bitchy update of the mixed-doubles scenarios that powered such classic sitcoms as The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy. Oh, that wacky murderer and his ditsy girlfriend. Oh, that pseudo-transgressive photographer and her sensitive new age guy. Put 'em together and you have a movie that's entertaining in spite of itself -- one that exposes the shallowness of urban hipsterdom by wallowing in the supposed depravities of the trailer-park set. Not exactly a light or unlifting viewing experience, but hey -- it's a lot more fun than watching Anthony Hopkins cook Ray Liotta's brains. ~ Brian J. Dillard, RoviCast
- Brad Pitt - Early Grayce
- Juliette Lewis - Adele Corners
- David Duchovny - Brian Kessler
- Michelle Forbes - Carrie Laughlin
- Sierra Pecheur - Mrs. Musgrave
Credit
Jeff Mann - Art Director, Carol Lewis - Casting, Kristine J. Schwarz - Co-producer, Thomas Patrick Smith - First Assistant Director, Eric Mofford - First Assistant Director, Dominic Sena - Director, Martin Hunter - Editor, Lynn Bigelow - Executive Producer, M. James Kouf Jr. - Executive Producer, Carter Burwell - Composer (Music Score), Michelle Buhler - Makeup, Michael White - Production Designer, Bojan Bazelli - Cinematographer, Steve Golin - Producer, Sigurjon Sighvatsson - Producer, Gregory Goodman - Producer, Aris McGarry - Producer, Kate J. Sullivan - Set Designer, Stephen Levy - Screen Story, Tim Metcalfe - Screen Story, Stephen Levy - Screenwriter, Tim Metcalfe - Screenwriter, Kevin Bartnof - Foley Artist| Kalidas (1931 Film), Kalibre 35 (2000 Film) | |
| Kalina Krasnaya (1974 Film), Kalinovski Square (2007 Film) |
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