A Twisted Tale of Lust, Murder, and Manicured Lawns. Father Geek here to tell you readers of AICN that truer words have never been used to sum up a motion picture in a single sentence. WICKED is just that... wicked. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt the most aptly named flick I've seen this year, and I've seen close to 300 since Harry saw this one at Sundance on January 23rd of this year. He came back from that snow bound festival babbling about two films in particular, clutching their posters in his hands. One was GODS AND MONSTERS, which I've seen 5 times now and simply love, the other was this gem of the macabre, this perfectly realized sick little flick of suburban life in a gated community in the Southern Californian desert, a movie that is quite simply WICKED.
You know one of the rewards of being apart of the crew at Geek Headquarters is being able to view films that are not commonly available like the one that is the subject of this report. When Harry showed me the poster for this feature months ago I knew I had to see it. The scissors, the bloody paperdoll, the look in Julia Stiles eyes, that great cut line: " A Mother. A Murder. A Wonderful Opportunity for Growth.", they totally sucked me in. Then there was Julia's cryptic autograph at the top. " Harry, I'm so glad that you enjoyed our... Oh... So... Strange Film." But months flew by and it looked as if I would never, never get to see this film. Harry told me nothing of the plotline, nothing of the gnarled, twists and turns which Julia would lead me through if ever I were lucky enough to visit her demented world. I had all but given up hope of experiencing what Julia had in store for me. Then, then Harry gets picked to judge the competion films at the upcoming Austin Film Festival, 16 of them in fact, so last weekend we (Harry, Tom Joad, and I) sit back for an orgy of film watching, and guess what, one of the entries is the long absent WICKED and its seductive little star Julia Stiles. Thread it up I holler, but Nooooo, Harry says we must see it last, least it taint our judgment of the other 15 films. Sooooo I must wait another 30 hours. Hours filled with film both good and bad, hours of fun and adventure, hours of love and hate, hours of both boredom and heightened senses. Then......
WICKED appears on screen. The desert races by, and suddenly an oasis, a walled, gated suburb surrounded by burnt sand, an anomaly in the Californian sun. Sudden green- ness in a sea of rust. The film begins. Have you seen REPULSION, PSYCHO, or THE TENANT; have you seen THE INNOCENTS, or the BAD SEED; how about BADLANDS, and THE PROFESSIONAL? If you have then you may be prepared for WICKED and Julia's role in it. If you have you may be prepared for it's several heart- clenching twists. If you have you may be prepared for Julia's portrayal of Ellie, part Film Noir moll and part demon child, an Electra of the suburbs.
But Julia is not alone in WICKED. It is filled with perfectly scripted co-stars. There's the neighbor Patrick Muldoon recently of STARSHIP TROOPERS. He's desperate, completely lost, tragic. There's the younger sister Vanessa Zima of ULEES GOLD, a mix of vulnerability and sweetness and a sense of darkness. There's the detective Michael Parks a film vet seen recently in FROM DUSK TO DAWN who gives a delicious, stylized performance as a voyeur of sorts. There's the mother Chelsea Field from the LAST BOY SCOUT who once again plays the neglected, misunderstood wife. And then there is the father William Moses of MYSTIC PIZZA as the stressed-out, crumbling patriarch of the Christianson clan. There are others too, great little roles with bite.
And there's the music, wonderful music by Cliff Martinez one of Steven Soderbergh's mainstays from SL&V to KAFKA to THE UNDERNEATH to SCHIZOPOLIS, he's even played drums on recordings by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Weirdos, and Capt. Beefheart. His music drives this film, capturing the mood of every sick and twisted moment perfectly.
While not for everyone this motion picture is very very good. I found it not only greatly entertaining, but intellectually stimulating as well. Its about the real horror in society and the horror that sometimes rests in the soul of a family. Its about the fact that home sometimes can be a very very very scary place. Search this one out, make the effort to find and see this film. You will be rewarded! It's down right WICKED!
