Delightful pulpy schlock for Hot Topic goths and theater kids (complimentary). Luckily for me, this was the exact right combination of influences for this movie to take over my entire brain in college, and turns out I still love its campy nonsense even over a decade later!! It’s basically Sweeney Todd in a futuristic sci fi body-horror capitalist dystopia and I’m so here for it.
Also: literal Joan Jett cameo in Shilo’s teen girl punk-rock dream sequence is perfect.
Actually mad at how much I really liked this, considering it ends on a juicy cliffhanger and there will likely never be a part 3.
It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but there’s actual plot, fun worldbuilding with heaven as a roaring 20s old Hollywood fascist bureaucracy, wild guest stars, a train of the damned screaming its way to heaven, lesbian yearning, Terrance Zdunich as the most charismatic bitter gossip Lucifer, Adam Pascal as God’s villainous attack dog. I feel like I just emerged from a fever dream. I had a blast.
Oof. We paired this with Swallow on the same day, because they're both stories about disaffected unhappy wives struggling with their circumstances, striving to regain some sense of control over their situation, and acting out in strange ways -- but it turns out that The Swerve was, um, sub-par, and I'm not quite sure why everyone's singing its praises.
The good: Azura Skye's performance is amazing. She's ragged, haggard, haunting, visibly coming apart at the seams. Watching her wrestle with…
“I’m gonna kill you if I have to ride all the way to Hell to do it.”
This ruled so, so much. How did I never know that Sam Raimi did a western with a stacked cast and lead Sharon Stone as a great female gunslinger (who’s kickass but also gets to show real fear & vulnerability), and who has a yearning romance with a young and ludicrously handsome Russell Crowe???
I am obsessed. This was everything I love.
