Kalifornia (1992, Dir. Dominic Sena)
Synopsis:
Writer Brian (David Duchovny) and his photographer girlfriend Carrie (Michelle Forbes) hit on the idea of visting famous murder sites on the way to California for a book project that will combine both their talents. Not having much money, Brian posts an advert at a local college looking for someone else interested in traveling with them to share the cost of expenses and lodging on the way. Despite Carrie‘s reservations, they end up taking Early (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend, Adele (Juliette Lewis). Unbeknownst to them, however, Early is a murderous psychopath who is on parole and soon the quartet are leaving their own trail of crime scenes as they cross the country.
Bombing at the U.S. box office, Kalifornia was already tainted in the U.K. Film press before it was even released. I vividly remember Empire magazine describing Pitt‘s performance, in particular, as being „shackled by the method“. When I eventually caught up with it on VHS, by which time the cast had all gone on to bigger things, especially David Duchovny, I thought the film was far better than the critics or the box office had suggested. As I recently stumbled upon a second hand dvd of it, I decided to see if it had held up over the intervening 30 years since its release and to a large degree it has. The quartet of central performances combined with some stunning cinematography and some sharp direction from first time director Dominic Sena, who cut his teeth directing stylish music videos, most notably for Janet Jackson, has meant that the film has stayed fresher than a lot of thrillers from the same era.
At the time of the film’s production, Brad Pitt was still best known as the pretty boy hearthrob from films such as Thelma And Louise and The River Runs Through It. This was a deliberate attempt by him to shed that image and it wouldn’t be the last time he did so — within a few years, he would notch up several more performances in films such as True Romance, Seven, Twelve Monkeys, Fight Club and Snatch that would show that he was capable of a broader range of parts. and it began with this film. Now, after a decade or more of Pitt mostly playing „a Brad Pitt-style character“ in virtually every film he’s done, it’s almost as shocking to see him completely immerse himself in a role, as it was a the time of Kalifornia release. It’s important to state that there’s nothing wrong with his performance here — it’s neither hammy nor over-the-top. Pitt commits totally to the character, switching between his many moods with ease. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard not to feel as if a lot of the criticism Pitt‘s performance came in for was simply reviewers reacting to a hot movie star attempting a different, more character driven part, rather actual flaws in the performance itself. Certainly, if you’ve never seen this film, or like me not for some time, it’s worth seeing just to remind oneself that Pitt was prepared to take on more unsympathetic characters even this early on in his career.
As critic Janet Maslin noted at the time of the film’s release, this is a film of contrasting personalities and characters, so to offset Pitt’s psychotic Early, there’s David Duchovny‘s performance as would be writer, Brian. It’s difficult not to now see Brian and his obsession with getting under the skin of famous serial killers by visiting their murder sites as a dry run for Fox Mulder. In fact, the two roles were happening almost simultaneously and Duchovny, who’d steadily been building his career since the late 80s with small but notable performances in films such as Working Girl, Chaplin and Beethoven not to mention his reoccurring role as transgender D.E.A. agent Denise Bryson in the original series of Twin Peaks, was slowly getting cast in bigger roles. Of the four main characters, his is the least interesting, required to be kind and naive enough to put up with Early and Adele at the beginning of the film, before turning into the nominal hero by the end — a difficult ask of any actor. Despite the similarities with his most famous role at certain points, it’s actually the quieter scenes particularly of him and Lewis that really stood out when I watched it again more recently, and elevate his performance above simply „diet Mulder“.
It’s a slight shame that Michelle Forbes hasn’t done that many major film roles in the years since this film’s release, electing to work more in tv for which she was already becoming well known at the time, thanks to her role in Star Trek The Next Generation. Her performance here as Carrie is excellent and perhaps the most varied of the four, as she moves from tough and cynical to terrified as she witnesses Early‘s murderous behavior first hand. The scene with her and Juliette Lewis alone together in the hotel room is beautifully played by the pair of them and you can feel her character’s concern for Adele‘s well-being, whilst at the same time not wanting to get too involved in a friendship she already knows won‘t last beyond the trip. Equally, her terror and fear in the scene where Pitt’s character holds the gas station attendant at gunpoint is palpable and it’s a testament to her brilliance as an actor that she can move so seemlessly between her character’s various emotions.
Juliette Lewis’ performance is the one that really stands out to me re-watching the film now. Like Pitt and Duchovny she‘d already been working for several years prior to her breakout performance in Martin Scorcese’s remake of Cape Fear, which came out just before this film. In a relationship with Pitt at the time of filming, their intimacy certainly seems to help their onscreen chemistry here, with critic Roger Ebert citing Lewis‘ performance as one „of the most harrowing and convincing performances I‘ve ever seen.“ Her childlike optimism and her refusal to accept Early‘s dangerous nature make her character both endearing and tragic. The way she constantly looks to Carrie and particularly Brian for approval might have come across as ridiculous or pathetic in the hands of another actor, but she somehow manages to make it believable. It’s a bit of a travesty that her performances in both Cape Fear and Natural Born Killers were lauded by the critics and yet this one, which is every bit as good and possibly more nuanced than the other two, seems to have flown under the radar.
Cinematographer Bojan Bazalli began his career working with Abel Ferrara on films such as China Girl and The King Of New York, yet his work here is completely different — slick and stylish yet totally in keeping with the film’s neo-noir, road movie aesthetic. The style he creates looks forward to both Darius Khondji‘s work on Seven (which became THE template for thrillers and music videos at the end of the 90s) as well as Robert Richardson‘s heavily stylized work on Natural Born Killers, yet perhaps because Bazalli is capable of changing his style so much from picture to picture his work on this film and in general has never been as recognized as it should be. One look at his filmography and the realization that the man who shot this was also responsible for the cinematography on Burlesque, the U.S. remake of The Ring, Mr and Mrs Smith, Rock Of Ages and the recent superb deep sea Lovecraftian horror, Underwater, (which I reviewed a while back) makes you see how versatile he is and, at the same time, perhaps why he’s not better known.
The film isn’t perfect. The opening scene of Early murdering a woman hitching a lift and the man who picks her up, feels too much like a music video; the introduction to both couples feels a little heavy handed and clichéd at times and the film relies a little too much on Brian‘s voiceover. Yet there are enough good set pieces once they are on the road — Early’s murder of the motorist in the toilet, the scene between Carrie and Adele at the hotel whilst the men are at the bar, Carrie’s realization that Early is wanted by the police on the flickering tv and subsequent holdup and murder of the gas station attendant and the final showdown with Early at the deserted nuclear test site — to keep your attention and demonstrate director Sena’s visual style, helped along by an eclectic score from The Coen Brothers regular composer, Carter Burwell, which moves from ambient synth and slide guitar to more aggressive industrial textures.
Although it’s perhaps most interesting now as a snapshot of 4 actors, who went on to greater success and acclaim, giving the sort of performances that, at least in Pitt and Lewis‘ cases, they wouldn’t do later in their careers; it remains an interesting and often riveting character study and certainly worth the trip.
