TWO MOON JUNCTION
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
See at the Seattle Film Festival: TWO MOON JUNCTION (USA, 1988) Director/Screenwriter: Zalman King Cast: Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tyson, Don Galloway, Juanita Moore, Louise Fletcher, Burl Ives
Right before this film was shown at the Festival, Gary Tucker, ofttimes Festival MC and Seattle Landmark, read a letter from Zalman King apologizing for not being able to be there. In the note, King said (I paraphrase) "Many of the films you've been showing at the festival so far is directed at the audience's head or heart. TWO MOON JUNCTION aims a little lower." No lie. The question is, does such a witty remark and later assertions that he realizes his film is soft-porn fluff give a few extra points on the ol' Moriarty grading scale?
For King, yes. For TWO MOON JUNCTION, no.
It's possible that this film could be seen as camp, or as some type of crossover between a Tennessee Williams play and BLOOD SIMPLE (the photography is over-ingenious), but if so, it's too well hidden. The number of Southern stereotypes here might contribute to that thesis, but again, the comedy needs to be more apparent. But onto what little meat this film provides:
TWO MOON JUNCTION opens with a beautiful young sorority girl (Fenn) returning to her family's Georgia (I think) mansion after graduating from some exclusive Southern college. She's going to marry a handsome fraternity Nazi with a future (especially since her dad is a Senator -- another stereotype, played by the guy who played Ironside's leg-man and JoBeth Williams uptight husband in THE BIG CHILL), and is living at home for one last time. While taking her two sisters to a local carnival, she catches the eye of the carny manager (Tyson), a long-haired, body-built, hunk o' man, and they are immediately sexually attracted to one another. We know this because the soundtrack starts doing this rhythmic heartbeat sound, and we get pseudo-Tangerine Dream music as everything's slllllloooooowwwwwsssss ddddoooowwwnnnnn around them. She accidentally drops her purse, which he retrieves and gives back to her. They touch! She sends off negative vibes, but we can tell she's excited! Oh, the humanity!
Later, Senator Dad and Mom and the younger sisters leave Fenn alone in the mansion for the weekend (or as alone as you can be with 20 servants and gardeners). She suddenly hears the shower running upstairs. It's her pal, the carny manager; he's dropped by, entered the house and is taking a quick shower. Lots of muscular skin. Fenn says she's going to call the police. She runs for door. Decides not to open it, though, probably due to that annoying heartbeat tone in the soundtrack. Carny Guy offers to leave if she wants him to; she doesn't say anything, he carries her into the den, lays her down on the rug, turns on the family video camera (boy, is Senator Dad in for a surprise at the next neighborhood home movie showing!), and proceeds to put the Playboy Channel to shame.
Well, the rest of the film follows this general pattern. The wedding approaches, and the girl can't make up her mind if she wants to satisfy her family or her loins. Several more "Heartbeat of America" scenes. To spice up the plot a bit, Louise Fletcher as Fenn's grandmother and ruler of the county (this is the Hollywood version of the South, right? Can you guess what comes next?) decides that the young Carny Guy could seriously screw up her plans for the Master Preppie Race, and sics Burl Ives, the county sheriff (right you are!) on the lad. But True Lust cannot be daunted by adversity (or common sense -- neither of these sweat puppies are appealing for anything other than their sexual stamina)....
Fenn was apparently surgically altered to look as much like Madonna as possible. Tyson reminded me of Christopher Lambert in GREYSTOKE, but Lambert had better lines in his film. Ives and Fletcher grind out their characters as they have for years. Only Jodie Foster (in an uncredited role, at least in my program) adds any life at all, as a drifter who has traveled with Tyson and befriends Fenn, then leaves good-naturedly when she notices the two are jumping into the nearest alcove whenever they're together. Having her name unmentioned in the program credits showed a certain amount of sense, at any rate.
A big-budget, MTV drive-in movie. Absolutely without merit, except maybe derision, and even then I would have preferred to spend my time elsewhere. Pfffffft.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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