KICKED IN THE HEAD
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 5.0 Alternative Scale: ** out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 9/26/97 (limited) Running Length: 1:30 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, violence, sex) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Kevin Corrigan, Michael Rapaport, Linda Fiorentino, James Woods, Lili Taylor, Burt Young Director: Matthew Harrison Producer: Barbara DeFina Screenplay: Matthew Harrison, Kevin Corrigan Cinematography: John Thomas, Howard Krupa Music: Stephen Endelman U.S. Distributor: October Films
Take a little Quentin Tarantino, a little Martin Scorsese, and a little Richard Linklater, add a $4 million budget, then dilute it all with a derivative script, and you get KICKED IN THE HEAD, director Matthew Harrison's third feature (the other two were SPARE ME and RHYTHM THIEF). Harrison, who has been making movies since he was a kid, apparently has yet to develop a unique film making voice. KICKED IN THE HEAD has a tired, unoriginal feel, as if it was put together using the spare parts from numerous better entries.
KICKED IN THE HEAD is about losers and lowlifes in the Generation X world. The main character, Redmond (Kevin Corrigan), is a twentysomething slacker who is just about the most irksome individual I can imagine having as a motion picture lead. Redmond is a shiftless, self-pitying whiner who spends the entire film coming up with reasons to feel sorry for himself. He doesn't have job (and doesn't want one), pines for a stewardess (Linda Fiorentino) who won't give him the time of day, and ignores the one person (Lili Taylor) who appears to truly care for him.
Redmond's Uncle Sam (James Woods) is a two-bit crook who has gotten his hands on a nice stash of dope. Using Redmond as his delivery boy, he hopes to extricate himself from the "deep doo-doo" that he's in. Unfortunately for both Sam and Redmond, things don't go down as planned, and Redmond finds himself stuck with a package of cocaine while a local crime boss named Wacky Jack (Burt Young) breaths down his neck.
During the course of its 90 minute running time, KICKED IN THE HEAD offers very little that's new or innovative, and the storyline fails to rise above the level of "passably interesting." Harrison tries too hard to give his film the quirky, darkly comic tone that's in vogue today, and the result feels forced and artificial. Redmond is the kind of character who might be at home in a Linklater film (particularly SUBURBIA). The New York streets that he wanders are the territory of Martin Scorsese (who executive produced this movie). And some of the pop-culture, pseudo-intellectual banter recalls that of Tarantino or Kevin Smith (there's a bit about the PLANET OF THE APES movies and an exchange about the difference between a "flight attendant" and a "stewardess"). The problem with Harrison isn't that he borrows from these directors, but that he fails to take it further. And, since he's not as adept as any of them, KICKED IN THE HEAD comes across as a pale attempt to pilfer from their work.
As generally uninvolving as KICKED IN THE HEAD is, it does boast a few innovative moments. The film features several gunfights which are highlighted by the complete ineptitude of the participants. Men fire off round after round after round, and, even at close range, they never manage to hit anyone. Then there's the way Harrison gives one character his comeuppance. Not only is the actual method deliciously ironic ("hoist by his own petard" is the expression), but the matter-of-fact manner in which Harrison films it is noteworthy.
Although the director managed to snag some fairly well-known names for this film, we aren't inundated by top-notch performances. Kevin Corrigan, who was in RHYTHM THIEF and WALKING AND TALKING, plays Redmond as if the character is a half-wit (maybe that's the point). Michael Rapaport is his usual grating self. Linda Fiorentino is absolutely wasted. Only James Woods and Lili Taylor (who is trying to recapture the "Queen of the Independent Films" title from Parker Posey), playing against type as a sweet, innocent girl, turn in respectable work.
As seemingly must be true of any Generation X character, Redmond is filled with self-doubt and unfulfilled longings. His life, as revealed through this film, is a mass of questions and unresolved issues. Does he find real love? Does he uncover the elusive "truth" that he's always talking about? Does his "attendant godling" re-discover her way? Sad to say, I didn't really care one way or the other. Somehow, Harrison managed to create a protagonist whom I was apathetic towards and place him in situations that I wasn't interested in. And that's one aspect of movie-making that he didn't lift from Scorsese, Linklater, or Tarantino.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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"The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it..."
- Jean-Luc Godard
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