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Description |
THE
BOY WHO CRIED BITCH easily qualifies as one of the most reprehensible films ever
made. Its climax alone makes it eminently eligible for this distinction: a
psychotic boy points a gun at his mother's face in a closeup that goes on for an
agonizing aeon.
The troubled lad
in question is Danny Love (Harley Cross), who as far as we are shown has
suffered not even so much as the threat of a spanking in all of his misbegotten
short life. His mother, Candice (Karen Young), seems nearly as imbalanced as he.
What, then, are we to make of this gratuitous farrago involving two of the most
unappealing characters ever to be featured in a movie? Pity? Sorrow? Fear? The
one emotion it's sure to incite in audiences is impatience for the actors to get
that last dirty deed done so they can be liberated from the suffocating,
grotesque atmosphere that has been created.
Danny is so
unmitigatedly rotten that he makes Patty McCormack in THE BAD SEED seem cherubic
by comparison, THE OMEN's Damien a veritable bundle of joy. Minutes into the
film, he scrawls a pen across his mother's freshly painted walls, calls her
"Slut-bitch," and heaves Kentucky Fried coleslaw into her face. She
reacts to these shenanigans (which involve his nearly as obstreperous two
younger brothers) by baring a defiant breast at them. This subdues them, for an
instant. There follows a queasy scene of near child molestation involving Danny
and a mind-warped Vietnam vet. When Danny's behavior grows even more aberrant,
Candice packs him off to a psychiatric clinic which serves as a stage for him to
continue his diabolical antics. The film becomes a junior version of ONE FLEW
OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST with the usual roundup of suspects: an Ophelia-like girl
who conceives an unrequited love for Danny, a confused youth who goes to hell
when he's taken off his medication, a black, who naturally raps, etc. Danny
threatens a roommate with a plastic fork to the throat, gets thrown into
solitary, torches the hallways and has convulsions in the classroom. When it
becomes obvious that he is more than any shrink or institution can handle,
Candice steps in and brings him back home, cuing the aforementioned final scene.
What inspired the
filmmakers to make this shameful thing defies conventional wisdom. The
portentous music and grim air of seriousness indicate that something more, even,
God forbid, Art, was intended here, rather than a mere trashily exploitative
diversion. They had the germ of a good idea in what can happen with children in
a too-lenient household. The currently chic, laissez faire attitude of so
many baby-boomers towards their babies rather inspires dread of what kinds of
monsters this latest generation may turn out to be; we might well become a
nation of Ayatollahs and Leona Helmsleys.
Director
Juan Jose Campanella and producer-screenwriter Catherine May Levin thoroughly
blew it, however, by making Danny so relentlessly evil and encouraging the
awesomely bad acting of their cast. Karen Young is obviously attempting to do
something creepy and strange with Candice. Her off-the-wall line readings would
almost be hilarious if they weren't so calculatedly dreadful. All sympathy for
her character is nullified; you feel that she deserves just as bad a time as the
one she's inflicting on the audience. Ditto for Cross, who, on top of everything
else, affects the most excruciatingly unconvincing stutter ever recorded. One
feels completely masochistic sitting through this film, never more so than when
Cross suddenly breaks into some very De Niro-like method posturing when his
planned escape to Hawaii is thwarted.
(Excessive
violence, substance abuse, profanity, sexual situations, nudity.)
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Cast
Information |
- Dennis Boutsikaris
- Jesse Bradford .... Mike Love
- Gene Canfield .... Jim Cutler
- Harley Cross .... Dan Love
- J.D. Daniels .... Nick Love
- Moira Kelly .... Jessica
- Edwina Lewis .... Ann Marie, R.N.
- John Rothman
- Karen Young .... Candice Love
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Director
Information |
Directed by
Juan José Campanella
Produced by
Catherine May Levin
Louis Tancredi
Cinematography by
Daniel Shulman
Film Editing by
Darren Kloomok
Production Design by
Nancy Deren
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Miscellaneous
Information |
Distributors
Alta Films, S.A. [es] (Spain)
Country of
origin: U.S.
Genre:
Drama
Color or
b/w: Color
Production Co(s).: Tancredi,
Louis/T producer; Pilgrims 3 Corporation
Released
By: Pilgrims 3 Corporation
MPAA
rating: NR
Parental
rating: Objectionable for children
Running
time: 101
minutes
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