2019, Roger Avary (Killing Zoe) -- Netflix
Killing Zoe is a movie squarely set in the realm of That Guy. It came out of the shadow of Reservoir Dogs which Avary had some minor writing credit in. It was purely 90s indie violence, but I don't recall a bloody thing about it, and I don't think I have seen it since. But it sits firmly & fondly on my nostalgia shelf.
And yet, not literally on The Shelf.
Not long after Killing Zoe Avary did some writing on Pulp Fiction and not long after that had a falling out with Tarantino. After that there was his legal trouble, which is facetiously saying he was involved in a DUI crash that killed someone, and he went to jail for it. And out of that, all these years later, comes Lucky Day about an convict released from prison to a rather ludicrous, challenging circumstances -- but, isn't that what all ex-con stories are about? Its considered a pseudo-sequel to Killing Zoe but since I don't remember anything about the first movie, I cannot comment. Maybe a ReWatch is coming?
Also, its not a very good movie, like, at all. But, you know, I kind of liked it.
Red's (Luke Bracey, The November Man) getting out of jail after a couple of years, in the city of San Santos. It bears commenting that the movie was shot in Hamilton, ON and arguably was supposed to be set in some sort of Paris suburb. The portrayed city ends up being set in a pastiche that reminded me of a GTA video game. Anywayz, Red gets out of jail to reconnect with his wife Chloe (Nina Dobrev, Love Hard) and their daughter Beatrice, who now only speaks French, as she speaks with her mother.
Of note, in Killing Zoe, Zed got out of jail and connected with Zoe in Paris.
And as Red gets out, psychopathic killer Luc Chaltier (Crispin Glover, American Gods) arrives from Paris. It bears commenting that while he came from France, and has a French name, they claim the character is not French, but chooses to speak with a cartoonishly thick Frawnch accent, because nutty killer. Chaltier is an enforcer for The Commission, and Red was mixed up in a job that got his brother killed. Revenge time!
Red and his best friend LeRoi (or Leroy; Clé Bennett, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) have a locksmith shop but really, he is safecracker and just needs to recover the bonds they stole, so he can resume his life. But Chloe, who is a painter, has an art show that she has established through the misplaced attentions of art dealer Derrek Blarney (David Hewlett, Stargate: Atlantis). And there is Red's racist asshole parole officer Ernesto Sanchez (Clifton Collins Jr, Pacific Rim).
The resulting movie is an insane mish mash of situations and circumstances and scenes of which the plot barely matters. This is one of the times when I don't think the end product was the intent, just what remains of constant retooling, reshooting and second-guessing, either by Avary himself or by some lunatic Purple Suits.
For example, when Luc arrives in the city he goes to Bar Espace run by Pierre, a man with a Hitler moustache. He fucks Pierre's girlfriend, kills her, and then the rest of the bar patrons. Its a scene, that if better written & directed, would be one of the small "stories" we oft attribute to the Tarantino style, which if you read any Avary background, was his own written connection to Tarantino.
Or, when Luc needs a car, he steals a lowrider from a random cholo. And there is the clown on a scooter who just randomly drives by. And Blarney feels the need to paint on a French-style thin moustache. The movie is just filled with these weird asides that generally don't work.
And yet, the movie worked for me. Its weird, but fun, goofy but ... genuine?
It should be noted that sometime either during the prison years or post prison QT and RA had rekindled their friendship, leading to, of late, the really fun Video Archives podcast.
ReplyDeleteI took have a fond remembrance of Killing Zoe without much recollection of the actual film itself. I know I saw RA's Frankenstein riff Mr. Stitch and his Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Rules of Attraction, and I think I was weirdly drawn to the former (which, from shaky memory, was mostly shot against a blindingly white, sterile background) and the latter of which just left a mossy taste in my mouth.
I have a copy of Killing Zoe in The Binder. Again, I think we need to do a "The Binder and The Shelf" exercise...