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Philip Ridley's The Reflecting Skin (1990) is one of those movies that demands repeated viewing, especially by fans of the David Lynch--style of filmmaking. While on one level it is very beautiful (the shots of golden wheat fields swaying in the wind recall images from the best Andrew Wyeth paintings), it also possesses an incredible menagerie of grotesque characters and weird goings-on.
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| The story takes place in the 1950s, on some very lonesome Midwest farmlands. Eight-year-old Seth (Jeremy Cooper) lives with his alcoholic father, his constantly complaining mother, and his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), who has just returned from naval duty in the South Pacific and is suffering from radiation poisoning. Seth and his best friend amuse themselves by engaging in such fun things as vandalism and childish pranks; in one particularly cruel instance, they use a straw to inflate a frog so that it will explode in the face of an unsuspecting neighbor. |
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When a black car full of strangers arrives in town, young boys begin to disappear. Because of his homosexual past, Seth's dad is a suspect. To escape the accusations (and perhaps his own feelings of guilt), he douses himself with gasoline, drinks a gallon for good measure, and lights up. Cameron becomes romantically involved with the widow-next-door, whose house is filled with bony souvenirs brought home by her dead whaler husband. The decor, plus her insistence that she is 200 years old, make Seth think that she is a vampire who is after his brother's blood, and most likely responsible for murders of the young boys (whose number now includes Seth's best friend). |
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| The Reflecting Skin was Ridley's first film as a director, and it followed his brutally quirky screenplay for 1990's The Krays. In 1995 he continued on his quest to be the British David Lynch with The Passion of Darkly Noon, an equally strange, sexual-religious allegory that also featured Viggo Mortensen. It's not quite as entertaining as Skin, but well worth seeing for its brooding atmosphere and a sensual performance by Ashley Judd. |
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