Headbanger Movie Review
By Mad Professor Mike
Clean, ShavenUSA - 1993 (Limited release, 1995)Hello, America This is Mad Prof. Mike with the Headbanger Movie Review!! There's a new weird flick out now getting limited release, called "CLEAN, SHAVEN." It's a sick number about a psycho-killer shot in that low budget, small-millimeter way made popular by film students who used to get their projects on late night cable. "CLEAN, SHAVEN" is way ahead of such NIGHT FLIGHT fodder, but it's still close enough to that weird little genre that I found myself ready to get up for a beer during the next commercial... which never came. Did I enjoy "CLEAN, SHAVEN"? Yeah. Would I have enjoyed it if I'd shelled out seven or eight bucks for it, instead of seeing it free as a reviewer? I don't know. But I do know that writer/ director Lodge H. Kerrigan gets a big "A" for effort. Most movies are only ABOUT mental illness and homicidal obsession. This movie FEELS like mental illness. Star Peter Greene is one of the best child-killing loony toons since Peter Lorre in "M." There's a great "Friedkin-esque" breakdown of every code of morality in this flick. There's no real sense of justice or Good or Evil--just a wonderful 1990's sense of being completely numb to every moral concern. "CLEAN, SHAVEN" is bleak, depressing... and painful. Because our loony toon protagonist is trying to find his long-lost daughter, the movie started to feel like "THE JAME GUMM/SILENCE OF THE LAMBS FAMILY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL." (Sound SFX--Cue Ted Levine knock off/imitation: "It puts the stuffing in the bird or it will get the hose again." "YOU FREAKING ELF!!! PUT IT IN THE STOCKING!!!" "Oh, Uhhh. Wasn't she a great big fat reindeer?") So... if you guys are willing to roll the dice on something that will stimulate the same impulse that causes us to slow down and look at car wrecks, check out "CLEAN, SHAVEN". But if want to see a movie that will entertain you, better go to "UNDER SIEGE 2," or something like that. On our Headbanger scale of one to four "CLEAN, SHAVEN" gets three disturbed headbangs. With the Headbanger Movie Review, I'm Mad Professor Mike for "Movie Magazine." © 1995 - Michael Marano - Air Date: 9/20/95 |
