Horredy: Stuck

In the wake of lots of devastation in Indonesia, I am going to put off mocking their movies for a little bit. Don't worry- they'll get their turn. In the meantime, I am going to bring you a film that slipped under the radar, but deserves some attention. It was made by the man behind the Re-Animator films, but is much more grounded in reality than those ones. It is what happens when Mr. Coscarelli handles real-life events, I guess. He also manages to get a good performance out of an actress that has pretty much been coasting since her breakout role in American Beauty. Two years removed from the Day of the Dead remake, she actually does a good job here. The key to this film that is it is a mix of the banal and the absurd. In lesser hands, it would fail, but here it works. Enough gushing and let's jump into...

Stuck (2007)

The film begins by introducing us to our two heroes that come from very different walks of life. First, we get our male lead, who is a businessman who gets fired from his job. He did not save his money, so he is also kicked out of his apartment. Seeing the once-powerful man humbled into running out of the building with all of his clothes in a suitcase is not easy to watch. The guy is forced to become one of America's homeless in the span of one day. Now, we cut to the heroine of the film, a young nurse who works at a nursing home. She is young, but is forced to work the job of an older woman. Plus, she has cornrows that are as convincing as Juliette Lewis'. She has a good friend who works there, but there boss apparently has it in for her. In reality, her boss does not trust her for good reason- she goes behind her back all the time. After a long day of work, she goes out drinking with her friend and her boyfriend (she's got jungle fever). Later that night, the drinking ends and she goes home. On the way home, she runs into our other lead with her car. The force sends him through her windshield, but the glass locks him in. Now he's stuck- get it?

*

The girl naturally freaks out, but tries to distract herself. Unsure what to do, she parks the car in the garage (the street is obviously a no-go) & waits for her boyfriend. He offers her some illicit substances and they proceed to ignore the situation in a 'carnal manner.' This also fulfills our prerequisite nude scene in the form of a topless Mena Suvari- been there, done that. The next morning, he leaves and she is stunned to find that he is still alive. This leads to the famous line where she says 'How can you do this to me?!?' His reply is an exasperated gasp (that was mine) and silence. How do you reply to that? She ends up being late to work since she has to call a cab, which causes her trouble with her boss. All things considered, this is a minor bit of punishment. With a bit of clarity, our heroine realizes that something needs to be done, so she plans to sneak away in the afternoon. Coming in late and sneaking out? Why is she confused about her boss' attitude again? She calls her man and says that something needs to be done. He meets her there and is a bit surprised to see a living man in her car window. He just figured that she had damaged the car in some normal way. What to do?

*

Yeah, I'm not going to tell you. This movie is fairly new and actually good. If you want to know what happens in the end, watch the movie.

*

I really liked this movie and was sold based on the title. When I read about it, I did not know what to think. Is this a serious drama? It's based on a real case, so how crazy can it be? The trailer tells you that the film goes for all the dark humor that it can muster and does not look back. As a bonus, you get Jeffrey Combs' cameo as the voice of a radio man. At least they did not put him in a giant beard and wig! Suvari is quite good, since she is playing a real character. Stephen Rea- of The Crying Game fame- does a great job as a man who loses everything and only has worse things ahead of him. His indignation, passion and struggle to survive makes him an amazingly-human character in a film that is so off-beat. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who thinks that they can handle a big bag of crazy. It is a fun ride and well-worth the admission price.

*

Let's keep the 'S' titles and 5 letter title theme going with an infamous cult classic. Is it worthy of the hype? Stay tuned...