I just finished re-watching the 1993 thriller Kalifornia and wow, I feel drained after watching it. It's been a long time since a movie has legitimately chilled me, but Kalifornia hit the nail right on the head. And then it drove that nail through the wood.
The movie follows writer Brian Kessler (David Duchovny), who decides to take a road trip along with his girlfriend (Michelle Forbes) and visit infamous serial killers' homes for his new book. He organizes a blind ride-share to cut on gas costs, but when the white-trash Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and his girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) opt to go along, something doesn't seem right.
This film is a highlight in Brad Pitt's career, and I'm sure Early Grayce will or has already gone down as one of the most sinister villains in cinema. He is a cold-blooded sociopath with a killing streak; at first, his trashy ways are amusing at best. But the movie escalates into full-blown madness as Grayce's temper gets hotter and hotter.
I'm a big Duchovny fan personally, but I found it hard to like his character at first. He has sympathy for the serial killers he is studying and I spent a large portion of the movie wondering how he could be so oblivious to the signs. The movie demonstrates how there can be motives and reasons behind a killer's crime, but deep down there is no explanation for what causes some people to lose their grip on reality. Sure, there's chemical imbalances and all of that scientific mumbo jumbo. But why do they have these imbalances? Why are they made this way? What could stop somebody completely normal from going on a killing spree themselves?
Brian Kessler seeks to find these answers, and finds himself rethinking everything he thought he knew about the minds of these sick people.
I've been grabbing a few gems and postings reviews about them, but I plan on getting around to a top 25 list of my all-time favorite/greatest films and reviewing each one the best I can.
Cheers!