One man’s garbage is another man’s super trash. And this weekend, some of the finest refuse from the past few decades will be playing at the Bagdad Theater. SUPERTRASH is a three-day-long marathon featuring cult classics and terrible films like Mad Love, Return of the Dragon and Robocop 2.
Whether you were raised on these movies or somehow missed them, this festival is worth checking out. Coinciding with the festival is an art show consisting of reworkings of classic, cult film posters.
Road House
There was a time when I thought Point Break was Patrick Swayze’s magnum opus. A recent viewing of Road House has changed that.
In the film, Swayze is Dalton the bar cooler, someone who leads and backs up bouncers. An owner (Tilgman) of another bar knows of Dalton’s reputation as one of the best in the business. Tilgman lures Dalton away from his Memphis digs to clean up his own bar, the Double Deuce. He wants the ruffians out.
But things have gotten so bad in this Jasper, Mo., tavern that one assumes a warehouse full of tables exists behind the Double Deuce in order to replace all the broken furniture during the numerous (and inevitable) knife fights. Even the house band, led by Dalton’s longtime blind friend, has to be caged in.
Dalton arrives at the Double Deuce, and quickly gets to work by firing the bar’s troublemakers. The problem is that one of those troublemakers is the nephew of the town’s most powerful person, Brad Wesley. Then Dalton begins loving on Wesley’s girl, a sexy doctor who is impressed by Dalton’s general badass-ness, and his philosophy degree from NYU. This sets off a bloody feud between Wesley and Dalton (the loving, not the philosophy degree).
Dalton is like “the man with no name” in Sergio Leone’s Westerns, except instead of Eastwood’s rugged squint, we get Swayze’s listless stare. The writer also manages to pack in three love interests for Dalton. Road House stuffs in so many clichés (the helpless townspeople, the philosophical warrior, “What? Are you waiting for Christmas”) that the entertainment never ends for the entire two-hour runtime.
Best quote: “I used to fuck guys like you in prison.” –Nameless goon
Buffalo ’66
Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is living a lie. While he sits in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, his parents think he is off working for the government, and living in Washington, D.C., with his wife. None of this is true. Buffalo ’66 opens with Billy’s release from jail. In order to keep the fa퀌_ade up for his parents, he kidnaps a stranger, Layla (Christine Ricci), from her tap dancing class. The he brings her to his parents’ house (smart). But his parents seem more involved with a tape-recorded Buffalo Bills game than dinner with their visiting son.
The film soon reveals why Billy ended up in prison. It relates to a bet he made on a Buffalo Bills game, and a kicker missing the winning field goal. After Billy fools his parents, he plans to take revenge on the failed Bills’ kicker by murdering him. Awwkwaaard.
Vincent Gallo directed, wrote, scored the music and hell, probably made those red shoes he wears, in this often hilarious, sometimes emotional film. Considering the other schlock included in this festival, Buffalo ’66 doesn’t really fit. It’s a divisive film, sure. A film that sets www.imdb.com discussion boards ablaze with positive and negative hyperbole alike. The film’s inclusion into SUPERTRASH must be another hyperbolic statement of a hater.
Best quote: “And if I find out you go near my locker, I swear to God I’ll give you a karate chop right in the head.” –Billy Brown9Re-Animator
The film in which a creepy, pockmarked student named Herbert West discovers a serum to bring people back from the dead. He brings his discovery to the Miskatonic Medical School to continue mastering his invention. You see, there’s a glitch: Herbert can bring people back to life, but they become ultra-violent, limb-snatching zombies. The situation is a little problematic.
As you can imagine, this picture crescendos into an all-out gore fest, and is a good fit for the festival’s aesthetic.
Best quote: “I must say, Dr. Hill, I’m VERY disappointed in you. You steal the secret of life and death, and here you are trysting with a bubble-headed coed. You’re not even a second-rate scientist!” –Herbert West
Cost: $5 per movie or $15 for all-day passWhere: Bagdad TheaterAll ages before 6 p.m. and 21-and-over after
Road House plays Sunday at 6:30 p.m.Buffalo ’66 plays Sunday at 9 p.m.Re-Animator plays Friday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 11 p.m.