Monday 28 December 2020

Freeway (1996 Matthew Bright & scr)

Well, this was not what I was expecting at all. I thought we were headed into psycho serial killer thriller,  actually it's a lot more interesting than that. For one thing, the credits are comic book scenes of young women being preyed on by amorous wolves. It's set in the reality of a young woman from a dysfunctional family (mom's a prostitute, mom and step-dad are junkies) headed to her grandmother's for sanctuary (it's full of Little Red Riding Hood references), only to be picked up by the Wrong Guy. It's about to go very bad for our heroine, but she turns the tables and (appears to) kill him. The female pluck is one of the good things here, as is some very long takes in the car between Reece Witherspoon and Keifer Sutherland. Anyway, she's arrested and interrogated by Dan Hedaya and Wolfgang Bodison, who seem to warm up to her. But Sutherland has survived...

Its mix of extreme violence, social observation and black humour doesn't quite come off, but it's still a most interesting ride.


Eccentric score from Danny Elfman and Tito Larriva adds another dimension. Photographed by John Thomas, edited by Maysie Hoy (worked on The Player and Smoke).

Reese debuted in 1991 in The Man in the Moon and Wildflower. She was 19/20 here. She's great, as always.

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