:
Adam Plotch,
Talia Rubel,
Diane Spodarek,
more...
:
Miguel Coyula
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Heretic Films
: Foreign, Science Fiction , Disaster Action, Latin America
: 82 min.
Recently Rented By beatricearthur
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The first of a trilogy set against a backdrop of a New York ravaged with acid rains in a society permeated with the ethical values of the DNA21 Corporation. A man in his twenties meets a mysterious young woman who disrupts the banality of his day-to-day existence. Together, they will embark on an obsessive-destructive journey revealing dark family secrets and forbidden desires. Mysterious and seductive, often disturbing, this unclassifiable piece of cinema offers very few answers as it plays with our genre expectations, taking us on a surreal journey with a devastating climax. Red Cockroaches pushes the limit to the notion of what a no-budget film can offer.
Narrative Grand Prize winner of the GreenCine Online Film Festival.
Narrative Grand Prize winner of the GreenCine Online Film Festival.
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| Doofus Alert!
by talltale
October 21, 2005 - 8:09 AM PDT
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6 out of 8 members found this review helpful
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Miguel Coyula has won awards at film festivals in Havana and Hawaii for his straight-to-video RED COCKROACHES. (And, yes, the narrative award at the GC Online Film Festival!) After watching this mess of a movie, I can only assume it was because Coyula is supposed to have made his film on a nearly zero budget.
Set in a very un-futuristic future (gee, everyone's driving last year's cars!), the writer/director does occasionally offer a tasty moment: McDonald's signs are turned upside down so that the Ms are now Ws, and the hero orders a "Wonderburger" and other fast food, paying for it all with a hundred dollar bill--a cheap and clever way to comment on future inflation. But there are damn few of these moments. We do get TV news commentators constantly telling us the same news about the same subjects, while cloning, ecology and other sci-fi tropes are tossed about as though they might figure into things. No such luck.
Instead we are treated to what might happen if "Demon Seed" and "Mimic" met "Lone Star" and had maybe 50 cents among them to spend on script, direction, sets, and acting talent. The hero (I will not name this actor in hopes that I see him again under better circumstances) is simply not very attractive. This might not matter so much if he weren't given hot sex scenes and really far too much to do and say. (And, yes, there is one very, very hot sex scene. Catsup? Zowie!) He might put you in mind of Mark Ruffalo on a really terrible day (not fair to Mr. Ruffalo, I know). I suspect this fellow might be superb in the role of a doofus-best-friend, but not here for goodness sake.
The leading lady has her moments, but there is so much agitation and melodrama and silliness as the film rushes headlong into its finale that-- Oh, well. Look: it truly is amazing that Coyula created all this with almost no money. But what exactly is "all this"? Less, I am afraid, than meets the eye. Not to mention the mind. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.04)
23 Votes
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