Badlands

Feels like one of them great European films, only all too American. Feels like a novel too, probably on account of that voiceover work Sissy Spacek did. She’s great in this. So is Martin Sheen. Looks just like his son in places, Charlie not Emilio. Both his sons I’m a fan of but here he really shows how they got careers. Without this movie, I’m convinced, there’d be no Wild at Heart, no True Romance, no Natural Born Killers, no Buffalo ‘66. Now, that’s not just because the basic plot, I’m sure there have been plenty of runaways stories all throughout human history. I just noticed certain similarities besides. Wild at Heart to the Nat King Cole sequence. Maybe Buffalo ‘66 to the calm and creepy score, I don’t know. I had it in my head but forgot. And I know TR and NBK owe everything to WaH anyway but I love em. I’d say this is inspired by Nabakov’s Lolita. Kit is a real American Humbert. Not like Quilty who’s a mirror in more ways than one. Really great movie, so sweet and so dark, a dry sense of humor. So many beautiful shots of my favorite country in the world. THE DREAM HAS ENDED FOR TRUE LOVE DIED THE NIGHT A BLOSSOM FELL AND TOUCHED TWO LIPS THAT LIED Sheen many great idiosyncrasies. P.S. - America flipped on its head. Not working out like it should. But at the same time working out exactly like you’d expect, and in the way that feels right. I believe there’d be no Gummo without this movie. No Korine, not as we know him. A lot of Lynch in here too. In the big ways. Grotesque and Mundane.