Review of Kalifornia (1993) by Craig H — 29 Jul 2012

David Duchovny's character at one point tells himself that to be a good writer he would need to ignore stereotypes. Unfortunately the script writers certainly fail to follow the same instructions. the culture clash of the good looking middle class sharply dressed, culturally aware young couple, sharing a road trip with the trailer park dwelling, uneducated a white-trash couple (who also happen to be good looking) is hardly revolutionary in terms its agenda to stray the course of cliche.

David Duchovny and Michele Forbes characters/performances are dull as ditch water, said to be struggling for money while wearing stylish clothes, living in an expansive apartment and carting around expensive camera equipment.

Duchovny's pointless voice over littering the piece with a constant dredge of monotony. Pitts performance at least has a level of energy about it, though he tends to overact and his accent is at times hideously overdone.

Juliette Lewis's character is an annoyingly kooky moron. Still the performances are not the worst thing about this film. That would down the fact that no matter what happens; you know you are watching a Hollywood movie.

Everything feels thoroughly unrealistic from the choice of locations down to the appalling early nineties/MTV music video camera work. The biggest weakness (and one that happens to be the case in most of these films)is the lack of a likable character, who really cares about any of them? maybe Lewis's character, but she's just so annoying.

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