Kalifornia starts in Pensylvania where serial killer expert & author Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) decides to gain inspiration for his current book by taking a road trip through Arkansas & Texas to California with his photographer girlfriend Carrie (Michelle Forbes) stopping off at the sites of famous murders along the way. Low on money & gas Brian advertises for a couple to go with them & share the expenses, the advert is answered by real life serial killer Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) & his child like girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis) who wants to escape the state because Early has killed his landlord. At first things go alright but as Early leaves a trial of bodies behind him Brian discovers the truth at which point instead of writing about serial killer victims he looks likely to end up as one...
Directed by Dominic Sena & coming after The Silence of the Lambs (1991) but before Se7en (1995) this is another film to focus on America's morbid curiosity about serial killers & is a hard film to categorise, is it a drama, is it a thriller, is it a road trip film or is it a horror? I suppose it's all of those things, Kalifornia is an unconventional film with an interesting premise that works very well & draws you in but the script by Tim Metcalfe is a bit long & certain sections of the film run out of steam. The majority of the running time of Kalifornia is an absorbing & brilliantly written character study of a serial killer & an author who writes about them, it's a great concept that makes for a great film & I really enjoyed it. It's over an hour before Early is exposed as a serial killer & up to that point Kalifornia had been a bonding type film as two seemingly mismatched couples travel across the isolated desert highways, then it turns into a dark thriller as Early holds Brian & Carrie hostage at which point all the character development becomes worth it as you can really feel where all the character's are coming from, what they must be feeling & actually sympathise with them. The character of Adele is brilliantly written & portrayed as it Early with Brian & Carrie also excellently developed as people. However despite trying to be very clever & say something about the fascination we have with serial killers the film in the end offers very little in the way of motivation & doesn't really come to much, in fact the overriding feeling I got was that Early was a serial killer because he could be & because it felt good as he actually says at the end. Kalifornia is still a great film though, an absorbing, offbeat & fascinating film that I enjoyed although at almost two hours in length it's maybe a bit long, maybe not quite enough happens & I seriously doubt it's a film I'll ever want to see again despite liking it.
Director Sena does a great job here & together with cinematographer Bojan Bazelli gives the film a really stylish look, the scenes in the rainy Pensylvania at the start are darkly lit by shafts of light & look very moody & atmospheric. The scenes of Brian & Carrie walking around the old factory as it pours down outside look wonderful, there are plenty of cool angles & shots & they give the film a really harsh isolated feel once it hits the desert. In short Kalifornia looks fabulous. It's not what I would call scary (although it can be chilling at times) & there's not too much violence, someone is stabbed in a toilet, there are a few gunshot wounds & Early is badly beaten at the end otherwise this is pretty tame. There's a couple of sex scenes as well although nothing anymore graphic than in other Hollywood flicks.
With a supposed budget of about $9,000,000 this had a decent amount of money spent on it, it's certainly well made with good production values. The acting is superb from all involved & they really bring their character's to life with all sorts of little mannerisms so you actually care for them, Brad Pitt is fantastic in this & was paid $500,000 apparently & he is virtually unrecognisable under a thick beard & Southern accent before his role in another excellent serial killer film Se7en, Lewis is amazing while this was an early role for David Duchovny just before he played Agent Fox Mulder in the hit sci-fi series The X-Files (1993 - 2002), they all really carry the film & no-one else matters that much.
Kalifornia is a great serial killer thriller, it's a little offbeat & maybe not for everyone but I found it both fascinating & absorbing with some terrific performances from the main cast & it's got bags of style too. Maybe a bit long & a bit slow at times but still great in my opinion & well worth a watch.
Directed by Dominic Sena & coming after The Silence of the Lambs (1991) but before Se7en (1995) this is another film to focus on America's morbid curiosity about serial killers & is a hard film to categorise, is it a drama, is it a thriller, is it a road trip film or is it a horror? I suppose it's all of those things, Kalifornia is an unconventional film with an interesting premise that works very well & draws you in but the script by Tim Metcalfe is a bit long & certain sections of the film run out of steam. The majority of the running time of Kalifornia is an absorbing & brilliantly written character study of a serial killer & an author who writes about them, it's a great concept that makes for a great film & I really enjoyed it. It's over an hour before Early is exposed as a serial killer & up to that point Kalifornia had been a bonding type film as two seemingly mismatched couples travel across the isolated desert highways, then it turns into a dark thriller as Early holds Brian & Carrie hostage at which point all the character development becomes worth it as you can really feel where all the character's are coming from, what they must be feeling & actually sympathise with them. The character of Adele is brilliantly written & portrayed as it Early with Brian & Carrie also excellently developed as people. However despite trying to be very clever & say something about the fascination we have with serial killers the film in the end offers very little in the way of motivation & doesn't really come to much, in fact the overriding feeling I got was that Early was a serial killer because he could be & because it felt good as he actually says at the end. Kalifornia is still a great film though, an absorbing, offbeat & fascinating film that I enjoyed although at almost two hours in length it's maybe a bit long, maybe not quite enough happens & I seriously doubt it's a film I'll ever want to see again despite liking it.
Director Sena does a great job here & together with cinematographer Bojan Bazelli gives the film a really stylish look, the scenes in the rainy Pensylvania at the start are darkly lit by shafts of light & look very moody & atmospheric. The scenes of Brian & Carrie walking around the old factory as it pours down outside look wonderful, there are plenty of cool angles & shots & they give the film a really harsh isolated feel once it hits the desert. In short Kalifornia looks fabulous. It's not what I would call scary (although it can be chilling at times) & there's not too much violence, someone is stabbed in a toilet, there are a few gunshot wounds & Early is badly beaten at the end otherwise this is pretty tame. There's a couple of sex scenes as well although nothing anymore graphic than in other Hollywood flicks.
With a supposed budget of about $9,000,000 this had a decent amount of money spent on it, it's certainly well made with good production values. The acting is superb from all involved & they really bring their character's to life with all sorts of little mannerisms so you actually care for them, Brad Pitt is fantastic in this & was paid $500,000 apparently & he is virtually unrecognisable under a thick beard & Southern accent before his role in another excellent serial killer film Se7en, Lewis is amazing while this was an early role for David Duchovny just before he played Agent Fox Mulder in the hit sci-fi series The X-Files (1993 - 2002), they all really carry the film & no-one else matters that much.
Kalifornia is a great serial killer thriller, it's a little offbeat & maybe not for everyone but I found it both fascinating & absorbing with some terrific performances from the main cast & it's got bags of style too. Maybe a bit long & a bit slow at times but still great in my opinion & well worth a watch.