Kalifornia is a gut-wrenching drama dressed up as a thriller. To describe the plot gives one the sense of a real suspense-style "psychotic killer" movie. And there are places where this film straddles the line between suspense movie and horror flick, but for the most part, it's an incredibly sad, character driven drama. Juliette Lewis's performance as the child-like young woman with abuse in her past, and no self worth at all, pathologically drawn to an abusive psychotic... well her performance is nothing short of outstanding. And Brad Pitt is very good as the abusive psychotic who's taking advantage of her weakness. But watching this movie is sort of like watching someone torture a puppy for an hour and a half. It's excruciatingly sad. David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes are good too, and the story moves along at a nice pace. It's well-written, and the story is well told by director Dominic Sena. If you have to stomach to watch this poor abuse victim being used throughout the whole film, then this movie is very, very good. If you can't stand to watch stuff like that, then stay away from it.
Review of Kalifornia
