something wild (1986)

Something Wild (Jonathan Demme) may or may not have been influenced by Martin Scorsese's After Hours. In both movies, a timid white collar worker heads out on a nightmarish journey. Charles is a boring businessman and his life seems to revolve around work and career. One day, he runs into the wild girl Lulu. He is taken hostage, sort of, and she takes him on a roadtrip that mutates into a suspenseful crime story. As a film, this is nothing to cheer about: what is most problematic is perhaps how the film falls apart into pieces where the director tries out different things. However, there were some good things here. A few good scenes, surprisingly good music and well, admit it, sometimes a bad 80's movie is just what you need; Jeff Daniels & Ray Liotta overacts their quirky roles and the whole thing is rather silly, but entertaining. What the hell - John Waters is in a small part as a car salesman and some other of the smaller roles work amazingly as well. The Feelies perform at a reunion party. - - - After all: not bad even though the last 30 minutes are rather weak.