Unstuck in Time

UNSTUCK IN TIME

by Greg Sorenson

WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP (James Marsh, 1999).

I lived there briefly and have lived most of my life in adjacent states, so maybe I'm biased against it, but it seems to me that Wisconsin generates more than its share of bizarreness. At one time or another, you may have been sent a URL chronicling "The Gobbler," a fabulously 50s/60s-kitschy motel and supper club. The popular website Obscure Store usually carries at least one whacked-out news story per day from America's Dairlyland; a recent fave was the guy who ate (and still eats) at least one Big Mac a day for 20-odd years. And of course, it's home to two of America's three best-known cannibals.

The town of Black River Falls is about two hours from the Twin Cities on I-94. You'll know it by a big plastic orange moose on the north side of the interstate, outside the Perkins. Based on the 1973 book of the same name, Wisconsin Death Trip uses re-enactments, archival photos and news articles to chronicle a rash of murders, suicides, general crime, and insanity which befell Black River Falls in the 1890s. Causes aren't really examined, but there are some hints dropped: German and Scandinavian immigrants bought land unseen and later found it was fallow. A nationwide economic depression hit. Long cold winters. And a diptheria outbreak that claimed a large number of children. Some characters pop up repeatedly, including a washed up opera diva and a scorned woman traveling the state on a window-smashing spree. There is some geographical fudging going on - incidents in Kenosha, Superior, and Rhinelander are all cited, all of which are hours away by modern transit and don't have much to do with life in BRF. But the point is made clear, as the book set out to do in the midst of a national crisis, that the notion of idyllic simpler times is a sham.

These black-and-white historical scenes are broken up by color segments depicting life in modern Black River Falls. The contemporary scenes have an Errol Morris feel to them - people are presented and interviewed matter-of-factly, and it's up to us to determine whether they're being mocked. Overall, a somewhat creepy, worthwhile film. Sadly, the orange moose is nowhere to be seen.

FEVER PITCH (David Evans, 1997).

Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch was a brilliant sports book, accessible even if you knew nothing about British soccer, or sports in general. As he proved again in High Fidelity, Hornby's gift is chronicling obsession, whether the subject is music or the local soccer team. Hornby wrote this screenplay around his memoir of lifelong Arsenal FC fandom, but unfortunately he concentrates on a totally limp romantic dramedy.

Hornby's alter ego is Paul (Colin Firth), an English teacher. He hooks up with the teacher in the next classroom, played by an Emma Thompson Lite named Ruth Gemmell. An insipid movie relationship commences. I can't call it a romance since there is no chemistry between Firth and Gemmell; less, even, than between the leads in High Fidelity. Nor, unfortunately, is there any chemistry between Paul and Arsenal, England's leading soccer team. Unlike in the book, there is no sense of how he gets sucked into this world. He just reluctantly goes to a match with his father as a kid and...that's it? And then he complains about "waiting for this for 18 years." Hey, pal, you don't know from waiting - I've got Red Sox fans in the family.

Only in the climactic final match does the film live up to its fandom potential. Technically the film is adequate, with one notable exception: scenes dealing with the impact of the Hillsborough tragedy (74 people crushed to death) are underscored by - a Who song. I'm sure this was intended to add poignance, but it ended up tasteless. This is for really really die-hard Colin Firth fans only. Hornby fans will just get mad.

THE STORY OF RICKY (Ngai Kai Lam, 1989).

Are you as tired as I am of films where the bad guy is seemingly killed, and then - gasp! - pops back up to fight again? Well, try this on for size. In a fight clearly not going his way, the villain commits seppuku - only to use his own innards to attempt to strangle the hero! Now that's entertainment.

The Story Of Ricky is a Hong Kong film based on a manga, but is best known stateside for containing a bare-handed skull-crushing scene used to introduce "5 Questions" on the Craig Kilborn show. Ricky (Fan Siu-Wong), who has superhuman strength, is sent to prison after killing the drug lords who killed his girlfriend. He then takes on the corrupt officials and their prisoner henchmen (one of which is played by a female, Yukari Ôshima, who looks like an Asian badass Klaus Voormann). Winning the admiration of fellow inmates, Ricky pretty much tears through - and I mean through - his foes, in what is the most over-the-top cheeze-gore film I've seen since Dead Alive. Kind of a Shawshank Redemption meets a live-action Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Highly recommended if this sort of thing is for you - and if you've read this far, you probably have a good idea about that.