This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Such a frustrating disappointment

From my favorite movies..

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This handsome triptych of stories by LA gutter poet Charles Bukowski is an oddly clinical and artless meditation on the subject of sex, following one young man's pathetic attempts to cope with his sexual frustration throughout his life. As a child he learns the lonely joys of masturbation; as a teenager he mummifies his face to hide the ultimate outbreak of acne (and dulls his libido with alcohol); and as an adult he commits suicide after enjoying a beautiful one night stand with an obliging corpse (roll the credits, please). But what might have been an ironic (if perverse) short film is stretched to feature length in way too cautious and deliberate a manner, moving from Point A to Point B in its protagonist's brief but miserable life without much in the way of motivation or purpose. Worse yet, the lush, coffee table photography doesn't exactly suit the sordid details of the story, in much the same way that Bukowski's skid row prose doesn't translate well to suburban Flemish. (My one-word summary above is a nod to the film's alternate, and much better, title: 'Love is a Dog From Hell')

CRAZY LOVE (Love Is A Dog From Hell) is a romantically disquieting and dismaying film by Flemish director,Dominique Deruddere, and is loosely based on Charles Bukowski's short story, "The Copulating Mermaid From Venice, California". Bukowski is often referred to as, "The Poet Laueate of Skid Row", and all of his work embraces the darker aspects of reality, and this film is certainly no exception. CRAZY LOVE is divided into three parts, and examines the life of the deeply flawed and conflicted individual, Harry Voss. In the first section, we witness Harry at the age of twelve as he begins to intuit the romantic possibilities of Love, and is introduced to the sordid mechanics of sex. And, in the second section, he is a senior in high school who tries to establish some kind of a romantic relationship with the opposite sex while dealing with a disfiguring case of acne. And, in the final section, Harry directly confronts the most perfect manifestation of his sexual and romantic desires. The film is a minor classic of Flemish cinema, and the Netlix disc contains an excellent Bonus Selection which offers an insightful conversation with the director, a short feature on the making of the film, and a brief description of the history of Belgium film-making. CRAZY LOVE is certainly not for everyone, but Bukowski has said that this film comes the closest to capturing the essence of his work.

One of the few movies that has the power to bring a tear to my eye. We see the life of Harry, as a young boy, as an acne-scarred teen, and as a lost soul thirtysomething. As a child, he has a naive enthusiasm for romance. But his socially awkward self and repulsive appearance lead to a lifetime of rejections. Until the end when he finally finds somebody who accepts him. Repulsive and unacceptable as his last acts may be, they are not a violation so much as they are his desperately grasping for somebody, anybody, to love.For me the movie is simultaneously depressing and uplifting. I will never forget the "invisible man" strategy he employs to get a girl to give him one dance. Or the painful scene of him as a young boy on the carnival ride with a girl, paralyzed with fear and unable to make any advances.Anyway, SEE this movie. It was released on DVD last year, and should not be too hard to find. Order yourself a copy if you don't see it at your local stores.

When it exploded onto screens in the mid 1980's, Oscar® nominated directorDominique Deruddere's film CRAZY LOVE divided critics and audiences as fewfilms before or since.Championed by Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola, the film was pickedup for US distribution. Stars like Madonna and Sean Penn attended the LApremiere. But the films shocking subject matter and startling imagery were too rich a combination for audiences at the time. The film vanished from sight,becoming an instant cult classic - much written about but seldom seen and now reappraised as one of the most underrated films of the 1980's.Taking his cue from stories by cult American author Charles Bukowski,Deruddere's film tells the story of a man's life via three nights, spread over 20 years. We see his hero, Harry Voss, first as a romantic young boy of 12, then as an acne ridden teenager, lost in unrequited love, and finally as a drink sodden drop out, for whom no act is too dreadful to contemplate...with terrible and yet deeply moving consequences.It's a film that, once seen, is never likely to be forgotten. A film with a unique, bitter sweet and poetic mood that manages to be funny and tragic at the sametime. A minor masterpiece.