The Worst Film Ever

Thanks for the memories!

one of my absolute favorites!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I didn't think this film had any particular motives until I saw the "Aww Pharmacist Dad, drugs aren't the answer, you can just heal people by adjusting their spine!" scene. That's when I knew we were in it deep.I have been to 3 separate chiropractors in my life (2 the wacko kind, like the Naked Man, who claim that all sorts of emotional and physical illnesses can be fixed by spinal adjustments- not medically possible) and luckily 1 who knew that, well, a chiropractor is simply there to help you with SPINE PROBLEMS. Not to fix your cruelty and rage, not to restore health to other body parts, but simply to IMPROVE THE BACK.If you think I'm on a high horse you're right, but frankly, it's only in opposition to what the movie would have you believe. The truth is that A. chiropractors do not go to medical school and are not in any conventional sense 'doctors' and B. there is no evidence that chiropracty can solve non-spine-related issues. Oh, and C. this movie is bad. Not so bad it's funny, or so bad it's good, just BAD.

When I saw this movie, I was on the one hand overwhelmed and on the other hand very disappointed. It is a tragic and in some parts surrealistic comedy that is standing close to Bertolt Brecht's theater dramas and his V-effect and the German Dadaism-Artists. It may be considered as a sequel or even as a conclusion of other Coen - movies OR as just a big piece of humbug. I myself was thinking between these two aspects for a long time. And I came to the conclusion that everybody has to decide for himself. The thing that was really fascinating were the characters: real types - to speak in the traditional language of drama - not complex protagonists made me think about the sense of this movie. And to come back to the title of this comment: It is really a thin line between a very complex piece of film-artwork and rubbish. Decide for yourselves!

This movie is more than just a film co-written by Ethan Coen (of the Coen brother fame). And if your expecting a Coen brother movie, its different but it does have some familiar ties to films made by the Coen brothers. What else would you expect from Director J.T Anderson who has been the storyboard artist on almost all of the Coen brothers projects, and J.T's characters are every bit as interesting as any created by his co-writer and his brother. This movie lives on the dynamics between its characters, and of course great photography by Jeff Barklage. (I think every Coen brother film has had great photography that pushes the story and the characters.) But enough about Coens. This is a fun film and a good film, and I cannot understand why OCTOBER and UNIVERSAL did not release this sucker.

I admit it - the reference to Ethan Coen on the sleeve of this straight-to-video oddity secured a rental. I wasn't disappointed.The Naked Man bears all the hallmarks of a Coen-penned script - albeit from the more fantasy oriented side of their cadre (see also The Hudsucker Proxy and the Sam Raimi directed Crimewave). Also, the very first sound you hear is a man screaming - another Coen favourite.This is not to detract from J. Todd Anderson's direction. The whole production has a surreal air. He places events in a small town in middle America, but it doesn't seem out of place. You never forget this is supposed to be a fantasy.Look out for it next time you're in Blockbuster. If you don't expect something as masterly as The Big Lebowski or The Hudsucker Proxy, you'll love it. A lo-fi Coens flick, if you will.