Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

Freak Weather

2005, Movie, NR, 85 mins

Freak Weather: Review

FREAK WEATHER
starstarstarstar
Writer Mary Kuryla's debut feature follows a battered, feckless, one-woman disaster area who's frantically trying to hold together the pitiful shreds of her life as it spirals into chaos and violence. On an atypically chilly day in Los Angeles, self-destructive junkie Penny (Jacqueline McKenzie) is thrown out by her unseen, unemployed boyfriend, Jimmi, and told not to return until she's accomplished three tasks. If she hasn't picked up his last paycheck, bought pizza for dinner and gotten rid of the aging family dog, an oversize tangle of fur named Mink, by day's end, she might as well not bother coming home at all. Hiding a formidable shiner behind dark glasses and barely dressed in hot pants, a tank top and flip-flops, Penny roars off in her battered truck and nearly runs down a boy on a bicycle. In the first of many disheartening revelations, the goofy bespectacled youngster, clad in a mucky superhero costume, turns out to be her own son, the formidably intelligent but hopelessly geeky Albert (Jacob Chase). Dragging Albert along on her squalid quest is clearly the least appropriate thing Penny could do, so it's exactly what she does. Her first attempt to kill Mink involves stopping off at work — disheartening revelation No. 2: Penny works at a hospital — and persuading dirty-minded resident David (John Heard) to anesthetize the dog's way to the sweet hereafter. Predictably — it's already abundantly clear that Penny is a habitual screwup and nothing she does goes right — that plan fails miserably. It also leaves Penny with another passenger, pill-popping nurse Glory (Aida Turturro), who needs a lift home. Penny, Glory and Albert careen from one misadventure to the next, trying to take Mink to the pound (it's closed); attempting to foist Albert off on his schoolteachers (classes have let out for the day); getting lost and hitting a horse (Penny's drunk); camping overnight in the chilly car. The next morning Penny is more frantic but even less capable of recouping the disastrous situation she's created. McKenzie's mercurial performance is the centerpiece of this sad, surprisingly absorbing story of life lived in a choking fog of self-delusion and the small revelations that hold forth the hope of change, but she's anchored by Turturro and newcomer Chase, whose striking debut paints a complex portrait of a child caught between a chaotic present and a desperately uncertain future. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
Are You Watching?
Freak Weather
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. Sneak Peek: Motor City Money
  3. The Big Bang Theory
  4. Modern Family
  5. Mom of the Fleet
more top videos