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Bad Hair
USA 2020
produced by Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Justin Simien, Eddie Vaisman, Leonid Lebedev (executive), Oren Moverman (executive), Alex G. Scott (executive) for Culture Machine, Sight Unseen Pictures
directed by Justin Simien
starring Zaria Kelley, Corinne Massiah, Elle Lorraine, Moses Storm, Madeleine Byrne, James Van Der Beek, Lena Waithe, Yaani King Mondschein, Jay Pharoah, Ashley Blaine Featherson, Judith Scott, Vanessa Williams, Tiffany Black, Kelly Rowland, Jamila Glass, Brooke Shepherd, Usher, Daheli Hall, Blair Underwood, Michelle Hurd, Chanté Adams, DeRon Horton, MC Lyte, Courtney Sauls, Robin Thede, Laverne Cox, Steve Zissis, Raymond Ejiofor, Sammye Alix, Calvin Tolbert jr, Nicole Byer, Justin Simien, Joy Sunday, Piers Stubbs, Jon Gabrus, LaFaye Baker, Nataliz Jimenez, Alex Marshall-Brown
written by Justin Simien, music by Kris Bowers, special effects supervisor: Jeremy Hays, hair effects by Peter A. Chevako
review by Mike Haberfelner
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LA, the 1980s: Anna (Elle Lorraine) tries to make it on a black music
TV channel, and due to a company reshuffle, she's able to propose her new
channel concept to her new boss Zora (Vanessa Williams) - who loves the
concept but hates Anna's hair, so she gets her an appointment with her own
hair stylist Virgie (Laverne Cox) to get hair extensions - and it works
wonders for Anna, not only does she look much better with the new
extensions, it also gives her the self confidence she has so far lacked to
really get ahead ... and she turns heads, too. One night though, when her
landlord (Steve Zissis) tries to rape Anna and her extensions kill him and
suck his blood, she starts to suspect there's something wrong with her
hair. But for now, Anna still hushes things up as her rise seems
unstoppable. Plus when her hair later kills her cheating ex (Jay Pharoah),
Anna can't but feel this was deserved. But soon the hair isn't that picky
anymore whom to kill. But getting rid of the extensions is harder than it
sounds, and during one such attempt her hair kills the entire staff of a
beauty salon. Anna confronts Zora about her extensions and learns that
Zora suffers from killer hair as well - but what's worse, Zora is killed
by her own hair right before Anna's eyes - but even with Zora dead her
hair might still be alive, so it's no longer just her own hair that Anna
has to fear. But how does one fight hair? Now the basic concept
of the film, killer extensions, is great - the execution unfortunately
less so, as the titular bad hair doesn't even come into play until well
into the movie and too much time is spent on the backstory, which seems to
try a bit too desparately to also serve as social commentary, but really
is just a conglomeration of clichés and thus seems rather bland. Plus the
thing is actually unnecessarily convoluted for its straight-forward
premise. Basically, the film could have easily done with 30 minutes hacked
off its running time and would have come across all the more powerful for
it, because the hair parts of the film are great fun.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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