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copyright ©1999-2001
DigsMagazine.com.
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flick pick
| Highway
61 1991
Directed by: Bruce
McDonald
Written by: Don McKellar [story + screenplay], Bruce McDonald
[story], Allan Magee [story]
Starring: Valeria Buhagiar, Don McKellar, Earl Pastko
Language: English
Look for it at the video store under:
comedy, foreign [Canada]
Watch it when you’re in the mood
for something: whimsical |
The verdict:
 / 5 the rating
system explained
|
Plot synopsis
Barber Pokey Jones works in
the small-town shop his father once owned, dreaming of a career as a
jazz musician. In his quiet Canadian town, life putts along predictably
for Pokey as he moves through the same old daily routines. Until one
morning, Pokey finds a dead body frozen in his backyard. The locals are
so excited by the bizarre event that Pokey becomes an instant celebrity
of sorts. So when a strange woman named Jackie Bangs shows up in his
barber shop asking him to help her disguise herself by dyeing her blonde
hair red, it’s just another surprising occurrence in an already
unusual day. And when Jackie tells him that the body he found was her
brother Jeffrey, Pokey’s too naďve to suspect that she’s lying.
See, Jackie’s a heavy-metal roadie on the run, having stolen some
drugs from the last band she toured with, and the body’s her ticket to
smuggling the loot down to New Orleans. Soon Pokey finds himself driving
Jackie and the corpse down highway 61. What neither realizes is that
there’s a dark stranger named Mr. Skin – who just happens to also
answer to the name of Satan – who’s already claimed dibs on that
dead body they’re carrying. Now he’s hot on their trail, determined
to collect the soul that he’s contractually entitled to receive. It’s
a crazy road trip that’s both a tour of the musical landmarks Pokey’s
been waiting his whole life to see, and a journey of self-discovery that
he never could have imagined in his wildest dreams.
Review Like
the best kind of road trip, Highway 61 twists and turns in a way
that’s never predictable, accompanied the whole way by a good, loud,
keep-you-pumped-up-and-wide-awake rock-n-roll soundtrack. You meet
strange people and find yourself in situations you never could have
imagined; and though at the time, it all seems so bizarre and
unconnected, it’s only later, upon reflection, that you realize that
real life’s not about direct causal effects, some linear series of
events that lead logically and obviously one into the other, that the
random oddities that you thought just came out from nowhere do, in the
end, work together to make you the unique little individual that you
are. Bruce McDonald’s kooky little flick rambles along charmingly, if
you can free yourself from the notion that there’s an underlying order
to the universe that means that everything in it must make sense. Much
of what makes Highway 61 so wonderful completely defies logic –
from Jackie’s house-bound, chicken-hunting rock star friends, to two
unbelievably thorough US immigration officers, to the people that sell
their souls to the devil for so paltry a sum as 20 dollars, a bottle of
bourbon, a bus ticket to go see a band. And then, of course, there’s
the devil himself, who drives a big blue pickup truck and snaps
Polaroids of his clients, financing his travels with winnings from
church-sponsored bingo games. Quirky, whimsical, and full of surprises, Highway
61 is the sort of movie that’ll make you shout frequent loud
"what the heck?"s -- even as a smile spreads slowly across
your face.
—reviewed by Y. Sun
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