True Trash

Rating: 4/10 (21 June 2013)

You know when you've done a huge load of dishes and there's lots of dregs stuck in the plug? It might have been part of something nice to begin with but there's no way you'd touch it now. That's True Romance - a gutter trash fiction roller-coaster powered by pop-culture references and overdone Tarantino dialogue. The story and execution are so adolescent and grim that I am surprised that it wasn't actually written and directed by an angry 15-year-old with mental health problems.
Since James Gandofini died a few days ago and since it's actually Tony Scott's birthday today I figured I would give this film another go. Time has not been kind to True Romance, even by 1993 standards the film looks dated. This was the fourth, and last, film Tony Scott made with cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball with whom he always used smoky diffusion to fog up the frame. It doesn't look good.
The story has Christian Slater's comic-book geek get together with Patricia Arquette's dim-witted hooker and go on a killing spree for a pathetic amount of quick, easy money. Apparently it was one half of Natural Born Killer's before Tarantino split it into a new screenplay, but he forgot to distance Clarence and Alabama from Mickey and Mallory. True Romance is a thoroughly ugly, sadistic, mean-spirited, nasty film filled with characters who have absolutely no morals or redeeming qualities (well, Patricia Arquette has a couple attached to her chest). There's no one to root for or identify with. Why should I care what happens to any of these psychopaths? And where's the romance? Making Clarence and Alabama have sex in awkward locations or have them kiss and make-out in every other scene doesn't mean that they are high on love. I'm not feeling any romance with this one. There's no sense of liberation or exciting new chances, just gloom and darkness.
The saving grace comes in the form of many cameos from Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, and Saul Rubinek (playing, but pretending not to, a Joel Silver-type producer). Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore pop up but they don't get a chance to bring much to the story as it is already building to a climax by that point. I can't recommend this any fans of crime fiction, romantics, or even fans of Tony Scott. Sure the sycophantic Tarantino fans will get a kick out of it, but I doubt I will ever be watching this reprehensible junk ever again.