Whatever you think of him, Adam Rifkin is a guy who has had
an interesting career. He’s made a living, I guess, penning mainstream,
kid-friendly fare like Small Soldiers,
Mouse Hunt, Zoom and, most recently, Underdog. As a director, meanwhile, he’s championed the thespian
abilities of Ron Jeremy,
shown audiences how to have sex while driving at high speeds (The Chase) and made perhaps both the
best and worst film ever made about four teenagers trying to scam their way
into a Kiss concert in 1978, Detroit Rock
City.
Rifkin cut his teeth on Never
on Tuesday, Tale of Two Sisters
and The Invisible Maniac (the latter
under his frequent nom de plume, Rif Coogan) before, in 1991, turning out the
bizarre cult hit The Dark Backward, a
movie about a Marty Malt (Judd Nelson), a garbage man who gives stand-up comedy
a try, fails, and then fortuitously grows a third arm on his back. “Wha…?” you ask.
Yes, seriously.
Marty lives a sad-sack, beaten-down existence in a rundown
town where seemingly everything is owned by the Blump Corporation. He fails
miserably because… he’s just not funny. After he finds a small lump on his
back, Marty goes to a doctor (James Caan), who provides a band-aid, quite
literally. Soon, though, that itchy nuisance is a full-fledged appendage. Marty
is flabbergasted, but his accordion-happy pal Gus (a wildly theatrical Bill
Paxton) figures out a way to use the new arm, and gets them signed with a
sleazy talent agent (Wayne Newton). Marty may be a freak, but now he’s in
demand. Just when success seems near, though, Marty’s waitress girlfriend, Rosarita
(Lara Flynn Boyle), leaves him. For Gus, who prefers his women plus-sized,
that’s not a big deal. Marty, though, is thrown for a loop, even though their
passion-less relationship was far from ideal.
Co-starring Rob Lowe, The
Dark Backward is about as canted as they come — a wild, unrehearsed
forehand smash volley across the net. If one prefers structure, cordiality and
some loose sense of rules and governance to their comedy, Rifkin’s riff-happy
flick won’t be for you. And honestly, far too much of the story here comes off
as arbitrary, lending the movie the feeling of an indulgent, film school
exercise. That said, there’s some loopy fun in the interstices. It may require a
slightly regressive mindset to appreciate it, however. For me, it wasn’t
happening.
This special edition DVD of The Dark Backward comes housed in a regular Amray case, and
presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 2.0 stereo
audio track. A clear labor-of-love — both in its original production and here,
re-imagined and gussied up for the digital age — this disc comes loaded with
all-new bonus material, starting with a brief introduction to the movie from
Rifkin. A special, 40-minute Q&A session with Paxton, Nelson and Rifkin and
producer Brad Wyman, from 2006, proves interesting and amusing, as does an
engaging audio commentary track from the same quartet. A never-before-seen collection
of deleted and extended scenes runs about six minutes, and contains some flubs,
as well as longer versions of extant material, with only unnecessary headers
and footers trimmed. A solid little making-of featurette includes a nice array
of interview material with all the aforementioned parties, plus
editor Peter Schink and a few other behind-the-scenes figures. There’s also an
interesting assortment of promotional videos that Rifkin made to take to the
Cannes Film Festival to secure financial backing, and a gallery collection of assorted
trailers. For a “deep cut” niche catalogue title like this, one could scarcely
ask for a better DVD rendering with a straight face. C- (Movie) A (Disc)