Straight to Hell is one of those movies that probably shouldn’t exist, it’s completely absurd that anyone made this movie, with this cast and somehow got away with it. A spaghetti western? A bank heist? Joe Strummer? The Pogues? Courtney Love? Apparently this is what you do when you can’t get funding for a Nicaraguan concert tour in support of the Sandinistas. Seriously, someone actually thought that wasn’t a great idea. The thing is, Alex Cox doesn’t give up that easily. No concert tour? No problem. As long as everyone’s free for a month why not just make a movie instead?
A profoundly fucked movie. In a good way. See, I want to go on wondering why this movie isn’t playing somewhere every Saturday at midnight because that is absolutely its niche. Then I remember my friend leaning over halfway through the film and whispering “Worst movie ever” with the sort of half grimace I usually reserve for new U2 songs. Worst movie ever? Really? I didn’t understand the response. It’s definitely loud. Definitely abrasive. There’s not much of a coherent plot. Lots of violence. The acting is all over the place. It might sound like I’m making a case against it, but this is actually what contributes to the unique charm of the film. It’s a movie you can completely enjoy if you “get it”, there is an ethereal “cool” that just sweats out of every scene, but if you “don’t get it”, well, you’ll probably think it’s 87 minutes of bullshit someone pissed away.
