Neon Flesh (18)
1 Disc
(Distributor: Showbox Entertainment) Running time: 102 minutes approx.
A Barcelona street kid named Ricky (Mario
Casas) wants to earn the respect of his ex-prostitute mother Pura (Ángela
Molina) who is due to be released from prison by opening a brothel for her.
Ricky recruits his friends, pimp Angelito (Vicente Romero), simple muscle man
Kid (Luciano Cáceres), junkie call girl Scrag (Macarena Gomez) and transvestite
hooker Princess (Dámaso Conde), to help him get the club set up, but by
stepping on the toes of criminal kingpin Chino (Darío Grandinetti) and porn
movie producer Frida (Susana Varela), they find their endeavours hugely
jeopardised. For Ricky, he has an extra worry when he learns that Rura is
suffering from Alzheimer’s and doesn’t recognise him.
Writer/director Paco Cabezas has clearly
been enamoured with Lock Stock & Two
Smoking Barrels era Guy Ritchie if Neon
Flesh is any indication. If the freeze frame introductions and fancy in
situ onscreen name tags don’t give that away nothing will. Keen eyes will also
spot a few obvious nods in the direction of Cabezas’s home country legend Pedro
Almodóvar with the ribald black humour and early Quentin Tarantino with the
unbridled violence. But make no mistake that this is a simple homage, Neon Flesh has enough murky and subversive
appeal to stand on its own merits – whatever they may be as some of the
politically incorrect humour is bound to be too much for some tastes. For
example, Angelito tries to educate his new line-up of illegal immigrant hookers
on what sort of sex their punters will desire, he uses a bestiality porn video
from which we see some edited but unambiguous clips. How that got past the BBFC
even with an 18 certificate I have no idea but it did, so be warned!
The premise of Ricky building a whorehouse
for his mother is of course wholly ludicrous but it suits the irreverence of
the film and somehow almost manages to come across as noble. Lest we forget
however, that Ricky and his hapless friends are from the seedy side of the
street so altruism is not instinctively high on their agenda. By getting into
the bonking business they make some very unpleasant enemies, starting with not
telling Chino about setting up shop on his turf then stealing the best girls at
a cattle auction from under his nose. Conflicts arise when Kid helps out a
heavily pregnant illegal immigrant Mobila (Vanessa Oliveira). Ricky takes her
on as a hooker - only for her to give birth on their opening night – but she
catches the eye of Frida’s porn director (Juan Carlos Vellido) so, with Angelito
held at gun point, Ricky to sell Mobila to Frida, while her newborn baby son
will get Ricky the cash to pay off Chino. As if all this wasn’t enough there is
a subplot involving the death of Chino’s teenage son whilst under police arrest
which was covered up. Seeking vengeance on the man in charge, detective Santos
(Antonio de la Torre), Chino has his sights set on Santos’s attention seeking
teenage daughter Verónica (Blanca Suárez).
A lot there to take in and while most of is
flows naturally, the latter mentioned subplot feels tacked on and only comes to
the fore in the final act to give us a claret soaked denouement that contrast
with the comparatively lighter tone of the preceding hour and half. Truth be
told, it is a decent enough plot line to work on its own film and maybe Cabezas
should have saved it for his next film; by the same token this film’s main
premise works well as enough a dark comedy romp for it to stay the course, but
what’s done is done. That is not to say that the two contrasting elements
aren’t handled well enough by Cabezas – the humour is very black but snappy and
brings with it some smart and often very funny moments, while the tension in
the final act is well constructed, laced with bloody violent action leading to
a touching closing scene. Clearly both these elements will have their fans and
their detractors so the overall success depends on one’s individual tolerance
of both.
Set as it is against a criminal and
underworld background the violence is what you would expect it to be with
lashings of blood, severed body parts and very unpleasant torture methods. It
is therefore the humour which will be the more testing. The aforementioned
bestiality video scene is an indicator of how low things go but there are some
well crafted jokes here. One amusing set up is built around Alzheimer’s
sufferer Pura being entrusted with the exchange of Moblia’s baby to a wealthy
childless couple then dropping off Mobila at Frida’s place to make a porn film.
And I defy anyone not to get a kick out of the last minute masks Ricky,
Angelito and Kid are forced to wear during a raid.
As one would expect from a film based
around criminal prostitution the characters are cut from a fairly familiar
cloth but Cabezas is fortunate to have a strong cast, lead by an earnest Mario
Casas and Vicente Romero, and including past Almodóvar collaborators Ángela
Molina, Antonio de la Torre and Blanca Suárez, who make his motley crew of
miscreants come alive with conviction. A nod also goes to Macarena Gomez for
making her drug addled, toothless, “can’t give it away” hooker Scrag into a
sympathetic and deceptively deep character.
Neon
Flesh
is a film which wears its influences on its sleeve and does plumb a few
unnecessary depths within the context of its bawdy premise but it shouldn’t be
condemned because of this. Enjoy this for what it is – an audacious, slick,
gritty, amusing, dark, blood soaked, sexy popcorn flick for adults!
Extras:
Spanish Language 5.1 & 2.0 (DVD)
DTS HD Spanish Language 5.1 & 2.0
(BluRay)
Dolby Digital Spanish Language 2.0 (BluRay)
English Subtitles
Trailer Gallery
Also Available
Man
In Black
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