Movies don't get much darker than this story of a wife-killer who is
paroled after seventeen years of prison because a hot-shot film producer
pulls some strings for him. The movie mogul offers the convict an
important job on the outside - creating a screenplay from the play he
wrote about prison life.
Not a good idea.
Although "Joey One-Way" has a conscience and wants to become a better
person, he seems to have violence, heroin addiction, and betrayal
hard-wired into his DNA. Soon after his release he is having an affair
with the wife of the man who vouched for him. Shortly thereafter he is
shooting up some smack. He is obviously headed for a great tragedy of some
kind, but the shocking nature of the denouement may shock and surprise
even jaded viewers.
The film pulls few punches. There are explicit scenes portraying life
in prison, including both forced and consensual sodomy. There are many
explicit sex scenes between Joey One-Way and the producer's wife, although
there is not as much female nudity as one might expect from all their
steamy encounters. There are also hot sex scenes in flashbacks involving
the young wife Joey killed so many years ago in a moment of uncontrolled
passion caused by her infidelity.
Audiences may be extremely surprised to see that the complex lead role
is essayed by Gil Bellows of "Ally Mcbeal," who normally plays likeable,
intelligent, and sensitive characters in light dramas and dramedies. His
portrayal of the parolee is not without sensitivity, but Joey is not a
person you'd care to hang out with, and he has absolutely no moments of
lightness. He carries the weight of his past transgressions with him at
all times.
KKFF is a brutal, bleak film which won some film festival acclaim but
has virtually no chance of a North American theatrical release because of
a certain NC-17 rating. Even if it could be trimmed a bit for an R release,
the size of the potential audience would be miniscule, despite the fact
that it is a very effective and powerful film, sometimes even a poetic
one, on its own ugly and
uncompromising terms. It's a feel-bad movie for the "movies as art" crowd,
and even many of them will find the film just too unpleasant in too many
ways.
