[indy movie review]<\/p>\n
DVD \u00a92007 Director: Ramzi Abed<\/b>
\nhttp:\/\/www.blackdahliamovie.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.myspace.com\/blackdahliamovie<\/p>\n
indy movie review by Kent Manthie<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, indie filmmaker Ramzi Abed took a really outr\u00e9 turn in his latest work, the hallucinatory Black Dahlia Movie<\/i>. Its arrival coincided with the 60th anniversary of the 1947 crime, the still unsolved and viciously heinous killing of the mysterious Black Dahlia, who, in reality, was a young, talented woman named Elizabeth Short; she always wore a dahlia flower in her jet black hair and always went out dressed in black, hence the nickname. Short emigrated to California from the stuffy, nowhere Midwest where she grew up and ended up not getting into the things that she most wanted – a big, fat movie contract, for one thing, that ever-elusive big break. Simultaneously, Short had a vivacious smile, a friendly air about her and seemed not at all the type to be involved in any kind of nefarious activities.<\/p>\n
This movie takes us through the lens backwards; we see the movie inside the movie being set up, cast, then they focus on the young woman chosen for the part in Abed\u2019s project and her slowly losing her identity and sanity by becoming Elizabeth Short. At the same time it\u2019s been overshadowed by the big-budget, mass-marketed Hollywood version of the story (The Black Dahlia<\/i>) but with the original tale already forgotten again, if ever remembered, Ramzi Abed gives us a caffeinated, complicated, choppy flick that attempts to tie the old Los Angeles urban legend of Elizabeth Short\u2019s brief life and grisly murder to the L.A. of today and its cycle of luring young, vulnerable women to Hollywood with hopes and dreams of stardom and how it often rips them apart, makes them do things they didn\u2019t intend to do. The subtitle of the movie is Hollywood Murders Women<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Anyway, for those familiar with the story this movie will make much more sense. But if you have never even heard the term Black Dahlia Case it will seem more like a dada film, a free-for-all, everyone tripping on acid and looking like they never rehearsed. It\u2019s not a big-budget film; it\u2019s pretty low budget.<\/p>\n
The gist of Black Dahlia Movie is that it is like a movie within a movie. One meets this guy, presumably some hip indie filmmaker with this obsession over the Elizabeth Short story. He casts for the role of Smart and soon comes upon a woman (Kristen Kerr) he sees as perfect for the part. She gets her copy of the script, gets schooled in the right wardrobes to wear, the ubiquitous dahlia tucked above her ear and at first is really excited and happy about it, but after a while, as Kerri\u2019s role get more and more into the part, she is pulled into the world of Elizabeth Short. She is somehow connected with a spiritual thing or else just a kind of descent into a benign, method-acting madness.<\/p>\n
While the premise was interesting and there were a few good moments, The Black Dahlia Movie<\/i> eventually falls flat. Its main fault is the disjointedness that was omnipresent throughout. You also have short scenes that seem like they were accidentally left in during the editing process because they\u2019re total nonsequiturs. I had to watch it a couple times just to get a vague impression of it, but it just kept putting me asleep. But then again, I could see this becoming a new type of cult-flick, something stoned teenagers will go check out at the kinds of indy-minded theaters that showed The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/i> – remember all those midnight screenings where they\u2019d show cool cult flicks and concert movies, etc?<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t expect to be blown away or excited by The Black Dahlia Movie<\/i>. It\u2019s not worth getting your hopes up – go see the Hollywood version instead, at least that one has some cohesion to it. This is kind of like a cross between a John Cassavetes movie and one of those awful Andy Warhol Productions, a series of purposely trashy and sleazy flicks that were directed by Paul Morrissey (not Warhol), not quite porn, but a reflection of the drug-induced, fun chaos of the times.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Ramzi Abed, a fiercely independent filmmaker will just possibly be remembered as a 21st century Roger Corman or Ed Wood.<\/p>\n
KM<\/p>\n
Below: the Black Dahlia Movie Promotional Poster. Ramzi Abed between Abby Travis and Julie Strain. Kristen Kerr as Beth Short. Kristen Kerr; Dame Darcy, and Sarah M. Scott right before a take. Lizzy Strain and David J relaxing “on a dreamlike shoot.”![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i198.photobucket.com\/albums\/aa169\/reviewerphoto\/we-black-dahlia-poster.jpg?w=900\")
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