'Firecracker' is a real freak show.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
11/6/05

What's the matter with Kansas? If you've ever read "In Cold Blood" or seen "Carnival of Souls," you know that something wicked can lurk in those amber waves of grain. But the Sunflower State may never have seen weirdness more ripe than the supposedly true events that are dramatized in the vivid indie "Firecracker," which screens on Tuesday evening at the Tivoli.

In Wamego, Kan., in the 1950s, two brothers are changed forever by the annual arrival of the carnival freak show. The belligerent David (played by Mike Patton, formerly the lead singer of the rock band Faith No More) has a long-running affair with the carnival's unhappily married chanteuse (Karen Black, the epitome of voluptuous horror). When his sensitive brother Jimmy (Jak Kendall) tries to run away with the carnival, the violent clash between the brothers has incestuous overtones and deadly consequences.

Their haunted, hollow-eyed mother is also played by Black, in the crowning feat of her career.

Five years in the making, "Firecracker" is a cryptic story but a technical marvel. It juxtaposes beautiful black-and-white with lurid primary colors to separate the stifling normality of the town from the dreamy decadence of the carnival. The casting of actual circus performers underscores the resemblance to the films of David Lynch. "Blue Velvet," "Twin Peaks" and "Eraserhead" are rather obvious influences here, along with Tod Browning's "Freaks," the Coen brothers' "Fargo" and Hitchcock's "Psycho." No shoestring movie could live up to such comparisons, but in its own right, "Firecracker" is a mind-blower.



JOE WILLIAMS

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