Stuck! Playing tonight at American Cinematheque
Sneak Preview! STUCK!, 2010, Dikenga Films, 95 min. Director Steve Balderson’s homage to film noir women-in-prison films faithfully reproduces the genre with a modern, tongue-in-cheek twist, with all the hallmarks of a classic prison movie: a wrongly accused heroine, hard-boiled dames, diabolical alliances, forbidden love, cat-fighting cuties, a sadistic warden, and corrupt prison guards. Daisy is an innocent young woman framed for killing her mother. Condemned by the press and the public, Daisy is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. This jazzy, finger-snapping, broads-behind-bars film is a throwback to another era, with terse Tennessee Williams-style verbal sparring, non-stop action and enough bad-girl jailhouse hi-jinks to make the audience lose the distinction between good and evil. Discussion following with Karen Black, Mink Stole, Susan Traylor, Jane Wiedlin, Pleasant Gehman, Stacy Cunningham and director Steve Balderson.
