Misbegotten Moon
David Lynch is known as a triple threat in film circles — a man in control of a vision. With his own feature film debut, Pale Blue Moon, Mark Hosack writes, directs and edits as well. In his case, though, three into one does not compute. Hosack’s movie — this month’s Indy Film Showcase — is an unmitigated mess.
It’s hard to say where Hosack’s vision blurs, because his direction is peculiar and skillful. In its opening minutes, the movie appears to be of the alien-invasion genre. The credits feature NASA clips, including the ominous “Houston, we have a problem,” and then we eavesdrop on a wide-eyed child in peril. There’s a palpable creepiness at work.
Five minutes later, it becomes regrettably clear that Hosack knows how to shoot a scene but has much to learn about casting and continuity. The child has grown into the adult Simon Applewhite, played by an actor named Ice Mrozack, whose obnoxious tics make Tom Green look like Robert De Niro. Simon has been hauled into the police station, where he’s questioned by a crew of Texas lawmen who at least aren’t depicted with fat, red necks.
It seems that Simon becomes perturbed and antisocial when he feels threatened by a group of aliens. His test for determining who’s Mor-gon and who’s not involves asking people to show him their nipples. The cops comply — it’s as if they’re drunk and bi-curious. But Simon isn’t consistent in his weird inquiries; he largely ignores women’s nipples.
The movie then shifts gears into a Midnight Run-inspired story in which a cop is knighted with the task of taking Simon to a mental institution. Inexplicably, Simon is neither handcuffed nor medicated, and they ride off into the sunset for a series of stupid scenes that show the pair bickering like brothers about pop culture.
When they hitchhike back to the cop’s house, awful scenes pile atop one another like lab rats in a crowded cage. Simon has breakfast with the cop’s wife, who is dressed like Little Bo-Peep and talks to stuffed animals. The cop recovers from a coma overnight. After Simon kidnaps a screeching little girl, he and his victim have a weird dialogue about how the aliens caused him to have no control of his big toe.
The film becomes a Lifetime movie that uses dead or otherwise threatened children as a plot device, crossbred with an unthrilling sci-fi thriller. Simon’s frequent warning that the spacemen “come in threes” means nothing. Asked the rationale for selecting Pale Blue Moon, a Jubilee spokesman says, “Well, it won Best Texas Feature at the Deep Ellum Festival. So I’m not the only one who likes the movie.” Maybe they come in threes.
