Odd, experimental, arthouse – director Todd Haynes in his debut feature explores schlock ‘B’-grade horror, docudrama miracles and homoerotic, elicit love in three seemingly unconnected tales.
A series of documentary-style interviews reveal a truth (of sorts) of the boy who kills his father who then flies out of the window (according to the mother): a doctor accidentally ingests his experimental sex serum: a prisoner falls in love with another inmate (a remake of Jean Genet’s short film Un chant d’amour with added quotes from his novels).
The three separate narratives are odd bedfellows – the lyrical, shadowed beauty of desire intercut with grainy interviews with friends and family of the boy at home and at school whilst the rabid doctor creates B-movie style fear on the streets. Poison is a feature full of ideas and technique, a quirky barrage of imagination from high contrast black and white to the chiaroscuro’ed shadows of prison life as themes of alienation, loneliness and desire are explored. Yet, for all its daring, Haynes’ feature, a surprising (and controversial) winner of the 1991 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, fails to gel – a film made up of separate parts.
Rating: 50%
Director: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Carol)
Writer: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There) - inspired by the novels of Jean Genet
Main cast: John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge!, John Wick), Evan Dunsky, Rob LaBelle (Watchmen, Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
An Opinion or Two 