A budding romance with a beastly connection.
by Gregg Shapiro
Young lesbian lovers Jack (Riley Keough) and Diane (Juno Temple) in Bradley Rust Grey’s Jack & Diane could learn a thing or two about love and decorum from Edie and Thea. Instead, we get more than an hour and a half of teen trauma with two characters that are barely able to express themselves.
From the first time we see her onscreen, we know there’s something not right about Diane. Wandering the streets of Manhattan attempting to borrow the cell phones of passersby, she ends up in a shop where she meets young butch Jack. Prone to nosebleeds, Diane is taken in by Jack.
Just as their awkward relationship is beginning to gel, Jack learns that Diane will be leaving shortly to attend school in France. Through special effects and bizarre animation by the Quay Brothers, the girls’ inner demons take shape. Their jealousy and rage is personified by hideous flesh-eating beasts. So it goes, back and forth between their budding romance and the ugly monsters that threaten to destroy them.
Jack & Diane is an interesting premise that fails to materialize into anything more than gratuitous sex and brutal gore. The sum total is a hopeless mess, with neither the passion nor the horror providing the viewer with anything to connect with. Blu-ray special features consist of featurettes, including one about the film’s special effects.
Magnolia Pictures (magpictures.com).
Gregg Shapiro is a regular contributor to OutSmart magazine.
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