Cheap Clean, Shaven (DVD) (Michael Kerrigan) Price

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Customer Reviews of Clean, Shaven

One of the best indie flicks in recent memory
I caught attention of this hardly known gem at a local video store, noticing bold statements as "Dare to watch it" and "Boldest, most unforgettable film of the year." This is one film where you can believe the hype. Not since "Henry: Portrait of a serial killer" has a movie really shown an in-depth cinematic representation of the mind of a serial killer. But "Clean, Shaven" is a step above films like "Henry" and "Man Bites Dog". Winner of many awards, it tells a simple story of Peter Winter, a very dangerous schizophrenic just released from an institution, and his search for his daughter, while at the same time police are trying to catch up with him. Peter Greene is absolutely convincing as the deranged schizophrenic...he shows no emotion as he shaves his head and cuts his scalp in the process, nor is oblivous to pain during a very notable scene involving his fingernail and a very sharp object. And Kerrigan's excellent direction is what moves this film to near brillance...Instead of just telling the story with characters speaking to one another, he forces us into the mind of the schizophrenic. The movie is told mainly by images and sounds, as if what Winter was really experiencing...scenes are made unsettling by disturbing sampling and music, with long scenes of almost surreal images, intesifying the tension of the movie. After watching "Clean, Shaven", you'll have the feeling of meeting a real-life schizophrenic. Not many movies can boast this fact, nor make it realistic, but "Clean, Shaven" does that, and more. One of the most unforgettable films, indie or not, in the past few years.

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Intense, Powerful, Terrifying
Clean, Shaven boasts a superb performance by Peter Greene, an incredibly tight script, wonderfully minimalist cinematography, and has some of the best, most memorable sound work this side of The Conversation.
(No less an authority than Roger Ebert named it one of his ten best films of 1994).

Kerrigan's debut(!) film... takes us straight inside the head of a recently released schizophrenic. I can't recall the last time a film took me so far into the mind of a character. It's a sad commentary on our society that the airbrushed, cleaned-up "A Beautiful Mind" is getting so much attention for its Hollywoodized portrayal of schizophrenia while few people have ever heard of this far better film. Not for the easily frightened, to be sure (the fingernail scene is with me still), but for those who still care about filmmaking as more than just mindless entertainment, it's here.

My only disappointment with the DVD is that we don't get commentaries from either Kerrigan or Greene, which would have been absolutely fascinating.

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Confusing.
Clean, Shaven (Lodge Kerrigan, 1994)

Kerrigan, since this debut film, has gone on to work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Which should give most aspiring filmmakers hope, because after watching Clean, Shaven, someone obviously saw through the film's glaring problems to get at the potential that equally obviously exists underneath. You're not going to find it here, though.

Peter Winter (Peter Greene, from The Usual Suspects, Judgment Night, Pulp Fiction, etc.) is not a very nice guy. He also happens to be severely mentally ill; nothing is ever said about what it is he's got, though it becomes quickly obvious that schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder are two of his major problems. Upon his release from a mental institution (which you will only know if you read the box description), he finds that his wife has left him and put his daughter up for adoption (which is revealed very far into the film, but you will know if you read the box description). While he searches for his daughter, a police officer, Jack McNally (Robert Albert), is trying to tie Winter to a series of murders that seem to happen whenever he's around.

After reading that plot synopsis, one thing should be very clear: if you don't read the box description, you will have no earthly idea what's going on in this movie. Sometimes that works very well (like in Memento). Sometimes it acts to the film's great detriment. Someone should have given Kerrigan a kick in the continuity a few times while he was making this film; too much of it doesn't add up until the final few scenes, and by that time, it's far too late. Greene's performance is almost painful to watch, but everything going on around him plays second fiddle; thus, the movie seems like a too-long character sketch into which a plot was thrown as an afterthought. Greene's performance alone isn't enough to carry the weight. **