B Plus Movies

Walking down the aisles of my local movie rental store recently, I was amazed at how many direct to video titles I saw with Val Kilmer in them. Being a fan of Real Genius, Top Gun and his outstanding performance in Tombstone, I just can’t think of Kilmer as a B Movie actor. But then again, perhaps the mainstream’s loss is the fringe’s gain.

Case in point: The Salton Sea.

In this small release film, Kilmer plays a man who lost his wife and thereafter descends into the world of crystal meth, a drug that makes heroin look kind of glamorous by comparison. The character also rats dealers out to the cops and keeps an apartment where he keeps what shreds he has left of his former life. In the first ten minutes of meeting the character, I felt like I had a working knowledge of what it would be like to be a meth junkie and despite this, I liked him.

When the movie begins to intensify is when Kilmer’s character decides he wants to make one big score to get the hell out of town.  In the process, he enters into business with a noseless psychopath played by the incomparable Vincent Donofrio. Things begin to go from ugly to uglier and pretty soon, the guns start going off.

There is a lot to this movie, a kind of tragic chic that makes you feel sorry for people who are basically snorting the spam of amphetamines. Each person you meet, no matter how outlandish or odd, seems believable, interesting and vital to the story. The movie doesn’t shy away from the horrific but at the same time doesn’t seem to inject shock for the sake of it. It’s a movie featuring drug addiction that doesn’t leave you feeling icky and has a story that makes the drugs a feature as much as a focus.

Check this one out. B+, from beginning to end.

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