Search And Destroy is an exceptionally weird, nearly impenetrable satire of Hollywood, produced by Martin Scorsese (he also cameos). It's essentially just a series of odd, puzzling vignettes vaguely based on business and movie archetypes we've all come to know, and love to make fun of. As far as coherent story or heartbeat, look elsewhere. You may however enjoy it's oddball characters, and you've got to do a double take when you see how many awesome actors are in the cast, in a film you've probably never heard of. Griffin Dunne, who started in Scorsese's excellent After Hours, plays Martin Mirkheim, a shameless moronic suck up desperately trying to get his awful script sold to some show business bigwigs. Along the way he meets a host of hives inducing freaks that one might expect to find in early 1990's film scene. Dennis Hopper lurks into the frame as Dr. Luther Waxling, a batty self help guru and author of a pretentious psychobabble book starring an allegorical man (Robert Knepper). John Turturro ramps up the mania past his Big Lebowski role (yes, it's possible) as a demented agent, Ethan Hawke plays adislikable assistant to Hooper. Roseanne Arquette is Dunne's hampered wife, Illeana Douglas is great as Hopper's oddball girlfriend who takes up with Mirkheim. Her schlocky horror movie pitch monologue up is a highlight. Stealing the show, however, and can we expect anything less from him, is Christopher Walken. He plays Kim Ulander, a wondrous Walken creation, a shady, pleasant mannered ad exec who goes absolutely postal at the drop of a hat, the funniest sociopath you could ever hope to meet. This film doesn't mean much. It's more of a subtle, deliberate perversion of the industry that forms it, biting the hand that feeds it while it's tongue is right in its cheek. Enjoy it for its abstract, absurd dialogue, weirdo fucknut characters, and darkly silly, nonsensical, self destructive aura. Those are probably the key reasons that this wasn't well received. They're all the reasons I got a nasty kick out of it.
Review of Search and Destroy
