The New Age (VHS, 1995)
Description
Who would have thought that a social comedy rooted in the early 90's LA recession (before the tech bubble, before the mortgage-backed-securities bubble, etc.) could still be so vital? 2008 rebooted this movie to the top of the class, where I think it remains. Judy Davis and Peter Weller create fabulous friction (as they also did in Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch"), but, in this case, without the surrealism. What has probably been lost to the plutocracy Peter and Catherine casually aspire to is any interest in an alternative - where are the Rachel Rosenthals (bless her heart) of today? First time you see it, the mystics and sensualists and euro-trash may seem marginal; they are not. Fear and failure and loss are the wages of misplaced confidence, unearned success and too much shopping - the warnings come early and often. While they sink, the principals skirt death, and end up where they were always meant to be - that's true comic hell.
Online Ordering: https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m75660698063/