Beyond the Black Rainbow

There's much to admire about Panos Cosmatos' directorial debut, but the end result is admittedly not for all tastes.

The movie looks like it was lit by lava lamps, scored on Moog synthesizers, written between bong hits and acted underwater. None of this is meant as praise.

"Beyond the Black Rainbow" has a doomy, dreamy, druggy, draggy feel that's impressively sustained - until it becomes oppressive, then pointless, then laughable.

Much of the time, watching Beyond the Black Rainbow is accompanied by head scratching, but perhaps that's the point of this trippy outing.

Close-ups of a needle penetrating gnarled toes and a mutant slathered in what I choose to believe is bittersweet chocolate make as much sense as the scary drawings of angry vulvas hiding in a drawer.

This would-be cult classic is the movie equivalent of gazing at a lava lamp for nearly two hours.

A film for people who might call Stalker their favorite movie of all time if only it were more opaque. So, you know, a little audience, but a passionate one.

Part Cronenberg, part Bava, and part De Palma ... It's a film that manages to feel both new and long-forgotten at the same time.

The rich and strange debut of Panos Cosmatos throbs with style and portent, which proves a winning combination even if it is somewhat light in the narrative department.

Audiences who appreciate oddball first efforts from talents such as Lynch (Eraserhead), Cronenberg (Shivers) and Jeunet (Delicatessen) will be thankful.

If you follow the muddled spacy film's logic throughout, you deserve a merit honor badge for devotion to service beyond the call of duty.

Nothing much happens in this experimental-type science fiction horror film. What little does happen is at a slow-motion snail's pace.