Blood and Concrete: A Love Story

JOEY TURKS IS A YOUNG CARTHIEF who wants to change his life and go to Los Angeles. In order to get the 400 dollars he needs, he steals a television set. Unfortunately the owner is Mort, a hard-boiled young courier. Mort stabs Joel' who escapes and ends up in the arms of Mona, a rock singer in the midst of committing suicide in a gruesome grave-yard. They save each other's lives and a fatal attraction begins. The next day Mort is found dead and the Police suspects Joe! So does Spuntz, the local drug king, who wants to get a hold of Mort's stacks. As if this isn't enough - Mona is a drug-abuser. Joey has to struggle with all his might to save life, love and liberty. The film has a quick dialogue and can be described as a celebration of 50s film noir.

Comment:
Boy, BLEEDING TO DEATH, MEETS SUICIDAL girl in a church yard and sweet music starts to play. This is definitely one of the candidates for this festival's nomination of most confusing sound-track. Taken together, Jeffery Reiner's film debut is confusing. It's been awarded for best film noir screen-play, but it should do well also in the comedy category. Some will probably describe it with the term ''skräckel'', horror-gore. As in the case with all great film, it's pointless to try to fit it into the right genre. With its charm, it does very well on its own. This is not about an unusual love couple. He is a harmless and unsuccessful small-time criminal, wanted by nearly everyone, either for murder or, for having stolen Libido. Libido is the drug his girlfriend uses, and which made her endure her ex, a selfnominated rockstar who ''managed to make de Sade look like Pat Boone''. Both of them want to get out of town, but have no place to go. In short, an ordinary guy and a girl in a crazy world. It's easy to identity with them.
After David Lynch's Blue Velvet a slightly surreal blue tone appears to have managed to make its way into American independent filmproductions. Between nervous ghasps and quiet laughter, a pensive melancholy feeling comes creeping in the darkness of the movie theater. There is something tragic with the American language. Take for example the fact that every Swedish school kid knows that ''fuck'' also means ''to fuck'' and ''fuck you'' means ''go to hell''. The difference between saying come or get lost is thin as hair. Loneliness is spreading.
The hunt for the drug is the motor in the film. The drug is called Libido and makes you have an excessive desire for physical closeness, for sex. Afterwards you feel disgustingly sick until you take another pill. The more pills, the more sex, the more disgusting you feel. ''I'm fucked up'' she answers when he asks her about her suicide attempt. He looks at her surprised, and says: ''So am I. So is everybody. So what?'' and something reminiscent of matter-of-fact gloom emanates from the film screen.
But everything isn't gone because of that line. Just as in life this film has a number of surprises in store. When the three (he, she and the bag filled with money) get each other in the end you can make sure, this is, after all, a love story.
ERIK TANGERSTAD