Patti Rocks Reviews

In PATTI ROCKS, independent filmmaker David Burton Morris again brings together the two main characters from his 1975 movie, LOOSE ENDS. Billy Regis (Chris Mulkey), now married with two daughters, works on a barge between the Twin Cities and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where a woman with whom he has been carrying on an affair has become pregnant. Regis persuades Eddie Jenks (John Jenkins) to go along on a drive through the winter night to LaCrosse, during which Regis launches into a nonstop, profanity-laden discourse on sex, occasionally punctuated by the more thoughtful Jenkins' amused questions and comments. The men arrive at the LaCrosse apartment of Patti Rocks (Karen Landry, of TV's "St. Elsewhere"); the tone of the film shifts dramatically with the appearance of this strong-willed, independent woman. The movie received mixed reviews. Some critics found the male characters' conversation frank and convincing, while others found it either stagy or needlessly profane. Certainly Jenkins' thoughtful eloquence is convincing, and his excellent performance is matched by those of Mulkey and Landry. The camerawork is subtle and effective, using a static position to mirror the characters' emotional inertia, with slight movement heightening moments of feeling.