Kalifornia (1993)

Genre: Thriller

Directed by: Dominic Sena

Cast: Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, Michelle Forbes

Running time: 118 minutes

Brian Kessler is a journalist who has just gotten a book deal to write about serial killers. To study the subject matter  and visit famous murder sites, he decides to travel by car from Pittsburgh to California with his girlfriend Carrie, a photographer. Wanting to cut costs, he posts an ad looking for traveling partners. Early Grace and his girlfriend Adele get on board, but what Brian and Carrie fail to realize at first is that Early is a psychopath out on parole who was not supposed to leave town.

Kalifornia is a thrilling road movie that keeps you guessing with a compelling storyline and some strong unpredictable characters. We get some really solid filmmaking here.

The highlight for me is Brad Pitt’s performance. Over the years, Pitt has not always delivered strong performances. As Early Grace, though, he stabs his way through the screen with an amazingly realistic performance. You forget the actor and you look at a man whose path you would never want to cross in a million years.

Juliette Lewis is also very good as young and innocent Adele, a child in a woman’s body who fails to realize how much of a bad fellow her man truly is. Lewis is so good she makes you care about her character. You just want to hug her and protect her.

David Duchovny’s performance was a weak point to me. He was given some good material with his character, but I just did not feel it with him. Michelle Forbes was pretty good as Carrie, Brian Kessler’s girlfriend, the first one in the group to realize there might be something really wrong with Early.

All things considered, Kalifornia remains a very good road thriller that is well worth a couple of hours of your time if you have yet to see it. If you have seen it already, watch it again, even if it is just to see Brad Pitt at his best as an actor.

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