The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

Director: Asia Argento
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 0.5

Pointless drama - based on the Laura Albert-Writing-as-JT LeRoy novel - about a young boy who gets handed from one abuser to the next, from junkie Mom (played with white trash glee by Argento) to perverted preachers (led by Peter Fonda) back to Mom and her succession of abusive boyfriends/husbands - it gets really bad when Marilyn Manson, sans make-up, has his way with the boy. Some defenses of the picture talk about how it's about a bond between a mother and son, but not a single individual in this is even close to being remotely 'normal,' especially Asia, who is situated at the direct opposite end of the scale of the Religious Zealots - when the boy drives off with psycho Mom at the very end, it can only be to die some place. Might have worked on the page better - Albert's fancy-free writing is a major asset (or at least it was in Sarah), but on the screen I can only think of Åkerlund's equally dreadful Spun.