I can safely say that in my 30 years of filmgoing experience, I've never run across anything similar to Slava Tsukerman's 1983 cult sci-fi opus Liquid Sky. Filmed on a $500,000 budget in New York City by an entirely Russian production team, the film became an instant favorite in Boston, New York and Washington DC and played filmhouses constantly in these three metropolitan areas and grossed just over $3,000,000 -- not bad for such an avant-garde production. UntilLiquid Sky'srelease in 1999 on DVD, its Media VHS release was a pricey and highly sought after collector's item -- in fact, I shelled out $40 for it in 1998 after years of wanting to see it. I can definitely say that I've always been glad I did!
Liquid Sky's out of this world storyline revolves around heroin-addicted punk fashion model Margaret (Anne Carlisle), who lives with her tough-as-nails drug-dealing girlfriend Adrian (Paula Sheppard) in a swank New York City penthouse. One day a UFO the size of a dinner plate lands from the sky atop the lesbian couple's lair, and as we soon discover from German scientist Johann (Otto Von Wernherr), who's been tracking the UFO from afar, the invisible aliens within the flying object are hungry for opiates -- which they find in generous supply in Margaret and Adrian's apartment. Moreover to that, the aliens have a taste for a chemical -- which is similar to an opiate in bond structure -- that is produced in the human brain during orgasm, and with the swinging lifestyles that Margaret and Adrian lead, the hungry space critters aren't hungry for long. Of course, they have to kill whoever's climaxing when they extract via remote control the coveted neurotransmitters. When sexually numb Margaret discovers for herself what's going on, she lures her enemies to the apartment and induces them to cum, and in effect feeds them to the invisible creatures parked atop her roof.
Anne Carlisle (from Desperately Seeking Susan and Larry Cohen's Perfect Strangers) is breathtaking in her dual role as male and female heroin addicts Jimmy (another fashion model) and Margaret, two troubled look-alike characters who despise each other intensely. As a side note, Carlisle penned a 1987 novel based on the film and also titled Liquid Sky, which is well worth checking out for fans of the film -- if they can find it. Paula Sheppard of Alice, Sweet Alice fame eminates hatred and malice from every pore of her body as smack-dealing punk poetess Adrian, who sports a bizarre black headpiece that resembles a diaphragm and belts out unctuous rhymes at the club. It's a shame that both actresses have since retired from the industry. Much of the rest of the acting is quite amateur, but it gets the job done and doesn't detract much from the film when its at its worst. Russian emigre Slava Tsukerman, who served as director, co-writer and helped compose the indescribable score, has stuck mostly to making documentaries in his home country since Liquid Sky, so it's unlikely we'll ever see anything similar to this exhiliratingly weird film in the future.
Liquid Sky was highly critically acclaimed upon its release, winning jury prizes at the Brussels International Film Festival, Cartagena Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, and the Sydney Film Festival in Australia. It has also generated mostly positive reviews from a surprising number of high-profile, mainstream critics including Leonard Maltin, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, who admired the film's brave originality and dazzling imagery. Liquid Sky has one of the most surrealistically catchy synthesizer scores I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, and like the film itself seems totally off-key and otherworldly at first but quickly grows on the adventurous viewer. The film is a true time capsule of the early '80s New York punk wave and drug counterculture and has a distinct atmosphere similar to Susan Seidelman's Smithereens, only with a science-fiction twist. The movie can be described as a "downer" (much like the opiates that figure into the film's plot) due to the tragic, self-loathing, drug-addled characters and sordid situations they find themselves involved in, but there's an undercurrent of sardonic humor that makes the proceedings seem quite fascinating as opposed to strictly grueling or depressing.
Liquid Sky is unquestionably one of the strangest projects ever filmed. Many critics consider its release a turning point in the history of indie cinema, and the film is now deservedly regarded as a cult classic and has a legion of dedicated fans. As one such follower, I wholeheartedly rate Liquid Sky a 9 of 10 and recommend it to all serious avant-garde film buffs.
