universe they are inhabiting is the key to appreciating this film.The "Dark Backward" explores a world that is overwhelmed with scum and filth. One of the characters, Gus, is so dirty he looks like a live action version of "Pigpen". As this character Bill Paxton gives one of the bravest, most fascinating performances I've ever seen. He walks a tightwire of contradictions playing a character who is at once both innocence and evil incarnate. He's loud, lustful and obnoxious. He's quiet, virginal and caring. At one moment, he's as stupid as a post; in the next, he's cunningly manipulitive and deceitful. To oversimplify-it's like being asked to play Forrest Gump AND Iago in the same character. Miraculously, Paxton not only pulls it off but makes it appear as though all these opposing traits could easily belong to a single creature. The rest of the cast is magnificent in the way they embrace the excesses of their respective characters. As mentioned earlier, this is an absurdist story and these actors realize the importance of exaggeration to make the genre work. This is also why those who have dismissed Paxton's work as over-the-top should not be heeded. This is a film that shows a world where there is no top to be gone over. There is nothing which can be considered too much.

accordian during Marty's act, convinces him to work it into their routine. They get a talent agent sleazy Wayne Newton and a succession of bookings follow. The whole things plays out as a coal-black parable about the foibles of decency in an oportunistic world.The plot is simplistic, really. What this film is is texture, texture, texture. And that texture is filth, evil, and scum.There is more scum and evil in this film than in ten David Lynch films. Marty and Gus live in a parallel universe by way of Newark, New Jersey comprised of vast amounts of garbage and shrugging indifference. Three-quarters of the characters in this film spend their time on screen asleep. The remaining two-thirds are hysterical, conniving, moronic, or flat-out sinister with the exception of a child-comprised studio audience we see briefly .Marty spends the film bent over as though his spine were warped and with his face drenched in sweat. Gus is so dirty he practically blends into the garabage he and Marty dig through at the dump. When Gus opens Marty's refrigerator he can only find some green and toxic chicken that looks left over from Mesolithic era he eats it anyway .When Marty and Gus get their big break is when the film really broke the mold for me. Marty has a three-armed suit made and during their act after each joke he does a slow turn so the audience can see his extra appendage and it's really amazing. It's looks totally surreal!!! It's beautiful!! I can't totally explain why I love this film so much, except to say that I find it beautiful when someone puts so much work into making something so absolutely pure. In many ways the world that we live in is beautiful. There are things that are special and fragile and new. However, this world is also filled with great deal of hatred and rage. We have made this world a very toxic place and I mean that in the literal sense Life can be and is, for some hell. It would be incorrect to assume expression only need represent the happy skippy joys of life.Personally, I think this is one of the best representations of a "hell on earth" ever on film.

the budget to make it or to convince the actors to be in it. Everything in this picture is...well...here is a starter for you: Bill Paxon is licking a naked, dead woman in the middle of a trash dump within 5 min of the opening scene, and then the movie rolls down hill to a whirlwind of grime and sour flavors to twist your stomach and tickle your spine.BEWARE!! all who think this is some cheeky cult movie, it takes some getting used to, but once you have stomached the visual and dialog driven uk, you can appreciate the happiness of this tale.

isn't going to appeal to just anyone, but anyone who finds humour in scenes of perversion and obvious discomfort will recognise this one as a gem.

no less . Bill Paxton is great as his trashy/opportunistic buddy and the scene of him in bed with 3 extremely large womn in lingerie....has to be seen to be believed...Another of those in my video collection that I'm careful about showing to friends...that whole love/hate thing and all...

movie expecting standard, spoon-fed, Hollywood comedy fare will HATE this movie. Hell, some of my friends who like all the same things I do hate this movie. HOWEVER. People who DO like this movie - are going to LOVE this movie. Over the years, I have shown this movie to over 100 people and since most of them are like me - bright, but a little twisted about 95% of them have LOVED it.As screwed up as this movie is - it also has heart. And soul. Something movies so rarely seem to capture in a genuine capacity anymore.If you want something sick, twisted, dry, and different - this movie is for you. If you want to see what Meg Ryan is up to with Tom Hanks this holiday season - stay away!

garbage-collecting co-worker, Gus Bill Paxton , notices a lump growing out of Marty's back while they are doing the rounds. This odd growth is diagnosed by the disturbingly incompetent Doctor Scurvey James Caan as a third arm. What would normally be an embarrassingly freakish human deformity, turns out to be Marty's comedic calling. Before, Gus was his sole fan; now he has a mass following. Enter the slimy Dirk Delta Rob Lowe , who offers Marty the chance of Hollywood stardom. So begins a successful career in comedy ... ? Seemingly straight out of a Ray Bradbury short tale, Rifkin's film is furnished with carnivalesque characters. You will be astounded and revolted by characters like 'the fat woman', 'the muscle man', and 'the human xylophones'. Rob Lowe is unrecognizable in his role as slick Hollywood bigwig a role he would later reprise in 'Wayne's World','Tommy Boy', 'Austin Powers' 1-3 and 'Thankyou for Smoking' . James Caan is frighteningly brilliant as Dr. Scurvey, and leading man, Judd Nelson, puts in his best performance since 'St. Elmo's Fire' and 'The Breakfast Club' look out for Judd's oddball cameo in Rifkin's 'Never on a Tuesday' . 'The Dark Backwards' is arguably Rifkin's best film, not having directed anything since to equal it. It is certainly his strangest movie since 'Never on a Tuesday'. If you are a fan of cult movie directors like David Lynch and John Waters, check this film out. If you are afraid of zombies, freaks, midgets and men with three arms I suggest you look elsewhere. Cast: Judd Nelson, Bill Paxton, Rob Lowe, James Caan, Lara Flynn Boyle, Wayne Newton, et al Matthew J Lee-Williams, Review.

eyes, stage struck' comedian, who should wake up and smell the coffee. His ailing Mom tells it like it is, saying "You're not funny Marty". But the real joke there is the obvious underlying sarcasm that comes across in just unfunny he really is -the below zero 'suck' quality of his jokes, that don't even make sense, and are are so unlaughable, where in reality, after a test run, no one would hire this guy, if even feeling sorry for this geek. But again, there's the joke, the satire, of him being hired, where in the story's world, we get the notion, he would has been hired by some people who would of felt sorry for him. Here's a most different contrast of character, to the ones, Nelson usually plays. He's so good in this. But luck has turned his way in the form of a small lump growing out of his back which becomes a third arm. In the early phase of it, his useless doctor, who has a kinky assistant, slaps a band aid on it. Days later, Nelson returns. The doc James Caan goes ape at him for coming in, with, what he calls a little problem. Here he becomes an overnight sensation, where him and Paxton, an accordian player, become double act. I'm sure, people would certainly pay good money, to see a guy, with a authentic third arm growing out his back. It's all too absurb, or bizarre to consider. But this is quite a bizarre film. Another one of those, that stand alone, which we'll be distasteful to a few movie goers out there. Others will love it cause of the idea and it's originality, but mostly it's dark side, it's title, most suiting. Rob Lowe is impressive here too, as another talent agent, a smarmy sort, where Lara Flynn Boyle as a cafe worker and Nelson's love interest. Panic strikes too, when Nelson's third arm starts to disappear. But he comes up trumps in the end, as an overnight real comedian, partly thanks to his brief third asset. Yes, this is a distasteful movie, but sometimes things in bad taste are entertaining to many are few, where some of surely would be missing one short of a dollar. Check this flick out, just for it's originality.

investment for fans of twisted cult films.