Karyn Kusama
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6.8 Karyn Kusama: Girlfight (2000) 6.5 Karyn Kusama: Jennifer's Body (2009) 7.2 Karyn Kusama: Destroyer (2018) | Links: |
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Karyn Kusama (USA, 1968),
John Sayles' assistant for three years
debuted with Girlfight (2000), partially funded by Sayles himself.
She then worked on the
sci-fi movie Aeon Flux (2005), an adaptation of
Peter Chung's cartoon (a film later repudiated).
She turned to
the horror genre with Jennifer's Body (2009),
written by Diablo Cody,
and
The Invitation (2015), written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.
Out of nowhere, this mediocre pulp filmmaker crafted Destroyer (2018), photographed by Julie Kirkwood and again written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, The film toys only superficially with the "bad cop" theme, and that theme remains an undercurrent throughout the story. The film is actually a revenge thriller, but the viewer finds out only at the very end what the story is truly about. The fragmented flashbacks piece together the past of the detective and slowly shed light on the real motive of her senseless pursue of a criminal. It is also the portrait of an anti-heroic loner and loser, who has lost the trust of both her old friends and her family. The script only suffers from the use of the word "fuck" every three seconds, which detracts from the otherwise suspenseful direction. A few days earlier, Erin received an envelop containing a a $100 bill stained with purple ink, presumably part of a "dye pack" from a bank robbery. She immediately recognizes it. While she's driving away, we see on her neck the same gang tattoo. She asks an old FBI acquaintance to doublecheck the $100 bill: he confims that it is from a bank robbery. We understand that Erin and another agent named Chris were used to infiltrate a gang, and that the case against that gang has been cold for many years. She thinks the bill is a sign that the gang's leader, Silas, is back into action. She visits Taz, who sells unmarked guns to gangsters, and confiscates some of his guns until he tells her to whom he is selling guns. Her partner Antonio (which we don't see) doesn't know what she's up to. She doesn't return his call. A flashback shows how she met her boyfriend Chris, how the FBI picked them to infiltrate Silas' gang, and how they entered the gang through gang member Toby. Erin visits Toby, who has been released from jail and has only one month to live, looking for information about Silas' whereabouts. Toby demands that she pays a price: masturbate him. Erin does it and he tells her to see Arturo, another old gang member, who now helps illegal immigrants at a church. A flashback shows when Silas tested Arturo to try Russian roulette and then, when Arturo survived it, made fun of him, humiliating him in front of the whole gang, including the young Erin. Erin is distracted by the escapades of her wild daughter Shelby, a 16-year-old who is dating a 24-year-old punk, Jay. Shelby is embarrassed that her mom confronts Jay in a bar. Shelby lives with Erin's brother Ethan. Erin visits Arturo who tries to run away from her. He has been hiding from the gang and doesn't want to have anything to do with it anymore. She catches up with him and he tells her to talk to a corrupt lawyer, Dennis, who launders the loot from Silas' heists. She visits Dennis who lives in a majestic mansion. Dennis makes fun of her and his bodyguard even beats her up and throws her out, but she recovers and threatens to kill Dennis until Dennis reveals that Silas' girlfriend Petra is the one who delivers the money. From their exchange we understand that she participated in the heist and the heist went wrong. Dennis tells her where he will meet Petra for the next "money drop". Erin gets distracted again by Shelby: she is hospitalized after being caught into a fight caused by Jay. We finally see her partner Antonio who demands an explanation for her furtive investigation into a case that was forgotten for years. She just tells him that it's personal. Erin watches Petra deliver a packet to Dennis and then trails her to her place. Erin spends the whole night in the car waiting for Petra's next move. A flashback shows how Erin heard that Silas was planning a big heist and that she was Chris' girlfriend. In the morning Erin follows Petra until she meets with Silas' new gang, and then Erin realizes that they are about to rob a bank. She calls for backup, grabs her assault rifle and follows the gang into the bank. When two more cops arrive, Erin leads them into a shootout that leaves gang members dead, but Silas escapes. Erin sees Petra limping away, captures her in a bakery and kidnaps her, but not before being injured by Petra. Antonio and her chief try to contact Erin to find out why she disappeared. Erin does not reply. Erin takes Petra to her (Petra's) place. Petra is a drug addict and knows that Silas cheats on her with younger women. Erin forces her to make an appointment with Silas. A flashback shows that Erin convinced Chris to betray the FBI: go ahead with the bank robbery, get their share from Silas and then keep it. Erin visits her brother Ethan and tells him that she wants him to have the money that she had been hiding all those years. She's a failed mother and want to atone for it. However, she has a bad surprise when she opens the bag that she never opened before: most of the $100 bills are stained with purple dye. She sorts out the few bills that can still be used and offers them to Jay if he leaves Shelby alone. A flashback shows what happened at the robbery: Erin and Chris drove the gang to the bank in two vans, the robbery went smoothly until a "dye pack" exploded while Silas was on his way out; Silas, furious, walked back into the bank to punish the bank teller who didn't warn him; Chris, realizing that Silas was going to kill the woman, followed him inside and tried to disarm him, but Silas killed both Chris and the woman; Erin fled with the gang and hid her share of the heist in a dumpster before calling the FBI. We understand that, when Chris was killed, she was pregnant of his child: Shelby. Erin meets with Shelby one more time, apologizes for having been a bad mother, and confesses that she is responsible for her father's death. Shelby is resentful: she remembers when once Erin took her to a forest in the middle of a snowstorm and they got lost, for no apparent reason. Erin has Petra's phone and sees when Silas sends the address of the meeting place. Erin drives here and kills Silas, finally avenging Chris' death. Erin then spends the night in her car, parked under a bridge, as the injury caused by Petra becomes more painful. When she wakes up in the morning, she sees that cops are already on the scene examining Silas' body. She limps to them and we're back to the first scene. End of the main flashback. We now know why Erin said that she knew who killed the man. She then hands her partner Antonio the address where to find Petra and the key to her storage room where he can find the dyed money that she cannot use. It's basically a confession. She then sits in her car as the wound is getting worse. Presumably she dies while remembering her last conversation with Chris and her senseless walk in the snowstorm with little Shelby.
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