Good Housekeeping

Coming on like an insane brew of Ishii's Crazy Family and Harmony Korine's freewheeling schizophrenic essays, this black satire on a North Hollywood white trash family who descend to near animal behaviour (in the period before the parents' divorce) pushes audience tolerance to the limit. Guntoting, Puppetmaster-obsessed Don (Mills) explodes when wife Donatella (Westen) takes a supportive lesbian lover; he divides the house down the middle and with his drinking cronies (including a militant men's rights activist and a so-called paralegal) prepares for battle to the end. Remarkable for its view of the cops (mere domestic go-betweens) and its all embracing cynicism, this bleak account of the sex war makes uncomfortable viewing, but it's fun seeing the actors rule the roost. May appeal to disillusioned youth.