MARTIN BREST''S DARK QUIRKY ARTHOUSE HOT TOMORROWS

1977 **

A Gothic WHO'S THAT KNOCKIN' AT MY DOOR has two men in their twenties: Ken Lerner, writing a cathartic novel about his dead aunt, and Ray Sharkey, who's more spontaneous than deep, hanging out and doing close to nothing...

They go to a bar where Danny Elfman is singing cabaret, meet Victor Argo and Herve Velechez, then visit a funeral home, have coffee, take a tour, return to the bar, then to a diner, drive around and talk some more... mostly about death, a topic brooding Lerner's obsessed with and that Sharkey ignores.

Much of the film’s dark charm is the differences between these two misplaced friends and their bickering conversations...

And then, because of a sudden situation that occurs midway, Lerner's left with only cold memories and depression, and the film peters out much too soon. Martin Brest wrote and directed this B&W super-low-budget indie right before hitting mainstream with GOING MY WAY, BEVERLY HILLS COP, MIDNIGHT RUN, and eventually his Waterloo disaster, GIGLI. And Orson Welles provides the radio announcer's voice for the cemetery, so don't expect to see him anywhere around.