Clean, Shaven (1993)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Peter Winter (Peter Greene) is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. He clings to his humanity like a raft, barely afloat in a sea of terror. In a brief moment of congruence, he shatters his image reflected in a window, perhaps to more properly align it with his fragmented psyche. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.
- Actors:
- Peter Greene, Alice Levitt, Megan Owen, Jennifer MacDonald, Molly Castelloe, Jill Chamberlain, Agathe Leclerc, Robert Albert, Roget Joly, René Beaudin, J. Dixon Byrne, Eliot Rockett, Angela Vibert, Karen MacDonald, Lee Kayman
- Directors:
- Lodge Kerrigan
- Producers:
- Lodge Kerrigan
- Writers:
- Lodge Kerrigan
- Genres:
- Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (1) of Clean, Shaven
Signal Loss - Clean, Shaven review by griggs
Bleak doesn’t cover it. Lodge Kerrigan’s 1993 feature debut puts you inside Peter Winter’s world — a man with schizophrenia surrounded by scratching, static, electronic pulses and skin-crawling unease piped directly into your skull. It doesn’t let up for a single frame.
The sound design is the film’s blunt instrument. You’re not just watching Peter unravel; you’re being dragged through the world as he experiences it, which is impressive, horrible, and about as relaxing as licking a plug socket.
I know that’s the point. But somewhere in the middle I stopped engaging with the story and started waiting for the noise to stop. Clean, Shaven is accomplished, no question. For me, though, it was less a film to get lost in than a sensory mugging with an end credit sequence.