Hideous Kinky movie review & film summary (1999)
Julia is not a bad woman--just reckless, naive, foolishly trusting and seeking truth in the wrong places, times and ways. She doesn't do drugs to speak of, drinks little, wants to study Sufi philosophy. Her children, like most children, are profoundly conservative in the face of anarchy. They want a home, school, "real shirts.'' They're tired of Julia's quest and ask, "Mom, when can we have rice pudding again?'' The movie's tension comes from our own uneasiness about the mother, who with the best intentions seems to be blundering into trouble.
The film, directed by Gillies MacKinnon, fills its canvas with details about expatriate life in the time of flower power. Moroccan music blends with psychedelic rock, and they meet a teacher from the School of the Annihilation of the Ego. The expatriate American novelist Paul Bowles is presumably lurking about somewhere, writing his novel The Sheltering Sky, which is about characters not unlike these. One day in the bazaar, the family encounters Bilal (Said Taghmaoui), a street performer who possibly has some disagreements with the police, but is humorous and friendly, and is soon Julia's lover.
Bilal is not a bad man, either. "Hideous Kinky'' is not a melodrama or a thriller, and doesn't need villains; it's the record of a time when idealism led good-hearted seekers into danger. Some of the time Julia doesn't have enough food for her children, or a place for them to stay, and her idea for raising money is pathetic: She has them all making dolls to sell in the marketplace. Their trip to the desert leads to a nearly fatal ride with a sleepy truck driver, and to an uneasy meeting with a woman who may or may not be Bilal's wife.
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