Like BOYS DON'T CRY, this film takes place in the milieu of the small-town Midwest where alcohol and drugs are the main focus of life for the bored people who live there. The first hour meanders a lot but stick with it because once these characters pile into a car and day turns to night this film take a steep downward spiral into senseless violence. The acting can be a little amateurish but the last half hour does pack a real punch. Seeing funny-guy Jim Varney play a small serious part here was a special treat.
6 Reviews
Great but disturbing
bug769 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
*I put a spoilers warning just in case.
'100 Proof' in one word: "Disturbing." There seemed to be unfinished business in this movie that didn't get resolved. It didn't delve into the relationship between Rae and Carla, which seems to suggest at something more intimate but nothing was answered. The ending raised more questions and had no answers to what happened after the shootings and what happened to Rae's father, played by Jim Varney. I can see how suffering all of the physical and mental abuse from her father would drive Rae over the edge but I felt it wasn't explained as thoroughly as it should have been. There were some holes in the plot. With that said, I'll admit that I had my reservations about watching this movie at all, mainly because of Jim Varney's role as an abusive, incestuous father, something I'm definitely not used to. Curiosity won over my hesitation and I'm glad it did. Mr. Varney was truly the most gifted, multi-faceted actor I've ever had the privilege of watching. While he wasn't the star of the show and only had a small part, he completely outshone the other stars. His powerful on screen presence overshadowed Rae and Carla. With only a small role, Varney was able to steal the entire movie right out from under them. He completely blew my away with this role. To go from that affable, lovable funny man, 'Ernest P. Worrell' to Rae's father, and every other character in between, and to do it so proficiently, is a rare talent indeed. If you grew up with 'Ernest P. Worrell', as I did, believe me, you will see absolutely no hint of that humble hayseed in this movie so don't go looking for him here. How Hollywood pigeon-holed Varney into Ernest is beyond me. It's too bad it took them so long to remove the 'Ernest Blinders'. If Varney were alive today, you can bet he'd be acting circles around these so-called big name celebrities. If you do watch this movie, watch with caution. There are some very disturbing moments in this.
'100 Proof' in one word: "Disturbing." There seemed to be unfinished business in this movie that didn't get resolved. It didn't delve into the relationship between Rae and Carla, which seems to suggest at something more intimate but nothing was answered. The ending raised more questions and had no answers to what happened after the shootings and what happened to Rae's father, played by Jim Varney. I can see how suffering all of the physical and mental abuse from her father would drive Rae over the edge but I felt it wasn't explained as thoroughly as it should have been. There were some holes in the plot. With that said, I'll admit that I had my reservations about watching this movie at all, mainly because of Jim Varney's role as an abusive, incestuous father, something I'm definitely not used to. Curiosity won over my hesitation and I'm glad it did. Mr. Varney was truly the most gifted, multi-faceted actor I've ever had the privilege of watching. While he wasn't the star of the show and only had a small part, he completely outshone the other stars. His powerful on screen presence overshadowed Rae and Carla. With only a small role, Varney was able to steal the entire movie right out from under them. He completely blew my away with this role. To go from that affable, lovable funny man, 'Ernest P. Worrell' to Rae's father, and every other character in between, and to do it so proficiently, is a rare talent indeed. If you grew up with 'Ernest P. Worrell', as I did, believe me, you will see absolutely no hint of that humble hayseed in this movie so don't go looking for him here. How Hollywood pigeon-holed Varney into Ernest is beyond me. It's too bad it took them so long to remove the 'Ernest Blinders'. If Varney were alive today, you can bet he'd be acting circles around these so-called big name celebrities. If you do watch this movie, watch with caution. There are some very disturbing moments in this.
worth watching!
throb-59 April 1999
Don't expect to be titillated by the violence in 100 Proof. There is no visceral thrill when it erupts, it's just mundane, senseless and painful to watch. This film is by no means perfect, but it really deserves an audience.
Thelma & Louise as a COPS Episode
fred-2877 June 2003
At the outset we're informed that this movie was inspired by an actual series of events in Lexington, Kentucky in 1986. I've never been sure what's the point of giving us this kind of information. If it's not a documentary, then we're getting a story that needs to stand or fall on it's own merits. It almost seems a way for neophyte indie filmmakers like Jeremy Horton to tell us "Hey look, I know I didn't have a big budget or any name actors except one and a lot of this may seem amateurish or not very dramatically compelling, but hey, I borrowed a lot from real life so cut me some slack." Okay, fine, but if it's not going to be "Thelma & Louise," i.e. capital-H Hollywood with all the Production Values, and if it's not going to be "COPS" or "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol" or some such, then it'd better be a pretty damn interesting little tale in it's own right.
At first it seems it could be. The camera wanders around inside an unprepossessing living room while some psychotic old man babbles about his bad arm and other topics. Eventually we see the old babbler getting a bath from a woman who vaguely resembles Jamie Lee Curtis. Her relationship to him, like most of the relationships in the movie, is never particularly clear, but apparently she looks after him to some extent. Her name is Rae and she has a friend named Carla who also has some connection to the old man and also an old woman whose house this seems to be. Rae and Carla appear to have one goal in life, i.e. substance abuse. When they're not smoking and/or drinking, they're contriving to visit a guy named Eddie who lives miles away and sells drugs on the side. (Why they couldn't find a closer source of dope is also never clear.) During one of their drug binges Rae and Carla indicate they may have latent lesbian inclinations, but like other plot threads, this is never pursued to any great extent.
Rae also has a nasty father, played by the late Jim Varney in a superb and way too short cameo role. Varney owns the movie while onscreen and his scene is the only one with any real dramatic sizzle. Yet after he's done slamming her head down onto a bar and taking her money, I found myself wondering why she would ever go near him in the first place. She seems too smart to be a masochist, or maybe that's just in comparison to all the other characters.
Eventually most of the characters to whom we've been introduced pile into a big ol' gas guzzler and start driving around aimlessly. After a lot more drinking, smoking and doping, violence starts occurring. I won't "spoil" anything for those who haven't seen it but I will say Mr. Horton does a nice job capuring that often reported phenomenon along the lines of "Well, now that I've gone this far anyway, may as well finish it." The ending doesn't resolve anything in particular, but maybe it isn't meant to. Personally I would've preferred a closing shot of Rae and Carla in a prison cell in which they finally get to explore their latent lesbianism, but that's just me.....
So is this one worth a look on video or DVD? Well, there are a lot of amusing moments, some of them possibly unintentional. But this is ground most of us have seen covered before in some form or other, whether "real life" or otherwise. Ultimately, if you didn't know it was inspired by real events, I can't vouch that you should care what happens to the characters. You'll probably see more compelling stories on cable TV's "Discovery" et al. Just because something really happened doesn't ipso facto make it interesting, even if there's violence involved. "If it bleeds, it leads" may work for the evening news but even so, there's a limit. Now if Rae or Carla had each killed her own kids or something, that would've been a whole other story....
At first it seems it could be. The camera wanders around inside an unprepossessing living room while some psychotic old man babbles about his bad arm and other topics. Eventually we see the old babbler getting a bath from a woman who vaguely resembles Jamie Lee Curtis. Her relationship to him, like most of the relationships in the movie, is never particularly clear, but apparently she looks after him to some extent. Her name is Rae and she has a friend named Carla who also has some connection to the old man and also an old woman whose house this seems to be. Rae and Carla appear to have one goal in life, i.e. substance abuse. When they're not smoking and/or drinking, they're contriving to visit a guy named Eddie who lives miles away and sells drugs on the side. (Why they couldn't find a closer source of dope is also never clear.) During one of their drug binges Rae and Carla indicate they may have latent lesbian inclinations, but like other plot threads, this is never pursued to any great extent.
Rae also has a nasty father, played by the late Jim Varney in a superb and way too short cameo role. Varney owns the movie while onscreen and his scene is the only one with any real dramatic sizzle. Yet after he's done slamming her head down onto a bar and taking her money, I found myself wondering why she would ever go near him in the first place. She seems too smart to be a masochist, or maybe that's just in comparison to all the other characters.
Eventually most of the characters to whom we've been introduced pile into a big ol' gas guzzler and start driving around aimlessly. After a lot more drinking, smoking and doping, violence starts occurring. I won't "spoil" anything for those who haven't seen it but I will say Mr. Horton does a nice job capuring that often reported phenomenon along the lines of "Well, now that I've gone this far anyway, may as well finish it." The ending doesn't resolve anything in particular, but maybe it isn't meant to. Personally I would've preferred a closing shot of Rae and Carla in a prison cell in which they finally get to explore their latent lesbianism, but that's just me.....
So is this one worth a look on video or DVD? Well, there are a lot of amusing moments, some of them possibly unintentional. But this is ground most of us have seen covered before in some form or other, whether "real life" or otherwise. Ultimately, if you didn't know it was inspired by real events, I can't vouch that you should care what happens to the characters. You'll probably see more compelling stories on cable TV's "Discovery" et al. Just because something really happened doesn't ipso facto make it interesting, even if there's violence involved. "If it bleeds, it leads" may work for the evening news but even so, there's a limit. Now if Rae or Carla had each killed her own kids or something, that would've been a whole other story....
truth
tarnished_angel3929 December 2005
I would like to start off by saying,'not only have I seen the movie'.I knew the two women the movie was based on.As for the film itself, I don't think it showed the events, the women, nor the passion in a true light. The story however is worthy of being told,heard,and thought of. These women had more substance and character than what was given in the film.If this dismal look at their story was all the director had to offer'even if done with the best intentions.It needn't have been done.Yet it was, and with that,I think it should be redone.This time from a different light ,offering truth of the story itself.Truth of the women. Truth of how the drugs robbed two women of their inner and outward beauty.
Go to you tube type in 100 proof
carybenzel17 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
There is like a 13:11 documentary about what happened the woman's name are actually lafonda fay foster and Tina hickey Powell it happened in Lexington ky and the dumbasses got caught by going to st Joe a hospital and clean up in the bathroom I've been here in Lexington for 16years or so I'm 37 now never heard of this until I moved here from louisville
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