Liquid Sky

The 1982 cult film Liquid Sky brought the New York movie underground and bohemian New Wave culture into arthouse theaters and on to the college film circuit. Directed by Russian émigré filmmaker Slava Tsukerman, who wrote it with his wife and collaborator Nina V. Kerova and costar Anne Carlisle (who was part of the NYC club culture), this is a bizarre melodrama about young adults hungry for fame and addicted to a lifestyle of sex, drugs, and clubbing, as observed by sensation-seeking aliens in a UFO who feed off humans while they are high on heroin. When the aliens discover something better—human orgasms—they also start killing the people they feed on. Carlisle plays two roles, a jaded bisexual female model named Margaret and sneering, drug-addicted androgynous male model Jimmy, who dresses like David Bowie. The story follows Margaret’s strange odyssey as she sees all of her sexual partners die in front of her. A surreal sci-fi flick that straddles American underground rebellion and European art movie, the film’s performances are highly stylized, and Tsukerman uses video thermal imagery and abstract computer video art for the alien POV. Both a fascinating artifact from a specific cultural moment and a unique piece of independent filmmaking, Liquid Sky—unavailable on home video for years—has been newly restored for this special edition that features extras including audio commentary by Tsukerman, interviews with the director and Carlisle, a new documentary by Tsukerman, a Q&A from a 2017 screening, behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, outtakes, an isolated soundtrack, and a stills gallery. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)