Kicked in the Head

First, let's clarify what Kicked in the Head is not. It's not a whimsical, surreal urban odyssey like After Hours, despite the perplexing executive producer participation of Martin Scorsese. It's not a good-natured slacker comedy, despite the presence of a hyper-reflective, ambition-deficient protagonist. And it's not a gritty-yet-pop-culture-savvy crime dramedy in the Tarantino mold, despite the plethora of shootouts and one inane discussion about the Planet of the Apes movies. It is, on the other hand, a gruelingly unfunny 89 minutes spent following an annoying, unsympathetic young man named Redmond (Kevin Corrigan) on a "spiritual quest" through the Lower East Side, which apparently consists of 1) using plenty of beer and cocaine, 2) writing plenty of bad poetry and 3) spending plenty of time with people who are even more annoying and unsympathetic than himself. This is independent filmmaking at its most pointless and self-indulgent, mistaking profanity for profundity and incoherence for avant-garde. When a cast this talented (Linda Fiorentino, James Woods, Lili Taylor) stumbles through a script this disastrous, you can only assume that the title refers to what happened to every one of them before signing on. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)