Zev Berman, the director of "Plain Dirty", or "Briar Patch" as it's identified in these pages, takes a big chance in bringing this Deborah Pryor's screen play to the screen. First of all, this is a courageous piece of film making, and the characters in the film don't exactly endear themselves to the viewer. The film is a moody attempt to present us people that are living at the edge of society with basically no redeeming qualities to them, yet, we are hooked into watching the movie until the end, no small feat Zev Berman pulls on his viewers.
We were attracted to the movie on the strength of its excellent cast. Henry Thomas is an actor that is always interesting to watch. As Edgar, he is the man obsessed with Inez, a woman he mistreats endlessly. Inez, played by Dominique Swan, makes a good contribution to the film as the girl who can't take any more of the beatings she receives from Edgar. It's clear, from the start, that Flowers is secretly in love with Inez, but being such a sorry sight, knows he can't compete with Dru, the rich guy who wants Inez for himself. Both Artie Verveen and James Urbaniak are right on the money about how they play their characters. Also, Debra Monk, who is seen as the police officer Avon is, as always, excellent.
The film sort of hypnotizes the viewer with the cinematography of Scott Kevan and the haunting score by Nathan Barr. While it's clear that this is a not a film for a lot of people, as demonstrated by the many negative comments to this forum, the least one can do is watch it with some degree of respect because the tremendous job by Zev Berman has accomplished with this movie.
