Stuck

Stuart Gordon's Stuck is a thoughtful B picture from 2007, if one can suspend disbelief at its outrageous premise. Stephen Rea plays Thomas Bardo, a newly homeless denizen of a anonymous, mid-sized urban center. While groggily navigating the town's streets he is hit and wedged into the window of a car by a lit and harried nurse named Brandi. The nurse, played by Mena Suvari, drives to her garage where she discovers to her growing horror that the man she hit is alive and stuck in her windshield. She enlists her drug dealing boyfriend Rashid, well played by Russell Hornsby, to help dispose of her problem, but Bardo does not go quietly.

The title refers to the basic premise of the film, but also to its subtext. Thomas and Brandi are stuck in life by an economically deterministic system that provides little in the way of true choice. Three times, before the collision, Thomas is given a choice that is no choice, merely the best deal he can get from those who wield power over him. Brandi has a host of unpleasant chores at the assisted living facility, but must hew to the course set by management even if means working Saturdays. They are both trapped by circumstances in a number of ways. 

All of this would seem like overload for a 82 minute exploitation film, but Gordon does wonders with his two leads, giving their plights an extra dollop of desperation. The hangdog Rea is ideally cast as one of life's victims. He is more than up to the demands of the body horror and action sections of the film. The surprise is Suvari who had a brief vogue after embodying an object of desire in American Beauty. She has never made much of an impression on me, how could one in films as execrable as the American Pie series, but Gordon unveils heretofore unseen acting chops. An unadorned performance of a woman overcome by events.

The film climaxes in a series of explosive spasms with violence begetting violence. This is according to the Old Testament dictates of the genre, but I was impressed throughout by how well Gordon integrated his artier aspects within the film's exploitation tropes. One of the dictates of the exploitation genre, often required specifically by the producer, is female nudity. When Brandi and Rashid make love, the obvious reason in terms of the film's production is to show off Ms. Suvari's charms. However, Gordon provides Brandi a motivation which unsettles the rote nature of the scene. Brandi is schtupping Rashid to please him and soften him up so that Rashid will be more willing to dispose of her problem, Thomas. It is more an act of manipulation rather than love and the notion is planted that the same could be said of the film as well.  

Gordon worked at the fringes of the industry for decades churning out a disproportionate number of solid B Films. Stuck, his final feature, shares many of the same attributes and limitations as his other urban decay flicks of the 21st Century, obscure titles like Edmond and King of the Ants. Those ignorant of his filmography are urged to seek out earlier triumphs such as Re-Animator, From Beyond, Dolls, and Fortress. Gordon was more technically accomplished, imaginative, and vital than most A directors of his era. He is missed, but most of his pictures I have cited, including Stuck, are available to stream on Tubi.