Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby

Year: 1999

Genre: Crime Drama

Directed: Matthew Bright

Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Maria Celedonio, David Alan Grier, Vincent Gallo, April Telek, Bob Dawson, Jenn Griffin, Max Perlich, Michael T. Weiss, Richard Hendery, Kendall Saunders, Nicole Parker

Production: Kushner-Locke Company

Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby is the answer to the question: what would happen if you mixed a cheap ‘women in prison’ skin flick with an episodic Mexican soap opera, then amped up the violence to full on Tarantino. It’s depraved, gross, mean-spirited, and unconscionably stupid, tonally all over the map and worst of all…actually kind of boring.

Director Matthew Bright first came into the public eye with the release of Freeway (1996); a Reese Witherspoon helmed crime drama that subverted the tale of Red Riding Hood. This unrelated sequel has a bulimic Natasha Lyonne and a murderous Maria Celedonio escaping from their prison-hospital and meandering towards a Hansel and Gretel parallel whereby Vincent Gallo plays their witchy tormentor. It’s not the worst idea and even with its cheapness and over-reliance on shock value, Trickbaby is still not the worst interpretation of the Brothers Grimm tale.

(cough, cough)

But even if you take away this movie’s top-level faults it still remains a rhythmically challenged dud. It jerks us along through episodic misadventures assuming that having the cops chasing our two leads is going to keep a level of tension throughout. It doesn’t; thus the movie runs the gauntlet of being too reckless and too posturing not just act to act but scene to scene. One minute the girls are killing Border Patrol agents in cold blood and the next David Alan Grier is getting a handy on a public courthouse bench. One minute we’re witnessing what basically amounts to a satanic ritual sacrifice and the next we’re being “charmed” by hacky Three Stooges slapstick. By the way this is all being done to the non-stop sounds of post-fad ska music and wannabe Alanis Morissette therefore guaranteeing no matter what you’re supposed to feel, it just comes across as annoying.

Annoying and infinitely puerile would be what I’d label this film. It’s a sequel that removes everything that made the first one work including its built-in tension and its humanity. It fails in its satire to an embarrassing degree and its shock value doesn’t go beyond ill-timed gross outs and in-your-face sexuality. My advice is if you really want to see Natasha Lyonne in prison garb, check out the first three seasons of Orange is the New Black (2013-Present). Otherwise stay far away from this horrid piece of trash.

Final Grade: F