Based it on Jim Thompson’s _A Swell-Looking Babe_. Elias Koteas chews up the scenery, and he’s pretty much a kick to watch. Philip Baker Hall wanders in and out of a few scenes bigfooting it as Tacoma’s crime king Mr. Ish. It’s too long, and a little too strangely stylized (like its art designers all came off work on “The Red Shoe Diaries”), and it has an absolute aggravation in the form of a) a mentally-handicapped brother for Koteas’ sad-schlump protagonist and (I hate that kind of bullshit plot device, especially when) b) the actor playing the role is flat lousy. But then every few lines there’s some strange bit of Johnsonian absurdity, like William Blake drank a lot of Mad Dog and watched 34 hours of Looney Tunes and bam: I enjoyed it. Hit Me.