Living and Dying, Grieving and Lying in the 'Burbs
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The domestication of Dexter continues in "Father Knows Best." This is another of those episodes that quietly explores the dichotomy of his personality while revealing more of his past. A lot more.

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If there was any doubt that Dexter has finally accepted that he's in a relationship with Rita, this episode quells them. It opens with the couple showering together--or at least attempting to. Before any good stuff can happen, though, the kids break things up, as kids do, with an ill-timed need to pee. If that's not "family-oriented", than nothing is. We also find out that Dexter has a nasty scar running down his side, and as with most everything else in this series, its origins are shrouded in mystery. Dexter plays it for laughs, though, telling the kids he got in a swordfight.

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The day seems to be off to a good start, but when Dexter gets to to work, Deb presents him with a registered letter that brings more mysteries come to the fore. Seems Dexter's real father has died and left Dexter his house. This comes as shocking news to both Dexter and Deb, since Harry had raised Dexter with the belief that his real parents had died in "a horrible accident" of unspecified details. And we all know that Harry was nothing if not honest.

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Still, Dexter's curiosity is piqued, and so is Rita's. She finds a sitter for the kids, and informs Dexter she's going with him to Dade to help him clear up matters. As I said, Dexter, like it or not, is in a serious relationship now. Apparently, so are Deb and Rudy, since they show up, unannounced, at the house to help put this inconvenience behind him. (Hmm... Dex and Rita, Deb and Rudy. Are the writers playing games here, or drawing connections?)

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Meanwhile, in subplot land, Doakes is involved in the shooting of a fleeing suspect. Complications ensue when Doakes's version of what happened don't jibe with the evidence. We do learn, however, that Doakes was involved in Special Ops during the Haitian Crisis, and that the man he shot was a member of death squads there. It makes you wonder if Doakes is quietly dispensing his own peculiar brand of justice.

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Getting back to the main thrust of this episode, Dexter--carefully plotting his every move Dexter--has finally come face to face with the Ice Truck Killer, and apparently has no clue that Rudy, his foster sister's lover, is his nemesis. Given that discovering his real father didn't die in a horrible accident, and all that Harry had made him believe is a lie, this is understandable. DNA tests prove that the dead man, Joe Driscol, is Dexter's "biodad", much to Deb's dismay. Dexter is the only family she has left, and this development threatens that stabilizing thread in her life.

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Complicating matters even more is the fact that Dexter is convinced that Joe was murdered, and not the victim of a heart attack, as the death certificate says. Proving that might prove to be difficult, though, since Joe is cremated before Dexter can uncover the proof of that.What he does find out, though, is that had a visit from the cable guy right before he died. Anyway, that's what the old lady across the street tells him. Admittedly, she's not the most reliable witness around, since she does tend to ramble. Dexter and Rita leave Dade with a whole new bag of questions.

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But as Deb and Rudy prepare to leave, the old lady recognizes Rudy as the cable guy. She just wants a cable problem repaired, of course. We, on the other hand, realize that Rudy killed poor old Joe, and the nice, but senile, old lady is now in harm's way.

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Before "Father Knows Best" fades to black, we find Rita back at home in Miami with an unexpected guest. Paul, the -ex, greets her in his customary abusive way. This time, though, Rita fights back, giving him a well-deserved (and long-awaited) whack upside the head with a baseball bat. She quickly gathers up the kids and flees, presumably to Dexter's house.

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There are three episodes remaining in this run of Dexter, and things couldn't be much more taunt. I'm thinking Rudy must be related to Dexter, but what secret was he squashing by murdering Joe? And what did Joe do to prompt Harry to lie to Dexter the child? There must be a connection between Joe and Harry, but since they're both dead, will it progress beyond ambiguity? Will the nice old lady be the Ice Truck Killer's next victim, or is Deb the ultimate fool for love? Is Doakes some kind of government assassin with a cop cover? Will Dexter have to eliminate the Paul problem, or will Rita handle matters on her own? (My money's on Rita. After all, the family that slays together, stays together.)

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We have approximately 156 minutes, spread over three episodes, to unravel the mystery. I suggest taking some serious notes through the duration.

Brothers of the Head: A Soul at War With Itself

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Leave your preconceptions at the door, please. You won't be needing them when you're done here. Brothers of the Head is a film the likes of which you've not seen before. Ostensibly the story of cojoined twins who rise to rock stardom in the mid 1970's, it spits out inherent cliches to emerge as an ultimately tragic tale of isolation.

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Based on the novel by speculative fiction author Brian Aldiss, and scripted bu Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Brothers of the Head is presented as a fictionalized documentary. But don't label it a "mockumentary"-- this film immerses the viewer so deeply in its alternate reality that one is almost convinced that it really did happen. Co-directors Keith Sulton and Louis Pepe (Lost in LaMancha) are best known for their documentaries, and it is to their credit they continued this approach with Brothers of the Head. This is a story that could not be properly told in a linear style.

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Tom and Barry Howe were born cojoined at the sternum, and their mother during childbirth. Their grief-stricken father, fearing he would lose them both, refused to consider separating them surgically. They spend their formative years relatively isolated on L'Estrange Head, an island off Eastern England. But when a promoter approaches the father with the idea of turning the boys into a musical act, he accepts immediately, and pretty much sells the twins to the promoter.

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This set-up would be trite, but it's layered into the film via interviews and "footage" chronicling the rise and fall of the brothers' band, the Bang Bang.

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It's pretty much a given that it's impossible to write a great rock and roll drama,since the nature of the beast dictates that the story has to center around the rise to glory and the inevitable fall from grace.Brothers of the Head takes takes that premise and spins it into the darkly surreal.This isn't really a rock movie--the proto-punk London of the mid-seventies is only a backdrop for the story of a soul in conflict with itself. Tom and Barry are a singular soul trapped in separate bodies, forever linked by the appendage that binds them.
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By presenting the film as a "documentary," Fulton and Pepe are able to exploit the conflicts the twins feel without involvement. In fact, it's twice removed from involvement in that much of it is based on an "unfinished Ken Russel film" about the Bang Bang, to have been called Two Way Romeo. We know from the beginning, through interviews and news footage, that the twins are deceased, so the film focuses on how the tragedy came to be.
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It's a story of exploitation and how society seizes on that exploitation to mass produce, and finally destroy, its manufactured heroes. It's also a story of defiance, in that the twins spit the exploitation back into the face of their tormentors, and play it for all it's worth. Finally, it's a story of the futile quest for individuality.
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As portrayed by real-life twins Luke and Harry Treadaway, Tom and Barry represent the duality that resides in us all. Even when making love to their girlfriend (Tania Emery), one is impassioned, the other sullen. Connected as they are, they can never connect fully to another, including each other.. This spills into all aspects of their life, with Tom emerging as the quiet artist, and Barry playing the role of the raucous rocker. The result is an arresting portrait of inner chaos.
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The burgeoning punk setting adds fuel to the metaphor. The twins' conflicts and rivalries fuel their anger, and mirror the angst of disenfranchised youth that gave rise to the original punk movement in England. The music here--all original-- is raw, basic and perfectly conjures up the the ennui and anger of those times. (The soundtrack stands on its own, and will be reviewed separately.)The dialogue, the audience scenes, the sheer feeling that something is about to change, all ring true.
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Brothers of the Head may very well be the strangest movie you'll see this year. But it's a strangeness that rings uncomfortably close to our perceptions. It's a film that will haunt you for a long while.

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