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Review

Penny the hooker (Hicks) makes her way to her next appointment at the seedy Imperial Hotel on Idaho Avenue. The elevator operator is surly, the hallway smells of piss, and she seems much too young to be so world-weary. Her trick is - rather, are Francis (director Michael Polish) and Blake (Mark Polish), conjoined twins who share 3½ legs, two arms, and their psyches. All three are outcasts, relegated to the Lynchian environs of a faceless urban wasteland, leading marginal lives, at the mercy of the casual cruelty of the "normal."

The film could have settled for mere shock value; instead, it is a remarkable meditation on loneliness, identity and symbiosis, told with unexpected sweetness and compassion. The moody and luminous cinematography is one element in this expression of a signature vision, laced with singular moments of profound tenderness in extraordinary circumstances. Every aspect of the film meshes perfectly to garner the unconditional acceptance of a fantastic, emotionally satisfying and visually articulate world.

Parallel lives explore what it means to abandon and to be abandoned, offering these uniquely and quintessentially human protagonists opportunities for redemption. A haunting and lyrical film.