Freeway (1996) ****
Freeway (1996), Matthew Bright ’s darkly hilarious take on Little Red Riding Hood , treads in similar ground to other scuzzy ‘90s crime films but does a commendable job of subverting expectations a number of times. At only 19, Reese Witherspoon is as good here as she is in 1999's Election [ review ] and really leaves an impression. Kiefer Sutherland takes a bit of a backseat to Witherspoon, screen time-wise, but is perfectly sinister as a pedo predator. Brittany Murphy , in a smaller role, is as awkward, weird, and charming as she was in the following year’s Drive [ review ]. Danny Elfman 's score is a fun one, before he started churning out bland sonic wallpaper. I love the genre-mashing happening in this trash odyssey—it dabbles in street drama, serial killer psychological horror, women’s prison picture, and road movie, all while maintaining a blackly comic sense of humor (featuring some amazingly inappropriate dialogue). The film takes a little bit of time to get mov...
