WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Brian Berta Every now and then, I come across a film which I feel deserves more recognition. Sometimes, their lack of popularity slightly disappoints me. However, it really disappoints me to see such a compelling, masterfully crafted film like "Clean, Shaven" have so little recognition. Someday, I hope it receives more popularity, because it deserves it.After a man named Peter Winter who suffers from schizophrenia is released from a mental institution, he attempts to get his daughter, Nicole, back from her adoptive family. He lives in a world that, to him, is filled with bizarre sounds and unexplainable occurrences which have negative effects on him. During his pursuit of his daughter, he becomes the prime suspect in an ongoing murder investigation.After watching this film a few times, I'm now fully convinced that it's the best sound designed film of all time. No other usage of sound has ever felt as natural, painful, and absorbing as this film did. There are many great scenes which expertly simulate schizophrenia. Some of these sounds can be found right at the beginning. The film starts off with a shot of several waves followed by many bizarre sounds and seemingly random images. The opening credits seem to be informing you that this is not going to be an orthodox film of any kind. Another chilling scene is when Peter experiences hallucinations at a library as that scene feels unexpected. I feel like sound effects can be more effective than visuals. A director could always just show a character's distorted facial expressions and expect the audience to connect the dots as to what the character is feeling, but using ear-piercing sounds like the ones from this film can immerse you into what the character is feeling to a much greater extent. Largely because of this, the sound design from this film had an enormous impact on me.Director Lodge Kerrigan used other tactics other than just sound to put you in the mind of Peter Winter such as having him isolate himself from the outside world in the way of covering the windows and mirrors of his car with newspapers. Peter also acted quite awkward around a few of the characters in the film. If he saw 2 sisters arguing with each other, the movie would have one of them talk in a demonic voice, almost like that's how Peter views other people. If he saw someone holding a gun, time would appear to slow down for him, showing he's clearly intimidated by the person holding the weapon. Clever moments like these make the movie feel atmospheric as it shows that Peter views the world as uncompromising. Kerrigan set out to create a realistic depiction of schizophrenia when he made this movie. Considering the sound design and the other miscellaneous techniques used in the film, I believe Kerrigan did just that.The movie also works on a story level. I was intrigued by the question of whether Peter was responsible for the murder or not, because I honestly couldn't decide until the movie revealed the truth at the end. The hallucinations Peter underwent did a good job at keeping me guessing, specifically when the movie juxtaposed a murder over one of Peter's hallucinations while he stayed at the motel the murder occurred near. I felt like that scene was a red herring, but I still couldn't be completely sure. A recent observation I made was how none of the characters were on-screen nearly as much as Peter was. I've observed this quite a few times in other films. In this case, however, I think Kerrigan intended to make the film this way to make everything revolve around Peter, hence the mysterious tone of the film. Kerrigan also made a good decision by providing middle ground to the detective at the end by having him reflect on the actions he made throughout the film. By doing so, he avoided having him feel unlikable.In conclusion, this movie blew me away for several reasons. Due of a mixture of compelling technical and story qualities, Kerrigan managed to craft one of my favorite films from the 90's. Its ending might turn off some people, but if you're able to get by it, you're in for a great experience. I really do wish this film would get more recognition, but regardless of whether it fades into obscurity or not in the future, it will always remain as the most atmospheric and bizarre film on mental illnesses ever made.

trashgang I've read so many positive things about this flick and by running through my Fango's I came across this flick again, so time for hunting it down and watch it.It was written that it was extreme gory. Can't say I found it a gory flick. There are moments that are maybe a bit gory like removing a fingernail or cutting hair to closely to the skin but for me that was all. That it is disturbing, on that fact I can agree somehow. But overall it failed a bit, my expectations were too high. If you are into sick flicks about characterisation of a disturbed mind then this is probably your thing but to say it was a horror, not really. Not my cup of tea sadly even as I can dig real sickies.Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2,5./5 Comedy 0/5

jzappa It opens with pure abstraction, sights, sounds, we think we hear ambient music but maybe it isn't. We are immediately disoriented by the first impression the film has on us. After all, this is what Peter Winter is accustomed to. This is the way he sees the world, just like many movies use technique to appear the way their main characters see the world. Peter is obviously disturbed. But what makes him more disturbed is that he is setting out into a world of which he has long not been part. Clean, Shaven consists of an overtly and insistently mediated reality, Peter at the center of it. We are meant to presume we understand the underlying context of what we see, but Peter's mental illness too often transforms the world into a disorienting barrage of sounds and images.Peter Greene, an always memorable character actor whose filmography is too short, delivers a formidable rare bird of a performance. He is mournfully abnormal. He is possibly dangerous, indeed we're fairly sure. He is clearly enfeebled and debilitated by powerful paranoia fueling such self-destructive and extreme delusions. Which is he? Is he a victim or a psychopath? Both? Greene's stunned, piercing eyes bespeak endless lifetimes of agony. He could go either way at any moment, he lets us know in close to every scene in a mere handful of words in all. He is gravely, distressingly, convincing as someone whose true nature we cannot entirely fathom, much less he himself. Greene provides a perfect equilibrium.The result of Clean, Shaven is an atmospherically immersive experience, a story constructed entirely out of mood. What's even more disorienting is that to name the mood is very difficult. It is shot on grainy, desolate film stock in dilapidated towns, lonely roads, cramped bathrooms, germy outmoded kitchens, and low-rent motel rooms. A reliance on dialogue is something that writer-director Lodge Kerrigan actively avoids, as well as most traces of backstory or explanation. In fact, I'm actively avoiding using the term "schizophrenia" in any of my description because, although most descriptions of this movie do, the movie doesn't seem to directly mention it. It's just felt so deeply that we, again, are meant to presume that it is.Presumption, ironically, seems to be Peter's antagonist, outside of his intensely off-putting behavior. Based on something that we presume he does off-camera early in the film, a detective begins to track him and grows desperate to catch him. But he has no evidence. There is nothing for him, or for us, to go on to be certain of what we gather. But, like us, he finds himself, unexplainably, determined to grasp him. One could say that this detective---who barely if ever speaks, definitely even less than Peter who has maybe ten lines in all---is relatively closer to us, more comfortable, part of the outside world, but then one would presume wrong. This guy has a couple of screws loose; he just keeps a tight lid on it. But that tight lid turns all that suppression, whatever it's of, into aggression, which shoots first and asks questions later in sex and in violence. Actually we can only presume about him asking questions. But at that, that mood, which we might deem insanity itself, is everywhere apparent. The film ends on a deeply haunting note where that insanity seems to transmit, or infect. There is no outside world. In the world of Clean, Shaven, we all have screws loose.The 1990s was a decade notable for the alleged renewal of American independent cinema. It was when an emerging generation of new filmmakers decided to go to the edge and try to break new ground. Many did in their own ways, and the ones who have become the most tremendously influential and hold the most sway over audiences are the ones whose revisionist endeavors plug directly into the pop culture sensibility of their content. Lodge Kerrigan was quite the opposite. But the content of Clean, Shaven, his 1993 debut film, liberates him to explore certain formal possibilities with the medium that are rarely observed in more mainstream cinema. It's unremittingly comprised of a radical visual, and equally aural, style that challenges both Hollywood's creative and narratological concerns. Enraptured by a protagonist trapped in his own oppressive reality, Kerrigan crafts a film viewing experience that is more interested in provocation than it is in pleasure.I don't seem to have left much of any footprints of a hint of basis to desire seeing this movie. But there is positively a great amount of appeal in any film experience that taps into and draws out your most abstract moods and emotions. We're supposed to feel them all, or know them all, have a relationship with all of our capacity for feelings. And what's more, this is a piece that topples the opinion that movies are not capable of depicting internal life.

EVOL666 CLEAN, SHAVEN is a dark film detailing the experiences of a paranoid man trying to get custody of his daughter.Peter has recently been released from a mental hospital, and it's pretty obvious early on that he's still not all-there. He tries to function in surroundings that are scary and alien to him, and it is not an easy situation. He wants to be the person/father that he should be, but his mental limitations make that impossible.CLEAN, SHAVEN is a pretty somber experience and isn't recommended for the casual film viewer. I personally didn't find the film to be quite as controversial and "shocking" as many did, but it is a pretty depressing film. One scene in particular may find most in the audience squirming...recommended for those who enjoy subversive/depressing cinema. 8/10