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55 out of 60 people found the following review useful:
A rare glimpse of USA New Wave, 27 July 2004
Author: tagomago7 from San Francisco, California

Liquid Sky!!

Wow, tough to say a simple few words about this movie. Liquid Sky is a rare film as it documents a time period in the USA when "post-punk" and "New Wave" were truly still underground. Liquid Sky is so easily compartmentalized into gay/lesbian cinema or a "cult classic" when it truly stands alone as a document of an era criminally under represented.

Roger Ebert who in my opinion really understands good cinema, gave this movie strong local press support in Chicago when it played at the Three Penny art Theatre in Chicago. The 3 Penny was across the street from the original Wax Trax record store on Lincoln Avenue which was another "power spot' of this post-punk/early new wave underground in Chicago. Ebert gave this movie a thumbs up and I think 3.5 stars upon the initial release. Ebert understands "dark" cinema which I think few see.

There are few movies in all of cinema that leave you with a "feeling" that Liquid Sky does at the end. By taking you correctly, intelligently into a world (Underground Clubs, Drug Scenes) that do exist, that few see. Donnie Darko is to me "in the ballpark" of the way Liquid Sky makes you feel at film's end.

The musical score (using the then very rare and expensive) Synclavier sampling keyboard was way ahead of it's time by perhaps 20 years. That along with the strong performances, is what makes Liquid Sky not just "weird' or "freak cinema" but something actually special.

If you were part of the New Wave or Post-Punk "underground" of 1981-1983 you will nod your head to what I am about to say: Liquid Sky is just about the ONLY movie that captures the "feel" of this period.

The rare Anne Carlisle! She-popped in with this magical tour-de-force performance and then basically disappeared from cinema. The only other easily obtainable performance of Carlisle is in the Miami Vice episode "Yankee Dollar" where she appears in the last 10 minutes of the episode as the wealthy heiress trying to save her husbands company via an illegal deal.

The DVD review! Wow!! The fact that some people really cared about this movie is seen in the DVD extras. The fact that just the movie made it to an official DVD is enough , but the extras where a huge shock. Actual beta video footage of test run thoughts of scenes. An initial opening 10 minute sequence that was edited to provide a different plot opening to the movie. TV spots, etc..

To use the word "cult classic" then every rare film like this should be treated to such extras on a DVD.

Not for "kids" , but I give Liquid sky a solid 10 out of 10 on the IMDb scale!

While some may see this movie as weird, the movie actually displays a real "truth" of what that scene was like 1981-1983 (minus the aliens of course). Watch Carlisle's monologue while putting on the make-up in the last 15 minutes of the film. You will not find a more "honest" speech about what happens when a girl moves from the country to depths of the inner city underground scene.

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24 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
This is a weird, wonderfully bizarre film...., 26 June 2001
Author: cakewalkk (cakewalkk @ yahoo.com) from Winston-Salem, North Carolina

What a wonderful film. Bizarre, yes! But in that bizarre way that keeps you coming back to see it again and again. "Liquid Sky" is a low budget, many times cheesy, take on science-fiction, including sci-fi's penchant for social commentary. However, this film is so over-the -top, so visually primitive and so different and funny in its premise that it cannot help but endear itself to you. (Caveat: there are some brutal moments in this film, including several rape scenes; however, these events more than fit into the story of the film and do not appear to be gratuitous at all.) The whole "Punk/New Wave" sensibility that pervades this film reminded me of the humor found in "American Werewolf In London" .... (I mean a Jewish werewolf, what a wonderfully brillant comic juxtaposition.) Same here in LS with Punk/New Wave types and aliens both looking for drugs of one kind or another -- how terrifically different that is from the usual Invasion of the Body Snatchers/X-Files-colonization schtick to which we have become all to accustomed.

Visually stunning in a primitive, low-budget, indie sort of way, with an intriguing storyline and wonderful actors that carry it off.....A definite must see for those who love the bizarre. You will not be disappointed....SEE IT TODAY!!!

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22 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
A sci-fi story set in the New York of alternative lifestyles, 11 December 2004

Author: (mmillington554@hotmail.com) from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

People I've shown or lent this film to on video tend to polarise into two groups - those who loathe it with an intensity bordering on the pathological (and see some of those comments on this site), usually finding it either incomprehensible or repellent; and those who find it fascinating and truly original.

The second group tend to watch it at least twice and usually more often than that. It is not a film that makes imminent sense on the first viewing. The narrative is so multi-layered that it takes two viewings to appreciate the connections between scenes and characters.

It is a film that you have to work at. And it is no less valuable because of that.

If you don't like it and can't make sense of it, then the loss is your own.

For those prepared to suspend belief it is a rare masterpiece of originality. True, the acting is patchy, but like the actors in Warhol films they do not seek to portray common or garden social characters that we recognise from everyday life, the stuff of mainstream cinema; but are personalities constructed at the extremities of social existence - the exceptions, misfits, and exiles. This makes them interesting in themselves.

The science fiction antecedents to the film probably lie in the literary work of William Burroughs as much as in film history. The same social actors are to be found - people searching for something on the edge of reality, where sex and drugs are pursued and traded, all in the name of obsessive self-interest or self-oblivion. Burroughs characters are often as repellent as the characters in this film. Often for the same reasons. The film centres on the ultimate in self-obsessed, self-absorbed, selfish humanity.

The same can be said for the alien invader. In fact the alien manifests all the same characteristics as the actors in the hip New York crowd. All are obsessed with their own personal needs and ambitions to the exclusion of all else. But whereas the humans are mortal and have an inconvenient habit of dropping dead, murdered by the alien at the point of sexual orgasm, the alien itself lacks physical form. It devotes its life to expanding its own consciousness. Heroin will do but a chemical secreted by the human brain during orgasm is even better.

This is no conventional science fiction film with a monster from out of space. The monsters are also the humans. The aliens are already amongst us.

All of this makes it sound like an argument in favour of the repellent view of the film. It isn't. It's intellectually challenging and morally demanding, true. But it's also visually stunning, original in concept, and an interesting social document on the post-punk fashion scene in New York at the time it was made.

Occasionally, very occasionally, a film is made that transcends the ordinary, everyday reality of commercial cinema. Even commercial science fiction. This is one of those very rare films.

Everything about it is unique. The characters, the dialogue, the music, and the social and economic context combine to create a world-view of extreme existence taken to its ultimate limits by the arrival of a creature from outer space. The creature somehow manages to extend the boundaries of existence of those already far, far out there on the very edge of social reality. In the closing scene the main character tries to become at one with the creature. We can only speculate as to whether she succeeds.

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21 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
Another lost cult classic, 4 May 2003
Author: Jon (ssgtjon@hotmail.com) from San Antonio, Texas

Like Eraserhead, this movie has been out of print for the past decade and a half, unless you're lucky enough to find an out of the way video store that carries an old Media Home Entertainment copy, which I just happened to tonight (I am of course excluding the painfully mainstream Blockbuster and Hollywood video stores). This is a low-budget film all dressed up in neon colors and alternative fashion about a new waver, punk rocker or whatever you want to call her that has a flying saucer land on the roof of her Manhattan penthouse (God, I'd love to have that place!)and extracts drugs and endorphins out of people's brains and killing them every time they have an orgasm or use drugs. This film is a brilliant satire of the underground in the early 1980's that was becoming commonplace in large cities, the begining of Generation X . With the exception of a German scientist and a droll woman he borrows the an apartment from, there is not a single likable character, each and every person is shallow, insensitive, and emotionally bankrupt; never does five minutes go by without a sneer or unsolicited sex. Anne Carlisle does great in an androgynous role; it's too bad she didn't get more roles. I looked for her carefully in Desperately Seeking Susan and she was pretty well-disguised as a brunette and sunglasses in a walk-on role. Anyway, if you're like me and put aside your suburban and conformist tendencies and watch it with an unprejudiced mind, it can be rewarding. My favorite cult film next to Eraserhead.

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18 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Crazy Psychedelic 80's Feminist Sci-Fi weirdness!, 25 July 2005

Author: NateManD from Bloomsburg PA

In the film "Liquid Sky", aliens come to earth in search of heroin. Their saucer lands on top of a drug dealer's apartment. The aliens discover that the human orgasm is just as powerful as heroin. Evertime actress Anne Carlisle's character has sex, her partners mysteriously disappear. The screen turns all neon and psychedelic when the aliens get each victim. Then there is a crazy German scientist who is researching UFO's, who is interested in what's been happening. Anne Carlisle also plays a dual role as a nasty male model drug addict. "Liquid Sky" is very vulgar, psychedelic and surreal. Not to mention, the horrific acting makes it hilarious. It may very well be one of the strangest drug cult films of the 80's. It is also extremely colorful, weird and a must watch guilty pleasure. So ignore the awful music in the beginning and enjoy the rest of the film.

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14 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Cult classic, 17 March 2004

Author: Chris_Docker from Scotland, United Kingdom

I could watch this film again and again for the fabulous retro costumes alone. It is a low-budget sci-fi about aliens in a miniature flying saucers that home in on a chemical released in the brain during orgasm which is akin to heroin. There's very little aliens-action, but lots of psychedelic photography, a cunning rhythm that sucks you into the world of Warhol-like druggies, freelove-devotees, artists, fashion designers, experimental musicians, OTT models, and bisexuals. Liquid Sky is a gem (and also contains perhaps the most realistic lesbian sex scene I've ever seen!) S*d the make-up unless is at least as wild as Ziggy Stardust, leave your gender attitude at the door, embrace existence as rocket-fuelled experience, and tune in to Liquid Sky.

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18 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
A real alien film, 9 July 2002
Author: t-h-fields from Washington, DC

This one actually seems to have been made by and for aliens. Its view of humanity appears to be that of an onlooker from another world, dispassionately observing us. That's what makes it so different from the usual space alien movie.

Like it or not, you must admit that it's original. There is simply nothing else like it. Perhaps the closest thing is Repo Man. But Liquid Sky is even stranger than that.

This movie lays bare much of the pretense and affectation of our society, particularly those of the shallow, pseudo-intellectual crowd. The lack of any truly likable characters may turn off a lot of viewers, but to me it simply reflects the kind of people being depicted here.

From our perspective, twenty years on, it takes on a still different aspect. Here was life before AIDS, before 9/11 (including a shot of the World Trade Center), and before tattoos and body piercing became fashionable.

Forget ET and MIB. If you want to see a real alien movie, check this one out.

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17 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Underground Sci-Fi, 29 August 2004
Author: Paulo R. C. Barros (paulorcbarros@uol.com.br) from São Paulo, Brazil

"Liquid Sky" (1982 - 114 minutes), film written, produced and directed by the Russian director Slava Tsukerman, can be considered a classic underground cinema full of fantastic realism. Liquid Sky means "heroin" in the New York slang of that time. This is a scientific fiction movie whose scene is the world of the fashion and the heavy drugs in Manhattan.

The plot seems comic but the result is surprising: a flying saucer lands on the penthouse's roof of a famous model called Margareth [the actress Anne Carlisle, who also interprets the androgynous model Jimmy]. A very small alien creature hidden in a spaceship of the size and format of a little signature TV antenna, captures the energies of the place, earning force through a substance produced in the human brain at the moment of orgasm. So, the extraterrestrial exterminates one by one, the partners of the model. These events are followed by a German astrophysicist that also researches Ufology. The film presents a savage sense of humor and an elaborated visual technique through blown up colors, fluorescent makeup, melting forms, many neon and ultraviolet lights.

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11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
an overlooked low-budget gem, 3 September 2006

Author: phantom2-2 from md

i first saw liquid sky when it came out and was so intrigued i went back to see it four more times. hadn't seen anything before like it, and haven't seen anything like it since. given that it's obviously a no-budget production by non-actors they do an incredible job. c'mon, anybody who doesn't laugh at the interaction between the scientist and sylvia just has no sense of humor. and there are other priceless moments... ordering shrimp, the look on everyone's faces when jimmy vanishes, "i can't have all these bodies", and best of all: "delicious, delicious." there's more creativity in liquid sky than in a whole summer's worth of Hollywood blockbusters. a lot of it is ugly, some is dated 1980s scene stuff, but it's undeniable and there's not a false note by a single performer. anne carlisle's performance(s) is utterly convincing and it's a shame it's been overlooked.

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13 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Loved this movie when it first came out, 3 August 2006

Author: sheryl-29 from United States

Okay, I'm dating myself here: When I was in college, my best buds and I saw this movie repeatedly and began dressing like the characters. What a trippy experience. We bought the soundtrack -- in vinyl, no less, because there were no CDs yet! -- and wore it out.

I can't give Liquid Sky a 10 because I feel like I have to save that for a film that leaves no doubt about its excellence. But this once shines, if for no other reason than that this mid-40s woman still remembers it vividly from two decades ago.

If Liquid Sky was digitally remastered for DVD, I'd buy it in a second. I'd be a little scared to watch it because I don't know how it would hold up after all these years. (I have similar fears about watching Pink Floyd The Wall again.)

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