Triple Trouble (2022)

The roots of Triple Trouble reach all the way back to 1972, so it's appropriate that this movie go hand-in-hand with the Residents' 50th anniversary.  The band is currently on tour and the movie is part of the concert experience, being presented prior to the Residents going on stage.  It had limited theatrical release, mainly special showings arranged by the Cryptic Corporation, but it has recently had a regular Blu-Ray release and is available on YouTube for those who are curious. 

The reason I say it goes back to 1972, although most of the filming for Triple Trouble was done during the pandemic, is because of the Residents' original movie project Vileness Fats.  The story takes place in the town of Vileness Flats, a town governed by a mayor named Steve, who happens to have multiple personality disorder.  He is also Lonesome Jack, the leader of a band of outlaws called the Bell Boys that are besieging the town of Vileness Flats and stealing all their meat, forcing the inhabitants to subsist on giant vegetables.  To protect the town Steve hires Arf and Omega, conjoined twin tag-team wrestlers, but Jack convinces nightclub singer Peggy Honeydew to flirt with both, inflaming jealousy in the brothers and causing them to fight and kill each other as they separate.  There is also a subplot about Steve's relationship with Weescoosa, an Indian maiden who lives backwards in time and whose lovers always die.

Filmed on half-inch reel-to-reel video tape from 1972 to 1976, about 14 hours of footage was produced before it was abandoned, due to the format being obsolete by that time.  Reshoots would have been costly for a movie that would probably only be seen, at the time, by friends of the band.  By that time the Residents were more concentrated on their musical pursuits and, while some of the sets were re-used for their early music video The Third Reich 'n' Roll, there was no attempt to resume filming.  30 minutes of the footage was released, along with the soundtrack Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats?, as a video in the 1984, while a 20-minute version was released as part of the Icky Flix DVD in 2000.  

Homer Flynn, currently the last remaining member of the Cryptic Corporation and the person behind most of the band's visual work, began making a film called Double Trouble in the late 2010s, with some elements of Vileness Fats incorporated.  It also was abandoned early on but, as the COVID-19 pandemic closed everything down in early 2020 and any new concert tours were put on hold, Flynn and the Residents began collaborating on Triple Trouble, which along with their previous projects also incorporated Randy Rose, one of the many incarnations of the Residents' lead singer, and one that poked fun at rock start excess.  

Randall Rose Jr. (Dustin York) is a plumber in San Francisco.  Formerly a priest, he lost his faith both due to hearing a discomfiting confession as well as experiencing romantic feelings toward a young activist named Suzi (Isabelle Ellingson).  We join him shortly after the death of his mother (Gerri Lawlor), who had taken care of him most of his life after divorcing his father, famous rock star Randy Rose (himself), who at this point has also passed away.  His only companion is a sentient drone named Cherry (Isabelle Barbier) who accompanies him on his rounds.  

Junior has become convinced that a white fungus has infiltrated San Francisco's water supply, and is sure that it is affecting the citizens as a new pandemic emerges.  He is also convinced that whoever is behind it is also following him in a white van and tracking his every movement.  As he attempts to work out what is going on he reaches out to Suzi to no avail, and soon finds Cherry is malfunctioning.  He is also receiving frequent visits from the ghost of his father, while it is revealed that Junior has had at least one psychotic break, thinking he was the character of Steve in Vileness Fats. 

I am a huge Residents fan, and have been since the late 1980s when I discovered them.  However, I have never been under the impression that everything they release, or do, is gold.  Many of their earlier music videos are interesting, while later ones, largely done on computer, seem lazy.  If Vileness Fats would have come out in the mid-1970s it may have found an audience on the midnight movie circuit, as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and El Topo had already established that venue for non-commercial films.  In the state it was in, fragmented with almost no post-production, it is hard to tell.  Many Residents albums, such as God in Three Persons or The Voice of Midnight, have narrated stories that work.

That said, Triple Trouble is an okay film.  It suffers from the conditions under which it was made.  Most of the actors don't interact, which is sad because Dustin York is pretty decent and the few times he is on screen with someone else he's even better than when he's just narrating the film.  The difference between similarly themed Residents albums and a movie is that, by nature of an audio work, some telling has to be done.  Film, though, is reliant on showing, and there is way too much telling and not a lot of showing.  One situation that is described, whether it is real or another of Junior's delusions, is Junior's mother rescuing Suzi from two sleazy morticians.  Junior describes it in detail and, fantasy or not, this is something that needs to be seen.  It feels like this was originally meant to be filmed, not described, and either the budget wasn't there or San Francisco's draconian restrictions at the time prevented it.  Also, I was disappointed that there wasn't a more conclusive ending, as the film wraps with the original ending for Vileness Fats. 

On the good side Junior is another in a series of unreliable narrators that the Residents have given us, and it soon becomes apparent that rather than watching some strange, surrealistic conspiracy unfold we are watching a poor man suffering from the grief of losing his mother and the effects of not taking his medication.  It's a lot more realistic depiction of schizophrenia than the Hollywood type originally meant for the character of Steve, and a lot less exploitative.   There are also some genuine scares, and the movie is quite well-directed.  The lack of almost anyone, even pedestrians accidentally walking into the scenes, further enhances Junior's sense of isolation. 

Despite its flaws Triple Trouble is a welcome addition to the Residents' 50th anniversary tour and is definitely something any fan of the band will want in their collection at some point.  The Residents, of course, provide the soundtrack and cameo at different times, while Homer Flynn can finally have a bit of closure knowing that, whatever the reception is, after this long a Residents movie is finally a reality, and it still uses many of late member Hardy Fox's compositions throughout.  

Triple Trouble (2022)

Time: 83 minutes

Starring: Dustin York, Isabelle Barbier, Isabelle Ellingson, Gerri Lawlor, Randy Rose

Directors: Homer Flynn, The Residents