Nowhere Man (2005)

EVERYBODY’S gonna get uncomfortable watching this vicious story of a man who takes desperate measures to get his severed penis back from his runaway ex-fiance. Director Tim McCann takes a risk here by mostly treating it as a serious drama (with bargain basement B-movie production values) about insecurity and anger among dysfunctional headcases. No one comes out looking good. Life is all sunshine and butterflies for Conrad and Jennifer before he finds out that she did some porn years ago. He immediately flips his lid and turns psychotically angry on her. She sticks around though because she thinks the relationship can survive this. One thing leads to another and a pair of industrial scissors eventually come out. Next thing you know, he’s in New York City carrying a loaded gun and pissing through a catheter (which we get to see in close-up).

It’s not a great movie, but it is memorably odd. Also, scream queen Debbie Rochon, as the fiance, proves again that she’s the B-movie world’s greatest actress with her harrowing, natural performance here in the complex role of a woman who’s neither a villain nor a hero, but pushed to the edge. She gets to wail and cry, but her finest moments are the subtle, wordless scenes where she reflects with regret on how her life has turned out.