Liquid Sky

Liquid Sky (1982) is a dazzling, cheapo sci-fi feminist spectacle, as original as they come. Set among New Wave fashionistas in post-punk New York, the film offers tiny aliens, doppelgangers, cocaine and awful performance art. To paraphrase Francis Ford Coppola, this film isn’t about the 1980s, it is the 1980s. Layered in face paint and neon, it is a vivid world, both nightmarish and seductive.
At center are two committed performances by Anne Carlisle. Both characters are models: Jimmy, a broke and bitter cokehead, and pansexual Margaret, whose bedroom draws a dope-seeking UFO. Carlisle offers hollow line readings with great focus, fashioning unsettled/unsettling characters struggling in a milieu every bit as threatening as the family dinner table in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The bodiless aliens have crossed the stars in search of heroin, but once arrived they find the chemicals produced in orgasmic brains provide a better hit. As Margaret is coerced into sex by fashion-world bottom feeders, her rapists are destroyed the moment they come as the otherworldly visitors devour their oxytocin-soaked brains. She’s relieved and terrified by what she perceives as the work of the Empire State Building, which overlooks her apartment. The pleasures of sexual dominance are rewarded with instantaneous punishment, leaving a survivor grateful but also guilt-ridden and confused.
Past Screenings
Sat May 27 17
Quad CinemaSun May 28 17
Quad CinemaFri Apr 13 18
Quad CinemaRevival Run
Liquid SkySlava Tsukerman1982112 minDCP* With director Slava Tsukerman & star Anne Carlisle in person2:40pm7:15pm*9:50pmSat Apr 14 18
Quad CinemaRevival Run
Liquid SkySlava Tsukerman1982112 minDCP* With director Slava Tsukerman & star Anne Carlisle in person2:40pm7:15pm*9:50pmSun Apr 15 18
Quad CinemaMon Apr 16 18
Quad CinemaTue Apr 17 18
Quad CinemaWed Apr 18 18
Quad CinemaThu Apr 19 18
Quad CinemaFri Apr 20 18
Quad CinemaSat Apr 21 18
Quad CinemaSun Apr 22 18
Quad CinemaMon Apr 23 18
Quad CinemaTue Apr 24 18
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Quad CinemaThu Apr 26 18
Quad CinemaFri Apr 27 18
Quad CinemaSat Apr 28 18
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Quad CinemaMon Apr 30 18
Quad CinemaTue May 1 18
Quad CinemaWed May 2 18
Quad CinemaThu May 3 18
Quad CinemaFri May 4 18
Quad CinemaSat May 5 18
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Quad CinemaMon May 7 18
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Quad CinemaWed May 9 18
Quad CinemaThu May 10 18
Quad Cinema