Adapted from Dostoevsky's novella, Henry Czerny plays the narrator, Underground Man. Filled with self-hatred, he keeps a video diary where he discusses his own shortcomings and what he thinks is wrong in contemporary society. His bitterness spills over at a dinner party attended by his old college friends, an occasion which sends him running to a nearby brothel, where he meets Liza (Lee), a young prostitute.
Acting
Czerny's sweaty, twitchy breakdown of toxic masculinity before it had a name.
Direction
Walkow's video-diary gimmick actually enhances the claustrophobia.
Writing
Faithful adaptation that refuses to make Dostoevsky digestible.
Director
Gary Walkow
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Seth Green plays the punk neighbor in one of his weirdest early roles, years before becoming a comedy fixture.
The 1995 adaptation coincided with peak 'slacker' cinema, making Dostoevsky's 1864 misanthrope weirdly prescient about Gen X alienation.
US
