“Divide & Conquer” Tromaville with a New Blu-ray Release Available at Amazon!
Three kickass, misandry women, known as the Gynos, find themselves in a pickle after crushing the skulls of three misogynistic white supremacists a part of a group known as the Knights of White. With a target now on their back, the scantily-cladded and unshaved privates women must defend themselves around every corner, using their unique feminine superpowers to thwart evil men from pulverizing their pretty faces. The root of this evil leads them back home to Tromaville, New Jersey, a cesspool of corruption and ill-repute but not all is lost as the three heroines brazenly face the forces against them with the help of what thinly-tethered friends they have left in town. With a deadly stormtrooper assigned to rid the planet of the Gynos once and for all, they must root through the mazelike Tromaville to unearth the big, boss bigot and put an end to his tyranny of hate for all, especially women.
Troma is back fighting the Nazi image again with a trio of unpolished, underwear-garnishing femme fatales in the zany, Tromaville exclusive, action-comedy, “Divide & Conquer.” Out of the underground kink milieu and into the creative fire of the independent film scene, Mercedes the Muse, or otherwise known simply as Mercedes, helms her latest offbeat beat off of unwanted, unprovoked, and unjustified antagonism with featured gendered fluidity and strong-flavored feminism. Having gained mentorship and encouragement under Troma co-founder and president, Lloyd Kaufman, found success with Troma as a distributor of her debut feature film, entitled “Honor Killing,” and had subsequence success with Troma continuing handling the marketing and distribution of Mercedes’ other films, such as “Gruesome Twosome” and “Evul Twinz,” Mercedes brand of dark humor, fetishism, and gore made a whole lot of sense for the industrious pair to collaborate yet again on another feature film that added to Troma’s radical rage against the machine repertoire of cinema chaos as well as to, in conjunction, refine and tag Mercedes the Muse as a franchise filmmaker for the independent company that has survived for nearly 50 years. “Divide & Conquer” is the first production not to be under Mercedes’ Underground Front label and is the first production go full-blown Troma, hence all the subtle and not so subtle references to the Troma empire and catalogue, with founders Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman serving as producers.
Mercedes the Muse not only writes and directs her latest film, but she also co-stars as one of the superheroines of the Gynos. As tech-whiz and badass underground hacker named Toxie (remember that not so subtle Troma references I was talking about?), Mercedes is only scripted to act out her role who hasn’t spoken in years living on the streets alone. What we learned through a spot lit, soapbox monologue of exposition in combination with an illustrated storyboard split screen is that the women were all abused in one way or another in the past and have found each other to become a messed up, mixed lot of torqued-twisted women that resembles some uncouth and foul-mouthed family with a deep-rooted love and connection for one another. The other two in the trio of tantalizers is Athena, named after the Greek Goddess of war and wisdom, and Lilith, named after the banished first wife of Adam for not heeding to him, live up to their misandry and mighty-against-the-man-grain women monikers and I have a sneaking suspicion the alternative vixens and adult social influencers, Knotty Peach and Irie Divine, don’t stray away from their true selves to perform these roles for the camera and thus enslave a natural emission of libel charismatic conduct that fits the crude and callous “Davide and Conquer’s” Troma-verse to the point of seeing it not work in any other context. Bushy pubic and underarm hair and a skimpy, straps and lace wardrobe picked out of the Rocky Horror Picture Show closet, Athena, Lilith, and Toxie battle through the slew of master race acolytes with their God-given and street-smart abilities which include a hypnotizing pussy waft. Mark Torgl makes another notable appearance in Tromaville as the pre-Toxic Avenger wimpy janitor, now grayed and heftier, is dominated white national scum who shoots-his-shot as the nosy and untrusty motel manager. The fill of “Divide & Conquer’s” cost is a menagerie of underground geeks, kinks, and neoteric bohemians with transgender extreme horror adult star Wolvie Ironbear (“LoveDump”), the jack of cybernetic and cultural arts trade Jade Theriault, wrestlers Rick Scott and Scott Rick Stoner, aka The Stoner Brothers, Tromette Vada Callisto, performance artist and glam rocker Kembra Pfahler, and, of course, Lloyd Kaufman doing the voice of King Trash, the King Moonracer of sorts who leads the sewer dwelling misfits of Tromaville.
Amongst the rumblings inside the horror community and amongst independent filmmakers, Troma has always been on both sides of the opinionated coin. At one end, Troma’s a safe haven for those seeking freedom of expression, to have total autonomy over their own work, and be a minute piece of a globally recognized distribution institution. At the other end, others view Troma as sharks and conmen who pay pennies on the dollar for distribution rights and the filmmakers won’t see anything that resembles a return on their own out of pocket investment; the most recent example that comes to mind is William Morroni’s “Little Gorey Corey” (review soon to come) was worked into a distribution deal that eventually fell through and Morroni had strong words and opinions about his potential business partners. The reason I say this is because films like Mercedes the Muse’s “Divide & Conquer” is a full show of love and appreciation for Troma, an absolute go-wild cunnilingus between Troma’s let-it-loose legs, that embodies the spirit of today’s independent Troma studio. Yet, that’s not necessarily a good thing. Though Troma’s always been wild and wacky, “Divide & Conquer” is just one more poop joke away from being unbearably rank, even for Troma. Mercedes does a solid job with the overall appeal of the characters looks and abilities as confident underdogs battling an uphill war against a clandestine nationalism but doesn’t extend beyond much else. There’s also a soapbox moment for Lloyd Kaufman in puppet form to dig into the mainstream and preach the wonders of independency and while that fits into the narrative, the whole dang narrative is an elective indie movement to the soaring nth degree that doesn’t require a soliloquy about it. A lot of the special effects are more avant garde and on the slim effort side than going for realistic gold, but the gilt is in surrealistic style that Mercedes paints with a psychotropic brush and you can actually feel yourself sinking into the rabbit hole with every obscene and off-center act.
Based off a platform of extreme social division and fighting hard to conquer it as well as a loose homage to the 1943 War World II propaganda film of the same name, “Divide & Conquer” arrives onto a high-definition, 1080p, AVC encoded Blu-ray home video for insanity on masculine toxicity. Presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio, “Divide & Conquer” ranks approximately the same as any other modern day, digitally recorded Troma release with a slight tendency toward compression artefact issues. Micro macroblocking and banding in the negative spaces are the culprits here that try to decade the film’s slurry of neon lighting, lens diamonding effect, and the up lighting to maximize the zeroing in of characters in a noir-esque, dramatic way. Details come-and-go. In some instances, details look sharp and finished, such as in the underground sewer scenes, whereas other instances, such as in the infrared gender-bending strip club, softer edges and washed-out textures appearances reign supreme but that can be more or less standard with the said lighting. Skin tones have a natural look when not splayed with primary neon color hazes of gel lighting. Despite the opening scene that’s a glorious wide and deep landscape shot of flat terrain, the rest of the feature sticks to medium and closeups that narrow the focus. The English Dolby Digital 2.0 favors more of the film’s eclectic indie metal rock and hip-hop groups, including Soul Grinder, Oh! The Horror, Born Twice, and Twiztid, that segue between the Gynos traverses to-and-through Tromaviile. Dialogue keeps up with a clean and clear comprehension despite being boxy and unpolished. Like with most Troma features, a vary amount of highly colored sound effects and Foley keep the punches a-popping and the farts a-pooping like an ACME cartoon with IBS. Though there is no audio setup off the main static menu, the play button transitions to an English subtitle option. “Tromatic” extras include a cast and crew audio option commentary, Making a Damn Movie – a behind-the-scenes, raw footage of making “Divide & Conquer” with various cast and crew members, The Three Muses featurette that borders being slapass pornography of Knotty Peach, Irie Divine, and Mercedes the Musa shaking their butts, kissing, and posing provocative and naked in front of a video and photography camera for half an hour, a Los Angeles Q&A with Lloyd Kaufman and Mercedes the Muse, the premiere of the film at The Balboa Theater, Troma Trailers and campaigns, including the Return of Gizzard Face and American Cinematheque Honors Troma, and wrapping up with a live and hilariously dubbed introduction by Uncle Lloyd on the beach with spliced beach scenes of Mercedes The Muse undressing out of her swimsuit bikini and revealing more than just her film to be a distraction to the purposefully horrendous dub. The physical artwork, an unknown artist illustration of the three Gynos depicted in Nose Art wearing a schoolgirl-navy sailor blend outfit and wielding various weapons and kitchen appliances with a smirk on each of their faces, is a popping vibrant and interesting cover fit snugged within the clear casing of a Blu-ray snapper with latch. The disc art features a few more the same illustrated characters of the story. There is no slipcase or insert. The release is region free and the 93-minute film comes unrated. “Divide & Conquer” quality is far from the Troma of yore but the nuts and bolts of autarky filmmaking are still very much present in this heteroclite-toris, women’s lib renegade of feminine wiles versus Nazi scum.
It's Bloggin Evil! 