There are strong echoes of both FALLING DOWN and AFTER HOURS in Stuart Gordon’s latest genre-bending movie. It’s a riveting depiction of the escalating horrors faced by a mild mannered schmuck / long-term doormat as he finds himself in way over his head, out of cash and gradually losing his mind during one long night in the seedy part of town. Gordon, who uses several prominent past collaborators in support roles, continues his consistently diverse and impressive movie career with a movie that, if not as potent as KING OF THE ANTS (its closest predecessor in terms of tone), is never less than riveting.

   Strait-laced 47 year old businessman William H Macy decides he and his wife are incompatible : she hates his guts and he no longer finds her attractive. Tipped off by bar-prop Joe Mantegna - who believes “the niggers have it easy” - Macy sets out to get laid and ends up on a downward spiral involving a fortune teller (Frances Bay, still looking the same as she did in Gordon’s 1990 PIT AND THE PENDULUM), a high class escort (Mena Suvari) who offers a straight fuck for $250 and an attractive waitress (Julia Stiles). Newly rejuvenated by these experiences, Macy is provoked into action, and the purchase of a survival knife, when he’s beaten up and robbed.

   As with KING OF THE ANTS - that film’s star George Wendt appears here as a sleazy pawn shop clerk - EDMOND has a savage streak resulting in bursts of startling violence. At one point, Macy brutally beats/slashes a black pimp while shouting racial slurs, calling him a “coon” and a “cunt”. The impact of scenes like this is heightened by the fact that it’s the usually loveable Macy doling out the abuse.

   Against a vivid nocturnal urban backdrop, the movie offers ruminations on being alive and speculation on the “doomed” white race as it follows the nightmarish plight of one sympathetic yet scarily out of control white guy. In every scene, Macy is superb as the everyday suit whose long-repressed desires, prejudices and pent up frustrations come spilling out and turn him into an unrestrained murderer. There’s a certain amount of queasy pleasure to be had from watching the normally affable actor shout “Fuck you all!” to a bunch of strangers on a train and “I’d like to slash your face!” to an unfortunate elderly female bystander. Gordon pulled off a similar casting coup with the employment of endearingly gentle George “Norm From Cheers” Wendt as a total bastard in the aforementioned KING OF THE ANTS.

   David Mamet adapted his own play for this cynical, verbose jet-black comedy, which remains unpredictable right up to its suitably peculiar end : Macy discusses life and the universe in prison before tenderly kissing and spooning with his buff black cellmate (Bokeem Woodbine). Not something you see everyday! The terrific cast also includes Bail Ling as a peepshow girl, Debi Mazar, Denise Richards and Jeffrey Combs as a seedy motel manager.