Who is Black Pepper?
I cannot convey to you the power and the majesty of “Dangerous Men” simply by explaining it to you in words. Writer/director/composer/everything else John Rad was a visionary, and the world he creates is a singular place where women have to fight back because men are, as the title would suggest, dangerous.
There is a culture that has evolved, starting in earnest in the '70s but evolving through things like “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and the popularity of The Asylum or “The Room” or “Birdemic,” that revolves around watching “bad” films, and the question is asked often: why? What makes these movies interesting? I think for some people, there's a feeling of superiority that comes with watching movies that are made outside the system by people with no filmmaking background or movies that have been declared bad. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, there is a genuine curiosity about these films, movies like “Dangerous Men,” because they exist completely independent of the norm.
I've read some of the backstory on John Rad, and like Tommy Wiseau, he seems like he's a character who would have to be invented if he didn't exist. It's sort of amazing that Rad wasn't also the star of his film, because he seemed to do every other job. Then again, if he'd appeared in the movie, it would have ruined one of the things that makes it so interesting, which is that he shot the film in chunks over the span of almost 20 years, and in that time, he lost cast members and simply had to introduce new characters and situations. “Major' characters might run around a corner and simply disappear from the movie, taking the plot with them, and new characters show up that suddenly become oddly important.
My favorite of those characters is Black Pepper.
I cannot explain more. I can simply offer the clip that's embedded above, this link to a list of screenings where you can witness this thing for yourself, the trailer embedded below, and then the following character poster, featuring a pull-quote that I agree with 100%.
“Dangerous Men” will be in limited theaters starting November 11th.