The Good, The Bad & The Bag

In this quirky comedy billing itself as a psychedelic road movie, Austrian director Michael Glawogger takes us on a bizarre and colorful romp in which hallucinations and confusion are the rule. Happily eccentric and full of idiosyncratic characterization and dialogue, and with more than a sprinkling of stereotypes and clichés thrown in, Contact High’s raw humor had the audience laughing out loud at the Votiv Kino where the film had been showing since early May. But be forewarned: without a strong grasp of dialect, you may find yourself lagging a joke or two behind.

Contact High reunites Glawogger with actor Michael Ostrowski, co-author of his 2004 film Nacktschnecken and the cast from that film including Detlev Buck, Georg Friedrich and Pia Hierzegger. At the heart of the story is ‘the bag’ – a soft-sided brown leather carry-all turned day-glow yellow with floppy appliqué daisies – passed around among a bunch of counter-culture crazies careening their way through unlicensed indulgence.

There is Carlos the Spanish gangster boss, who has lost a bag in Poland and wants Harry (Detlev Buck) to get the bag back. He should pick it up in Krakow but he would prefer to seduce all the blonde mechanics in the garage/car junkyard that he runs. Harry doesn’t want to get his own hands dirty, so he decides to call in a favor from Schorsch (Georg Friedrich), a proto-Viennese small-time crook who with his mane of white blonde hair and tight clothes looks like he has stepped right out of an old rock band. And an inclination towards irrationality; he likes fast cars, but doesn’t have a license.

He tries to pass the job on to Mao (Pia Hierzegger) but she’s looking after Sissy – her friend’s 8 year-old daughter. She in turn calls on Max and Hans (Michael Ostrowski and Raimund Wallisch), two Styrian guys who run the snack stand ‘Wurst and Durst’ – at least they would be, if Max could stop smoking dope and Hans could stop eating all the sausages.

Contact High neatly captures the momentum of a classic road movie transplanted to Eastern Europe – the chase, the crazy detours and deviations from the route – including the Ford Mustang being stolen and a crazy romp at a chicken farm where feathers are certainly flying.

The whole action seems (as best one can pin any of this mind-bender down) to take place over a 24-hour period, reinforced by Schorsch and Mao watching parts of the 24-hour car racing mania from Le Mans.

The scenes of drug-induced highs are truly psychedelic and surreal; in the club Max and Hans unhinge into hallucination, looking around to see pivoting go-go girls growing the heads of German shepherds. As they return to the hotel, they find the walls narrowing and closing in on them, and in a very Alice in Wonderland moment, they have also become giants in their own room. Time and space feel suspended, and moments seem to pass in another dimension.

Contact High trades on a great deal of absurdity and slapstick humour to carry it along. The whole interaction about ‘the bag’ is a wonderful diversion; at times we see the bag is almost pulsating and alive.

Harry and Schorsch get to the bag first but decide to leave it for the ‘funny men’ Max and Hans to take. By the time we get done with the bag it has passed through several pairs of hands, been lost again and everyone is too drugged to care.

Should we still be condoning all this self-indulgence? Do we really want to glamorize all this 70s retro-psychedelia? Well, take a look. You may be grossed out.

The soundtrack is worthy of note, with music by Devendra Banhard, The Surfaris, Get Well Soon and Roxy Music.