My Cultural Diet

Liquid Sky has been on my “to watch” list ever since I saw it mentioned on the old cultheroes.com (a now-defunct site devoted to the style, glamor, and electronic music of the ’70s and ’80s). Undoubtedly the “cultiest” cult movie I’ve watched in quite some time, Slava Tsukerman’s film feels like a quasi-historical document of Manhattan’s punk and New Wave scene in the early ’80s. The film’s lurid, neon-drenched cinematography and highly stylized portrait of ’80s New York’s seamier side are its main draw. As for the plot, it feels like something Ed Wood might’ve conjured up had he still been alive in 1982: opiate-seeking aliens land their tiny UFO near the apartment of a cocaine-addicted model named Margaret, where they get off on the energy emitted by people she has sex with. Unfortunately, the process kills them all, pushing the already unstable Margaret closer to insanity. Make no mistake, Liquid Sky is bizarre, meaning most viewers will probably find it unwatchable, starting with its minimal synth soundtrack and wooden performances. (As for the film’s sexual content, it’s not as explicit as you might fear, but sexual assault features prominently, so viewer beware.) But its DIY aesthetic and countercultural feel make it easy to understand why Liquid Sky achieved the cult status that it still enjoys to this day.

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