Gwen (Katharine Isabelle) suddenly notices that she's at a diner in a fugue state. She has flashes of memories and troubling signs. She finds a gun in her bag and accidentally shoots the waitress. She escapes from the cops and continues her crime spree.

This is a mess. The bigger question is if it's a fitting mess. The premise is that Gwen is confused but the movie ends up confusing me. This is definitely ambitious and I can applaud that. It's just not done well. I do like the actors. I expected Isabelle to do two completely differing characterization for before in her flashbacks and after the diner. That should be the better path.

Short Review: This writer wrote a very positive review of American Mary (here on the IMDb) noting that it was not only a superbly produced and directed little indie, but that it finally gave Isabelle room to shine, and she was brilliant in it. The implication was that casting directors would take note and her next film would be a step up .... well, that did not exactly happen....

Longer Review: To understand this film you need to understand two things initially:

(a) The films made and distributed in the 1970s were a reaction by film-makers to industrial-quality and soul-less films produced in the 60s, possibly the last decade where the big studios from the 1930s still held sway. The films of the 70s -- now almost a "lost decade" to reviewers -- deliberately broke all the rules of editing, pacing, cinematography, continuity ... to be different, to make a point. As such, they succeeded, but they still were not especially good films, nor did audiences get much joy from them.

(b) what the Canadian and Austalian film industry have in common is that both are creatures of government fiscal policy, not responses to viewer demand. In other words, both were artificially created by bureaucrats. In the case of Canada, the industry lucked out when American producers, fed up with high costs and tough unions, saw a chance to reduce top-line costs by shooting in the North. While the Canadian industry is financially successful, and has spawned some excellent product, it still remains the easiest venue in which to produce knock-offs, bad sequels, and B-movies where the main goal is a successful financing and not necessarily a satisfied audience.

SO...

With these two concepts firmly in mind, I would opine that Isabelle's much-awaited followup to American Mary is, disappointingly, a weird and vacuous homage to the 70s style of film-making, featuring an incomprehensible plot, erratic direction and editing, and massive stretches with no dialog at all because -- frankly -- that saves even more top-line money for the production. That it was produced in Canada only serves to emphasize how this was at its core a financial exercise, not an artistic one. And to those reviewers who dare suggest that the presence of Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside somehow raises this to an A-class production, all I can say PA-LEEZE, the former is at a point in his career where any work is good work; and the latter has of late mainly become a voice actor for animation. (The fact that Ironside himself is Canadian and started his career by making Canadian films in the 70s only adds a new and un-needed sheen of irony to any discussion of "88").

88 is a smart original Canadian film, words I never thought I would never put in the same sentence. The opening of the film defines "Fugue State" which is a type of amnesia which creates a separate personality, normally triggered by a traumatic event. Gwen (Katharine Isabelle) has had such an event as her boyfriend has been killed in front of her. She turns into the cold heartless, no filter Flamingo. Flamingo is a killer while Gwen is not. She attempts to unravel what has happened and believes Cyrus (Christopher Lloyd) killed him.

Flamingo in her new personality doesn't recognize people Gwen knows and Gwen doesn't know people that Flamingo has met. The film is filled with flashbacks. The number "88" is used for everybody's address, but is a reference to the script as to how it loops back and creates a double infinity symbol for the two personality plot line. The time spent as each personality is evenly done. The soundtrack is 180 degrees different between the two personalities. And something I didn't figure out to late was there was a rather lame trigger song "Come Be With Me Love" that would jolt Gwen out of her tough girl Fugue State and back into herself.

However, this is not a film for everyone. The flashbacks are at times confusing. The soundtrack is original and could have been better. It swings from a grindhouse film to an indie drama at the drop of a hat.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.