Divide & Conquer - 2021
Synopsis (from IMDb):
Meanwhile in Tromaville, three women warriors find themselves on the run and kicking in the teeth of every misogynist that dares to cross their path.
“Men will be shocked! Women will understand!”
“The gynos are coming…the gynos are coming…the gynos are coming!”
Divide & Conquer, 2021, 94 minutes, USA. Written and directed by Mercedes the Muse. Edited and cinematography by Moses. Cast includes: Irie Divine (Lilith), Knotty Peach (Athena), Mercedes the Muse (Toxie), Mark Torgl, Vada Callisto, Lloyd Kaufman, Kembra Pfahler, Jade Theriault. Soundtrack includes: Soul Grinder, Oh! The Horror, Born Twice, Twiztid. From Underground Front and Troma.
This humble reviewer is not afraid to admit when he made a mistake, and he really dropped the ball, so to speak, right here. Mercedes the Muse co-wrote Rose and Viktor: No Mercy back in 2017, then wrote and directed Honor Killing (2018), Evul Twinz (2020), and Gruesome Twosome (2021) - all of which are currently on the Troma NOW app/site - and somehow didn’t appear on my radar until now, when she graciously sent me (through my supplier, Rives Elliot) a sneak peek at her latest work, Divide & Conquer. I’ve made a huge mistake sleeping on these films, and I urge you to not do the same. Each one is a little more brutal, uncompromising, unapologetic, and in your face than the last, and Divide & Conquer will go down as a cult classic, mark my words.
Divide & Conquer is a tale about the journey of modern goddesses in an underground, Homer’s Iliad kind of way, but much more colorful and Tromatic. This is the story of three ladies, er…gynos - Athena, Lilith, and Toxie - who just wanted to have a drink at the bar, but instead find themselves on a quest to destroy a fascist, misogynist way of life that is threatening to take over the world. We’re talking racist, sexist bar patrons, rapists, narc motel clerks, shithead cops (‘round here we call those “pigs”), Nazis, and the mysterious Knights of White. Luckily, these ladies are able to find allies in their fight in some unexpected places, sometimes way down the rabbit hole: an off-the-grid tech wizard; the proprietor of the Gender Bender club; a hearing-impaired waitress; even the King of Trash himself. If this doesn’t sound like an epic odyssey, I don’t know what does.
Mercedes the Muse has made a non-stop thrill ride that is so fucking relevant for the times we live in. This is a battle hymn for the losers, the rejects, and the outcasts of our society, an anthem for the queers and the feminists, the allies, and everyone in between. This is Lynn Breedlove having a straight boy get up on stage and suck her strap-on mid-song put to film. Divide & Conquer is a strong, angry, sexy, funny, bloody trip of a movie, a HUGE fuck you to the closed-minded powers that be. The effects are fun, there’s plenty of quirk, and a number of nods to the Troma family. And the acting is appropriately way over the top: Mark Torgl (The Toxic Avenger’s very own Melvin!) as a horny, corn-dog slurping motel clerk; Vada Callisto as a sexy gangsta from Athena’s past; Lloyd Kaufman in puppet form as the King of Trash; the legendary Kembra Pfahler (Nick Zedd’s War is Menstrual Envy, Bruce La Bruce’s The Misandrists) as the Freudian-slipping newscaster; Jade Theriault as Ronnie, the owner of the Gender Bender club; and of course our three goddesses, Knotty Peach (Athena), Irie Divine (Lilith), and Mercedes the Muse (Toxie), who play off each other so well and each bring their own special touch to their characters to help us fall for them and fear them. I love movies that cast real humans, and this cast is made up not of the “beautiful people” (although many of them are), but of the real people, the type of people I would want to hang out with, party with, make a damn movie with. This is transgression John Waters style, Bruce La Buce style, Petter Baiestorf style… This is transgression Mercedes the fucking Muse style!
Scene highlights include:
*** Classic Troma head crushings (plural!!!)
*** Cannibal Holocaust-style impalement, but with a mop
*** Sexy, silly orgy followed immediately by silly, gory dick-mixing
For fans of flipping gender on its head; flipping exploitation on its head; girl power, except for real this time; sex positivity; lesbians and nazis and werewolves, oh my!
Mercedes the Muse knows what she’s doing. She has something to say, and she’s not going to edit it or put it into softer, kinder words for you. There is no compromise in a film like Divide & Conquer - it holds no tongues, it pulls no punches. This is the type of movie that will draw the rage of the weak-minded incels, the conservatives, the christians; if this doesn’t draw labels of “feminazi” or “misandry” from these pathetic fucks, I’ll almost be disappointed. “This isn’t for you,” I was once told by a woman dancing on the bar in front of me, who then pointed to my wife and said, “It’s for her.” Divide & Conquer plays the same; I can enjoy it, I can praise it, I can support it, but I have to recognize that it wasn’t necessarily made for me, it was made for the universal “her.” And I do love it, I will praise it, I will support it, and I will highly recommend it to anyone who will listen. Some of them might get pissed off by this movie, which means it did its job; some of them will get it and feel it and be inspired by this movie, which also means it did its job.
If you’re in the Troma-Thon ‘22 area, Sunday, July 17th, Divide & Conquer plays a double-bill with The Secret of Cuck Island as well as the short films of the Tromadance Film Festival. If, like me, you are too far away/too broke to be in Pennsylvania to celebrate this amazing independent film lineup, keep an eye on the Troma website for future release news, and keep supporting independent film!!!