tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-205153652024-03-14T08:55:50.457-07:00Working Dead ProductionsThe Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-83771240321463066722020-07-21T19:40:00.002-07:002020-07-22T00:49:08.103-07:00Ju-On: Origins - Reawakening A Sleepy Franchise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I finally got around this week to watching <i>Ju-On: Origins</i> on Netflix. I say 'finally', but in actuality the show has only been available for about 2 weeks, so it's not quite old at this point. But everything is moving so fast, even in the elastic timeline nightmare that is 2020, that its moment in the pop culture sun seems to have passed by already. Also 'finally' because I consider myself a fairly big <i>Ju-On</i> fan, though I'm sure I'm a dilettante compared to other fans of the long-running J-Horror franchise. <i>Ju-On</i> has grown from a pair of short films in the 1998 TV movie <i>Gakko no Kaidan G</i> into a franchise that includes 9 Japanese films, 4 American movies, several comics, 7 novelizations, a video game, and even a Pachinko machine. And now, thanks to Netflix, a TV series consisting of 6 half hour episodes.<br />
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I'm going to cut right to the chase and say that I loved it. Absolutely loved it. This is probably the best <i>Ju-On</i> product to come out in years. Though, admittedly, I've only seen the 7 Japanese films and the first American remake (it was bad enough that I never bothered with the others, though eventually I plan on changing that). There is a way to read <i>Ju-On: Origins</i> as yet another attempt to reboot the franchise by taking it back to its roots, as in the thoroughly lackluster <i>Ju-On: Beginning of the End</i>, and in fact I read some reviews that had a hard time reconciling the series' mythology with what had been established in the movies. However, <i>Origins</i> is positioned as portraying the real-life events that inspired the franchise, and while that's just more marketing hokum, real life does frequently intrude on the events of the series, and vice versa. As such the story doesn't quite line up with the convoluted mythology of the preceding 13 films. Gone are Kayako and Toshio, the spectral mother and son who provided most of the jolts in the movies, though analogs of them do exist in this series. In fact, while the supernatural is definitely at work in <i>Origins</i>, the show is more often than not about the real-world evils that people inflict upon each other.<br />
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The entire premise of <i>Ju-On</i> is that when someone dies in intense anger, they can create a supernatural grudge, a curse that can be passed from one person to another (in fact <i>Ju-On</i> roughly translates to Curse Grudge). This is a fairly common trope in Japanese horror films, the vengeful spirit, commonly a spectral woman with long black hair. But <i>Ju-On</i> mixes it up a bit with the somewhat Buddhist belief that negative emotions can have physical manifestations. The curse is not limited by where and how it is created, but can be spread to people who visit the place where it was begun, or even people who come into contact with those who are cursed. Think of the way the cursed VHS is passed around in <i>Ringu</i>, or the ghostly phone calls in <i>One Missed Call</i>, or the spreading loneliness of <i>Pulse, o</i>r even how Ashitaka is cursed by touching the corrupted Boar God in <i>Princess Mononoke</i>. Hate and anger as a physical disease, corrupting the bodies of everyone that they infect. <i>Ju-On</i> has always embraced that ethos more directly than most other J-Horror films, explicitly tying the atrocities onscreen to traumas that were inflicted in the past, and illustrating how trauma not only repeats, but spreads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV6dC3naglHl3va0-HZoiDhXqfjwRGe3JGU-ZZ7C5kcH7j07Pu0u3DcbOOJV77A21qu8neBk0FdODCEc8EpRPc2XKWei9_DHO0C4Kvwto_w0BrQt3o5rFexzwVdHDkTHKoooQ/s1600/Ju-On+Kiyomi.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV6dC3naglHl3va0-HZoiDhXqfjwRGe3JGU-ZZ7C5kcH7j07Pu0u3DcbOOJV77A21qu8neBk0FdODCEc8EpRPc2XKWei9_DHO0C4Kvwto_w0BrQt3o5rFexzwVdHDkTHKoooQ/s320/Ju-On+Kiyomi.jpg" width="320" /></a>Part of what scared me so much about Japanese horror films, back in the early 2000s when I started to really dig into the genre, is how random it all seemed. Western horror films tend to operate to enforce cultural or ethical standards that we've all grown up with, whether consciously or subconsciously. The killers in slasher films may not be as puritanical as critics claim (the equation rarely comes down to strictly sex=death), but it is largely true that there is a code to their horrors, and that the good live to see daylight while the not-so-good end up impaled on farming equipment. This is not necessarily the case in many J-Horror films, where the punishments more often than not depend on bad luck. In <i>Ju-On</i> in particular you can find yourself tormented by vengeful ghosts and killed in horrible ways just by house hunting in the wrong neighborhood, or by being a schoolteacher who cares a bit too much about kids who have been mysteriously absent, or hell, just by sharing an elevator with someone cursed. Oftentimes the most pure characters suffer the worst fates. There was a cosmic randomness to these films, a bleak fatalism that left no source of refuge or safe harbor. Watching these films (<i>Ju On</i>, <i>Ringu</i>, <i>Pulse</i>, <i>Cure</i>, <i>One Missed Call, Reincarnation, </i>et al) felt dangerous, like any one could die at any moment. Not even our hero or heroine was safe!<br />
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My introduction to the <i>Ju-On</i> franchise came in the early 2000s, and actually started with the 3rd and 4th movies in the series. The first two movies, titled <i>Ju-On: The Curse</i> parts 1 & 2, were direct-to-video affairs. It wasn't until the third movie, <i>Ju-On: The Grudge</i>, that the series went theatrical. <i>Ju-On: The Grudge</i> was a big hit and the first to make it to the states, screening at a few film festivals and getting a limited theatrical run. However I saw it, and its sequel, on bootleg V-CDs my friend brought back from comic-con. The quality was fairly low-res, and each film took up two discs, and while that might not seem like the ideal manner in which to watch a scary movie, it actually couldn't have been any better. There was something about the illicit nature of the viewing experience, combined with the grainier, blurrier picture quality, that heightened the desolate horrors on display. It truly felt gritty and dangerous in a way horror often aspires to, but rarely achieves. In contrast, when the series finally arrived on proper DVD in America a few years later, the picture quality was too clean, it laid bare all of the budgetary restrictions they were working under and made the ghosts look too solid, too much like actors in white makeup.<br /><br />As the series grew so did the budgets, and with that came a corresponding decrease in quality. I actually thought half of <i>Black Ghost/White Ghost</i> was decent, but by the time we got to the final two films in the Japanese series (so far), they were glossy and brightly lit rehashes of previous plots while recycling the same old scares. Guttural noises, yowling cats, Kayako crawling down the stairs, people stopping short and slowly realizing there's a particularly pale 9 year old boy in his underwear clinging to their legs. About all that was added at this point in the series were a couple brief flirtations with found footage and a weird, never explained obsession with spirals, which gave me a very brief hope that we'd get a <i>Ju-On/Uzumaki</i> crossover. After seeing these things repeated over so many films it was impossible to remember a time when they were the least bit frightening.<br />
<br />And then came <i>Ju-On: Origins</i>, which seems like a rebuke to my previous statement, to prove that you could make a decently budgeted <i>Ju-On</i> film and make it scary. I don't mean scary in the old way; <i>Origins</i> largely does away with the jump scares that were the bread and butter of the franchise (with a few exceptions of course), and mostly gets rid of the ghosts as well. This is a new breed of <i>Ju-On</i>, almost as if this were the 'elevated' horror version, to borrow a phrase I hate that seems to be in vogue these days when critics feel the need to justify liking a horror film.<br /><br />I don't really much care for trigger warnings (though I understand their importance to some people and do not intend to mock them), but I almost feel as if <i>Ju-On: Origins</i> should come with one, particularly for fans of the original franchise who may not be ready for the frank depictions of rape, child abuse, and assault within. That's not to say the show is overly graphic (for the most part these events happen off screen), but it doesn't shy away from trying to disturb the audience. It may seem funny to make this claim when the original <i>Ju-On</i> curse began when a man killed his wife and child (and family cat) in a jealous rage, but the sort of violence in this show is something the series hasn't ever really tackled before.<br /><br />I could try to recount the plot here, but it wouldn't really do much good. It's not a show you can really spoil, as it's the mood that matters, not necessarily the plot. But allow me to attempt to summarize a few things simply and concisely. The show begins in 1988, and introduces us to a few characters we'll be following, though many of them do not directly interact with each other. Yasuo Odajima (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa) is a paranormal investigator collecting stories for his books. He appears on a talk show with Haruka Hanjo (Yuina Kuroshima), an actress who recounts a tale of hearing footsteps in her apartment at night. Off on her own story is Kiyomi Kawai (mononymous actress Ririka), a lonely and sullen girl starting at a new high school. Kiyomi makes a few new friends at school who turn out to not be what they appear, and their betrayal at the end of episode one marks the first, clearest sign that this <i>Ju-On</i> is pulling no punches.<br />
<br />After the first episode the three storylines diverge and converge over the course of the season. It all plays out more or less chronologically, which is another divergence from the original series. The <i>Ju-On</i> films are all presented as a series of vignettes, with about 6-8 per film. Each focusing on a different character, and presented in no particular chronological order. I said more or less chronologically, because this is still a <i>Ju-On</i> movie, and of course that means a few mysterious time loops, which is why it's more or less impossible to spoil this story.<br /><br />After the second episode the show jumps forward to 1994. Yasuo has published the book he was researching in the first episode, part of an apparently successful series of books. Haruka's fiance has died under mysterious circumstances after house hunting in the wrong house, leading her to team up with Yasuo in an attempt to locate the cursed home and unravel the mystery. Kiyomi and her lover have run away and when we catch back up with them they're raising a 5 year old son to which the father is frequently physically abusive. The final four episodes of the show span a period of 3 years, ending in 1997 (the year before the first <i>Ju-On</i> film would come out).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vTwCs1t17TeJpZqjKtGOEMdqPS9cKl1dMCcUfROgF8j5tDlqe2CA5uxwnS1gSUkHoTgRuDcqBP6m08qnsC6OT8N34bAugKsHhYLSfnGEAHDVM7kcZl7661Pce6LnCneVsrLz/s1600/Ju-On+Yasuo.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="800" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vTwCs1t17TeJpZqjKtGOEMdqPS9cKl1dMCcUfROgF8j5tDlqe2CA5uxwnS1gSUkHoTgRuDcqBP6m08qnsC6OT8N34bAugKsHhYLSfnGEAHDVM7kcZl7661Pce6LnCneVsrLz/s320/Ju-On+Yasuo.jpeg" width="320" /></a>At various times in the series we check in frequently with the cursed house, which is at times vacant, and other times occupied. When it's occupied the tenants invariably meet violent ends, most often at each others hands. This repetition of abuse, husband against wife against child against self, pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to <i>Ju-On</i>'s continued themes. Over the course of 13 films one thing has remained consistent; trauma lingers, and cycles of abuse are doomed to repeat. At various times characters will have a television on, and the news will often be about the crimes we're seeing in the show, but just as often they will be clips about real crimes. Beginning in the first episode with the tragic murder of high school student Junko Furuta (never named but the specifics are there) in 1989, continuing on to the Sarin gas attacks in Tokyo subways in 1995. There may have been others but without rewatching I can't be sure. This suggested to me the spreading nature of trauma, that not only does it repeat but it branches out to infect those nearby, whether or not they directly experienced it. The curse is both a product and cause of the violent world. Blending real tragedy with fiction like this is always a tricky thing to do, it so easily comes off as crass and disrespectful, but I found it to be quite effective here. It helps that <i>Origins</i> takes its themes seriously, and even when the subject matter gets graphic it's never exploitative. At several points within <i>Origins</i> characters try to bury evidence of the crimes surrounding the curse, and this is uniformly a bad idea. Burying trauma is never healthy, but those who discuss and share tend to fare better.<br /><br />One other way in which this new series sets itself apart from previous <i>Ju-On</i> films is in the nature of its scares. In previous films the scares came almost entirely from seeing Kayako and her son Toshio pop up in surprising places, but in <i>Origins </i>the scares, when they come, are much more varied. I don't want to go so far as to actual describe things that are supposed to be surprising in the series, so I'll leave the specifics for you to discover. I'll just say that <i>Origins </i>brings in a sense of visual surreality absent from the films. Some of these scenes will be shocking or disgusting to Western audiences not used to the further reaches of horror films, but will probably please fans of more extreme Asian horror, or the films of Takashi Miike.<br /><br />It's not clear at the moment whether or not <i>Ju-On: Origins</i> signals a reawakening of the long lasting franchise or not. The last Japanese movie in the mainline series was in 2015 and was heavily marketed as being the end of the story. But when has 'the end' ever really meant 'the end' in a horror series? There was then the crossover with the <i>Ring</i> franchise, 2016's campy <i>Sadako Vs. Kayako</i>, but that was just a one-off inspired by an April Fool's Day joke that went too far. Of the American <i>Grudge</i> films there was a remake this year that was hoped would inspire a new franchise, but it was met with mostly negative reviews and those plans seem to have been dropped. <i>Origins</i> seems to have been pretty self contained as well, and the story of these characters is pretty clearly over (though I could see Yasuo spun off into a sequel or even another series rather easily).<br /><br />If this is the end of the series, I'll be happy. It was great to be reminded what I found scary about the property almost 20 years ago. Even if it wasn't as 'scary' as the early films, it certainly packed in the dread. If this isn't the end, I just hope they learn all the right lessons from this superlative entry, and are able to avoid the rut and break out of the series' own cycles.<br />
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<br />WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-90872482353544368722017-10-11T17:06:00.001-07:002017-10-11T17:06:24.640-07:00Weekly Watchlist: October 1st to 7th, 2017 [Pt. 2]Watching movies this first week of October was not only interrupted by the various television shows I was bingeing (on top of my normal duties as a stay at home dad) but also a free HBO weekend on Hulu. Once I discovered that HBO had made their library free to all Hulu customers until Monday morning, that became all I watched. I knew I wouldn't be able to get through a series, but I watched as many movies as I could, focusing primarily on the Oscar nominated films I had not yet been able to catch. Of course a horror film or two snuck in there, but it just wasn't my priority over that weekend, meaning the 1st, and part of the 2nd, contained very little in the way of seasonal viewing. What follows below is the complete list of what I watched this week, and some brief discussion about a few of the more noteworthy films.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Films:</span></b><br />
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<b>Circle</b> <i>(2015)</i> This one hopped to the top of my Netflix queue due to a very loose connection I have to it. Or should I say, my wife has. One of her coworkers is dating an actress who appeared in the film, and my wife said it had sounded interesting. She was right; it did sound interesting. A group of 30-some people awake to find themselves standing in a completely black room, circled around a podium where an orb sits and occasionally crackles with electric energy. The people are standing shoulder to shoulder, each in their own red circle. If they step out of the circle, the orb in the center of the room shoots out some lightning and kills them. If they try to touch another person, the orb kills them. Every two minutes someone is killed by the orb, and the people in the circle quickly conclude that they can vote for each other, and the person with the most votes gets killed off. <i>Circle</i> is one of those high-concept sci-fi films full of psychological hokum that I almost always enjoy, like <i>Cube</i>, <i>Coherence</i>, <i>After</i>, or the similarly premised <i>Belko Experiment</i>. <i>Circle</i> is also a film I happened to not enjoy.<br />
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I think my main problem with it was the pacing, and the speed at which the story moves before it slows down a bit towards the end. The characters all figure everything out way too quickly, within the first ten minutes, in order to get to what the filmmakers probably considered the meat of the story: how groups of people will turn on each other to survive. The problem is that this removes any real mystery or sense of discovery from the beginning of the film, as we're presented with the rules very early on and then just have to watch increasingly shrill and awful people decide to kill the weakest among them. This also leads to some groan-worthy exposition and leaps of logic as people figure out how to control who gets killed with no real effort, just some quickly babbled nonsense. At first I thought this implied a mole in the group, but (spoiler alert) no, it was just lazy writing There was also a problem with the pacing of the film, as I said. The orb kills someone every two minutes, no more no less, and so the dwindling group of survivors has two minutes to talk and try to discover a way out of their predicament once somebody is killed. The film is presented in real time, yet for the first 20 minutes of the film the orb often gives the group much less than 2 minutes, while by the end it's giving more than that amount. A small quibble, maybe, but it was annoying.<br />
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<b>The Purge: Election Year</b> <i>(2016)</i> My second year working at Halloween Horror Nights the theme was <i>The Purge</i>, and it was decidedly un-Halloween. Guests would walk around a corner and someone in an intentionally cheap mask (mimicking the masks in the film, of course) wearing a tuxedo would walk up and point a gun at their heads. Sometimes people with chainsaws would lunge at them, too. I was disappointed all season long, because nothing about it seemed appropriate, or in the proper spirit. Personally, I would not consider the <i>Purge</i> films to be horror, or at least I would consider them horror in only the loosest sense. I'm not trying to be a pedant here, but the films have just never been scary, and don't really seem interested in scaring people beyond a couple obligatory jump scares. The only thing that causes the films to be filed under horror are their general aesthetic and focus on gore. I would actually consider the films to be grimier-than-most action flicks. But these films are categorized as horror, and labels can be so slippery when discussing genre films anyway, so I'll go ahead and add it to the scorecard for my Halloween viewing.</div>
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Or perhaps I should be more forgiving to the <i>Purge</i> films. Certainly they do what all great horror movies do by tapping into a prevalent fear of the day. These days, when we have more mass shootings then there are days in the year, when every large gathering brings with it the fear that some madman with a gun will choose to cut down dozens of civilians, when every parent worries about not whether their child will fit in at school, but whether one of their classmates came to school with their parent's gun, and our elected politicians respond to the largest mass shooting we've seen by explaining to us why we can't do anything about gun violence, the <i>Purge</i> films do tap into something. It certainly seems in this country that we've become resigned to random mass shootings, and it's beginning to feel like the victims of those shootings are our sacrificial offerings in order to live in America. In that light, a film about an annual culling of the poor and helpless orchestrated by wealthy politicians seems like the perfect vehicle for exploring very real anxieties. It's so obvious that you can't even call it a metaphor; the films directly address the world we live in today. The problem is, the <i>Purge</i> films just aren't very good.<br /><br />The original <i>Purge</i> was a forgettable home invasion film that introduced the concept of an annual murder-fest in a film that never actually revolved around said murder-fest. It was decent enough, bolstered mainly by Ethan Hawke giving it his all in a film that did not deserve it, and the reliable thrills of vicariously watching characters mount a makeshift defense of their home. I had a lot of issues with both the plot and also the general world building of the film, as the purge did not make sense to me. Not only could I not see it actually becoming the law of the land, but I had serious questions about how the rules of that society as presented would function. Putting that aside, the biggest flaw was that <i>The Purge</i> never became about the purge, it was a standard home invasion flick with some lip service towards dystopian horror. The second film, <i>The Purge: Anarchy</i>, was a massive improvement over the first, and while not a film I've ever felt driven to revisit, it was one I actually enjoyed. It took the major problems of the first film and seemed to address them all. The world was fleshed out significantly by shifting the focus from one family being stalked by rich kids to an ensemble piece focusing on several characters over the night in question. The film's varied locales and multiple points of view pointed a way towards the <i>Purge </i>films becoming almost an anthology series of desperate characters struggling against a violent dystopian society.<br />
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At first glance <i>Purge: Election Year</i> continues to make good on the promise of the second film. It expands our knowledge of the world by shifting the focus to politics, and also to the groups of people who try to fight the purge (a pair of women who drive around in a fortified ambulance and help victims when they find them, an underground resistance movement focused on more violent means of governmental overthrow). In practice, however, the film represents a marked step backwards. Not only is <i>Election Year</i> the cheapest looking of the <i>Purge</i> films by far, it features some of the weakest acting in the series, and definitely the worst dialogue. Five minutes in I had lost count of how many times various characters had used the word 'cunt' in casual conversation.<br />
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By the end of the film I had quite lost interest in any of the events, and lost track of the plot for awhile as my mind drifted off to more engaging things. I realized I am probably done with <i>The Purge</i>, though I see a fourth film is in development for release next year, and I have to admit I'll probably watch it eventually.<br />
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<b>A Ghost Story</b> <i>(2017)</i> Lest you think I watched nothing but shitty movies all week, I did watch at least one film I believe is destined to become a classic. <i>A Ghost Story</i>'s release came and went with generally positive, but also pretty divisive critical reactions. Myself I'm going to have to watch the film again and spend some time pondering it's dreamlike conception of our place within the vastness of time, but I do want to list it here as a recommendation. The film has a deliberate and elliptical pace that may not be for everyone, and certainly its level of pretension is higher than that of your average blockbuster, but I've always been a fan of pretension, and of unconventional chronology in films. <i>A Ghost Story</i> is definitely not a horror film, despite its title and the fact that it is about a literal ghost, but it is a very moving and engaging piece of work. The central image, of a ghost that is actually just the old Halloween standby of a sheet with eyeholes cut into it, may strike some as amusing at first, but it evolves to become a strikingly evocative and expressive figure. Worth your time.<br />
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<b>The Incident</b> <i>(2014) </i>This is the feature length debut from Isaac Ezban, who seems eager to make a name as the Mexican Rod Serling. I'd seen his second feature, <i>The Similars</i>, previously, and his contribution to the Mexican horror anthology Mexico Barbaro, and while neither film exactly set my world on fire, they did intrigue me enough to check this one out. At the time I said about <i>The Similars</i> that it was an odd, funny movie, but that I wasn't sure how in on the joke the filmmakers were. It was such a ridiculous concept with such ridiculous visuals (while sheltering in a bus station during a near-apocalyptic storm a group of strangers all begin transorming into the same bearded man), but also treated completely seriously. It was as if the film had no real sense of humor about itself. It was not a great film, but it appealed to me for many of the reasons I cited above when discussing <i>Circle</i>. It also explicitly acknowledged its debt to <i>The Twilight Zone</i> through some voiceover and distressed visual style meant to evoke an older lost film.<br />
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<i>The Incident</i> is very much more of the same. The film follows to parallel storylines, one in the present day, and on in the mid-eighties. The first storyline follows two criminal brothers and the cop that is chasing them. After trying to escape through their apartment's stairwell, one of the brothers is shot by the cop, and they find the stairwell has become an eternal loop. Going down to the first floor takes them back to the 9th, and going up takes them to the 1st. In the second storyline, set 35 years earlier, a married couple and two children embark on a roadtrip to take the children to visit their biological father. On a deserted stretch of highway the daughter begins suffering an asthma attack, and when they turn around to race back home and get her inhaler, the family discovers the highway has become... an eternal loop. Are the two stories connected? I think you can figure that part out on your own.<br />
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I enjoyed <i>The Incident</i> at about the same level, and for many of the same reasons, as <i>The Similars</i>. In fact I was ready to say that <i>The Incident</i> was the superior film, as it seemed to have a firmer grasp on the message it was trying to convey. The film has some interesting things to say about how violence can be almost like a physical illness, passed on from perpretator to victim to witness, creating an endless chain going on to the end of time. It ruined that, however, in a silly ending that tries to hard to explain what was already obvious, and by bringing in some really ridiculous metaphysical elements that were not even hinted at in the preceding film. Anyone who's read this far will probably have a good idea of whether they'd want to see it or not, but I would call it a qualified recommendation for those looking for a little <i>Twilight Zone</i> weirdness.<br />
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Elsewhere in the week I also watched <i>The Attic</i> (2007), a horror film from Mary Lambert, director of <i>Pet Sematary</i>, and starring <i>Mad Men</i>'s Elizabeth Moss. It's a film that is almost inconcievably bad, considering it was made by an experienced director who has done good work in the past. It's not just a creative misfire, but a laughably amateurish production that should be expunged from her record. In response to wasting time on <i>The Attic</i>, I lost any urge to watch something new and so popped in a movie I knew I would enjoy: <i>It Follows</i> (2014). This is my first rewatch of the year, and it will be my unending shame that I had tickets to the AFI Festival screening of this film in 2014, and skipped out on going because I was too tired after a long day of work. <i>It Follows</i> is a genuine masterpiece, and even on second viewing had me on the edge of my seat.<br />
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I watched a Godzilla flick with my daughter: <i>Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah</i>. My daughter is an emerging Godzilla fan, and I was happy to revisit one of the Heisei films, featuring one of my favorite running exchanges about peoples inability to grasp that a spaceship is actually a time machine (a gag ruined by the fact that I originally watched this film dubbed, and the subtitling, which is probably more accurate, simplifies the exchanges). Through Shout Factory's website I streamed <i>Bad Moon</i> (1996), a werewolf film I had somehow never watched. It was fairly mediocre, but I always enjoy a monster. I also thought that, for the time, the digital composite effects used to create the transformation, while nowhere near as good as something practical like <i>American Werewolf in London</i>, were still surprisingly solid. Also on Scream Factory I checked out <i>Nomads</i> (1986), which I only knew about from seeing the cover in the video store as a kid. It was surprisingly dull and convoluted, with Pierce Brosnan trying out the worst and most inconsistent French accent I think I've ever heard.<br />
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<i>It Comes at Night</i> (2017) was an artful post-apocalypse of the killer virus variety. The film never explains exactly what is going on, but relies in part on our overfamiliarity with the genre to dispense with the boring expositionary scenes and get straight to the dramatic struggle between the survivors in their isolated refuge. I found it a handsomely staged production on all accounts that still never quite wowed me. And finally, <i>Long Weekend</i> (1978) was the most surprising film of the week. A nature run amok film from Australia, <i>Long Weekend</i> follows a truly despicable married couple as they go on a weekend camping trip, seemingly to save their marriage. Along the way they casually kills a variety of animals and destroy their environment by throwing their waste everywhere, until the very earth itself seems to rise up in revolt. I went in expecting a gonzo horror film with animals attacking and maybe some shocking gore, but ended up watching a surprisingly eerie film about two people being swallowed by nature. It was truly creepy, and more haunting than horrific. One that I'll definitely be returning to.<br />
<br />To see my numerical ratings, and follow along with everything else I'm watching, you can check out my letterboxd profile here:<a href="https://letterboxd.com/theworkingdead/"> https://letterboxd.com/theworkingdead/</a>WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-81342652899387154142017-10-09T11:00:00.000-07:002017-10-09T12:40:39.381-07:00Weekly Watchlist: October 1st to 7th, 2017 [Pt. 1]Well, this Halloween sure is off to a slow start for me. I'm watching horror movies when I can (which is, as always, not as often as I'd like), reading some spooky stories before bed, working on some seasonal writing projects both solo and with my pal Rik (proprietor of <a href="http://cinema4pylon.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">The Cinema 4 Pylon</span></a>, and my partner in <a href="http://wewhowatchbehindtherows.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">We Who Watch Behind the Rows</span></a> and <a href="http://visitingandrevisiting.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Visiting & Revisiting</span></a>), but still it just doesn't feel like Halloween yet. Partly that may be due to the weather, which has turned unseasonably warm once again after a few refreshing weeks of near-autumnal cool in September (well, Autumnal for Southern California, which isn't really very cool at all). The biggest factor, I feel, is that this year I'm not working the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Studios, which I did for the last three years.<br />
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Halloween Horror Nights worked as a great jumpstart to the season, beginning my Halloween in mid-September when I would begin spending four nights a week down at the Bates Motel, in the open night air surrounded by <i>Walking Dead</i> zombies the first year, <i>Purge</i> killers the second year, and killer clowns the third. It was without a doubt the most fun thing I've ever been paid for. My first year I was a new hire, but my second and third years I went back as a team lead in charge of the Bates Motel. I loved it each year, even the third year, when various managerial frustrations became so bad that I almost walked away from the event and rejoined day operations in the park. Even though I would come home with a laundry list of complaints every night, and I really was annoyed and frustrated, part of me also still loved it. Just to be in that location, seeing and hearing people getting scared all night, spending time with my coworkers who were uniformly great, eating lunch at a table packed with zombies, was great. It relaxed me in a way, though I spent each night on my feet and running back and forth putting out fires (figuratively, of course). </div>
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This year I am without that framework that would normally get me into the Halloween spirit, but on top of that, I am fully unemployed. I don't necessarily mind that part, as it has been allowing me to spend the last few weeks as a stay-at-home dad, taking care of my kids and preparing meals and trying to relax. but it does have some very real drawbacks. And lets not even get into the socio-political landscape we live in, which seems to become more nightmarish with every passing day. I want to say that I am not actively depressed, and am generally in a pretty good mood every day, but all of these things together have left me feeling less seasonally festive than normal.</div>
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All of that will hopefully explain why I got a bit of a late start on my Halloween viewing this year. While I usually begin the month of October with a vague framework of movies and books set aside to watch and read, this year I've been playing it by ear. What follows is the list of what films and television shows I've been watching so far to get into the Halloween mood.</div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">The Television Shows:</span></u></b><br />
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I want to briefly discuss a show I did not watch this week, but that more or less started the ball rolling in my Halloween preparations. <b><i>Stan Against Evil</i></b>, the horror-sitcom from comedian Dana Gould that is about to begin its second season on IFC. If I were to be strictly objective about the show, it would in no way convey how much I actually enjoyed watching it. If I were being brutally honest, I would say that much of the <i>Stan Against Evil</i> is overly familiar, the jokes all seem a bit too easy, and the gore is primarily of the digital variety, but I would also say that I didn't mind any of that and had a lot of fun watching the show. A lot of that lies in the casting, with John C. McGinley as the title character, a recently retired sheriff in a town where, due to a witch's curse in the 1600s, every sheriff has been killed violently on the job. Stan is in fact the only sheriff ever to make it to retirement age, for reasons that are revealed in the pilot episode. Actress/comedian Janet Varney plays Stan's replacement, brought in after Stan violently assaults an elderly woman at his wife's funeral. Don't worry, the woman was a witch threatening his life, so he's not entirely unhinged.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmSmsbsv7WKAk-sKBQ5HrzOQBRuTSQxXBF1Nug0M48ry19tp72EjKjACTb_y-khfUUYl_SWmfSqDgb6xga1Ivu6rarHsiHC8FlbMExD1jPFfRS9zj-LVLkfBm8Ej_ondNYevU/s1600/Stanstand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmSmsbsv7WKAk-sKBQ5HrzOQBRuTSQxXBF1Nug0M48ry19tp72EjKjACTb_y-khfUUYl_SWmfSqDgb6xga1Ivu6rarHsiHC8FlbMExD1jPFfRS9zj-LVLkfBm8Ej_ondNYevU/s320/Stanstand.jpg" width="320" /></a>If the show works, it's generally due to John C. McGinley's performance as the gruff ex-sheriff. The character was modeled after Dana Gould's own father, and the specificity adds a lot to the character's general appeal. I wouldn't say he has charm, because he's never less than insulting or intentionally offputting towards every other character we meet, but it's hard not to like McGinley in the role. McGinley specializes in verbose macho jerks, and it would be easy to just slot his Dr. Cox character from Scrubs into this series, but McGinley turns down his normal energy for a much more grounded New England stoicism.<br />
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I began watching <i>Stan Against Evil</i> on the night of the day I got fired from a new job that I had been very excited and hopeful about. In general I was in an unproductive malaise for a good week or two after the firing, and <i>Stan Against Evil </i>was a great help during those first few days. The night I began watching, I was sitting like a lump on my couch, while my wife worked on some cross stitching next to me. I couldn't think of anything to watch that I wanted to expend the energy to concentrate on, so after a few minutes of scrolling through Hulu and Netflix and Amazon, I settled on <i>Stan Against Evil</i>. I recognized straightaway the problems with the show that I've already mentioned, but it also completely won me over from the opening scene. It was visual comfort food, a supremely silly and lighthearted series that required little investment on the part of the viewer. I could start it up whenever I felt like it and for 22 minutes just let the goofiness wash over me. Owing to my lack of a cable package, I'll have to wait awhile for season two to make it to Hulu, but when it does I'll most assuredly be binging the entire thing. In fact, I may squeeze in a rewatch of the first season just to keep myself sated.<br />
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More pertinent to the topic of this piece, which is ostensibly about movies and shows I watched during the first week of October, is the seventh season of <i>The Walking Dead</i>, a show which should need no introduction from me, and if I'm being honest I don't have a ton to say about. I wasn't a huge fan of this show at first, which started with one of the best pilot episodes in recent memory, but then became a little less interesting with each subsequent episode. I stuck around the dismal second season more out of stubbornness than anything else. The show was not only boring, but it was too easy to see the hands of the writer guiding every character. Characters would do idiotic things not because that was in their nature, but because the writers needed to spice things up, or move pieces into position for a planned confrontation. Characters would behave inconsistently from one scene to the next, motivations would change or be forgotten, and it became more and more embarrassing that the show would only add a new black character once the previous one had been killed. Season three showed marginal improvement, mainly by getting characters out of the farmhouse that killed momentum in the previous season, but it still suffered from many of the same writing problems that plagued the previous two seasons. Season four started to really come together, and although it still wasn't great, it was consistently improving to the point that even the episodes I didn't like I at least appreciated for the way they were trying to course correct. At this point, I look forward to each new season dropping onto Netflix, and my wife and I usually burn through the season in a couple days.<br />
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When this latest season premiered I was actually working in the Walking Dead attraction at Universal Studios. Since I watch the shows on Netflix, I'm behind the times and have to make sure I leave the room when people start talking about the show, which I knew would be a must once the new season premiered. If you remember season six, it ended with a cliffhanger where we knew someone in the main group had just been killed, but we had no idea who it was. Amber and I had already planned on purchasing the episode on Amazon so we could watch it quickly and discover who had died before it could be spoiled for us, but unfortunately we just didn't act quickly enough. The season premiered on a Sunday, and I had no time to watch the episode due to conflicting work schedules. I showed up to work early Monday morning to set up the venue for the day, planning on watching the show as soon as I got home. I was the second person in after the supervisor, and my job was to get the place set up, do safety checks and equipment checks, and prepare daily paperwork. My plan was to get through the day without engaging in discussion of the television show, and I was already prepared to shush people who wanted to talk to me about it. I arrived at work, grabbed the daily meeting paperwork the supervisor had printed out, and right there taking up half the page was a picture of two prominent <i>Walking Dead</i> cast members and the large-type caption "Rest in Peace [names redacted]." Shit. Surprise ruined. I'm not overly sensitive to spoilers in general, although I do try to avoid them, but this struck me as a bit cruel. Of course, I was able to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the day and not ruin it for Amber, although when we watched the episode later that night most of the tension had been removed from the long buildup to revealing who had died.<br />
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The show has become remarkably consistent over the past few years, and I find myself more and more engaged with the characters on screen, even characters I had previously not enjoyed. The widening of the scope of the show that started with season six's introduction of additional communities continued with this season, with the introduction of the incredibly entertaining Kingdom, the inscrutable trashpeople, and an isolated community composed of only women survivors of The Saviors. I know everyone loves Negan, the larger than life leader of the Saviors, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is really chewing the hell out of that part, but I was actually a little flumoxxed by how inconsistent he was as a threat. He's introduced beating two main characters to death, and then continues to terrorize everyone who crosses him in truly horrific manner. And yet, each time Rick's group defies him, his punishments never live up to what he's promised, and he spares the lives of people who have done far worse than others he has punished brutally.<br />
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I think the thing that keeps me engaged with <i>The Walking Dead</i> at this point, despite the continued flagging of my interest in zombie entertainment, is that the show learned awhile back how to inject a bit of humor, and that the point of the show should be hopeful rather than nihilistic. Sure, death comes to characters beloved, hated, or unknown, and it often comes at seemingly random intervals. Sure every few steps forward seem to come with a commensurate step back, but those steps forward are being taken. No matter how dire the situation gets, the takeaway is that we can regain our humanity, we can find a way forward.<br />
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Also, the effects team has really risen to the challenge of coming up with interesting zombie kills. Some really amazing practical effects on that show. That alone would keep me coming back, I'm just glad the rest of the show has caught up.<br />
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If you read my previous piece about <i>Fear Itself</i>, the fourth season<i> Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i> Halloween episode, you'll recall that my daughter was interested in the show enough that she asked if we could watch the rest of the series. We started that this week, and due to her spending a day home sick, and the general brevity of the first season run, we finished that on Friday night. It was the first time I'd seen the series in at least ten years, and it was an interesting experience revisiting it with her. In that earlier piece I already briefly went over my history with the show, so I'll skip that for now and just discuss the first season on its own.<br />
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Season one of <i>Buffy</i>, like most genre television shows, in retrospect feels more like a dry run for what the show would eventually evolve into. It's the rare show television show indeed that comes out of the gate fully formed and firing on all cylinders, but genre television shows in particular have a hard time in the beginning. I can think of only one sci-fi/fantasy show that has jumped onto our television screens with everything more or less in place, <i>The X-Files</i>, and even that show had its share of missteps in the first season. When it came to <i>Buffy</i>, my thought was always that the show only started to get interesting in season two, give or take a couple of bright spots in season one. Season one just came across as too silly, while much of the humor never quite landed. The actors weren't quite used to their roles, the writing hadn't yet deepened these characters in a manner that made their personal turmoils interesting, and visually the show could be unpleasant to look at. I had thought about starting my daughter off with season two, as the show develops in such a way that a new viewer could pretty much jump in whenever they wanted up until the final season, but in the end we started at the beginning (my completist nature would accept no less), and I withheld my opinions so she could make up her own mind. If she lost interest, I'd just tell her that the show improves and forge ahead.<br />
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So color me mildly surprised that I actually found myself really enjoying the first season. Maybe it had to do with the length of time since I had last seen it, and the nostalgia that had built up around the pop culture surrounding me in the late 90s (though I didn't watch <i>Buffy</i> during it's first season, I was certainly aware of it and the various pop culture accoutrements the show dressed itself in), or maybe it was my lowered expectations, but I found myself wondering why I had been so hard on the first season. Sure, the visual look of <i>Buffy</i> is altogether too dark and the film is too grainy, the action is amateurishly staged compared to what the show would be doing from the next season onwards, a lot of the humor falls flat, and some of the threats the gang faces are downright laughable, but it's also not nearly as bad as I remembered. The show may not have been firing on all cylinders, to reuse that phrase, but you could see the pieces coming together over the season.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Definitely a real low point in the series.</td></tr>
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The entirety of <i>Buffy</i> season one was filmed before a single episode had aired, which has some positives and some minuses. One of the positives is that it allowed Joss Whedon and Co. to pepper in some foreshadowing in a fairly organic manner, allowing the season-long arc dealing with The Master and the prophecy that he will kill Buffy to simmer along in the margins for the majority of the season. It also allowed the showrunners to develop a stable of extras so that the high school was filled with faces we would occasionally see again over the course of the season. Teachers would show up in the background, or students would pass by that we had seen before, making the high school feel more like an actual school. The biggest drawback, however, is one that is a danger to all television shows that are developed without audience reaction: they had no idea how the audience would react to the cast or the plot. A lot of shows undergo course correction as they run, as audience reaction can help writers discover what is and isn't working and react to that input. The fact that <i>Buffy</i> was written and directed before any audience had a chance to see it meant that they would not be able to react to any criticisms, they would have to trust that the show was on the right track. So it might count as a minor miracle that the show not only struck a chord with audiences, but found the right track on its own. There's a clear point at which season one seems to find the right balance of humor, horror, and high school dramatics, so that by the end of the twelve episode season a remarkably sturdy framework has been constructed that six future seasons will be built atop.<br />
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Currently, my daughter and I are a couple episodes into season two. With school all week we may only get through a handful of episodes by the time my next Watchlist piece goes up, but I'm really looking forward to rediscovering this old favorite.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Note: This piece was originally intended to cover both film and television, but I took so long with my intro, and the television discussions took up so much space, that I've decided to split this article in half. Check back soon for discussions of the eleven seasonally appropriate feature films I watched in this period.</span></i></div>
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WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-72435019574201445782017-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:002017-10-08T11:55:01.996-07:00A Very Special Episode: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fear Itself<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Growing up, one of my favorite parts of the Halloween season were the Halloween specials that would air more and more frequently towards the end of the month. Possibly I enjoyed this even more than the act of trick or treating, which was undeniably fun and rewarding in terms of acquiring piles of candy, but also sometimes a chore. Halloween night in Anchorage, Alaska was often not the most pleasant time to be wandering around outdoors. The temperatures would have dipped to the point where I would have to wear my costume over bulky snow gear, if I was lucky, and under the snow gear, if I was not, so that all that was visible of my costume would be my face. That is not to say I ever avoided trick or treating. Some nights I would make multiple trips, never to the same house twice, so that I could head home and warm up for a few minutes and empty my often stuffed-to-the-brim bag of candy. But still those nights are cold, in a way that can cut through even the thickest jacket, and heading inside for the night would become more and more appealing as the night wore on. Once inside, with my pile of candy in front of me, after my mom had gone through and checked to make sure everything was factory sealed and had no tears or holes in the packaging (Providence Hospital provided free screenings of candy for parents nervous about poisoning or razorblades, but I grew up in a pretty nice neighborhood where we knew a large number of our neighbors personally, and so a cursory visual exam was usually all we needed to make sure things were safe), I would sit on the floor or couch and gorge myself on candy while watching whatever Halloween programming I could find.<br />
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Halloween specials started to fall out of fashion eventually, but when I was a kid it seemed every sitcom or procedural drama on the air would do a spooky Halloween themed episode. Sometimes the Halloween trappings would amount to nothing more than some costumes and decorations, though sometimes the showrunners would take the seasonal opportunity to indulge in a little supernatural hijinks, maybe explaining it away as a dream, maybe just letting it stay there, never to be remarked upon again. On one end of the spectrum is a show like <i>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</i>, which does a Halloween episode every year, but keeps it within the reality of the show as the characters indulge in some seasonal shenanigans. On the other end is something like the <i>Simpsons Treehouse of Horror</i>, in which all rules that normally govern the show are thrown out in favor of anthology horror tales where, often, some of the regular cast dies. These types of episodes are usually non-canonical, and take place in a sort of Elseworlds version of the show. The sweet spot for me lies somewhere in the middle; a show where the Halloween episode exists within the show's overall reality, but allows the supernatural to creep in in a way that would otherwise not be possible without, as they say, jumping the shark.</div>
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For this Halloween season, on top of my regular viewings of horror movies and my regular readings of horror books, I've decided to revisit some of my favorite Halloween specials. I'll be discussing five of them here this month, and though I'll be watching a lot more than that I think I've already narrowed it down to my desired list. But, of course, things may change. So now, without further ado, allow me to welcome you to the first entry in A Very Special Episode, charting some noteworthy, at least to me, Halloween specials from, (generally) my childhood.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Fear Itself (Season 4, episode 4)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Written by David Fury, Directed by Tucker Gates</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Original Air Date: October 26, 1999</b></span></div>
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This episode is the most recent of the specials I've chosen to cover this year, and the only one that aired after I could be called, legally if not emotionally, an adult. It is also the only show in which the dark supernatural aspects present in the Halloween special are actually part of the normal makeup of the show. I almost saved this one for later, or bypassed it altogether because it slightly breaks the pattern of the rest of the shows I'll be talking about, but then I remembered how great <i>Fear Itself</i> is, and that watching it again would give me an opportunity to introduce my thirteen year old daughter to <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenNM1G9VxouPCU-TQwRGgrXkbF7V0fl5vpYSlfyhGdRbmW_HLh2p0d-KNTVuw33m0cq02cdjlC6DRl4-s5zoA48lhBsbT5TcOcrLgcvbUVSdHVyLDaJp4US5QDzQNqlKN-jAp/s1600/BuffyGroup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1201" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenNM1G9VxouPCU-TQwRGgrXkbF7V0fl5vpYSlfyhGdRbmW_HLh2p0d-KNTVuw33m0cq02cdjlC6DRl4-s5zoA48lhBsbT5TcOcrLgcvbUVSdHVyLDaJp4US5QDzQNqlKN-jAp/s320/BuffyGroup.jpg" width="320" /></a>I came late to <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>, mostly missing out on the first two seasons. This was owing mainly to the fact that in the pre-DVR era you were at the mercy of the television schedule, and if something conflicted with that schedule, of you weren't the only one in the house with an interest in the television, you were out of luck. I didn't actually start catching episodes regularly until the third season, when I was in college and my schedule meant that I frequently caught episodes while other students watched it in the common room. And it still wasn't until the fifth season, when I was living in an apartment on my own, that I began to actively watch <i>Buffy</i> every week as it aired. For the rest of its run I would not miss a single <i>Buffy</i> episode, and by the sixth season I was watching it semi-regularly with friends. Also, by the end of the sixth season, I was living with my future wife, who has had little patience for my <i>Buffy</i> fandom over the years. Now, twenty years after the series first premiered, I decided it was time to introduce my daughter to the show, and used this opportunity to start her off with one of my favorite episodes.</div>
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The first thing I noticed when watching <i>Fear Itself</i> for the first time in at least a decade, compounded by the fact that I was watching it with someone who had no prior information about the world of the show, was how integral the serialized elements of the show were to what I mostly remembered as a standalone episode. A lot of time is spent in the first half of the episodes following the characters as they navigate their daily lives and the problems, mostly romantic in nature, that plague them. Buffy is in a funk brought on by the fact that the boy she was falling for turned out to only be interested in a one night stand, while she also steadily falls behind in her college course work. Willow is experiencing her own romantic strife with her werewolf boyfriend Oz, who expresses concern that Willow is diving too quickly into witchcraft. Xander is still trying to figure out where he stands with ex-vengeance demon Anya, who at this point he has been kinda-sorta dating for a short time, while also fending off strong bouts of insecurity brought about by the fact that he's the only member of the gang not going to college, and without any supernatural abilities. Also lurking around the edges are future Buffy boyfriend Riley, subtle intimations of the health troubles that will plague Buffy's mother in the next season, and the shadowy government agency that's been stirring up trouble in Sunnydale.</div>
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All the personal drama takes up almost half of this episode, and there aren't even any intimations of the threat the gang will be facing until 15 minutes in, when Oz accidentally bleeds onto a decorative occult symbol that some frat boys are painting on the floor as part of their Halloween preparations. Unseen by anyone else in the room, a plastic spider within the magical circle becomes a real spider and crawls away. Cut to commercial. And still it takes another ten minutes of interpersonal drama before the gang arrives at the haunted house party (a metaphorical haunted house, the house itself is not normally haunted) and discovers the threat inside. Cut to another commerical. This is an awful lot of screentime to devote when you've only got 43 minutes, minus opening and closing credits, to tell your story, and yet it's integral to not only why the episode works, but why <i>Buffy</i> as a television series was so successful.</div>
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A lot of people claim season three to be their favorite season of <i>Buffy</i>, owing to the introduction of some fan-favorite characters and, in the Mayor, the best season villain (or Big Bad in the show's parliance, a term coined by the show that has since entered the common lexicon) the show would ever have. Season three is when <i>Buffy</i> really began to fire on all cylinders. The first two seasons are still great, but season three is when the show came into its own and the humor, scares, drama, and general writing quality all began to work in harmony. For my money, however, season four beats season three in all but one aspect: the villain. It's true, the Mayor is an incredibly charismatic, engaging, and entertaining villain, a man who's aw-shucks Boy Scout demeanor belies a ruthless devotion to the dark arts that has kept him alive for over a century, a perfect foil for Buffy. No other Big Bad quite matches his appeal, but season four suffers for placing perhaps the show's weakest villain so closely to its best. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adam also looks fairly silly.</td></tr>
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The main villain of season four is, for much of the season, The Initiative, the shadowy government agency listed above. It's a bit of an odd addition to <i>Buffy's</i> mythology, bringing a dash of X-Files conspiracy to a series that had primarily been interested in myth and magic. They don't mesh with the rest of the show, and fail to become very interesting. Eventually the threat of The Initiative leads into the threat of Adam, a Frankenstein's Monster style reanimated corpse being trained as a super soldier. I actually enjoy the performance of the actor portraying Adam, but the character himself is dull by design and lacks the dynamic personality of the Mayor. </div>
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If you look at the season beyond merely its villain, season four shines in every other category. Season four contains some of the series' sharpest comedic writing and its most successful blending of serialization and standalone episodes. The trend in dramatic television these days is towards tighter seasons and an emphasis on serialization, where every episode needs to be about the show itself, and needs to be focused on moving the story forward. This has led to some great television, without a doubt, but I do miss the days of 22 episode seasons, where every once in awhile you would get an episode that was just the characters hanging out together, dealing with one specific threat, without it having to be about only moving the story forward (for the record, I think <i>Breaking Bad</i> is maybe the best-case example of the current trend towards hyper-serialization, as each episode pushed the storyline forward but also kept its focus solely on character). <i>Buffy</i> in its fourth season had the best handle on this balancing act, as even the throwaway episodes that have no bearing on the overarching plot include some incremental movement forward. There's even an episode that hinges on a magical wish changing reality, that ends with everything back the way it began and the episode's events more or less erased from existence, and it still features one major development that sets the course of events for the finale. This has always been my go-to explanation for <i>Buffy's</i> greatness: the show knew when to switch gears and allow the fans to just enjoy these characters being their charming likable selves, but also knew how to weave in more long-form storytelling. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1WFTAVH_qPZGNMy4jponXo9vJNRo0XTK3mL6PWw5H1wq0aolTO1kKJz0FA2lPr5l8LdIQxDTz9S5tPfm2nowPnGc3Hd-Q90nG8uoIxsSh21xZ3RhB4rOJdf6_Gv4LpPDJPAZM/s1600/BuffyMurderhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1WFTAVH_qPZGNMy4jponXo9vJNRo0XTK3mL6PWw5H1wq0aolTO1kKJz0FA2lPr5l8LdIQxDTz9S5tPfm2nowPnGc3Hd-Q90nG8uoIxsSh21xZ3RhB4rOJdf6_Gv4LpPDJPAZM/s320/BuffyMurderhouse.jpg" width="320" /></a><i>Fear Itself</i> is written by David Fury, and it's his fourth script for the series overall, but his first after being hired on as a regular writer and producer. David Fury would become one of the most reliable names in the <i>Buffy</i> credits, alongside Jane Espensen, Marti Noxon, Douglas Petrie, and Whedon himself. He would also go on to become an important voice in the spinoff series <i>Angel</i>, helping that show find its footing and grow out of its awkward phase into more than just a <i>Buffy</i> clone. Fury's episodes tended to hit the sweet spot between funny and scary, and showed a deft hand at serving the individual characters as well as the genuine schocks, which is evident in <i>Fear Itself</i> when the gang arrives at the frat party (filmed, coincidentally, in the same house as season one of <i>American Horror Story</i>) to discover that something is making everybody's fears manifest: rubber spiders become real, decorative skeletons become rotted zombies, peeled grapes actually do become slimy eyeballs. Good stuff. All of the personal drama in the front half of this episode may seem in the broad strokes to be a perfunctory attempt to keep all of these running storylines moving before going on to the good stuff, but the two are actually so closely intertwined that it would be impossible to have either section of this episode work without the other. </div>
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Oz's fear that he won't be able to control his lycanthropic tendencies and will eventually hurt someone he cares about manifests itself when he begins to change into a werewolf despite it not being a full moon. Willow's insecurity over being always stuck in the sidekick role causes her conjuring of a spirit guide to split off into dozens of separate guides, one for each course of action she can't decide on. Xander feels that he is being left behind by his friends both socially and mentally, and he becomes invisible to them, lost in the house unable to communicate (in a callback to season one episode <i>Out of Mind, Out of Sight</i>). Buffy's fear is the least remarked upon in the episode itself, but also perhaps the most complicated. She finds herself alone as the house separates the group, and it underlines the fear she has that she will never be anything but the Slayer, that no matter how she tries she will only ever be defined by this one aspect of her life, and will never have a normal existence.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdzcksbozu6JHSNiwxaKlnhLVCzDxVPB7TdOZVMAKQ9J3ZM0OujozJIjm2qPSo6dlyGJzCbfT1aRg01U9u2I_Tyz9FT1r0o-qsznAjWTbe5pb7dyoDyCpIaqmMBK87hNC-kHe/s1600/AnyaBunny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdzcksbozu6JHSNiwxaKlnhLVCzDxVPB7TdOZVMAKQ9J3ZM0OujozJIjm2qPSo6dlyGJzCbfT1aRg01U9u2I_Tyz9FT1r0o-qsznAjWTbe5pb7dyoDyCpIaqmMBK87hNC-kHe/s1600/AnyaBunny.jpg" /></a>If all of this sounds a bit too involved, or possibly even dull, for a series about a bubbly blonde teenager fighting back the forces of darkness, it should be noted that <i>Fear Itself</i> is a legitimately scary hour of television, punctuated by some great bits of humor (Giles' continuing descent into Dad On Vacation mode with his garish Halloween decorations and giant sombrero; Anya's revelation that there is nothing scarier to this ex-demon than bunnies; Giles responding to the mystical forces creating a maze of the frat house by simply using a chainsaw to cut a path through the building). <i>Buffy The Vampire Slayer</i> did two other Halloween-specific episodes over the course of its seven seasons, and while both of them are good fun, <i>Fear Itself</i> is a true classic, aided in large part by its abrupt and somewhat unexpected ending. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIt9DZR1GMzpRiKju0LnZSlM5uVZe0dGlkbJcUAVekAwjIKeIOzUcENCeENzDkSI_5lbPiFo_uin_cOlPxN2NOK1C4Mt0BAtlSTMYHG8JV0SXN4ecAl8YkjshkgV2Nw-5-zA3/s1600/Gachnar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcIt9DZR1GMzpRiKju0LnZSlM5uVZe0dGlkbJcUAVekAwjIKeIOzUcENCeENzDkSI_5lbPiFo_uin_cOlPxN2NOK1C4Mt0BAtlSTMYHG8JV0SXN4ecAl8YkjshkgV2Nw-5-zA3/s1600/Gachnar.jpg" /></a>As should surprise no one watching this show, the occult symbol painted on the floor turned out to be part of a summoning ritual, in this case a ritual to summon a fear demon called Gachnar. Gachnar, in the woodcut drawing we see of him, resembles a more feral cousin of Clive Barker's Cenobites from the <i>Hellraiser</i> series, all sharp teeth and long claws and tight leather straps. He appears to be an opponent worth fearing, and in Buffy's rush to avoid a fight she inadvertently completes the summoning spell and unleashes Gachnar on the world. I'm not going to actually spell out the ending of this episode, on the off chance that anyone reading this has not actually seen the episode in question and yet still plans to do so, but it does involve a fantastic visual gag and a terrific punchline of a closing line. </div>
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There was a point about a decade ago where I thought <i>Buffy</i> would eventually join the pantheon of great television shows, shows that illustrate what the medium is capable of while also pushing forward the standards to which a television show should be held. That hasn't quite turned out to be the case, as <i>Buffy's</i> reputation has slightly fallen over the years. To be sure, the fandom behind <i>Buffy</i>, and also Joss Whedon, remains fervent and supportive, but the public conversation has also died down a bit. Gone are the days when fans would organize singalong screenings of the <i>Buffy</i> musical episode from season six, and even Whedon's own longrunning and very popular fansite was recently shuttered. Part of that probably has more to do with certain revelations regarding Whedon's personal life than it does with the quality of his work, but it also coincides with a general lack of interest in his style. Despite creating two of the cornerstones of modern nerd culture (<i>Buffy</i> and his short-lived space opera <i>Firefly</i>), and despite being one of the architect's of Marvel's current cinematic dominance, Joss Whedon's star has fallen somewhat, and the cultural discussion seems to be in the process of passing him by.</div>
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For myself, I'm still a fan. He's done too much intriguing and entertaining work for me to ever write him off, and I'll probably continue to check out whatever new projects he has. If it's a little dated, that is unfortunately unavoidable, and something you'll just have to get over if you expect to appreciate anything made more than a decade ago. As an example, I will say that this episode intrigued my daughter enough that she asked if we could watch the rest of the series. We are currently midway through season one, which is not the high point of the show, and she loves it. She wasn't even born yet when the series went off the air, and she's finding herself drawn into the world of <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>. Not for a minute is she put off by the incredibly dated fashions or odd Whedonesque slang. Beneath all of the cool-in-1999 trappings, beyond the vampires and demons and monsters, <i>Buffy's</i> themes remain universal.</div>
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<b>Next on A Very Special Episode: Quantum Leap; The Boogieman</b></div>
WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-15628052806175214832017-05-21T08:24:00.002-07:002017-05-23T18:14:46.118-07:00My Secret History of Twin Peaks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>The sound of wind through the trees. The pine needles sway and rustle against each other. Saws buzz in the lumber mill, the smokestacks piercing the sky. A lumber truck rolls past a small diner. The call of an owl. A telephone rings. The telephone on the table by the red chair. A lonesome foghorn blows. A dead girl, on the beach, wrapped in plastic.</i><br />
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Premiering in 1990, <i>Twin</i> <i>Peaks </i>was a true cultural phenomenon. More than just Must Watch TV, <i>Twin Peaks </i>hit the television landscape like a freight train, forever altering the way we watch. Across the country weekly viewing parties were held, complete with drinking games (with coffee, of course), cherry pie, and lots and lots of donuts. The cast graced the cover of nearly every publication you could think of. Parodies, homages, and subconscious emulations flooded the airwaves, while <i>Twin Peaks</i> references littered the monologues of late show hosts. Books both official and unofficial were rushed to market. 1-900 numbers were set up for viewers to catch up on pertinent details related to them by cast members. T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, trading cards, and board games filled the shelves, and everyone everywhere was asking the same question: Who Killed Laura Palmer?<br />
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That bubble did not last long. After the first season ignited the public's consciousness with only seven episodes (discounting the pilot), the second season failed to create the same spark, and the show was cancelled in 1991, with ABC burning off the remaining episodes unceremoniously. Thirty episodes were produced in total, along with a theatrical prequel chronicling the final week of Laura Palmer's life. The show would remain a cult hit, as fans carried the torch for the show in the form of fanzines and festivals. Eventually, slowly, this led to an 18-episode revival on Showtime. Somehow, improbably, <i>Twin Peaks </i>will be returning tonight with the first new episodes in over a quarter of a century.<br />
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I missed the show when it first aired. I was twelve at the time, and was certainly aware of its impact, but didn't hear about the show until it had been on the air for awhile. The show was absolutely everywhere, and I felt I needed to join the conversation, but I was too late, and too lost with the single episode I managed to catch. It would be years before I would return, and I finally watched the series in 1997 after discovering David Lynch as a filmmaker. I had seen <i>Dune</i> by this point, but what really grabbed my attention was his then-upcoming film <i>Lost Highway</i>, which featured the involvement of Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. To prepare for the film, which I was reading about for months before its release, I rented every Lynch film I could find. I managed to find a VHS copy of the <i>Twin Peaks</i> pilot in the bargain bin at Fred Meyer, and immediately fell in love with it.<br />
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Later that year, after having seen <i>Lost Highway</i> each night during the week it ran in Anchorage, Alaska, I stuffed my Christmas money into my wallet, headed over to the Dimond Center, walked into Suncoast, and bought the entire series (minus the pilot, which was sold separately by Warner Bros.) on VHS. I began watching it that night, and by the end of that weekend I had finished my first viewing of what had already become my favorite show.<br />
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The mystery of <i>Twin Peaks</i> was somewhat spoiled by my having been impatient earlier in the year, when I rented the prequel <i>Fire Walk With Me</i>. I actually think this worked out in my favor, as knowing the answer to that popular question allowed me to experience the show in a manner pretty close to how Lynch had intended. Lynch, probably naively, had never wanted to solve Laura Palmer's murder, instead wanted the show to become about the lives and mysteries within <i>Twin Peaks</i> itself. Public impatience with solving the murder, falling ratings, and skittish network execs prompted the reveal of Laura Palmer's killer in season two, and is most commonly regarded as the impetus for the show's eventual cancellation. But I, as a first time viewer already aware of the killer's identity, focused instead on the other stories, the other characters, and the amazing town itself. By the time Laura Palmer's killer was revealed, I was ready to stick with the show for whatever they wanted to do. I just loved spending time in that world.<br />
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<i>A voice on a telephone, distant and far away, a sound like wind on the line. The clouds hang low along the mountain. A flashlight moves among the trees, nothing visible but for the circle of light. A traffic light swings over a road, deserted in the darkness, cycling through its commands for no one to see. There are owls in the roadhouse. They are not what they seem. A needle on a record that has ended but continues to spin. A white horse. Premonitions of an evil deed. I'm so sorry. It is happening again.</i><br />
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Following that initial viewing, spaced out over about four days, I became a bit of an evangelist for <i>Twin Peaks</i>. I organized group viewings and lent the series out to anyone I thought would enjoy it (and some I wasn't too sure). One intrepid group of friends came with me as we tried to watch the entire series, and the movie, in one sitting. I'm not normally a coffee drinker, but cold, day-old coffee proved pretty helpful when we came around that 24-hour mark. Everyone I shared the show with liked it, but none of them seemed to love it the way I did, and so I turned to the internet. I became pretty active on a particular message board dedicated to David Lynch, with a heavy leaning towards Twin Peaks. I got deep into the rabbit hole of looking for clues and and coming up with theories for even the most minor characters or scenes. I spent a large chunk of my free time online with fellow Twin Peaks fans from all over the world, all united in our love for a fictional one. And even this wasn't enough. I had the soundtracks, I had the books both official and unofficial, I had a global community of likeminded people that I belonged to, and still it could go to another level. With that in mind, I boarded a plane in 1999 for Seattle, Washington, and then on to Poulsbo, for my first Twin Peaks festival.<br />
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The Twin Peaks festival was started in 1992, and has happened every year since in and around Snoqualmie and North Bend, Washington. While the fest has expanded since I went, the years I was there included some general mingling activities, a few cast members, a screening night with selected works of David Lynch, trivia and costume contests, and tours of several filming locations. I arrived in town early, and with no real place to stay. My plan had been to camp in Kitsap Memorial State Park, which was nearby and had public campgrounds. I met the fest organizer early that day, and after hours of walking he was kind enough to let me crash on his hotel room's couch while he prepared ID badges and attended to other administrative duties. This would be indicative of the general mood of the fest, where I met a large number of open, friendly, odd individuals (some of them I knew from conversing online) all extremely jazzed to be among their chosen tribe, in the locations that were so familiar to them.<br />
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A quick aside. I did camp a few days, and while I was setting my tent up on the first day I heard a rustling in the woods behind me. I turned around just in time to see a large cow emerge from the trees and into my campsite. I was in the middle of a vast national forest, and there was a cow standing there staring at me. The cow stopped, considered me for a moment, and then turned disinterestedly back to walk through the brush. I followed it to see where it had come from, and came upon a clearing where I could see more cows further off. Apparently I had set up camp near a farm, and yet the moment had such a Lynchian feel about it that I knew I had chosen correctly.<br />
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I went back to the festival in 2000, but poor planning and bad timing on my part meant I missed out on most of the major events. Many of the friends I had met the previous year did not return. I had also flown into Washington directly from a couple months in London, which I was already missing. In general it was a less fun year for me. If my first festival had been <i>Twin Peaks</i> the series, quirky, fun, at times spooky, then my second trip was like <i>Fire Walk With Me</i>, a darker version of everything that had come before. All in all it was a much lonelier experience, shaded by my emotional state at the time. Still, I would have liked to return, but for several reasons I never made the return trip. The following year I had to grow up and get a real job, and had no money for the fest. I went for awhile without a computer and, during that time, lost touch with my online friends when the Twin Peaks message board became defunct, and I realized I had very few direct email addresses for the people with whom I had been speaking.<br />
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Over the years my continued enjoyment of <i>Twin Peaks</i> became more insular; more of a personal thing. I still had viewings of the show for interested friends or loved ones. I subjected my wife to the show while we were still dating, and to my great relief she loved it. I bought the DVD of the first season, still missing the pilot episode, when it came out. I bought the second season after waiting way too long for it. Eventually the <i>Gold Box</i> came out and I was able to watch the pilot in its original version for only the second time (the 2000 Twin Peaks Fest had a screening of it), and then the <i>Entire Mystery</i> was released on blu-ray, and I could watch the fabled deleted scenes we had spent so much time discussing back on the message boards.<br />
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I still loved the show, I still revisited the world on a regular basis, and I would still talk to anyone who would listen about <i>Twin Peaks</i>, but as more time passed I found myself actively avoiding the larger community of fans. The show, what it meant to me and how I enjoyed it, became so personal that a lot of the online discussion of the show slightly depressed me. I saw people discussing theories like I had back in the day, but the tone seemed slightly more combative. People arguing whose theories were correct, who were the real fans and who was wrong about the show. I could not care less. The show may have snagged my attention way back when with its mysteries, but over the years I had just come to accept the show as it was, and was not interested in theorizing about anything that may have happened next. And so what had begun as accidental isolation became a self imposed exile as I retreated into my own feelings about <i>Twin Peaks</i>.<br />
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<i>A circle of trees, bare and sickly, surrounding a black pond. Red curtains. There is music in the air. A place both wonderful and strange. Owl Cave. The Black Lodge, the White Lodge and the Red Room. The right arm shakes uncontrollably. Premonitions of another evil deed. When you see me again, I won't be me. How's Annie?</i><br />
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Sometime around 2015, approaching the 25th anniversary of the show, word began popping up that <i>Twin Peaks</i> might return. After all, Laura had told Cooper in the red room "I'll see you again in 25 years." I didn't pay a lot of attention to it at the time. I recognized the timing would be great, but didn't think it would happen. But lo and behold it did happen. David Lynch and Mark Frost both tweeted out indications that they were embarking on a new season, which seemed pretty certain, but it wasn't quite over yet. There would be troubles getting the entire cast back together (some had died, some had retired, and some were unavailable for other reasons), and there were a particularly bad few weeks where Lynch himself dropped out of the show during contract negotiations with Showtime. Of course as we know by now, David Lynch did come back to the show, but the uproar was pretty instantaneous at the time. I should have been excited but here's the odd thing: I wasn't sure how I felt about <i>Twin Peaks</i> coming back.<br />
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<i>Twin Peaks</i>, in my mind, was this perfect artifact, and I wasn't sure if I needed or wanted any more. I didn't know if I wanted to see what the ravages of time had done to the town and citizens of <i>Twin Peaks</i>. I was cautiously optimistic, but a little uncertain. And then the first teaser was released, featuring only a clip from the original final episode, the words "25 Years Later" in that recognizable <i>Twin Peaks</i> font, and a shot of the sign welcoming people to town. As soon as the theme song came in near the end of the teaser, I actually got tears in my eyes. I hadn't realized how much I actually did want to see all of these people again, even if they weren't going to be exactly the same.<br />
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It's been a long two-year wait since then, and I've been doing my best to avoid articles and interviews and speculation about the show. I checked out the <i>Twin Peaks</i> subreddit and made a few comments before getting annoyed by the tunnel vision of the majority of posters, and the tendency to point out everything that features a dead girl as 'totes inspired by Twin Peaks! OMG!' A friend added me to a <i>Twin Peaks</i> Facebook group, and I hung around for a couple of days and again made a few comments, but quickly removed myself from the group because it all began to depress me. That and I was seeing a lot of people digging for spoilers and if there's one thing I want to appreciate unspoiled, it's <i>Twin Peaks</i>. That is not to say I haven't been watching the official teasers and trailers, because I have been watching them multiple times, but then they reveal next to nothing, and I convince myself that if I had been watching television, I likely would have seen spots like these anyway.<br />
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<i>Static, like wind through the trees. The sound of breaking glass, a piercing scream. A meeting above a convenience store. Formica tables and creamed corn. We're not going to talk about Judy. The sound of electricity. This picture would look good on your wall. A green ring. An owl insignia. </i><i>Another place, another girl</i><i> Let's Rock.</i><br />
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I recently finished my 8th or 9th total watch-through of the show (I've watched the pilot episode pretty regularly, but the series itself only every couple years), and I did something different this time. In the past I had binged through the series as quickly as possible, watching as many episodes as I could get whoever I was watching it with to sit through. This year I started early and spaced it out, watching two episodes per week. I got behind a bit and had to increase the episode count for the last two weeks, but still I was making it last. It was interesting to watch the show like that, to give myself time to digest the episodes and spend the week looking forward to the next one. I found myself noticing the structure of individual episodes, how many episodes would have complimentary stories and details that lined up that I had not consciously noticed before. It's what television is so great at that movies can't quite match: the sense of time being spent with these characters. All in all, you'll spend just over one full day in Twin Peaks if you watch all of the available material, and yet when you watch it weekly on television, you'll spend several months (or over a year, if you watched it when it originally aired). That creates a familiarity and a sense of actually living with the characters and stories that you just don't get when you binge something over one weekend.<br />
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I also fully submerged myself into the world of Twin Peaks with this latest rewatch. I watched all of the Log Lady intros, all of the recaps and 'next time on' spots, all of the various advertisements that aired during the show's initial run. I pulled out all of the books I had and read them in between episodes, largely keeping to when they would have been set. I read the Twin Peaks Access Guide between seasons one and two, listened to Agent Cooper's Diane tapes shortly after the second season premiere, read the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer after poor Harold committed suicide, and blazed through The Secret History of Twin Peaks in order to get up to speed with what happened after the finale. I discovered something that surprised me: I liked seeing Twin Peaks back in the public eye. I had been worried about the Hot Topic-ification of the show, with kids walking around with Who Killed Laura Palmer? shirts without having the faintest idea of who she was or who actually did kill her. And yet that fear disappeared once I started seeing the cast on magazines again, once the bus I came home from work in had a Twin Peaks advertisement plastered on it. I like looking around and seeing Twin Peaks everywhere again.<br />
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You may be asking yourself, after all of this: why Twin Peaks? Why is this the show that has grabbed my attention so tightly? And I'm afraid I don't have a complete answer to that. I just enjoy the characters, even the ones you're supposed to hate. I love the subplots, even the ones nobody likes (except for that one, you know which one I mean). I love the geography of the town, the sound of the wind through the trees, the owls flying overhead, the music in the air. I love it all. The common consensus is that Twin Peaks went off the rails once Laura Palmer's murder was solved, and the central pillar of the show was taken away. Most people feel that most of what follows is aimless and silly and somehow worse than what had come before. I used to say that I could recognize that as subjectively true, but that I still liked the cheesy subplots. But with this latest rewatch, I realized that isn't quite true. I don't recognize that those plots are bad; I love them just as much as I love everything else about the show. I sometimes joke about skipping James' scenes once he leaves the town of Twin Peaks, but you know what? I never do. I watch them every single time. Nadine gets amnesia, thinks she's 18 again, goes back to high school, joins the wrestling team, and starts sleeping with Donna's ex-boyfriend? Love it. Andy Brennan and Dick Tremayne start mentoring an orphan who they come to believe is the devil? Perfect, It doesn't matter what you think of the show at this point in its run; I love it.<br />
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People have asked me repeatedly what I'll do if the new season sucks, and the true answer is; it won't. I don't mean that it will be perfect, or that it'll be what people want, or that it will answer all of those lingering questions, I mean that I will enjoy, no question about. I am fully prepared for the town to be changed, for the characters to be different, for some mysteries to be unresolved. I am simply excited to visit the town again, and to see what David Lynch and Mark Frost have in store. It's their world, I'm only visiting it.<br />
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The show premieres tonight, and I am ready. I've got a dozen donuts, my Showtime subscription, and I'm picking up food on the way home so I don't have to delay my viewing by making dinner. To be honest, my mood has been a bit odd. After finishing my latest rewatch, an odd depression fell over me. There are new episodes of <i>Twin Peaks</i> so close I can taste it, but for the first time in all my viewings I felt a finality to the finale. <i>Twin Peaks</i> will no longer be this perfect artifact; it's about to change, for the first time in a long time. It suddenly hit me that Cooper would be older, probably not as sunny as he is in the first series. Harry won't be there at all. Lucy and Andy? I worry about what became of them. This thing that I had been holding in my mind for decades is about to evolve. That is undoubtedly exciting, and I can't wait, yet it also holds an uncertainty, and a sadness for what has passed.<br />
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There's a line James has near the end of the second season (or at least near the end of his time on the show), a line that is oft-mocked by fans, like most things that come out of James' mouth: "it's not really a place it's a feeling." And that is it, right there. <i>Twin Peaks</i> is a feeling, and all I really know is that it's a good one.<br />
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<br />WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-65092094685439816902016-10-20T12:00:00.001-07:002020-07-22T12:57:53.255-07:00The Streaming Cellar: The Houses October Built (2014)Currently Streaming on <b>Netflix</b>.<br />
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For the past three Halloweens I have been working at Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, as part of the Terror Tram attraction. It's been pretty much the best job I've ever had, as the Halloween theming really gets me into the seasonal spirit (as if I needed help), and provides some great seasonal festivities now that I'm way too old for trick-or-treating and not social enough to get invited to any parties. Plus, I spend four nights a week roaming around the Bates Motel, listening to people scream in fright all night long (it's not the original Bates Motel from the Hitchcock film, but it was used for the sequels, along with the "Psycho House" on the hill behind it).<br />
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With this work experience in mind, I was looking forward to catching up with <i>The Houses October Built</i>, a horror film centered around seasonal scare attractions. I'd heard a few mentions of the film, though never an outright opinion. Sure, Netlix's spookily accurate rating algorithm predicted I would hate the film, but they've been wrong before (though correct more often), and that premise intrigued me. A group of friends in an RV on a Halloween road trip, on the quest for the ultimate haunted house. Not only did it sound like a great premise, full of potential, but it sounded like something I would love to do with my own friends.<br />
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Considering that I am still happily employed this Halloween, I am going to let discretion rule and refrain from speaking about my job very much. Let it be said, however, that I sympathized far more with the villains of this film than I did with any of the asshole protagonists.<br />
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When this film started my heart immediately sank as I realized it was going to be another found footage flick. I've said before that I'm a moderate fan of the genre, and my positive review of <i><a href="http://workingdeadproductions.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-streaming-cellar-in-memorium-2005.html">In Memorium</a></i> shows that I still believe effectively scary movies can be made with consumer grade equipment and non-professional actors. And yet, here, I had a dim vision of how the film would play out, and I despaired at having to listen to unscripted, half finished conversations among this group of obnoxious twenty-somethings in an RV. An RV which, for some reason, has been outfitted with a handful of GoPro cameras, capturing every angle within, and some without, the vehicle. I was a little confused as to why a group of friends had brought along so many cameras, including a few handheld ones. It just seemed like overkill for a fairly casual vacation with friends. Researching this film I discovered that a more serious documentary version was made in 2011, and was reworked into new footage for the horror film that is currently streaming on netflix. This would explain all of the cameras, but unless I missed it there was never any mention of making a documentary in the film itself (it's quite possible I missed it).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8atdLwnI91EgntjpgFm-QGlz1-xWOLvx6KBw2DxTv1_U5eMF1hoT50gB3L0tICMijPhPkGCWzlLVfmKjDRU53dlFXEnXKETprvzeSnfo07SNpGso1nDWfTRUsFJayNw2fknh/s1600/MV5BMTQ4ODM4OTc3MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzIxNDQzMzE%2540._V1_.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv8atdLwnI91EgntjpgFm-QGlz1-xWOLvx6KBw2DxTv1_U5eMF1hoT50gB3L0tICMijPhPkGCWzlLVfmKjDRU53dlFXEnXKETprvzeSnfo07SNpGso1nDWfTRUsFJayNw2fknh/s320/MV5BMTQ4ODM4OTc3MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzIxNDQzMzE%2540._V1_.jpg" width="320" /></a>I've already tipped my hand in regards to my opinion about this group, so it should come as no surprise when I say I found long stretches of this film difficult to sit through. One thing I dislike in found footage films is the tendency to edit within conversations. Instead of a full scene with the characters having a complete discussion, we get snippets of conversation. This sort of thing tends to be most prevalent in the early scenes of a found footage film, and it's intended as a shorthand in order to show us the character's relationships to each other in as quick a manner as possible. A little of that goes a long way, however, and when, 45 minutes in, <i>The Houses October Built</i> is still cutting away from conversations before they've concluded, or cutting into them mid-sentence, it's nigh intolerable. There's no rhythm, nothing to grasp onto as a viewer. Instead of falling into the flow of the film, we're kept at a distance.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPQkI0nEmjC8zmMtRrBnoLIRByYUTAi67lPKolghJBh06zSfv22MjUzWZu2qsRV_Cif9Y6rdesJ7iNbVUo58B-iyBlc5sXXyfw0Ig9DEFEqNrDOAFtRHGtQugZ5UIfSarNjKM/s1600/the-houses-october-build-horror-movie-news-5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaPQkI0nEmjC8zmMtRrBnoLIRByYUTAi67lPKolghJBh06zSfv22MjUzWZu2qsRV_Cif9Y6rdesJ7iNbVUo58B-iyBlc5sXXyfw0Ig9DEFEqNrDOAFtRHGtQugZ5UIfSarNjKM/s320/the-houses-october-build-horror-movie-news-5.jpg" width="320" /></a>Add to that the fact that this group is comprised of dull, shallow, self-obsessed jerks, and <i>The Houses October Built</i> becomes a bit of a chore to sit through. The unlikability of the characters wouldn't be a fatal flaw, though, if <i>THOB</i> didn't also treat them as if they were sympathetic. Throughout the film this group belittles each and every attraction they go to, insult every worker they come across by, usually, calling them 'backwoods' or 'inbred', ignore house rules at the attractions, repeatedly climb onto private property and disrupt the experience for others. At one point one of the group, the 'affable, portly party guy', brings a Scare Actor back to the RV and records the two of them having sex without informing her of all the hidden cameras pointed at her. Not to get all preachy, but that sort of frat-boy, chauvinistic behavior hasn't been appropriate for comedy for at least a decade. The film wants us to think it's just good fun, but of course it comes across as significantly sleazier.<br />
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So, OK, the characters are shits, but how are the scares? Well, probably about as good as you would expect a film about people walking through a fake haunted house would be, which is to say; not very good. The characters are, when they're not having snippets of conversation in the RV, walking through attractions designed to be scary in person, and filming them with handheld cameras. This group is remarkably easy to scare, and the camera is always suddenly jerked out of focus as they jump in fright when some 17 year old kid in a clown mask jumps out from a dark corner. This means we get a lot of canted angle shots of corners while we hear people scream, and then laugh, and then ask in a panic which whey they should go. There's also no fluidity to the editing, and instead of watching the camera glide through the maze we get disconnected shots of disconnected rooms. The film never reaches the heights of fear achieved by watching walkthroughs of horror mazes on youtube.<br />
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This is perhaps the film's most fatal flaw; there's no reason to find anything scary. We know the mazes are fake, the characters know the mazes are fake. Everything is store bought costumes, strobe lights, and hastily applied makeup. That's too much disbelief to suspend. And yet, these characters do get scared, each and every time, and they always react as if they don't have any idea of what is going on. Somehow, though, they repeatedly complain that they're sick of these lame, corporate scare mazes. They want something <i>really</i> terrifying. It's a weird complaint to make, considering how obviously terrified they've been so far.<br />
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Throughout the film one of the characters has been hunting down traces of an extreme horror haunt that moves from town to town and state to state. He hears rumors about it on chat rooms, in conversations at bars, and from seasonal Scare Actors on the road. He even discovers a password needed to gain entrance to this mythical haunted house. As the film goes on they seem to be getting closer to this attraction, and there are brief moments of threat on the journey. For the most part this is meant to be creepy, but fails to attain that goal. It's hard to make a clown standing behind a tent threatening when we know all the clowns are just taking a smoke break. But there are a few moments; a creepy clown they piss off in the beginning follows them to their RV and stares at them menacingly. A girl in a creepy doll mask from one of the mazes is waiting for them by the side of the road, and screams wordlessly when they let her into the RV. Eventually it becomes clear that someone is entering the RV while they sleep, and they get threatening videotapes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tU-KaDRW-gVIOzewzLekNlIPoa0K8-DbgAL8gWSizaFtm8lDmWjlqfzBNE_i_zWspQ6EZobkeX9Bk-XH2XPcCqBOoAbAO2yE8nXnf6vsPQCRvh9MjvaG2a64k5MxT-bNbdap/s1600/the-house-october-built-movie-review.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0tU-KaDRW-gVIOzewzLekNlIPoa0K8-DbgAL8gWSizaFtm8lDmWjlqfzBNE_i_zWspQ6EZobkeX9Bk-XH2XPcCqBOoAbAO2yE8nXnf6vsPQCRvh9MjvaG2a64k5MxT-bNbdap/s320/the-house-october-built-movie-review.jpg" width="320" /></a>Strangely, none of the characters ever take this seriously. Or, I should say, some of them do, but are convinced by the rest of the group that it's all part of the mythical Blue Skeleton haunt they're tracking down. Another reason to not care about this group; they ignore even the most blatant signs of danger. But perhaps that's too unfair a complaint; people never think they're in a horror movie. How many potentially terrifying moments have each of us been in, and ignored because we realize life isn't like a movie? But there's a difference between not being scared of a dark basement, and not going to the police when someone films themselves holding a knife to your sleeping neck.<br />
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Eventually they find the Blue Skeleton, or perhaps more accurately the Blue Skeleton finds them. This is the big moment, when the true terror starts, and yet the same problems persist. It's all filmed half-heartedly, and it still just amounts to people in costumes jumping from out of the darkness and then backing off. In other words; exactly like all of the haunted houses they've been to before. Perhaps it would have been impossible to make a film about fake scares scary, but I can picture a film in which this all worked, and I'll tell you right now it wouldn't be found footage. The found footage aspect makes it all seem too fake, which of course it is, but an actual film would have made for an easier suspension of disbelief. As it is, <i>The Houses October Built</i> joins the long list of films that squander their interesting premises.<br />
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,WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-52825116596931139742016-10-12T12:00:00.000-07:002018-03-12T10:52:56.260-07:00The Streaming Cellar: The Pit and the Pendulum (2008)Currently Streaming on <b>Amazon Prime</b><br />
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We believe we know those closest to us, our families, loved ones, friends we've known from childhood. We may believe we know and understand these people, but we don't. Not really. There will always be missing pieces, like an incomplete puzzle. We have a tendency to substitute those missing pieces with aspects of ourselves, but this a double-edged weapon we wield. When we love or respect someone, we round them out with our most positive aspects, or what we aspire to be. When we dislike someone, they become a receptacle for our worst tendencies, the parts of ourselves that we fear to be seen as. But it's an illusion, and we'll never see the entire puzzle completed. There will always be this lacuna, this defining information that will forever be unknown to us.<br />
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This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately, and it forms the dramatic thrust of The Pit and the Pendulum, a 2008 Korean film that has absolutely no relation to the Edgar Allan Poe story (the title is both literal and metaphorical. I'll explain in a moment). The film is narratively framed by four friends (a fifth will join them) sitting in a cafe and discussing their absent friend Sang-tae. The film takes its time letting the audience know the reason for the gathering, and for the somber attitudes of everyone involved, but eventually we figure out that another absent friend has recently died, and Sang-tae may have had something to do with it. Before we learn that information (and really, you don't get most of the pieces of the puzzle until the end) it's clear that Sang-tae is the focus of the group's thoughts this night, and that however close he may have been to them, something has happened to sour him in their thoughts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBccjxBsm7A-MIGBsNALccXvJqOUspem5K1RcVM414lTl712MwqjKC3QN4oi1A0zn2rrBtBFK2fUJKxm6YYvlrs5bUfDvmE90AyBUQ0fBsggxdnviM1tragRamuY48abof480/s1600/patp1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqBccjxBsm7A-MIGBsNALccXvJqOUspem5K1RcVM414lTl712MwqjKC3QN4oi1A0zn2rrBtBFK2fUJKxm6YYvlrs5bUfDvmE90AyBUQ0fBsggxdnviM1tragRamuY48abof480/s320/patp1.jpg" width="320" /></a>The film proceeds in an elliptical style, with characters trading stories about Sang-tae that oftentimes are little more than anecdotes, brief glimpses without context that show Sang-tae striking one of the friends, Byeong-tae, drinking too much at business lunches, or confronting a woman, Eun-young, whom he appears to be stalking. There is a story about how Sang-tae and one of the others found an unconscious girl in the woods, the victim of a taxi driving serial killer who shows up a couple times during the film (in one of several genre elements that lurk on the sidelines and sometimes infect what is otherwise a fairly sober drama). We hear that Sang-tae was embarrassingly inappropriate with the woman, massaging her and even asking for her phone number. There is discussion about the fact that Sang-tae was fired from his teaching job, and we're given two different reasons for why he might have been let go. It's clear he was drinking too much, and while most assume he was fired for always being drunk, there is also the intimation that he raped one of his students, the niece of the dean of his university.<br />
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But hold on a second. As I said these stories are little more than anecdotes, and surely there must be more to them.<br />
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Every story inspires another memory in someone else at the table, and they come forward with their own story about Sang-tae that provides a little more information. We see the scene with the attacked woman, and to our eyes it looks only as if Sang-tae is trying to keep the woman conscious and alert. We see Sang-tae with the woman he is accused of raping, and it's clear that she is obsessed with him, and she drunkenly tries to seduce him before Sang-tae places her into a cab (is this the cab driven by the serial killer? The film never brings it up). We find out that the woman Sang-tae appeared to be stalking is actually a childhood friend and former lover, and that the unease between them is due to the fact that Eun-young, had an abortion, though Sang-tae was unaware of the fact that he had gotten her pregnant. Even the striking of Byeong-tae is shown to be the boiling over of long held resentments, as Byeong-tae has had a lifelong habit of inserting himself, unwanted, into Sang-tae's life and co-opting his friends and loved ones. Byeong-tae openly tries to seduce Eun-young, who Sang-tae still loves and is confused by the coldness she shows him, and Byeong-tae even writes Sang-tae's life history into a screenplay while claiming everything was invented entirely by him.<br />
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Sang-tae does drink a lot, clearly to the point where it is damaging his personal and professional relationships, but he never comes across as quite the alcoholic his friends make him out to be. In a bit of business that might come across as too culturally specific for many western viewers, Sang-tae's own personal crisis is kicked off when he discovers, in the course of writing his thesis, that his grandfather was pro-Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Korea, even going so far as to adopt a Japanese surname. He discovers this information while researching the history of a mass grave left by the Japanese and recently unearthed. This would be the titular Pit.<br />
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Each story offers context to the stories that preceded it, sometimes weaving in and out of them. We learn more as we go along, and our perceptions of everyone involved swings back and forth. This would be the Pendulum. To the viewer, it becomes clear that Sang-tae's treatment from his friends has been unfair, and yet they themselves cannot see this. We never truly know anyone, and we fill the empty spaces with ourselves. It can be hard, often impossible, to change perceptions about ourselves held by others. Sang-tae has fallen in his friends eyes, and they can only see an alcoholic asshole, and not the young man suffering a mental crisis. A crisis exacerbated by the fact that his friends are withdrawing from him when he needs this most. It's a situation I think we're all familiar with. People form an unfair opinion of us, but what can we do? If we struggle to change the opinion, it will only serve to distance them further. If we ignore it, that will only confirm it. Cutting those people out of our lives may be too painful an amputation. This is another pit, one that Sang-tae is sinking into.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3c-UVPQonaP4w0EydwbjuphbO3nM9kRYZBr8E8imhhuMHHdPjiVqrY0V4LBafuJ0LmYA0AXuhU6HsRTnuPB34ZSIJ-fFyMqJfFL7rYNQaoN3rXRAQpObxGY2SKO7j3moaFLz/s1600/patp2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF3c-UVPQonaP4w0EydwbjuphbO3nM9kRYZBr8E8imhhuMHHdPjiVqrY0V4LBafuJ0LmYA0AXuhU6HsRTnuPB34ZSIJ-fFyMqJfFL7rYNQaoN3rXRAQpObxGY2SKO7j3moaFLz/s320/patp2.jpg" width="320" /></a>It's been incredibly hard to find any information on this film online. I found a Variety review of the film from 2008, but that's about it. The IMDb page is strangely inaccurate, listing incorrect character names and a completely incorrect plot summary. This is why I haven't named every character I discuss. To make matters worse, I found the film listed on various Korean resources and wikis, and they're all wrong, as well. They each say that the friends have gathered for Sang-tae's funeral, when he is clearly alive at the end. They also state that they are all students of Sang-tae, when in fact they all know each other through other means (Eun-young knows him from childhood, Byeong-tae knows him through their shared military history). I guess that's to be expected from a rather low-key Korean film. Despite the glut of great films that have come out of Korea in this century, they still haven't quite reached the cultural awareness of China or Japan to most Americans. It also appears to have been a fairly minor event in its own country, however, with the sources I've found saying it only played on four screens, and it's current box office total is $6,454. That makes it the perfect film for this project, as I do believe it's worth seeking out.<br />
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I've watched this film twice now in the last week, because after my first viewing I had a few unanswered questions. The Pit and the Pendulum is more of an interesting formal experiment than a satisfying film, at times. Writer/director Sohn Young-sung has mentioned the style was influenced by the twisty stories of Jorge Luis Borges, and that is clear through the Russian nesting-doll style of the film, and on the various outre moments on hand. I haven't even mentioned the possibly immortal martial arts master that Sang-tae meets as a child, or that this master (who speaks to Sang-tae from a noose he's been hung from, left for dead) might be locked into an eternal battle with the cab-driving serial killer. Or the fact that one of the people we've been watching the entire film is, actually, a ghost. On first viewing it can be hard to figure out what the point of it all is, since the film's focus is never really explained until the final scene. It didn't help that the subtitles were often stilted and broken. They were never indecipherable, but it added a layer of distancing to the viewing experience.<br />
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The movie ends without resolving all of the stories. There are a lot of unanswered questions revolving around Sang-tae and his relationships, but that's entirely appropriate. We never really know anyone, and there will always be the missing pieces.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Next week in the Streaming Cellar: The Houses October Built (2014), which is currently streaming on Netflix.</u></b></span></i>WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-53032928615837109212016-10-05T18:50:00.003-07:002020-07-22T05:47:31.414-07:00The Streaming Cellar: In Memorium (2005)Every October, like most people, I watch a ton of horror movies. That in itself isn't very noteworthy- I always watch a ton of horror films- but in October I become a bit more focused in my viewing. I watch almost exclusively horror films, and I try to watch at least one a day. I also begin to theme my viewings, programming mini-marathons based around character, actor, or even country of origin. I make an effort to watch as many new-to-me titles as I can while also pulling out old favorites I haven't seen in a few years. I try to favor the new-to-me movies, and usually only sneak in a handful of rewatches. As much as I make it seem like I put a lot of thought into it, I'm actually just winging it, picking whatever I feel like watching on any given day.<br />
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Currently my horror binging is aided by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, frequent trips to the library, and a trial membership to Netflix's disc-by-mail service, which I signed up for in order to get some of the more hard-to-find titles on my watchlist. My Halloween season also starts a bit early these days\, as this marks my third year working at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, so I tend to start my Halloween viewing in mid-September, when I begin working at the Terror Tram attraction. Here's a partial list of what I've watched so far: <i>The House on Sorority Row, Scanners II & III, The Witch</i> (or, <i>The VVitch</i>), <i>They're Watching</i>,<i> Cooties</i>, <i>The Editor</i>, <i>Four Flies on Grey Velvet</i>, <i>Night of the Eagle</i> (AKA <i>Burn Witch Burn</i>), <i>The Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow</i>, <i>Deathwatch</i>, <i>The Eclipse</i>, <i>Open Grave</i>, and <i>Demeking the Sea Monster</i>. As you can see, it's a fairly eclectic list of horror films, spanning several decades and genres. I try to experience as wide an array as possible of styles and types of films I might normally not gravitate towards.<br />
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It's this last part, a conscious widening of my film awareness, that leads me to today's film, and the topic I hope to continue. As anyone who uses a streaming service knows, it can sometimes be difficult to find something to watch, partially due to the overabundance of cheap looking knockoffs and movies that went straight to streaming. Netflix is full of low budget films no one has ever heard of, no-budget flicks that would have gone direct to video but now arrive unheralded on your recommendations list. This is usually the most common complaint I hear about such services, but as I've shown, my tastes are more omnivorous. I refuse to use the term indiscriminate, which is something I've frequently been accused of. It's not that I lack critical thought, or turn my brain off when watching certain films, it's just that I believe good movies- or at least interesting movies, which are pretty much the same thing in my eyes- can be found in surprising places.<br />
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I've decided, this Halloween and possibly beyond, to make a more concerted effort to watch some of these titles. Hence, <i>The Streaming Cellar</i>, where I dig into some of those questionable titles that always get recommended once you've finished binging on <i>Stranger Things</i>. I've been doing this occassionally already, but I'm going to be taking more chances this October. I haven't quite codified a list of guidelines for this project, and I'm mostly playing it by ear. I will, however, try to limit myself to lower budget films that have not had any national theatrical release (festival screenings and perfunctory one-week engagements are OK). I'll also be widening the scope to cover international films, as long as they haven't enjoyed a long theatrical run.<br />
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Today's film seemed to be an even bigger risk than usual, as not only was it a no-budget horror film shot digitally with a cast and crew of unknowns whose careers never took off, but it was also a found footage film. I actually enjoy a lot of found footage films, and often dig the theme park feeling that comes with a POV camera stumbling through chaos, but I also recognize that it's too often simply a gimmick used to generate cheap jump-scares without having to invest a lot of money or talent.<br />
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Also, they couldn't even spell the title correctly.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">In Memorium (2005)</span></b><br />
Currently streaming on: <b><i>Amazon Prime</i></b><br />
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I'm going to deflate the suspense right up front and just tell you that I rather enjoyed <i>In Memorium</i>, despite its drawbacks. For one, this film came out in 2005, two years before <i>Paranormal Activity</i> (this film's most similar counterpart) jump-started the current craze for found footage that seems to finally be slowing down. Certainly<i> In Memorium</i> is not the first film that could be classified as found footage (not even close), and certainly there were a bunch of likeminded films being made at the same time, but the genre had not yet broken through to the mainstream to be recognized as an actual genre by most moviegoers. There was something charming, almost quaint, about going back and watching a found footage film before all of the genre's tropes had been so rigidly set in stone.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlBWFnAweIQiwgt_-HRLiHZ71SZzj6kPJi53ath-gkyj8NaWmsCpDgZNhZ7Jyae1ykg9_kVgVq9r_9poV4WAsu8AFiAc5svhlVdwvjVSCk9e4s8gQGTDzs0T8uXPdvFwXiV_B/s1600/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Dennis-1280x640.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimlBWFnAweIQiwgt_-HRLiHZ71SZzj6kPJi53ath-gkyj8NaWmsCpDgZNhZ7Jyae1ykg9_kVgVq9r_9poV4WAsu8AFiAc5svhlVdwvjVSCk9e4s8gQGTDzs0T8uXPdvFwXiV_B/s320/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Dennis-1280x640.jpg" width="320" /></a>One thing I found oddly endearing was the manner in which <i>In Memorium</i> was filmed. The characters set up a bunch of motion-activated cameras, covering every possible angle in the house, and yes, the cameras are also inserted into the bathroom, leading to at least one genuinely amusing moment when they realize what this means for their daily habits. The cameras are all fairly visible and stick out from the wall in what is probably the biggest signifier that this movie is over a decade old. The wall mounted cameras also preclude the need for any shaky handheld camerawork (there is a tiny bit, but it's a pretty negligible amount), which is certainly going to be welcome news to many found footage detractors. It also gives a reasonable response to the frequently asked question of 'why do they keep filming?' In <i>In Memorium</i>, they keep filming because no one has removed the cameras yet.<br />
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The film also has another great improvement over most films in the genre; likable characters. One of my common complaints with found footage film is that the characters tend to skew towards the unlikable and unpleasant. I'm not sure if that's a conscious decision on the filmmakers' part, or possibly an attempt to try and distance the audience from characters that they'll have to watch suffer and die. Or possibly it's an an unconscious reaction on my part towards the type of person who reacts to tragedy befalling their friends or family by grabbing a camera rather than trying to help. Maybe that narcissism is just part and parcel of the character type.Think of the boyfriend in the first <i>Paranormal Activity</i>, who continues filming despite his girlfriend's obvious and growing distress.<br />
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The central couple in <i>In Memorium</i> are markedly more appealing, though the film does stack our sympathies in their favor by giving the boyfriend, Dennis (played by Erik McDowell), incurable cancer. It's this disease which has prompted the couple to install motion-activated cameras inside their rented home, to document Dennis' final months. If this sounds like a thin setup for a horror film, especially for a childless couple (at least Michael Keaton in My Life was filming his last days for his son's benefit, same for Mark Duplass in Creep), perhaps it would help to know that Dennis is an aspiring filmmaker, and his girlfriend, Lily (Johanna Watts), is an aspiring actress. Actually, writing that out, my description makes them sound just as narcissistic as the character types I was complaining about, but they come across as more likable than that.<br />
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The acting is solid for something of this budget, and though that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it really isn't. I've noticed that when most casual moviegoers complain about bad acting in low budget films, they're really talking about a matter of post production. Have you ever seen untouched behind the scenes footage of films being made? It turns everything into a high school drama class production. Great performances in films depend on a lot of things aside from just the performer. Obvious things like sound mixing, of course, but also less obvious aspects, like lighting, video quality, or color correction. Most low budget movies have to rely on a lot of ADR, and while blockbusters have the same issue, the larger budgeted films tend to have more resources and a larger team to make sure the dialogue is mixed properly into the scene. Similarly, your reaction to performances in movies depends on other contextual information, allowing you to buy into the film's reality more easily.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrEMzMcP7eeEOTbBxG9VtF9fU5pV0-en2trZpPO3xWAGlXbwp-L8_pqKAOOLzes3N-OiyEtYrHiq0I-WPz2TYJSFmSgMKDd254t_ewoSx8geRhBpITVnZ7hWbS0xwEJYRN5Fl/s1600/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Lily-e1472549456941.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrEMzMcP7eeEOTbBxG9VtF9fU5pV0-en2trZpPO3xWAGlXbwp-L8_pqKAOOLzes3N-OiyEtYrHiq0I-WPz2TYJSFmSgMKDd254t_ewoSx8geRhBpITVnZ7hWbS0xwEJYRN5Fl/s320/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Lily-e1472549456941.jpg" width="320" /></a>Putting aside the actual performances, I felt the two leads had a nice chemistry between them, and I enjoyed watching the two of them exist together. I like horror movies where the leads are likable and get along, because having concern for the welfare of the main characters is something most horror films tend to neglect. One of my favorite horror films in recent memory, Ti West's <i>The Innkeepers</i>, affected me so strongly because I liked both of the leads and I didn't want to see anything bad happen to them. Something similar happened to me while watching this film, though I should probably stress that on a much more minor scale than <i>The Innkeepers</i>. There's only really one performance I didn't buy in this film, that of Dennis' brother Frank (Levi Powell). Both brothers are variations on the Southern California surfer dude, though Frank is clearly a caricature while Dennis only somewhat sartorially fits into that descriptor. He's a rather stiff presence, and unfortunately the majority of his scenes are meant to be tearful and dramatic. His performance is more befitting that of an extra in the original Point Break.<br />
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Now you have a general idea of the film, and I'm sure by now you've guessed the trajectory the story will take. Young couple in new home begin filming their lives, and unexpectedly find they're filming other unknown presences. Creepy goings on start off small, and then escalate throughout the course of the film. You spend a lot of time staring at static-filled screens where nothing is happening, and suddenly get a quick glimpse of something spooky. Some of it will go unnoticed by the cast, other stuff will be noticed and dismissed. Eventually the activity will reach such a pitch that the main characters are forced to acknowledge it, at which point there will be a discussion of what to to, whether to stay or leave. Some reason will be found for everyone staying put, at which point the dramatic finale will be set in motion. The formula is pretty well known, but, as with all horror films, what really matters are the details and small variations within that formula.<br />
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So far I've described the basic setup, and given some of my thoughts of the film in general, but I'm about to get very specific about some plot elements. If you've read this far and think you might want to watch the film, I'd advise you to go ahead and do so before reading any further. If you don't mind having the plot spoiled for you, by all means read on.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRCVflxd6V4L8mll0dIEWO-hqmsRnTCNGZgl1L7-CVRoy_bsvWWzEhfT6sbSpYaPo7dMsTm6eCpJrsVY09PKtJIYJO1Fyqev-bN0-BtrVptWPfEzbAjjEcjQAxb2N5vgWklHD/s1600/In-Memorium-0004.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRCVflxd6V4L8mll0dIEWO-hqmsRnTCNGZgl1L7-CVRoy_bsvWWzEhfT6sbSpYaPo7dMsTm6eCpJrsVY09PKtJIYJO1Fyqev-bN0-BtrVptWPfEzbAjjEcjQAxb2N5vgWklHD/s320/In-Memorium-0004.jpg" width="320" /></a>Part of what I found so charming about this film is the manner in which Dennis and Lily react to the haunting. When they first notice evidence of a ghost on one of the cameras, they're both disbelieving but interested, and begin to investigate the history of the house they have just rented. It's pretty much how I think I would react in this situation; they don't believe, but still think it would be cool to see proof of an actual ghost. To begin with the landlord, Ms. Sporec (Mary Portser) is helpful, as she's been keeping scrapbooks about all of the tenants for decades, but soon becomes less forthcoming when she fears that the cameras and haunted house theories are only a ruse to try and sue her for wrongful death when the boyfriend eventually dies. Yeah, that part didn't really make sense to me, either. But I think it's meant to make us suspicious of what she's trying to hide.<br />
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The big question in every haunted house movie is; why don't they just leave? I think for a lot of people in America the answer is pretty self explanatory; not everyone can afford to hightail it to a hotel and give up on their home. But still, it's a valid question within a film, and <i>In Memorium </i>chooses to answer it by heightening the stakes for the characters. When the activity escalates and the presence is clearly not friendly, Dennis and Lily <b>do</b> try to leave. The home was only recently rented under a three month lease, and these kids are clearly well-to-do enough to have options. The problem is, Dennis has been experiencing bizarre symptoms unrelated to his cancer, and every time he tries to leave the property those symptoms get worse.<br />
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I've said repeatedly that this house was rented, and I keep mentioning it because it's an important detail that I don't fully understand the necessity of. It doesn't quite make sense, that Dennis would learn of his diagnosis, come up with his plan to film his final months, and then also require a rented house that he can fill with cameras. I honestly think the detail only exists to provide a McGuffin, to keep us believing that the house is haunted and to give a reason as to why none of the characters has ever noticed it before. Throughout the film Lily and Dennis repeatedly question why the house appears to be haunted, when none of the recorded tenants have died there, and no one before them had ever seen a ghost. The answer is obvious; the house <b>isn't</b> haunted.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGZgIh8XyYNqUw692m6ZkcctpyoTeLj_yZ6f4cCooiJWo6esD9HjNhm5eOb21MXiTkF3q-wxXfZ0u61AFoTF8BL_4MBB8RujaiHJXobbVKJ7TXShKnh-fBxuHOEyVVF9IMlEk/s1600/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Dennis-2-1024x687.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDGZgIh8XyYNqUw692m6ZkcctpyoTeLj_yZ6f4cCooiJWo6esD9HjNhm5eOb21MXiTkF3q-wxXfZ0u61AFoTF8BL_4MBB8RujaiHJXobbVKJ7TXShKnh-fBxuHOEyVVF9IMlEk/s320/In-Memorium-2005-Movie-Dennis-2-1024x687.jpg" width="320" /></a>Oh, there is a ghost, and it is malevolent and killing Dennis (faster than his cancer), but it turns out he brought the ghost with him. Dennis and Frank's mother was apparently an abusive wreck, and once Dennis was old enough he struck out on his own, effectively abandoning his younger brother to the care of their horrible mother. She died of her own terrible disease, and Frank was left as the only one to care for her. Now, on the anniversary of her death, she has returned to exact her revenge by killing Dennis with the very symptoms she suffered from. It's an effective twist, and handled well by the movie, and it elevates the film above many in the increasingly crowded field of found footage. It also leads to some interesting dramatic territory as the small group of actors have to deal with some seriously emotional familial baggage. It's a task that not everyone is up to, unfortunately, as Frank in particular seems hard pressed to actually sound sad, as opposed to merely constipated.<br />
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All in all the film is probably only a minor success. <i>In Memorium</i> isn't as outright scary as many of its contemporaries, but it also has a little more on its mind. The suspense is handled well, and with no real budget for special effects director Amanda Gusack is able to stage a couple of effective little jolts. I haven't really thought of a scale by which to rate these titles, but I will say the film probably won't appeal to most modern fans of found footage. However, I think the film deserves to be remembered, and would probably be enjoyed by fans of low budget horror and quiet festival films.<br />
<br />WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-82435369584638216142016-10-01T10:05:00.000-07:002016-10-01T10:05:42.285-07:00Countdown to the Countdown to HalloweenFor a few years now, off and on, I've been taking part in the Countdown to Halloween blogging event. A loose assemblage of blogs covering various themes, but all posting frequently about something Halloween related during the 31 days of October. I'm taking part once again, and while in years past I've tried to keep to daily posts, or 3 times a week, or some other self-imposed schedule, I'm under no such delusions this year. I plan to keep posting as long and as often as I can this month, but I'm working odd and lengthy hours, while also dealing with a 3 month old at home. What I'm saying is there may be gaps in my activity, but I hope to at least drop in here regularly with a quick review, some reminisces, or maybe just some awesome music to add to your Halloween party mix.<br />
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I'm finishing up a few posts that will be going up over the next couple days, so for now I just wanted to promote the Countdown itself. Heading over to the <a href="http://countdowntohalloween.blogspot.com/">Countdown to Halloween site</a> will give you a list of contributors, as well as instructions for joining up if you feel so inclined. You'll notice on that list my pal Rik, who is going to be celebrating the month on his main blog site, <a href="http://cinema4pylon.blogspot.com/">The Cinema 4 Pylon</a>, as well as his awesome animation blog <a href="https://cinema4celbloc.blogspot.com/">The Cinema 4 Cel Bloc</a>. We're also putting together something special over on our shared blog, <a href="http://wewhowatchbehindtherows.blogspot.com/">We Who Watch Behind the Rows</a>, where we pick a Stephen King book or story and then discuss the written word and the filmed adaptation(s). Head over there to read out latest post on The Woman in the Room, and an announcement for what our Halloween plans are.<br /><br />I know this is a brief and somewhat low-key beginning to the month, but my plan is to build up to a pretty great Halloween this year. It should be fun, and I hope you join me for the party.WorkingDeadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17423048309685084902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-31860135901143214812016-05-15T08:27:00.000-07:002016-05-15T18:21:56.592-07:00We Who Watch Behind The Rows: Graveyard Shift (1990) Pt. 1<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Welcome to our first installment of <b>We
Who Watch Behind the Rows: Stephen King Print vs. Film</b>. The focus of this
new column is to compare the written works of author Stephen King against the
numerous adaptations made for either the movie or television screen. Since
there are what seems to be about 4,000 such adaptations released into the wild
to this point, we expect catching up with all of them will take a good amount
of time on our parts.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">As with our other semi-regular column --
Visiting and Revisiting -- your hosts are myself, Rik Tod Johnson of <i>The
Cinema 4 Pylon</i> and <i>Cinema 4: Cel Bloc</i> websites, and
Aaron Lowe of the <i>Working Dead Productions</i> website. We are
both hardcore, longtime cinema fans, but we are also, to varying degrees, big
Stephen King fans. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">The difference between us is that I, after
following King earnestly and faithfully around every turn in his career since I
first read <i>The Dead Zone</i> around 1981, largely gave up on his
writing (with a couple of notable exceptions) post-<i>Gerald's Game</i> (that
would be around 1992). So with this project, I will basically begin my personal
reintroduction to each of King's stories and novels as we make our way through
his oeuvre. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Aaron, what is your personal experience with the
written works of Mr. King?</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lllllllaadies...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>Aaron: </b>I actually started reading Stephen King and stopped reading Stephen King around the same time. I read my first novel from him in 1990, when I was in 6th grade, and I more or less stopped following his career post-1992. That isn't to say I stopped reading King after those two years; no far from it. By the time I came on board, Stephen King had twenty-three novels and five story collections in print, which means I had a wealth of material to dive into. It also means that, much like you, I stopped keeping current with him sometime around <i>Gerald's Game</i>. There were a few exceptions to that, when I would get gifts from relatives who knew I liked Stephen King and not much else about me, but for the most part I fell out of touch with him once I'd caught up, and didn't start buying his novels again until <i>Black House</i> (2001)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">. That may not seem like a lot of time to not be
reading Stephen King, but it means that I missed seven novels that I still
haven’t caught up with.</span></div>
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Along with reading Stephen King, I was watching his movies nearly constantly. I
was a child of the video age, and it seemed as if nearly everything King had
written had become a movie or short film or episode of some anthology horror
show. There were four filmed adaptations in the year I began reading him, and
the world was entering a golden age of Stephen King television, with
mini-series versions of some of his biggest books (and, ahem, <i>The Langoliers</i>).
It’s certainly no coincidence that I first became acquainted with Mr. King at
this point in time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">I’ve pretty much
reached the point where I’m back to looking forward to each Stephen King novel
or story collection with quite a bit of low-key excitement. It’s no longer a
pressing issue to buy the latest King novel as soon as I see it, since he still
has one or two books come out a year, but every birthday or Christmas the first
thing I use my gift cards on is whatever his latest offering happens to be. And
I can say honestly; I’ve never <i>not</i> enjoyed a Stephen King novel. Even a
King novel I end up disliking on the whole entertains me and speaks to me in such
a way that I never feel like I’ve wasted my time on it. Whatever the outcome, I
always enjoy the experience of reading Stephen King’s prose.</span><span style="font-family: "times" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Rik:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Since rereading each novel
takes a bit more time, we have decided to jumpstart <i>We Who Watch Behind
the Rows</i> by reviewing the varied pieces in King's 1978 short story
collection, <i>Night Shift</i>. From the twenty stories in <i>Night
Shift,</i> there have been eight feature films and four television
adaptations made thus far. Of the remaining stories in the collection, most
(but not quite all) have been adapted into short, amateur films known by King
and his fans as "Dollar Babies". Overall, this gives us quite a surplus
from which to begin.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The Story: <i>Graveyard Shift </i>[</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Night Shift</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">, 1978; first published in
the October 1970 issue of <i>Cavalier</i> magazine] <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Original Cavalier appearance of the story </td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aaron:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
I’m not entirely sure when I first read the <i>Night
Shift</i> collection, but it would have been in the early nineties as I was in
the midst of my full-blown King obsession. I remember reading other stories
from the collection in the back of my uncle’s pickup truck on a family camping
trip, but <i>Graveyard Shift</i> kind of
melds into the pile of stories I was reading at the time. There are a few tales
in this collection that I have some fairly strong sense memories of where I was
when I read them, but <i>Graveyard Shift</i>
isn’t one of those. It’s not that the story is bad or lackluster, it’s just
that it lacks a central image as striking as that of <i>Grey Matter</i> or <i>I Am the
Doorwa</i>y (the latter of which inspired the cover of the paperback in which I
first read these stories).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At its heart, <i>Graveyard
Shift</i> is a simple, straightforward, grisly little shocker equally inspired
by Poe and EC Comics. That’s not to say it’s derivative or unenjoyable. Quite
the contrary; this is an economic, fun shock story that I’ve read through twice
now in a short time period and enjoyed each time. Stephen King would, in just a
few years, be known for epic, encyclopedia-sized books, and he himself would
self-deprecatingly discuss his tendency to ramble on and on and on. But this
collection proves that he was just as adept at sketching in characters that
seem fully realized within the span of only a handful of pages, and possibly
only a couple of lines of action. It’s true that most of the characters in this
story are basically background, given only a name or a single line of dialogue,
but a few of them become living, breathing characters on the page in a very
short span. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have quite a few friends who only really like Stephen
King’s short stories, and avoid his novels. While I don’t agree with that
stance, clearly, it’s one that I can understand. His short stories tend to be
swifter, nastier, and stranger than his novels. It’s almost as if he lets his
imagination run wild for a dozen pages or so and puts no restrictions on his
concepts, no matter how bizarre or unsettling, while his novels tend to rein
things in a little bit. Also, one thing I discovered early on: Stephen King
loves a happy ending. With very few exceptions his long form work (novels or
novellas) end with a positive outcome, whereas his short stories have no such
assurances. In a Stephen King short story, all bets are off, and no one is
safe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How about you? Where do you stand on this divide? Do you
prefer his short stories to his novels, or are you a fan of each in equal
measure? How did you feel about his ability here to sketch in a believable
world within 26 pages?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rik:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Until I reread <i>Children of the Corn</i>
in this same collection a few months ago, it had been so long since I had read any
of King’s short stories that I forgot just how economical he could be in his
writing. Part of why I started to have a falling out with him is that I felt
that he had grown too much in love with his voice, and that voice had
definitely developed a rambling tic that I found somewhat annoying, and
therefore rendered King a chore to read at times. He had also started to veer
slightly away from the supernatural around the time of <i>Dolores Claiborne</i> and <i>Gerald’s
Game</i>, and I was mostly uninterested in the topics he was starting to
explore. Even when he touched on the supernatural in that mid-‘90s period –
such as in <i>Insomnia</i> or <i>Rose Madder</i> – I couldn’t muster much
excitement. I read the first couple of chapters of each and gave up. And for
the novels leading up to that period, his record was hit or miss with me;
mostly miss really. I did not like <i>The
Eyes of the Dragon</i>, <i>The Tommyknockers</i>,
or <i>Needful Things</i>. While I was a big
fan of most of his early novels (especially <i>The
Stand</i> and <i>The Dead Zone</i>), the
last novel of his that I really liked was <i>The
Dark Half</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">But his short stories? Loved them. The tales in both <i>Night Shift</i> and <i>The Skeleton Crew</i> were constant re-reads for me throughout the ‘80s
and into the ‘90s; likewise for his classic novella collection, <i>Different Seasons</i>. It was thrilling in
those days that so many of these pieces were being made into films in theatres
and on television as well, even if the quality varied greatly from project to
project. But perhaps it is telling that his ‘90s work in the short story and
novella area also failed to grab my attention as well. I liked <i>Nightmares and Dreamscapes</i> well enough;
I read through it a couple of times, and some stories, like <i>The Night Flier</i>, really stuck with me. But
I really did not enjoy <i>Four Past Midnight</i>
all that much, so maybe that is where my real ennui with King started to set in
for me.<br />
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The beauty of the short story is in its succinctness, in the sparing of details
unnecessary to the moment at hand. In those early collections, King is
brilliant in keeping a tight grip on information, his pen is sharp and concise,
and he even seems to practice a form of subtlety – no matter how fantastical
the situations, characters, or creatures – that would run away from him
sometimes in his longer novels. Since I have rarely read King in recent years
(and that would almost entirely be non-fiction and his pop culture columns in <i>Entertainment Weekly</i>), I don’t know if I
would still perceive this problem with him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">Just like you, my friends and I – many of whom were also
massive fans of King in those bygone days (I am unsure if any of them still
read him; many were having a similar falling out with his ‘90s work) – had many
discussions regarding “short stories vs. novels.” The short stories usually came
out on top about two-thirds of the time. While I did love many of his early
novels, I too ran with the short story crowd. And I would have to say that I am
probably still with that group today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">Without diving fully into the actual movie version of <i>Graveyard Shift</i> until a bit further on
in this discussion, I must admit that my initial re-read of the short story was
colored by the fact that I did my re-watch of the film first. (I will not do
this with future installments of this column.) Although only two characters
truly bear the same name and gender (more on this later), I kept hearing the
dialogue in the voices of the actors in the film, one actor (Stephen Macht) in
particular. Did you have this problem, or did you do the smart thing and read
the story first? If not, were you able to divorce yourself from the screen
experience enough to enjoy the story without being influenced by the film?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoHLO6dZwXvJh5EqmWTktU6ciPgrfUqk_lAWWH_VycYAjYrsmDCAVYv5kHf5UQHeHrQ8901ofeDVIotqxBTbAX8AU4JUVjcw_Y8WXNGKPhlorZoPYdwxh0mCQtDPf5WEb5NxNQ/s1600/graveyard_shift_ver3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoHLO6dZwXvJh5EqmWTktU6ciPgrfUqk_lAWWH_VycYAjYrsmDCAVYv5kHf5UQHeHrQ8901ofeDVIotqxBTbAX8AU4JUVjcw_Y8WXNGKPhlorZoPYdwxh0mCQtDPf5WEb5NxNQ/s400/graveyard_shift_ver3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UK Poster</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aaron:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
My process went like this; I read the short story,
and then watched the film. A few days later I read the story again in
preparation of writing this article. I have to say that’s probably the path
I’ll be taking from here on out, as it provided me with a few neat insights
into both. In fact, I’d like to try and watch the movie one more time before we
truly wrap this thing up, and may end up doing so. One thing that I noticed on
my second reading of <i>Graveyard Shift</i>
(which would actually be the third or fourth lifetime read for me) is how much
the film actually stuck to the brief descriptions in the story. We’ll get into
the film later, of course, but almost every word Stephen King wrote found some
form of representation in the filmed version in one way or another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The story takes place in just under one week,
divided into short sections, each covering one night on the titular graveyard
shift as a crew of textile mill workers cleans out a disused basement. Though
the narrator is omniscient, the focus of <i>Graveyard
Shift</i> is Hall, a college dropout who has been drifting around the country
taking odd jobs and searching for something in his life. The only other
character of real note is Warwick, the foreman of the textile mill who seems threatened
by Hall’s youth and college background. Warwick is the character Stephen Macht
plays, and at the risk of getting ahead of myself, I felt that he was the best
at capturing the flavor of the character as written. A few of the other mill
workers have lines here or there, like Wisconsky or Ippeston, but they’re
basically background characters, extras in this story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Right away, King introduces a stylistic flourish that will
eventually become a trademark: grounding his story in the mundane details of
everyday life while introducing characters that speak in exaggerated
vernacular. The details of the mill are made more real through King’s use of
actual product names or pop culture references. The Orange Crush thermometer
that Hall keeps checking, or the cans of Nehi that he throws at the rats.
There’s no reason for King to point out that the thermometer is a promotional
item from Orange Crush, nor that the aluminum cans Hall launches are Nehi, yet
doing so gives the story a quick jolt of verisimilitude. We recognize these
items from our own lives, and it places this story directly within our
understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">King also has his characters speak in a weirdly poetic,
often stilted, frequently profane style. He claims this language came from his
youth surrounded by older blue collar New Englanders, and yet I have a feeling
no one actually spoke like he writes. Like when Carmichael gets bitten by a
large rat, and complains that he wants compensation, Warwick’s response is
“Sure. You got bit on the titty.” This isn’t the most outrageous example in his
bibliography, but you get the point. King himself has credited most of his
success to this simple act of having his characters say bizarre, distinctive
things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I think <i>Graveyard
Shift</i> turned out to be an unexpectedly subtle way to start this project. It
features a lot of things Stephen King is known for, but toned way down to the
point where it would be easy to miss them. Reading ahead in this collection
(though skipping for now the ones we’ll eventually cover for this series) I can
say that his stylistic tics become more pronounced the further along we go.
Have you read ahead yet? What do you think of his penchant for cultural
references and idiosyncratic dialogue? Anything else in the story we should
cover before jumping into the film?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSNhxyzN4M16wVgNGJ2R7E778rmtElS0xk8AUnEyDUss_3NoaVjU5bAkRn5HFmD1OccZ2TXXaX7L0uo6QXeBmAgQfPP3Mtlh95yfkHHr84OP-ATziEza8YvL0MQpGvFW3XjMc/s1600/movieposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSNhxyzN4M16wVgNGJ2R7E778rmtElS0xk8AUnEyDUss_3NoaVjU5bAkRn5HFmD1OccZ2TXXaX7L0uo6QXeBmAgQfPP3Mtlh95yfkHHr84OP-ATziEza8YvL0MQpGvFW3XjMc/s400/movieposter.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DVD Cover</td></tr>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rik:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
I only read ahead through the next story, <i>Night
Surf</i>, but that was because I remembered that it is connected to <i>The Stand</i> (the use of the Captain Trips
influenza as a device), and I loved <i>The
Stand</i>. (As to whether I still do, that remains to be seen for future
columns.) It was amazing to me how I had almost completely forgotten the story
over the intervening years, but the second that I started to read the story,
details came flooding back into my head mere sentences before I happened upon
them on the page (or really, on the screen, since I was reading it on my
iPhone).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">We had three constant battles in my gang when we seemed to
be group reading King’s latest book back in the day. (Many of us worked for the
same bookstore chain, so we were able to get discounted copies of each release,
and thus nobody really had to wait to read each one.) One battle was over the
overtness of his use of sexuality in his stories, and by that, I mean his
descriptiveness and openness. (We had a couple of people in our group who felt
he went a little bit too far with the details and sordidness in some scenes,
and others, like – <i>ahem</i> -- me, are
pervos who felt he never went far enough.) (That I ultimately found happiness
in the far sicker and gooier writings of Clive Barker is no surprise.) The
second battle was indeed about his use of product placement to sell the reality
of his settings to the reader. Certainly he wasn’t getting paid to use any of
these trademark names, and I agree with you that it made his stories seem like
they were taking place exactly within our own dimension. We again had a couple
of dissenters, who felt that it actually cheapened his writing, as if he were
taking shortcuts instead of relying more fully on his imagination to set a
scene. I saw their side of it as well, but overall, felt that King’s
concentration on Nehi and other brands is part of what made him popular: his
ability to make us imagine ourselves in his outrageous scenarios.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">Such scenarios might even make us say the most outlandish
things in the midst of trying to stay alive. That third battle was most
certainly over his dialogue. I have always been torn on it myself, but he
certainly makes his characters more memorable by his use of it. His characters
sometimes employ the most ridiculous, out of left field wording, but King
generally gets away with it. While the words may not jibe with our own
understanding of the English language, you definitely can’t forget those
characters. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">In the case of the most egregious user of such language in
the story version of <i>Graveyard Shift</i>
– the foreman Warwick – he is definitely memorable, though that doesn’t excuse
him from how profoundly (and purposefully) annoying he is. Warwick speaks in a
manner that I could only proscribe to Stephen King; I have never met anyone in
real life who converses as he does, at least when combined with an inability to
even attempt to relate to anything living thing on even the smallest level. I
will save any discussion of his movie counterpart until the appropriate section
of this article. Taking the written Warwick as is, he is probably one of the
best examples of how far King was willing to take a character into the realm of
the completely unlikable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">Look, I’ve never been to Maine, and I probably will never go
there. I am not knocking the state, but I grew up in Alaska, so there is not
much in Maine that I can’t get by just going back home for a visit. And I am
allergic to shellfish, so in a gastronomic sense, why would I even? Nor have I
ever met (to my knowledge) anybody directly from Maine, so I have zero
experience in any actual dialect from that state. What has always struck me in
the King adaptations (when they stick to that region) is how phony the dialogue
sounds to my ear. Period. No one speaks like that at all, I tell myself, and
the overriding effect has been that if there is a feature of pure artifice to
King’s stories, it is not the fantastical creatures that never have or never
will be in this world, but the words that fall from his most annoying characters
mouths and the odd angles at which those words hit my ears.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">This is not to say that I don’t enjoy some of those words. I
find their use annoying, but at no point would I admit that King doesn’t
achieve the exact goals for which he is striving. When I saw George A. Romero’s
(and King’s) <i>Creepshow</i> in the theatre
for the first time in 1982, and saw King on the screen as the doomed Jordy
Verrill – or even in his cameo role as a loudmouth spectator in Romero’s
earlier but equally fascinating <i>Knightriders</i>
-- I got the sense (apart from King being a shitty actor) that in his head, all
of King’s characters spoke within those parameters – as annoying as possible
and with accents so outrageous they may as well be the “Frenchies” in Monty
Python. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">Of course, I exaggerate – as King does as well -- and it
does bring me to my point. I can say “No one speaks like that in real life!”
but what do I know? Right down the street, in any direction, there are groups
and nationalities and subgroups and cultures that speak to each in ways that I
have never heard. Nor am I likely to hear if I don’t immerse myself in their
cultures. I am no expert on anything. Do I know anyone from the backwoods or
small towns of Maine? No. So how can I say that Warwick doesn’t exist somewhere,
and that people just like Warwick influenced King? I cannot know. It doesn’t
mean that I have to accept every frustratingly odd piece of dialogue, but I
will give King the benefit of the doubt in most cases. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">There is some memorable imagery in <i>Graveyard Shift</i> – such as King’s vivid descriptions of the mutated
creatures –but the one that gets my mind racing is the lock on the underside –
yes, the underside – of the trapdoor that is discovered, which will eventually
lead to a hidden sub-basement and much carnage by the end of the story (and
possibly portends more carnage post-story). The rusted lock is a marvelous
tension builder, and the “hero” character, Hall, seems to revel in its
discovery, if only because it helps continue to cut through Warwick’s blusterous
façade of toughness. Trying to fathom exactly what purpose led to its necessity
almost distracts me from the exploration of the dank subbasement and the mutant
rat-bat action that occurs next. Did the lock perform similar black magic on
you? What other imagery stuck in your memory the most?</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aaron:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
Definitely the lock is the big, glaring, flashing light at the center of this
story. It hints at something grander and stranger than the inbred, mutant rat
action we get. At first glance it seems like an early example of yet another
Stephen King tic; the offhand remark or briefly mentioned artifact that hints
at an older, more horrific story only tangentially related to what we’re
seeing. Eventually those digressions would get the best of him, and Stephen
King would devote hundreds of pages to ideas that were only really incidental
to the main plot, but I’ve always loved them. Even when they threatened to
overload the main story, my favorite parts of King books tend to be the brief
(or not-so-brief) detours that give the impression that the world is weirder
and scarier than you thought. Right now I’m going to take a page out of Stephen
King’s book and back up a bit and work my way back to answer your question.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On my first re-reading of this story, I felt the ending had
a few rushed elements. After some pretty leisurely storytelling, and without
much foreshadowing, the ending comes rushing at us in just a couple of quick
pages. Warwick and Hall seem to undergo some pretty major shifts in
personality, and Hall in particular gets a new motivation that seems to come
out of left field. I’m speaking, of course, of Hall’s decision to not just
force Warwick into a rat infested basement in order to prove his aggressive
blustering is merely a show, but to actually take an active role in Warwick’s
death as almost a sacrifice to the rats.<br />
<span style="background: silver; mso-highlight: silver;"><br />
</span>As soon as Warwick and Hall enter the sub-basement, Hall’s entire
attitude changes. Where earlier in the story he had been silently acquiescing
to Warwick’s demands and insults (though often with some passive aggression),
here he begins to take charge of the situation, to badger and harass Warwick
openly. His inner thoughts change as well, as he begins to feel a wild elation,
‘something lunatic and dark with colors.’ He feels a sense of purpose drawing
him on, and his inner thoughts remark that ‘he had perhaps been looking for
something like this through all his days of crazy wandering.’ This change
happens so suddenly, over barely a page, that at first blush it seemed
unearned. Then, when re-reading the story it all fell into place; of course
Hall was unmoored and probably a little unhinged, despite his seeming sanity at
the story’s outset. And of course a drifter who seems to be searching for his
place in the world would find something almost religious in the mystery and
violence of what happens in that sub-basement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us back to that lock on the underside of a trap
door. Why would it be there, on that side of the door? The characters in the
story all wonder this, but it’s glossed over rather quickly. As I see it there
is only one real reason you would lock the inside of something; you are locking
yourself in and something else out. Based on the disused nature of the
basement, and the certainly even more disused nature of the sub-basement,
neglected for decades, who could have set that lock? And what must their
rationale have been? How could anyone with even the barest sense of curiosity
not be tempted down those stairs?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But there’s more to this mystery, and although we never get
a definitive answer we get a lot of weird clues. First off is the basement
itself, which is ancient and full of weird fungi the characters have never seen
before, strange and swarming beetles, and of course giant rats and bats. The
basement is also larger than the mill that lays on top of it, extending past
the mill’s borders, and we get explicit evidence that the basement might
predate the above structure by several decades. Warwick and Hall discover a
large wooden box with a name and date painted on it; “Elias Varney, 1841.” At
the discovery of that item, Hall asks Warwick if the mill is that old, to which
Warwick answers that the mill was built in 1897.<br />
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</span>In the sub-basement Warwick and Hall find one skeleton, and though no
connection is made in the text, I think it’s a fair assumption to make that the
skeleton belonged to whoever locked the basement from the inside. I think
another assumption could also be made that the skeleton and Elias Varney are
one and the same. So now the question remains, who is Elias Varney? I’m going
to get a bit extra-textual here, and go outside of the book for a theory I’d
like to put forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Knowing how much Stephen King likes to make allusions to his
own works I went online to look up any other instances of an Elias Varney in
his work, or even just another Varney, and could find nothing (Stephen King
fans have tirelessly plotted most story connections throughout several
websites, so if a connection existed I should have found it). What I did find,
buried in a forum thread from ages ago, was the idea that the name meant
nothing in and of itself, it was just there to identify the skeleton, and
perhaps Varney had been chosen because King is a ravenous fan of horror
literature, and wanted to give a shout out to Varney the Vampire, the first English-language
vampire tale.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">But what if the naming wasn’t random? What if it was a clue
to the very origins of the story? The wooden box they find isn’t really
described, other than it is apparently huge, but what if it was a coffin? What
if Elias Varney is related to Francis Varney, the titular vampire of that
story? Or, what if he had nothing to do with that story and was simply a clue
as to the nature of the trouble beneath the mill. There are a couple ways it
could go from there. This vampire had sealed himself away from the dangerous
humans above, or perhaps this Varney was as self-hating as the original, and
had sealed himself away to keep humanity safe. Either way, it’s clear that he
died beneath what would eventually become a textile mill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now, I’m not saying that I’ve solved a mystery in a 26-page
Stephen King story that no one had ever even noticed before, and I’m not saying
that King wrote a secret sequel to a half forgotten penny dreadful from over a
century earlier, but it does serve to highlight what I love most about short
stories like this; the idea that there is a larger world and we are looking at
it through a keyhole. In this case we’ve got Elias Varney, who may or may not
be a vampire, but who has locked himself away in an ancient cavern that ends up
full of mutated rats, bats, and other forms of life normally found in caves.
Did he lock himself up before or after this change in the natural order? Did he
do it because of the change? Did the change happen because of him? We’ll never
know, and whether you want to buy my version of things or not, I think it’s a
fun way to look at the story, and it got my imagination whirring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rik:</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
I am willing to entertain the notion, though I really think King never meant
anything more than simple literary name-dropping (at most) to add an extra
spooky layer to his story’s trappings. But, just as the strange positioning of
the lock lends itself to allowing the reader to wander off in epic flights of
fancy regarding just exactly why it appears that way, so too does the box with
the name of Elias Varney. Why not imagine such a connection? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">I, too, had set myself toward scouring the interwebs for
some corroboration of the Varney theory, but found nothing beyond the forum
source that you did. Since I am not prone to jumping on theories without
multiple sourced facts to back it up, I discounted the notion. But I will agree
that it is a most engaging idea, and it caused me to head further to King’s
non-fictional foray into the history of horror fiction and film, <i>Danse Macabre</i>, itself first published a
couple of years (1981, to be precise) after <i>Night
Shift</i>. In <i>Danse Macabre</i>, King
name-checks Varney while discussing Bram Stoker’s <i>Dracula</i>, but nothing beyond informing us that the novel “never
degenerates to the level of Edgar Rice Burroughs and <i>Varney the Vampyre</i>.” So it is clear that King is well aware of
Varney, but doesn’t hold it in high regard as literature. He also fails to
include it in his list of important horror novels and stories in the appendix
for Danse Macabre. Since there, by his own words, “roughly a hundred” such
works included, it seems there would have been plenty of room if he wanted <i>Varney</i> there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: red;">But it also doesn’t mean that he was beyond dropping a
Varney reference into <i>Graveyard Shift</i>
as a gag. And no matter how much certain writers might bemoan this fate, once
the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, it is not going to go back in
easily. Once he published the story and the readers took in his words, the fate
of Elias Varney became their concern, whether a lightly implied joke or the
doorway to further horrors left undiscovered and untold.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Our discussion continues over on Rik's site as we delve into the film and its differences and similarities to the short story. To read that part visit<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://cinema4pylon.blogspot.com/2016/05/we-who-watch-behind-rows-graveyard.html" target="_blank"><b>Rik's Cinema 4 Pylon here.</b></a></span></span></div>
The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-58753042569230954492016-03-24T09:19:00.000-07:002016-03-24T09:20:05.967-07:00Visiting and Revisiting: Starcrash (1978) Pt. 2<div class="MsoNormal">
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This is Part II of a two-part discussion about
Luigi Cozzi's 1978 Italian "rip-off" of Star Wars, Starcrash. To read
the first part of this article, visit my buddy Rik Tod Johnson's Cinema 4 Pylon website at: </span></i><a href="http://bit.ly/21IWR4A" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15.36px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/21IWR4A</a><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> </span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><b>PART II</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><b><u>Rik:</u></b> The chief influence of
this film is clearly George Lucas' Star Wars; that cannot be denied. But there
is a huge dose of the legacy of the late Ray Harryhausen at play as well.
Stop-motion animation, not even close to being as fluid as Ray's patented
Dynamation process, plays a big role in this film in a couple of scenes. The
one that played a big part in coaxing me to the theatre was the sword fight
between Hasselhoff and a pair of robots that look like Gyro Gearloose from the
old Uncle Scrooge comics constructed them. They even look like they have
stylized duckbills. Hasselhoff picks up Gortner's lesser form of lightsaber (it
now reminds me more of the way that a Schwartz was used in Spaceballs) and has
a battle against the extremely jerky, sword-wielding automatons. The swordplay
is actually surprisingly engaging, even if the animation is definitely and
expectedly subpar to its influences (most definitely the skeleton fights in
Harryhausen's Jason and Sinbad films).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Where the stop-motion
animation really fails for me, however, is in the scene with the giant
"female" robot (with titanic, possibly titanium, breasts for some
reason -- who knew robots breastfed?) on the beach. The entire sequence is
clearly modeled after the Talos scene from Harryhausen's classic Jason and the
Argonauts, but it is almost painful to watch, so awkward are the relatively
simple movements involved in the scene. You could say that Talos in the
original movie was also jerky and awkward, but he was a normally inanimate
statue that had just been magically freed from its base. Talos was towering in
stature and composed of metal, like the "female" robot here, but its
limbs were not built for movement at all, merely to support its mass as a piece
of art; hence the jerkiness in its motions. However, Talos is imbued with
remarkable life by his creator -- that god being Harryhausen -- and as stiff as
he is naturally portrayed, he has clearly been brought to life fully and his
muscles and joints move, albeit deliberately, in a surprisingly life-like
manner. The robot in this film clearly has working knees and elbows, and
therefore it must be surmised that it is meant to walk around and perform its
duties, most likely to guard the planet upon which it resides. However, it
moves every bit as jerkily as Talos, even more so due to an obvious lower range
of talent attempting to duplicate the moves of the great Harryhausen. Of course,
maybe the Amazons on the planet were just inept engineers and technicians, and
they made a shitty robot that could barely move as required.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><u><b>Aaron:</b></u> That giant robot not
only had breasts, but large gear shaped nipples, as well! In a good film,
striking design choices like that can easily be explained as atmosphere-enhancing
aesthetics, but in Starcrash it just made me wonder, while watching that scene,
why the guard had been built that way. I suppose the fact that it’s a planet of
Amazons might explain why they’d choose a feminine form, but it did seem
strangely sexual. And why hadn’t they bothered animating even a basic bend of
the arm at least once? The animation looked like something a bright,
enthusiastic nine-year-old would make in their backyard. I mean, it’s great
looking for a nine-year-old playing with his action figures, but for an actual
movie projected in theatres, it’s laughably subpar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Speaking of references, I
really got a kick out of how blatantly they stole the look of the Martian
mastermind from Invaders From Mars for that of the judge that sentences Akton
and Stella to hard labor for their various crimes. On top of those references
already noted, there’s at least one shot that seems to directly echo Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey, Zarth Arn bears a more than passing resemblance to Ming
the Merciless from Flash Gordon, and some of the ship-launching sequences look
suspiciously like those in Battlestar Galactica. That last one may be nothing
more than coincidence considering how close their releases are to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;"><b><u>Rik:</u></b> Starcrash gets a lot of
surprising mileage out of just how colorful and charmingly fantasy-like its
vision of outer space is. The stars at night may or may not be big and bright
deep in the heart of Texas, but they are bigger and brighter here. Every
planet, moon, and star is represented in the sharpest of hues, and whatever
demerits can be attributed to the film on nearly every other level, one cannot
deny that much of the film is very pleasing to the eye. I am only watching the
film on DVD, and it is awash in the most brilliant colors, far more than I
remember. I can only imagine that the Blu-ray I gave you for Christmas is even
more pleasing (not that you have seen the DVD version).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><b><u>Aaron:</u></b> I have not seen the
DVD as you say, but I have watched some clips online (and on the special
features) that feature some of the footage before it was touched up, and the Blu-ray
is indeed pretty great looking. Aside from some blurriness here and there as a
result of aged film stock, everything is pretty eye-popping. There is one
downside to this, however, as the added clarity betrays some of the shots of
deep space to look like exactly what they are: multicolored light bulbs placed
against a black background. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">But yes, of course, the visuals
are great fun. The exteriors of the ships are off kilter and interesting
(though the ship from the beginning, the one that the emperor’s son escapes
from, looks a bit like a guitar frame someone stuck some plastic bits to and
then spray-painted grey), and the interiors are full of oddly designed
furniture and decorated in primary, often clashing colors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;"><b><u>Rik:</u></b> As I mentioned earlier,
in that attack on the Galactic starship at the beginning of the film, Count
Zarth Arn's minions use a weapon that creates a field of floating red spheroids
that are undeterred by walls or atmosphere, and simply drift through everything
in their path. The red spheroids exert a mind-altering force that serves to
drive the crew of the starship mad and ultimately cause the starship to
explode. This is the terrible weapon that, later in the film, Stella and her
pals are recruited to stop. It is a very simple but weirdly effective scene.
The spheroids are never actually touching or even in the same plane as anything
else; they are merely superimposed by the filmmakers over everything (according
to Starcrash expert Stephen Romano, the images are of various objects floating
in a fish tank). While the effect looks as low-rent and cheesy as anything in
the rest of the film, I found it to be one of the more memorable images from
the film, and it has stuck with me since that first teenage showing. The same
effect is used later in the film, on an even larger scale, when Stella's ship
is attacked. This time, the effect grows even more psychedelic, with other
elements added to the superimposed imagery. Watching it now, even seeing how
simple it is, it kind of holds up for me as one of my favorite moments in the
film. What did you think of the use of the red balls?</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><u><b>Aaron:</b></u> I must admit it didn’t
quite affect me in the same way. I agree it’s a nice enough image, and a clever
use of their limited budget, but the weapon itself seemed so… ill defined. The
characters never refer to globular red balls floating through the ship, and
instead repeatedly say they were attacked by groups of monsters. But there’s
really nothing monstrous about them, other than how unsettling it would be to
travel through space and suddenly find yourself inside a red lava lamp. There
was a lack of physicality to them that I found hard to connect with, and I
couldn’t really suspend my disbelief enough for them to read as menacing in any
way. They do remind me, however, of Rover, that giant white ball that acts as a
security system in The Prisoner. That’s a similarly cheap and spherical effect
that nonetheless still unsettles me when I see it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><b><u>Rik:</u></b> The Prisoner is such a
great show, and yes, Rover has always unsettled me, even to this day. Getting
back to the red blobs, I did find it amusing that one of the very first things that
Starcrash historian and DVD commentator Stephen Romano says when the scene pops
up is to discount the theory that the filmmakers have merely superimposed an
image of a lava lamp over the rest of the film. It made me chuckle because that
is what my friends and I have always figured it was over the years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;">Watching Starcrash now,
Caroline Munro is every bit as lovely as I remember her, but there is an odd
thing that must be told about her performance. Even though she is a British
actress, Munro's dialogue was dubbed for its Western release by Candy Clark,
who was married to Marjoe Gortner, who plays Stella's super-powered sidekick,
Akton, in the film. Supposedly, when they redubbed the film, both Munro and her
husband, Judd Hamilton (who played the loyal robot, Elle), were not flown over
to America to save expenses, and so Clark and character actor Hamilton Camp
were used in their places. It's a shame that we don't get to hear Munro's own
voice as this is her biggest role in a film, and because I find Clark's line
readings to be as off-kilter and often stiff as many of her own performances.
Though I do adore Candy Clark in certain films, I don't think she is a
particularly adept actress, and her voice doesn't quite match some of Munro's
reactions emotionally. That said, the only voice I find annoying in the film is
that of Elle the robot. The Texas twang with which Camp imbued the robot in the
English dub is quite tiring and ridiculous, and it adds undoubtedly to the
film's cheese factor.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Physically, Munro is jaw dropping
gorgeous as Stella Star. She only wears her skimpy leather bikini outfit for
the first chunk of the film, and as a teen, I was upset that her outfits gets
increasingly less provocative as the film progresses. By the end of the film,
Stella is completely covered up in a full bodysuit and cape (and ultimately, a
space helmet). While one would look at any another movie for its psychological
implications (has the hell-bent Stella been tamed by her conversion from
bikini-wearing smuggler to demure heroine?), the real reason here seems to be
Munro wanting more to wear in the film than just a leather bikini. On one of
the audio commentaries, Romano quotes Harlan Ellison as saying that they had to
ugly up Munro a bit for the film so that the cameras wouldn't melt. I've looked
around to verify this quote (unsuccessfully so far), but I do have to agree
that such a thing might have been possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;">Does Caroline Munro affect
you in the same way, sir, or is my lingering affection merely a by-product of
my misspent youth?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><b><u>Aaron:</u></b> All I can say is that
Caroline Munro is delightfully cute, and it was a pleasure to spend a couple of
hours watching her traverse the stars. I can only imagine what my opinion would
be had I been exposed to her in my formative years. However, it saddens me to
know that I can’t really appreciate her performance in this film, as her lines
were dubbed by someone else. She certainly appears to be giving it her all, but
the lines come out a bit stale, which is a problem that affects almost everyone
in the cast, even those who were able to dub their own dialogue. You mention in
particular disliking Hamilton Camp’s portrayal of Elle, and while I can’t argue
with you, I have to say I kind of enjoyed the hillbilly twang he gave the
robot. It was such an out of place detail that some part of me loved the
randomness of having a robot in this fantasy galaxy speak like an extra on Hee
Haw.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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to talk about Marjoe Gortner’s character, Akton. As I said, he seems like a Han
Solo analog at first, but turns out to be more Obi Wan Kenobi. That may not be
entirely accurate, but he’s certainly supposed to be Starcrash’s version of a
Jedi master, complete with light saber. But it continually bothered me how
little they go into Akton’s powers or background. He just randomly exhibits new
powers whenever the plot demands, and while no one ever expects him to have
these powers, no one ever questions them either. Discussing plot holes or story
inconsistencies seems almost beside the point for this film, though. Starcrash
feels beyond criticism, in a way, as if the normal rules of storytelling don’t
apply to it. Still, I think a little bit more information about this character
would have been much appreciated.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;"><u><b>Rik:</b></u> No one is ever going to
mistake Starcrash for Star Wars. But I also think that some of the spaceship
design is pretty interesting. One of the ships is even named after science
fiction author Murray Leinster, who specialized in pulp adventures such as this
(though his works were often more elevated intellectually than Starcrash). By
the time I saw this film, I was not only immersed in the technology of Star
Wars, but also Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers (I actually watched the TV
pilots for both series in theatres). I was swamped with outer space
dogfighting, and so when I finally did get to see this film, I had already
gotten a bit tired of spaceships due to the over-saturation of the market.
Honestly, I really just wanted the film to get to the parts with Stella, so
maybe my teenage boy sex drive had overtaken my patience with everything else.
Watching the film since, though, I really enjoy many of the ship scenes,
especially the quite appropriate design of the evil Count's ship, which looks
like a giant, clawed hand.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><u><b>Aaron:</b></u> The ships are great,
and straddle the line between innovative and old-fashioned. Some of the ships
are clearly on tracks, and look like the planes that would attack Godzilla in
his early decades, but then some of them are quite interesting and feature more
detailed movement. Zarth Arn’s fist-shaped ship (try saying that five times
fast) is the clear standout, though it does beg the question; what is that
design for? Have you ever wondered why Zarth Arn would need five extendable
digits on his space fortress? They don’t appear to provide any protection or
added benefits beyond being a cool visual gimmick. Then again, given how
flamboyant Zarth Arn is in his fashion sense and demeanor, that would probably
be enough for him. In a quick side note, Joe Spinell as Zarth Arn really
reminded me of Dave Grohl, which gave me a quick chuckle any time he was
stomping around the screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Having now seen the film
two-and-a-half times, I think I might be done with it for a while. I enjoyed
it, but I think I’ll let it sit in my memory for a little while, where I can
let the neat visuals and the fun swashbuckling moments overshadow the more
perfunctory plot motions. Seeing the film for the first time as a man in his
late thirties, I think that might be the best way to experience this film; as a
burst of juvenile excitement. Best to allow it to sit in your mind and remind you
of how totally awesome sword-fighting robots, spaceship dogfights, and the very
idea of ‘the haunted stars’ can be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><b><u>Rik:</u></b> Obviously, the design of
Zarth Arn’s fist-shaped ship is so he can pull four of the fingers back to flip
the bird at his enemies. He’s just that type of guy. I see your point about
Spinell reminding you of Dave Grohl, and I must admit it did cross my mind
briefly and made me chuckle a bit. Spinell, as he often does, sort of reminds
me of the younger and not yet enormously rotund Ron Jeremy as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="color: red;">I, too, am probably done with
Starcrash for a good while. Having just watched it about five more times in the
past couple of months, I think it is burned in pretty good for the time being.
In those two months though, my estimation for the film has gone up ever so
slightly, but not so much that I ever forget my long-running disappointment
with the film. Loves and hates that stem from childhood or your teen years are
awfully hard to shake. I still think Caroline Munro is one of the most
beautiful women to ever appear on the movie screen, but I also think Starcrash
is well below what constitutes a good film, even on a pure entertainment level.
That said, were I ever to throw a video party again (not that I have in the
past twenty years), this might be one that I would choose to show everyone a
crazy, weird time and allow everyone to riff at will.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-1854106471324023202016-02-09T18:00:00.000-08:002016-02-10T06:54:26.286-08:002016 Movie a Day: Run All Night<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Liam Neeson is so far into his second career as a soulful, grieving action hero that it can be hard to remember a time when he was more known for films like <i>Schindler's List, Love Actually</i>, and <i>Michael Collins</i>. Part of what has made him so successful in this role is that he never seems to be phoning it in. Liam Neeson commits fully to the sometimes-preposterous action films he's been starring in to a level far beyond what they might otherwise warrant. Simply by signing on to a film he's raised its cultural and critical cachet. And yet, the formula is showing signs of decay. His character descriptions are starting to read like self-parody, and the plotlines and stylistic touches are beginning to blur together. In Run All Night, Neeson's third film with director Jaume Collet-Serra (the others are <i>Non-Stop</i> and<i> Unknown</i>, with a fourth one on the way!), he plays an aging hitman for the mob who hasn't worked in years, but is kept around by the boss (Ed Harris) out of sentimental reasons. Neeson's wife is dead, his son wants nothing to do with him, he's never seen his grandkids, and he's a punchline to everyone he used to work with, resorting to playing Santa Claus at a Christmas party for the rest of the gang in order to get a few hundred bucks to fix his heater. The trouble starts, in a manner too convoluted for me to care about detailing, when Ed Harris' hothead son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) threatens the life of Liam Neeson's son, Mike (Joel Kinnaman), prompting Neeson to shoot him, and Harris to vow his revenge.<br />
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This setup seems pretty strong, bolstered by a cast more than capable of giving this material weight and resonance, and overseen by a director who has experience with the type of grim action pieces Liam Neeson's new fans have come to expect. Maybe it's all of the great old school, straightforward action films I've been watching in recent weeks, but Run All Night seemed like nothing more than a missed opportunity. The plot I described up above seems like the perfect jumping off point for a no-nonsense action film with shadings of Greek tragedy in the relationship between its two leads. I hate to compare a movie I'm watching to the one I've got in my head, but I couldn't stop thinking about what Walter Hill might have done with this in his heyday, or what Nicolas Winding Refn would have done with it today. Instead the film we got is a portentous mess that squanders the amazing chemistry Neeson and Harris bring to their brief scenes together.<br />
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And chemistry they do have. Ed Harris brings an unforced intensity to every part he plays, while Neeson brings a wounded, slightly hangdog seriousness to these action films, and the two work great together. In only a couple of scenes they sell the idea that these two completely different individuals are actually lifelong friends that have drifted far apart over the years, but still enjoy each other's company. The rest of the cast is a little shakier in comparison. Joel Kinnaman is a decent enough actor, though he's a bit of a non presence here. Nick Nolte shows up in a brief cameo that was delightfully unexpected, and yet didn't really amount to much. The real dud, however, is Common as an almost supernaturally efficient hitman. His weird sci-fi appearance and odd facial makeup (I think they meant to give him a harelip, but it just looks like he's just suffering from a bad cold sore) seem to have been airlifted in from another movie.<br />
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Run All Night is a dark film, in more than just plot. The film is murky and artfully underlit, distorting the action scenes sometimes to the point of abstraction. After awhile it became visual white noise; two or more characters would converge, the screen would get all choppy and blurry while I could hear the unmistakable sounds of fists hitting chests and skulls hitting walls, and then someone would run away, and I would assume they had just won the fight. It was hard to get a sense of where the characters were and what they were doing at any time, a problem made paradoxically worse by Collet-Serra's repeated tendency to link scenes by zooming the camera quickly through the city to focus on what other characters are doing at other locations. This was intended to give the film a sense of scope to Neeson's journey as he races to keep his estranged family out of the clutches of Harris' goons, and to ground it in a real and definable place, but it came out as distancing, giving physical spaces an abstract feeling, removing them from the real world.<br />
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In the end, Run All Night's biggest problem is one of expectation. For a film centered around -and titled after- the concept of continuous movement and escape, the film sure does spend a lot of time with characters who are just sitting and talking in underlit rooms. The best, or at least most memorable, of Liam Neeson's action films, like <i>The Grey</i> or the first <i>Taken</i> film, have benefited from a constant sense of forward momentum. They put Neeson's grim determination to work, propelling the film along with a certain sense of fatalistic energy. Run All Night, on the other hand, stops and starts so often that by the time the end comes around (which, due to the cold open, we've seen most of already), my interest had well and truly deflated.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>2.5(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-26443710829824690532016-02-08T18:00:00.000-08:002016-02-08T18:57:49.559-08:002016 Movie a Day: John Wick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Keanu Reeves gets a bad rap as an actor, in my opinion. He may not be the world's greatest living thespian, or even in the top 50, but he's not really a bad actor either. He has an unflappably stoic persona, and a very limited range, which sometimes makes his more emotional scenes a bit uncomfortable, but he also has an appealing presence on screen. It's what made him so effective as Neo in the Matrix films, but also made him woefully ridiculous in Bram Stoker's Dracula. However, I've always been a fan, and I enjoy seeing the choices he makes in his career. He's a guy who clearly fell in love with the art of stuntwork and fight choreography, and has molded his career around some solidly populous dramas and romantic comedies that allow him to make a few flops like 47 Ronin. His directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi, reads as an ode to Hong Kong filmmaking and old school fight choreography. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it, as he clearly understands how to use the camera in concert with the actors dueling on screen, and is probably the purest representation of that style ever made with an English speaking audience in mind.<br />
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As the Michael Bay-ification of summer blockbusters continues, with summers full of overstuffed, overly CGI-assisted tentpole action films, it's good to see that the art of the stunt is not gone. For years now the most interesting work being done for fans of no-frills action has been done in the direct-to-video market, where fight choreography still places emphasis on the choreography part of that equation, and a lack of time and money leads to a narrative paring down to the absolute essentials of a story. Films carrying on the tradition of Asian action filmmaking (simple plots to support exquisitely crafted motion) like Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, or even the last two Universal Soldier sequels, have been offering straightforward, mythic, solidly constructed action thrills of a type that seems almost nonexistent in the current crop of billion dollar blockbusters. It's as if the stuntmen and fight coordinators, finding they weren't as in-demand with the major studios as they used to be, went off and started making their own movies. Which, as it turns out, is pretty much what's happened.<br />
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John Wick was written by Derek Kolstad, whose only previous credits were a pair of direct to video Dolph Lundgren flicks, and it marks the directorial debut of Chad Stahelski, a stuntman who began his career with the original Point Break in 1991. John Wick clearly showcases a love of physical stunts and well staged fight scenes. While some of the shots were enhanced with CGI, mainly blood effects & green screen composites for some of the car stunts, most of what you see on the screen was actually rehearsed and filmed as you see it. The film also cuts out a lot of the bloat that can creep into action movies, and the story can be tidily summed up as 'ex-assassin gets back in the game for one last time on a quest for revenge. There are some quirks to that story (the revenge is for a cute puppy), some details to add some depth (the revenge is against the son of his old boss), and some impressive nods at world building. In fact, a lot has been made about that world building, as John Wick inhabits the type of criminal underworld normally only seen in comic books. All the assassins hang out at The Continental, a hotel with an elaborate rule system to keep its clients safe and private. All transactions are paid for with gold coins, the only currency apparently accepted among the criminals in this world. The world that John Wick inhabits is a fun one to spend time in, but the film never gets overly bogged down with these details, as the filmmakers realize it works best as a backdrop for bone crunching fistfights and hails of gunfire.<br />
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Those fistfights and gunfights carry a very satisfying weight to them, as they are delivered by a crew who knows intimately how to photograph bodies in motion, and who understands the importance of utilizing the space within a frame. The action in John Wick features a lot of long takes, and some unobtrusive editing, that gives everything a believable physicality even when the action reaches ridiculous proportions. Chad Stahelski tends to roam around the scene with his camera, defining the contours of a room or hallway so that when the fighting starts he can cut within that area and the audience will be able to quickly follow along and orient themselves.<br />
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A sequel is currently in the works for John Wick, which is a no brainer considering how well the film performed both critically and commercially, but I have my doubts. John Wick is so blissfully self contained, a true standout when most films these days seem to come preplanned as trilogies (with the final film split in two, of course), that the prospect of another journey of revenge for this character seems like a dubious proposition. Of course there's that fun and detailed world to explore, but I worry that exploring it too deeply will lead to a more complicated mythology than this story needed (a la the Matrix sequels). Still, everyone involved in making this films seems to have learned the right lessons from the action films they cut their teeth on, so at the very least it should be great to look at, and exciting to watch.<br />
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Final Rating; <b>4(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-53018414380051263852016-02-02T18:00:00.000-08:002016-02-02T18:59:18.139-08:002016 Movie a Day: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'll be upfront about this: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl features a lot of things that should make me hate it. It's a movie about a broken white male who learns how to fix himself with the help of a magical black man and an equally magical dying girl, two tropes that really irk me. It's also set in high school, and features another trope that bothers me, maybe more than the others; preternaturally witty teenagers. The problems with teenagers and children in pop culture is that the people writing these characters base them on idealized versions of themselves, or people they knew. No actual teenager is as well spoken or assured as most teens we see in movies, because we tend to remember our younger selves as simply smaller versions of our adult selves, and we forget how awkward, emotionally, physically, and verbally, we were at the time. So, this film is made up of a collection of tropes I hate, and yet I somehow came to love the film.<br />
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Greg (Thomas Mann, the titular Me) is a closed off teenager entering his senior year of high school. He's survived by working hard to be accepted by every imaginable clique in his school, carefully tuning his personality to be as invisible as possible and making sure he never forms any real attachments or enemies. He even refers to his oldest childhood friend, Earl (RJ Cyler) as simply his coworker, referencing the dozens of handmade film parodies they've made since elementary school. When one of his classmates, Rachel (Olivia Cooke, typecast these days as the Dying Girl), a near stranger, is diagnosed with leukemia, Greg's mother forces him to spend time with her to cheer her up. Which sets our story in motion, as we follow Greg through his senior year, tracking the growing, rocky friendship he develops with Rachel and the possible dissolution of his friendship with Earl. <br />
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All of this is filtered through the ironically detached eye of a geeky film nerd, with references to Werner Herzog (a lot of references, actually), Stan Brakhage, The Archers, Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, and advertisements for the Criterion Collection hanging in bedrooms and bookstores and teacher's studies. The soundtrack often echoes the musical scores to Hitchcock films and spaghetti westerns, and Greg and Earl's film parodies, as silly as they might be, have their roots in a very refined cinematic palette (example parody titles include 'My Dinner With Andre The Giant,' 'The Turd Man,' and 'Don't Look Now, Because a Creepy-ass Dwarf is About to Kill You!!! Damn.'). This veers dangerously close to being too cutesy for it's own good, and yet I found it charming. Perhaps it's because these two seem to be living the dream life version of my own senior year, if only I'd found anyone else quite so into oddball arthouse films and lowbrow humor. The direction, from Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (who also helmed the better-than-it-needed-to-be Town That Dreaded Sundown remake), gives this film a more idiosyncratic, accomplished look and feel than most other teen-oriented dramas even attempt these days.<br />
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I said earlier the film follows Greg, and I say that pointedly, because we never see anything that is outside of his perspective. This fact seemed to anger most critics, who judged the film primarily as the collection of tropes I listed above. Certainly the film leans heavily into stereotype, particularly with Earl, who lives in a bad neighborhood and is overly stoic. The closest he has to a catchphrase, "dem titties," seems just a step above having him eat fried chicken and watermelon in every scene. Rachel, also, is sometimes reduced to a series of reactions to Greg, as we see her cheered up by his antics or too sick to put up with them at various times. That reduction to caricature extends to the rest of the cast too, with Greg's parents (Nick Offerman & Connie Britton) portrayed as slightly loopy, hippyish academics. Earl's family fares much worse, with only his brother (Bobb'e J. Thompson) appearing on screen, and he's the basic stereotype of a young African American hoodlum, with tank top, do-rag, tattoos, and an always aggressive dog at his side. It continues on to Rachel's mom (Molly Shannon), who is always filmed holding a glass of wine, Greg's history teacher (Jon Bernthal) is a heavily tattooed variation of the tough but inspiring high school teacher, and all of the other teen characters seem to be central casting's idea of 'goth' 'cheerleader' or 'jock.' Everyone in this film is a caricature.<br />
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Clearly this sort of one dimensional character work is intentional; it's a result of the film occupying so completely Greg's point of view. It does not, however, necessarily agree with that viewpoint, and I tend to think it's just the opposite. It's true that these characters exist primarily as backdrop to Greg's emotional growth, but it's telling that none of them actually help him in his maturation. In fact, most of his growth occurs because the characters get sick of his self-absorbed bullshit and shut him out of their lives. Even though the film is seen through Greg's eyes, the audience still gets clues as to how his actions are really impacting people, through subtle gestures or looks we can see what Greg ignores, we can see when he's saying the wrong thing or ignoring someone else's feelings. This is a bit of form and a bit of function, as Greg's emotional arc requires him to become less self-involved and more open to forming attachments to those around him, so the film is required to open up at times as well. This is most poignantly driven home late in the film when Greg visit's Rachel's room. He's spent countless hours within that room, but is just now noticing the tiny details; the small drawings Rachel sketched into the pattern of her wallpaper, the intricately carved out books on her shelves, the photos of her friends and family. The accumulation of a life lived that he was unaware of.<br />
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl may populate it's runtime with stock stereotypes, but it also takes the effort to suggest that these stereotypes have an existence beyond what we see. It would be easy enough to imagine this story being told from the point of view of any of the primary characters. Which is part of why I fell in love with this movie; teenagers are self-involved assholes. This is just fine, it's not a judgment call, we all were at that age. But a lot of teen-oriented movies seem to forget that fact, and they idealize the period of our lives when we're at our worst and most awkward. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl also idealizes this period, but it has the honesty to acknowledge that a lot of our actions at this age are regrettable, to say the least.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>4(out of 5)</b><br />
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<b><br /></b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-78492579231628723582016-02-01T18:00:00.000-08:002016-02-01T18:00:20.001-08:002016 Movie a Day: Documentary Roundup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom (2015):</b> This is nowhere near being an objective account of the Euromaidan protests that swept Ukraine beginning in late 2013, and anyone looking for a detailed account of the socio-political issues that inspired them would be well advised to look elsewhere. What Winter on Fire is, however, is a blow by blow, street level account of what was going on with the protesters themselves. Initially angered by the pro-Russian president's backing out of talks to join the European Union, Ukrainian citizens of all ages convened in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) to peacefully protest this move and call for a continuation of talks. Netflix commissioned cameras to be filming 24/7 at the very beginning of the protests, which means the entire event was captured on film, either through a documentarian's lens or through a protester's smartphone. What this also means is that you can pinpoint the exact moment things fall apart, as police storm the square and begin beating unarmed and nonviolent protesters.<br />
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I already said that this film makes no effort to be objective; the filmmaker's sympathy lies only with the protesters, who the film posits as brave freedom fighters putting their lives on the line for what everyone in Ukraine wants. There's not really any mention of an opposing viewpoint, although there were plenty of Pro-Russian protests as well. As with all things, you should try to remember that every stance has an opposing view that may be just as valid. It's best not to view this film as an idealogical statement, but to see it as a you-are-there document of the horrible mistreatment these protesters had to suffer through. Fair warning; the violence is brutal, and you will watch a few people die. Roger Ebert once said that what made him cry in movies was kindness, was seeing someone in the film do something selfless for someone else. I thought of that as I cried during this film, watching people race out into gunfire with nothing but a wooden shield to protect them in order to try and help the wounded to safety, no matter which side of the fight they happened to be on.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>4.5(out of 5)</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0JvAYNrM5_lYy1oLQlmE2JCfcEoHVFeVlmjCR-eVc5PUb_l_6TkhuDcvqtXurjy9Ed2x5OkFP8Y0-JAcQ2X08upiI6a3b4T4GqQ36A0oRZX-4oddYi7qDfKkKbcHvI-u7GegM/s1600/What-Happened-Miss-Simone-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0JvAYNrM5_lYy1oLQlmE2JCfcEoHVFeVlmjCR-eVc5PUb_l_6TkhuDcvqtXurjy9Ed2x5OkFP8Y0-JAcQ2X08upiI6a3b4T4GqQ36A0oRZX-4oddYi7qDfKkKbcHvI-u7GegM/s320/What-Happened-Miss-Simone-poster.jpg" width="228" /></a><b>What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)</b>: I did not know much about Nina Simone before going into this, although I've owned a compilation of her music that I love quite a bit. I knew of her personal life mostly through her civil rights era activities, and to be honest I wasn't really that interested to know more. Nothing against Miss Simone, but I'm past the age where I would read articles and interviews and histories about my favorite artists, and nowadays that stuff just doesn't interest me as much. I worried a little about my lack of Nina Simone knowledge going into this documentary, because often biopics, particularly those about celebrities, tend to assume a little bit of familiarity with their subject. they expect you to know a bit about their career already, and sometimes rely on that information to fill in some gaps they might not have the time to completely get into.<br />
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What Happened, Miss Simone? started out a little worryingly, beginning with a concert late into her career that would be infamous to Simone devotees, but didn't quite land with the same impact for me. She is an electric performer, but seems to be bristling during the performance, viewing the audience as adversaries and stopping mid-song to call them out for presumed slights. The film then jumps back to Simone's early childhood and follows a more standard musical-biopic mold, checking off all of the boxes these things require. I'll admit I wasn't really enjoying the first half of this documentary, which I felt was a bit <i>too </i>standard, and gave no indication of Nina Simone the person. We here the pertinent details, but there isn't much more than a glimpse of what the human being behind the public persona is. About halfway through, however, things cohere a bit more, and it's clear that the film's lack of defining Nina Simone isn't a weakness, but perhaps a strength. Nina Simone was someone who always felt uncomfortable with fame, who felt regret at a career that it seems she felt was a bit beneath her (her original goal was to be a classical pianist, not a, as she puts it, pop singer). Her involvement in the civil rights movement brought some of that angst to the forefront, and she began to wear her bitterness and sadness more openly. What Happened, Miss Simone? is an exploration of the question asked in the title, and it never quite answers it. The film reveals Nina Simone to be a complex, possibly unknowable human being, as much a mystery to the people who knew and loved her as to her fans.<br />
<br />Final Rating: <b>4(out of 5)</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqXtqUFPl8aSapbzOnJW7d5KaCTTAVx-fpL4rkxXfyl5ZVSpQIQT7xXRQOaTXRc0WDz9DBB6MoJgKF-80s-Fq_XKTdyD17SXEDOmBkQv7hyphenhyphenAetR8ScqxmXm53AIfAmDDaBjGV/s1600/paris-is-burning-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqXtqUFPl8aSapbzOnJW7d5KaCTTAVx-fpL4rkxXfyl5ZVSpQIQT7xXRQOaTXRc0WDz9DBB6MoJgKF-80s-Fq_XKTdyD17SXEDOmBkQv7hyphenhyphenAetR8ScqxmXm53AIfAmDDaBjGV/s320/paris-is-burning-poster.jpg" width="216" /></a><b>Paris is Burning (1990)</b>: This is the type of documentary I really gravitate towards; the type that has no real agenda beyond introducing you to a small, unseen lifestyle or community. Paris is Burning is a snapshot of a certain subculture of gay life in late 1980s New York. Following a handful of colorful individuals as they prepare for and compete in drag shows in and around Harlem. Drag in this context doesn't imply any sort of gender mixing, but instead a costume in general, with the winner of the competition being the one who best embodies the 'realness' of their role. The film has no villains, no heroes, not greater message it's trying to make. Although the spectre of AIDS hangs over the proceedings, this has more to do with our current perspective on that period of time. Instead Paris is Burning's goal appears to be simply to provide a showcase for the various flamboyant individuals who make up the drag circuit. Dividing themselves into Houses, their lives revolve around strutting and performing, and everything else they do is simply to help them get ready for the next show. Their costumes are pieced together from whatever they can hustle for, or whatever they're quick enough to steal.<br />
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Late in the film, one of the participants, Venus Xtravaganza, is found strangled to death in a seedy motel room. That is an undeniably tragic loss, as Venus' Pollyannaish dreams and unflagging energy provided one of the brightest spots in the film. Her death is the closest this film comes to making a statement, as it explicitly acknowledges the danger inherent in this lifestyle, particularly in this time and this place. But then the film moves on, life moves on. Some people succeed (Willi Ninja in particularly is shown making a name for himself as a choreographer), others continue competing, hustling and surviving.<br />
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Final Rating:<b> 4(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-80298376066313958822016-01-29T22:42:00.001-08:002016-01-29T22:42:14.831-08:002016 Movie a Day: Kung Fu Killer<i><b>Quick editorial note; the onscreen title for this film is Kung Fu Killer, and can be found on netflix as such. However, some sites and guides list this movie under an earlier English title; Kung Fu Jungle.</b></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6K7Bphxb0icZEalrpNAceOip9a6TKUCfcc6RibSxrpDRUyL0W0VxgUikJ9JC8z11FvjjXUKPijEnx6VV0XKkYp3lD-HE1chH4obuDB8Dm5nbbJ31cm5d3q-Ur9I3i_P9mo6n/s1600/kungfujungle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6K7Bphxb0icZEalrpNAceOip9a6TKUCfcc6RibSxrpDRUyL0W0VxgUikJ9JC8z11FvjjXUKPijEnx6VV0XKkYp3lD-HE1chH4obuDB8Dm5nbbJ31cm5d3q-Ur9I3i_P9mo6n/s320/kungfujungle.jpg" width="221" /></a>In 1997 the British returned soveriegnty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. In anticipation of this handover, many Hong Kong filmmakers, fearing censorship under the new regime, emigrated to American shores. John Woo, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li were just a few of the more high profile names to make the jump to American films, with varying degrees of success. Donnie Yen wasn't part of that initial wave, but he eventually made it stateside in the early 2000s, though he was exclusively relegated to mostly-mute henchman roles, someone who appeared ready to kick major ass, but would be disposed of quickly by being shot, or, worse yet, dying offscreen. This was hardly the best showcase for his skills as a martial artist, and he quickly went back to Hong Kong. Most of these filmmakers did; the feared censorship never really manifested in any serious capacity, and Americans could never figure out what to do with their talents.<br />
<br />It may have taken awhile, but it looks like the western world is finally catching on to just how great Donnie Yen is, thanks to the highly successful Ip Man movies, which have inspired a small boom in films about that man's life. Those who ventured beyond the Jackie Chan movies that filled American theatres in the late 90s, or at least those who paid attention to the names below the top line of the credits, have been well aware of Mr. Yen's talents for at least two decades now. I first noticed him in a pair of wuxia films, Wing Chun and Iron Monkey, where his cheerful, boyish demeanor belied an assured and elegant fighting style. As the years have gone on, and Yen's features have become more lined with age, that fighting style has evolved to become more brutal, less balletic, but still incredibly visually engaging.<br />
<br />Which brings us to Kung Fu Killer, a high octane genre mashup that plays everything completely straight, while also expecting that the audience will recognize and accept the silliness running underneath. The film is pretty much a mix between a slick, stylish serial killer movie and an old school martial arts tournament film. Think David Fincher's Seven mixed with Master of the Flying Guillotine, or any other martial arts film where the hero has to fight a series of masters with their own distinct fighting styles. In this film, the serial killer is targeting Kung Fu masters, each one representing a different discipline or style. One is a master of grappling, another known for his kicks, another known for his use of weapons, and so on. Donnie Yen plays the only person who can stop him; a martial arts master who is serving time in prison for accidentally killing a man during a duel. The killer has fixated on Yen as the pinnacle of Kung Fu perfection, and desires only to fight him to the death.<br />
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As I said, you have to brace yourself for some straight-faced silliness in this film, which is never presented as jokey and is therefore too easy to take seriously. Some of this, like the recurring scenes of policemen and forensics units investigating the aftermath of epic Kung Fu battles like normal crime scenes, is pure hilarious brilliance. Some of it, in particular the placeholder backstory for the killer, can be incredibly earnest and schmaltzy. But really, the plot is just a skeleton on which to hang a bunch of cool fights and setpieces. And the fights in this film are truly great, as each one features a new style of fighting and a new unique backdrop. One fight in a giant warehouse takes place on and around a giant skeleton statue for an upcoming art exhibit, another takes place on a busy highway and becomes a fistfight variation of Frogger (it should be said that the green screen effects for some of this, particularly when the fight moves underneath the passing semi-trucks, is laughably unconvincing).<br />
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One thing that's great about Hong Kong cinema is its use of space and camera movement. In America our action films evolved around cars and guns, and guns in particularly do not make for interesting cinema. The act of firing a gun leaves an invisible area between action and reaction, and a lot of action films can devolve into someone in one shot firing a weapon and people in another shot trying to avoid squibs. In Hong Kong action films evolved around martial arts, which is more like dancing than the fighting in American films. In a martial arts film, action and reaction are incontovertibly connected, which immediately seems more dynamic. This lead to a natural inclusion of the space in which the scene takes place, and a tendency towards longer shots where the characters are framed full body. What good is putting dancing on screen if you can't see anyone's feet? I'm not saying either style is better overall, but I do wish more western filmmakers took that lesson of space usage.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Alternate Title: Kung Fu UPS-Guy Prison<br /></td></tr>
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For those not already attuned to what is going on, the end credits are preceded by a 'thank you' from the filmmakers to all the people who have inspired them, and it reveals that almost every onscreen part in the film was filled with a luminary from Hong Kong martial arts cinema. It's a fun, touching moment, and shows where this film's true ambition lies. Not to outdo the classics of the genre, but to just throw as much cool shit at the audience as possible. On that front, it succeeds.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>4(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-20824651055475242252016-01-28T22:41:00.000-08:002016-01-28T22:46:43.252-08:00Catching Up On 2016 Movie a Day Pt. 1So far this year I've been trying to watch a movie a day, or at least keep the number of watched movies somewhat even with the progressing calendar. Basically, I may have to skip a day or two, but I'll make up for it by watching multiple movies on days off. So far I'm keeping good on my goal; it is currently the 28th and I've seen 29 feature films. And yet I've been writing these Movie a Day posts for just over a week, meaning that there are several films that I haven't written about yet. Here is the first in a series of posts in which I'll clear out that backlog with some briefer than usual posts. Maybe just a paragraph. I'll be peppering these in every now and then until I'm completely caught up. See if you can spot today's theme.<br />
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<b>Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)</b>: The latest film based on a Mark Millar comic book, and the second one to be directed by Matthew Vaughn (the other was Kick-Ass). The potential for this movie was through the roof, with relative newcomer Taron Egerton surrounded by an impressive cast of old pros; Colin Firth, Michael Caine, Mark Strong, and Samuel L. Jackson. Matthew Vaughn certainly knows his way around this type of boy's adventure story, having worked with Guy Ritchie in the early days of both of their careers. Matthew Vaughn and Guy Ritchie may not have started off together, but they found each other early on, and will probably always be linking in the minds of some fans due to their early work together. In the early 2000s Matthew Vaughn began to step out of Guy Ritchie's shadow by directing his own films, although his first film, Layer Cake, did feel a bit suspiciously familiar to anyone who had seen <i>Snatch</i> or <i>Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels</i>. Since then he's proved a little bit more eclectic, though he is drawn to comic books, and he's certainly in step with Millar's mix of gleefully crass humor and stylish violence. The problem, though, is that the trick is getting old. Perhaps it's just me, having now seen four Mark Millar films and read several of his comic series, but I'm getting tired of his brand of Boy's Adventures wish-fulfillment. Most of his stories, particularly his original creations, follow a lone outcast who gives square society the finger and violently, brutally forges his own path. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to just turn my brain off and enjoy his questionable politics and incomparable bad taste.</div>
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Kingsman seems at first blush to represent a slobs against snobs sort of take on international espionage, and seems to argue for a less class oriented view of life. But in the end the film is actually making a case for the sort of outmoded, classist attitudes the earlier passages seem to refute. The film, for the most part, is a gory James Bond riff with an uncultured young punk proving that he's just as good, or better, than his more posh counterparts. By the end of the film, however, he's joined the ranks of those posh individuals as he becomes just another lone white guy with a gun who is the only one capable of saving the world. That's my problem with Millar in a nutshell; he seems anarchic and punkish, but he's actually fairly rightwing and reactionary. It's a glaring detail that the only real world leader referenced in the film, shown in league with the villain, is Barack Obama, while the villain is defeated by a piece of Reagan-era weaponry. It might also be an important detail that the villain is a black man who dresses in what would be considered an urban style who is defeated by a group of wealthy white men in impeccably tailored suits. Perhaps I'm reading way too much into that, but I foresee Mark Millar having the same problem as Frank Miller, where eventually his anarchic bent is overshadowed by his latent fascism.</div>
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Those arguments aside, Kingsman can be a lot of fun. I enjoyed most of it, and realized that my problems with the film were probably overthinking things a bit. A few scenes hit a sort of psycho-freakout intensity that marks the film firing on all cylinders, and there's a montage of exploding heads that is brilliantly off kilter. But then the film ends with a princess offering our hero anal sex in exchange for saving the world, and that deflates things a little bit.</div>
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Final Rating: <b>3(out of 5)</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7z3aomWb3qjAz_3i7m8yafWAUxMl8auzYgoPcGkoBM41YIo1xd3t_5oPhzoHLwI6AdsaJ6Pj3KctOIYCtTXhmbFwwjMG1ZzyiJh0x5pDkvn90ZanCFbaX0SUYZzYWx_VTd3S/s1600/manfromuncleposterlarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7z3aomWb3qjAz_3i7m8yafWAUxMl8auzYgoPcGkoBM41YIo1xd3t_5oPhzoHLwI6AdsaJ6Pj3KctOIYCtTXhmbFwwjMG1ZzyiJh0x5pDkvn90ZanCFbaX0SUYZzYWx_VTd3S/s320/manfromuncleposterlarge.jpg" width="199" /></a><b>The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015): </b>Guy Ritchie got his start with gritty, shaggy, slightly comedic tales of low level criminals in London, but seemed to get sidetracked by Hollywood success and has spent much of the last decade working on the Sherlock Holmes films. I'll admit that I found his first <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> film fun but somewhat soulless, and the less said about the sequel the better. But with Man From U.N.C.L.E., he seems to have finally figured out how to meld his particular talents with the demands of big budget blockbuster filmmaking. This is not a return to form in the slightest, but neither is it a drastic step forward in his artistic evolution. If anything, this is just Guy Ritchie finding a way to make an action film that is suited to his style: stylish, funny, and fleet-footed. It's not perfect, far from it, but it's probably the most satisfying film he's made in years. Both this film and Kingsman feature a similar dependence on style over substance, but I found it worked much more successfully in this picture.</div>
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Casting seems to play a large part in this fun, although it's amusing to me that all of the major parts are filled by actors playing against their own nationalities. Brit's Henry Cavill plays a straight laced Americans, American Armie Hammer plays Russian, and Swedish actress Alicia Vikander plays German. Possibly only Hugh Grant, in a late-in-the-film appearance, gets to act with his own accent. And of course they all look great in period-appropriate tailored suits. If I may for a moment: Armie Hammer seems to have trouble catching a break. He's a fun presence with a fun name, but every film that seems like it might be a succesful starring vehicle for him becomes a nonstarter at the box office. The Lone Ranger may have had its problems, but none of them could be attributed to Hammer, who gave a brilliant straight man performance. In this he plays a menacing Russian hulk much better than his all American demeanor in previous films would suggest, while Cavill plays American much more snappily than in Man Of Steel.</div>
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Guy Ritchie doesn't seem to have much ability when it comes to staging large action setpieces, but he finds some nice workarounds for the most part. The latter half of one white knuckle escape is seen mostly in reflection as one character sits and watches through a truck's windshield, while sometimes he simply cuts away from the action and gets straight to the aftermath. One stylistic trick he pulls, at least two or three times in this film, is somewhat less charming. At key moments of dialogue the audio will drop out of the movie so that the audience can't hear what's being said, all so that Ritchie can surprise us a few minutes later. Then he'll simply replay the earlier scene but with the dialogue included so we can be impressed by the film's cleverness. It was absolutely bizarre, and has to be one of the cheapest gimmicks I've ever seen. That said, the film is fun and cool, and a breeze to get through. That may not sound like the most glowing review, but it makes the perfect antidote to the increasing grim and gritty blockbuster seasons we've been getting lately.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>3.5(out of 5)</b></div>
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<b>Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015): </b>Alternate subtitle; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tom Cruise. Because I'll admit it; I love Tom Cruise as a movie star. I think he's incredibly charming and charismatic on screen, and I'm always happy to see him in an action film. Personally, I have no doubt that he's the biggest creep in the world, but I just ignore that while watching a movie. Exhibit A in the case for Cruise as a great movie star; he always chooses interesting people to work with. It's hard to think of a franchise that's had as much of a diverse collection of directors as the Mission: Impossible series. It's hard to think of a star with the clout to choose those collaborators. Certainly John Woo was still a hot property when he helmed the sequel, but who would have picked Brian De Palma to helm the first film at that point in his career? He also gave J.J. Abrams his first feature film after only a handful of television credits, and picked animation iconoclast Brad Bird to make his live action debut. Cruise had worked with Christopher McQuarrie (director of this film) before on <i>Jack Reacher</i>, but he was still a relatively unknown name to be handing such a large franchise to, having made his career primarily as a screenwriter. Through the last couple of decades Tom Cruise has proved incredibly discerning and canny in who he chooses to work with.</div>
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This, the fifth film in the M:I series, doesn't quite reach the level of action movie nirvana that the previous film did, but it's still an object lesson in how to craft an old school action flick. McQuarrie proved on Jack Reacher what a great action director he could be. That film had serious plot and script problems, and yet the direction was always clean and impressive, rendering the film compulsively rewatchable. He brings that same strength to Rogue Nation as well, showing how great action can be when it's more than just rapid-fire editing and explosions. McQuarrie favors longer takes than most contemporary action directors use, and is judicious in his use of bombastic noise. Several large setpieces in Rogue Nation are almost entirely silent, with no dialogue and only the sound of movement. He's also good at giving a sense of the physical space a scene is taking place in. His camera movements and editing make it easy to follow the flow of the action, which keeps things from becoming a confused mess like your average Michael Bay film.</div>
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Even with that much-publicized plane stunt, with Cruise hanging outside a plane as it's taking off, there's nothing in this film that reaches the delirious action heights of Ghost Protocol, but it's presented in a clear, competent manner. It's solid, and is actually satisfying in a way that many other 'cooler' films just don't match. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation feels like the best parts of Roger Moore era James Bond, with the globehopping, femme fatales, gadgets, and intrigue.</div>
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Final Rating; <b>4(out of 5)</b></div>
The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-78317665050961682752016-01-27T17:45:00.000-08:002016-01-27T17:45:34.220-08:002016 Movie a Day: Seventh SonI have to get this down quickly, before I forget it.<br />
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Seventh Son makes a good comparison piece with the one I wrote for Jupiter Ascending. In that review I wrote about how a flash of personality can make all the difference between goofily enjoyable and blandly forgettable, and I made the case that Jupiter Ascending's quirks and silliness raised it higher than other, similar high octane sci-fi/fantasy/action flicks, and here I have a film proving my point. Seventh Son was dumped into the no-mans-land of February, between the prestige films most companies release during the holiday season and the upcoming summer months full of their high profile blockbusters. January to March is typically when studios release the films they don't have much confidence in, knowing they'll likely be forgotten by year's end. That's not to say that everything released in those months is horrible, but it's not a sign of confidence. More often the theatres will be full of films like I, Frankenstein, The Nut Job, the aforementioned Jupiter Ascending, and that other Hercules movie. The one without The Rock.<br />
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Seventh Son is so blandly forgettable and personality-free (at least in the scenes without Jeff Bridges, but more on that in a moment) that the best things that can be said about it are still faults. The movie is briskly paced and full of enough incident to fill a trilogy, which means the experience goes by with enough energy to make things painless. You'll be entertained, sure, but the experience isn't going to leave a lasting impression. On the other hand, that same speed means that nothing has any dramatic weight, and it never feels like the film has any real stakes.<br />
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First we hear the the score for the film, which is so blatantly a ripoff of Howard Shore's music for Lord of the Rings that I'm surprised Marco Beltrami was never sued. And then the film begins with a cold open where a man is sealing a large iron cover on a hole in a lonely mountain while a woman's voice begs him to have mercy. The man rides off, and time passes. A lot of time. Long enough for the iron to rust and the entity trapped in the hole to escape. The title comes up, and then suddenly the film is in motion, having jumped at least 50 years forward in time. We meet Gregory (Jeff Bridges), the older version of the man in the beginning, and his apprentice William (Kit Harrington) as they are summoned to exorcise a demon from a small girl. Before they can celebrate their success at this task, it's revealed that the demon they exorcised was actually Mother Malkin, the witch Gregory trapped in the beginning of the film. She kills Gregory's apprentice (so long, Kit Harrington, we hardly knew ye), then flies off to her mountain fortress where she gathers her witch allies in order to... do something. Something involving the blood moon, which will give them power to, I dunno, probably take over the world or something. Gregory immediately shows up at the home of Tom Ward (Ben Barnes), who is as bland as those names suggest, although his mother is Olivia Williams which seems to have not rubbed off on him. He basically buys Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, and they go off to find Malkin and stop the apocalypse. It may seem like I'm condensing a lot of events into a more streamlined chain of events, but this segment lasts maybe 10 minutes, and the film continues this pace throughout.<br />
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The intense speed at which this film moves mean that the characters become little more than exposition machines. With so much story to cover in so little time (the movie comes in at an hour and 42 minutes, which is brief for this type of convoluted fantasy epic) nobody has any time for an actual conversation that doesn't directly explain the rules of this world, or the machinations of the plot. This is the type of movie where we know that Tom and a half-witch named Alice (Alicia Vikander) are falling in love because they talk a lot about how they're falling in love.This film doesn't have time to show us, it needs to tell us so that it can just move on to the next scene. The downside to this is that none of it seems to matter. Tom's mother (a witch herself, who had helped defeat Malkin the first time around) dies heroically, and it's glossed over so quickly that it appears no one even notices. A late in the game confirmation that Malkin and Gregory had once been in love is supposed to be read as tragic, but instead barely registers.<br />
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Seventh Son was based on a series of Young Adult novels, and while the film was clearly intended to be a franchise starter, it seems like at least three books of plot have been condensed into one movie. If the material had been allowed to breath a little bit it could have improved greatly. If, for instance, we spent a bit of time with Gregory and his first apprentice before his untimely death, we could have had a sense of how this affected Gregory. To have spent ten years training this boy, living with him, fighting the forces of evil, we should have some sense of what that means. But then, possibly, stretching the story out a bit might just draw attention to how generic it really is.<br />
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The only consistently good part about this film is Jeff Bridges. The entire cast is qualified (or overqualified in some cases), and yet none of them are able to endow their lines with any sort of drama. Julianne Moore seems a bit lost in the film, unwilling or unable to truly camp up her role, but also not wholly convinced of her character's dramatic presence. Alicia Vikander isn't able to let any personality peek out from behind the mountains of exposition and flowery falling-in-love moments she's forced to deliver, and comes across as more affectless than when she played an actual robot in Ex Machina. Ben Barnes seems camera ready for this type of YA fare, and should have the requisite experience from previously appearing in two of the Narnia films and a tiny role in Stardust, but he's just not good enough to bring any spark to this cipher of a character. Heroes in fantasy stories, particularly in YA books, tend to be bland audience-surrogates, someone who is as broadly sketched as possible so that the readers can place themselves in that role in their imaginations. Unfortunately that aspect transferred to the screen as well.<br />
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Which leaves, of course, Jeff Bridges, who seems to be having an utter blast every time he's on screen. It's debatable how seriously he took all of this stuff, whether he thought the movie might actually be good, or whether he was just enjoying the chance to slay dragons and indulge his inner Gandalf, but he commits wholly to his oddball performance. With a jutted lower jaw and the mushy line delivery of a perpetual drunk, he's both off-putting a joy to spend time with. There are two things I will remember about this movie. One is a pretty awesome looking fight between two dragons near the end of the film. The other is Jeff Bridges, finishing a bombastic speech directed towards his new apprentice by turning around, stalking away, and muttering under his breath 'fucking witches.' Everything else is already fading from memory, less than a day later.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>2(out of 5)</b><br />
<br />The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-62256235183299797212016-01-26T22:47:00.001-08:002016-01-26T22:53:00.209-08:002016 Movie a Day: Inside Llewyn Davis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac is trapped in a cycle. He's trapped professionally, struggling as a folk singer-songwriter in 1960s Greenwich Village. When we see him perform, he is clearly talented and respected by the audience, but he's unable to make that next crucial step that would see him break out of the coffee shops he cycles through. He's trapped artistically, playing the same old songs while nursing the pain he feels after the dissolution of a musical partnership that we get the sense was much more successful. He's trapped personally, with a small group of friends he mooches off of, cycling through them as he couch surfs through New York. He'll stay with one group until they start to get sick of him, then call up the next name in his address book. The film he's stuck in, as well, seems to cycle through the same few settings and backdrops, repeatedly circling back to previous locations after roaming around for awhile.<br />
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Inside Llewyn Davis, the 16th film from Joel & Ethan Coen, is a film that probably improves the more familiar you are with their work. The Coen Brothers have crafted a very distinct style of storytelling that took me awhile to pin down. In every movie you can consider the writers (and sometimes directors) the gods of that universe, and it goes without saying that everything within that world is predetermined by them, and the characters are merely following the path of predestination. The subtle difference with the Coen brothers is that they create meticulously planned out clockwork worlds, where everything is moving and interlocking at various times during the movie, and then they populate this world with characters who not only don't realize their story is predetermined, but also seem like they might at any minute be able to break out of the path their gods (the Coens) have set for them. It's as if they've figured out the world, but allowed their characters to explore at their own pace. With this concept in mind, Inside Llewyn Davis can be read as the Coens both acknowledging that idea, and possibly affirming that there is no escape. Their characters are stuck wherever they decide to place them.<br />
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As I said, Llewyn Davis is stuck in a cycle, or possibly a series of them. The film eventually reveals a metaphysical aspect that might suggest Llewyn is stuck in a cycle more cosmic than just that of your standard struggling musician. At every turn, no matter what he tries, he has no hope of escaping. Llewyn treks across New York trying to earn enough money to pay for an abortion for a girl he may or may not have knocked up, but he's also trying to prove that his artistic talents aren't being wasted. He visits his agent looking for royalties, which doesn't pan out. He joins in on a recording session for a deeply silly novelty song that he feels is beneath him, but he needs the money. He pointedly opts for instant cash rather than performing credit and royalties, which the film doesn't need to tell us is a bad idea. With everything falling apart in New York, he leaves for Chicago to meet with a mythical promoter who can make or break careers, only to hear the crushing answer that he just doesn't have what it takes. Maybe if he was in a group, the promoter advises, but of course that ended badly for Llewyn the last time, so he's not about to try it again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, and Justin Timberlake</td></tr>
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That final blow seems to be the actual final blow, and Llewyn attempts to just quit music and go back to having a normal paying job, but through a series of deeply ironic mixups he finds his efforts stymied at every turn, and almost sheepishly heads back to performing at the same old coffee shops. Something in him has changed, though, and Llewyn performs a song he used to do with his old partner, and he performs it with more strength and emotion than we've seen in him so far, and the crowd seems to respond to this. It seems like this might be the start of a slow uphill climb for our hero, until, wait, it turns out he's back exactly where he was at the start of the film. Both in an emotional sense, but in a very real-world sense as well, where the dialogue and actions are exact duplicates of the dialogue and actions in the opening scene, right down to the beating he gets in an alley behind the coffeeshop. Llewyn is trapped in another cycle, in himself, in this one moment in his career and life.<br />
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What I've said so far might make Inside Llewyn Davis seem like a dry, possibly even difficult movie but Inside Llewyn Davis is also funny, though maybe not as funny as their comedies. Even before John Goodman shows up as a drugged out, bitchy old jazz musician that threatens to derail the entire movie and pull it into his orbit, the film has some great wry humor. I should also add that I've never been as emotionally moved by a Coen brothers film as I was during this one. In fact, I'm trying to think about a time when any Coen brothers film moved me, and I'm drawing a blank. The brothers don't really deal in emotion, they deal in archness and irony, with everything viewed from a slight remove. But Inside Llewyn Davis has a real heart beneath its surface, and emotional currents in the film unlike anything else I can think of in their filmography. Partly that may be the music, and the performances, which always come weighted with emotions when deployed in film. But also it's the character of Llewyn, who Oscar Isaac plays as bitter and prickly, but with a clear pain motivating him. The mystery of the dissolution of his musical partnership is pieced together slowly, but once it falls into place it explains the motivations and relationships between almost every character in the film.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's all the cat's fault</td></tr>
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Towards the end of the film, after the failed meeting with the music promoter, Llewyn is driving back to Chicago while the car's owner (a man who picked him up hitchhiking) sleeps in the passenger seat. As the snow falls lightly, Llewyn notices the turnoff for Akron, a town his ex-girlfriend moved to, and where he just learned he has a 2 year old child. He thinks briefly about turning off, he sees the city shining in the darkness down below in the distance. This moment feels like the Coens throwing a rope to their poor, suffering character. Here is a clear way out, an exit both literal and metaphorical from the road he's on. At that moment it seems like his one out, like his life could continue happy and contented in that picturesque image. Maybe not a famous musician, but a happy person. But Llewyn lets the moment pass, he doesn't turn fast enough, and instead the car speeds back to New York, where the entire thing is doomed to repeat again.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>4.5(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-90908977122035234082016-01-25T22:53:00.001-08:002016-01-26T09:21:48.730-08:002016 Movie a Day: Tangerine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Due to my status as an employed man with a pregnant wife, a 12 year old daughter, and no car, I am fairly limited in all three things I would need in order to keep up to date on all of the newest films; money, time, and steady transportation. This means that, although I love watching the Oscars every year (enough to have recently written a piece about this year's ceremony with my friend Rik), I haven't actually seen most of the nominated films before the awards air in quite a few years. I am endlessly omnivorous in my viewing habits, and yet my activity is largely dictated by easy availability. If it isn't on Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime, I pretty much don't get around to it. One thing I'm hoping to achieve with this movie-a-day project is to make more of an effort to see films that I might pass by in favor of some slick, forgettable action/horror/sci-fi flick, and also to watch more recent movies in an effort to keep abreast of current trends. Today's film, Tangerine, luckily fulfills both goals.</div>
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I went into the film pretty much blind; I read the netflix description, and I recalled seeing the name of the film mentioned on various film websites I frequent during festival season, but I had pretty much remained ignorant as to the film's plot and style. Tangerine follows a pair of transgendered women, Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez), fresh out in the real world after a month in jail, and Alexandra (Mya Taylor), her friend who accidentally breaks the news to Sin-Dee that her pimp boyfriend has been cheating on her with a cisgender woman. I suppose technically both women could be referred to as prostitutes- Sin-Dee was in jail for prostitution, and Alexandra is seen in the film with two clients- and yet it also seems a bit reductive to describe them that way. Sex work seems like such a minor part of their lives, simply something they do from time to time to get by, that describing them by that act doesn't do justice to the characters we meet. Alexandra, the more level-headed of the two, harbors dreams of being a lounge singer, and Sin-Dee deeply, naively wants nothing more than to get married to her pimp boyfriend and live happily ever after. But, after hearing about his indiscretions, Sin-Dee is looking for revenge, and the film follows her as she scours West Hollywood looking for the mysterious woman her boyfriend has been shacking up with. The film follows Sin-Dee on her quest for revenge, Alexandra on her quest for fame, or at least some form of expression, and an Armenian cab driver with a penchant for transgendered prostitutes (Karren Karagulian) as he searches for Sin-Dee. Along the way we're treated to a tour of the seedier side of an already seedy district, as crack is smoked in bathrooms, motel rooms are set up for meth-addled prostitutes to entertain large groups of transient men, and at least one family unit is dissolved in front of our eyes. Oh, and Tangerine is a comedy.<br />
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It might help to know that last part, about the comedy, before you actually watch Tangerine, because it would otherwise be easy to miss it. It's as if Edgar Wright had directed Requiem For A Dream; the subject matter is harrowing and often depressing, but it's pitched at such an energetic tone that it never completely devolves into outright miserablism. Tangerine was filmed for a reported $100,000, using only an iPhone with an anamorphic lense snapped onto it, and looks far better than any rational person would expect. Director Sean Baker has admitted to playing around with the film on his computer, correcting the color and giving everything a more cinematic look, but even knowing that Tangerine looks impressively professional for such a cheap consumer-ready origin. This cheapness, and the convenience of the iPhone, means that his camera can instantly and unobtrusively change to any desired angle and get into any cramped space. It's this energy he brings to the film that makes Tangerine one of the most vibrant films I've seen from last year.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sean Baker, filming an honest-to-goodness movie on an iphone!</td></tr>
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I'll be honest, when I first finished watching the film, I had to gather my thoughts. The film betrays it's comedic intent in a finale worthy of a classic farce, with characters bursting into rooms at just the wrong time and a half dozen people with their own intersecting plotlines all crashing into each other, and yet I wasn't sure how I felt about all of this. The characters can be so unlikable, and Sin-Dee in particular can be so shrill and obnoxious that I had trouble investing any emotion in her story. Alexandra, as I said, seems more levelheaded and her dreams of fame make her more immediately sympathetic, but she is revealed to be just as horrible a person as anyone else, and her constant refrain of 'I don't want to be involved in any drama' is laid bare for the lie that it is. James Ransone (an interesting character actor who seems to be popping up with an increasing, and welcome, frequency) shows up for the finale as Sin-Dee's cheating pimp, and he seems to get the tone just right, and allows the film's themes to gel around him. He plays a scumbag with an instant charisma and charm that lightens the mood considerably, even as events get worse for everyone involved. It takes awhile for some of the other characters, but eventually Sin-Dee's screeching naivete and self centered demeanor slips enough for her true vulnerability to show through, and it's clear the film has nothing but empathy for every person on screen, no matter how horrible their actions or choices.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>4(out of 5)</b><br />
<br />The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-11233717228669166072016-01-24T23:26:00.003-08:002016-01-24T23:26:56.392-08:002016 Movie a Day: Creep (2014)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is appreciated." How broke would you have to be in order to drive out to a secluded house in the woods in response to that ad alone, and no other information? Whatever that level of monetary desperation is, Aaron (director Patrick Brice) has reached it. Or, perhaps, he's simply a glorious combination of naive and utterly idiotic. The ad, it turns out, was placed by a man dying of an unspecified illness who would like Aaron to film him wandering around and talking about himself to his unborn son whom he will not live to see. This man, Josef, is played by Mark Duplass as genial, a bit of a doofus, and never anything but insidiously creepy. From the very beginning he's throwing up nothing but red flags; the first thing he wants filmed is "tubby time" with his child, where he immediately strips and jumps into a bathtub where he cleans an imaginary baby and pretends to kiss it on the forehead. Things get worse from there.</div>
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The film's concept, that Aaron has taken the wrong job with the wrong weirdo, is a pretty solid- if familiar- setup for a horror film, and it utilizes its found-footage format more effectively than a lot of its contemporaries. The interviewer/interviewee dynamic gives a convenient reason for the camera to be on at all times, and the film's focus on portraying a rambling weirdo keeps the proceedings from devolving into incomprehensible shaky-cam madness. Once or twice near the end, though, Creep still runs up against that ever-present problem; why does Aaron keep filming? More specifically, there are scenes in the latter half of the film where Aaron is filming himself checking the mail, or sleeping, apparently because he knew the footage would be necessary in order to bridge the gap from point A to point B in the audience's mind.</div>
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Creep is a two man show; no other characters appear on screen, although we do hear someone claiming to be Josef's sister. It would be best for a prospective audience to adjust their expectations accordingly; this isn't going to be a gory or exciting or even particularly shocking horror movie, this is more like a chamber piece where the depths of one character's madness is slowly explored. Josef, the titular Creep, is the true star of the show, as he keeps up a running monologue of escalating weirdness and has the perfect knack for knowing when to dial it back. He spins a number of stories, and each time he's caught in a lie he has the perfect excuse, retconning the story to fit Aaron's new awareness. It's a trick he pulls a few times, making him seem like matryoshka doll of deceit. </div>
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The film's one true failing is that Aaron is never quite able to keep up with Josef. At just over the halfway point in the movie, Creep switches locations, and we follow Aaron back at home, away from Josef. This duality within the film leaves it feeling very unbalanced, as Aaron is neither as interesting nor as dynamic as Josef. Aaron too often responds with befuddled silence to Josef's madness, which is probably fairly realistic, but means we never get any sense of him as a character. Aaron is incredibly undeveloped, and there's no real sense of tension in seeing him at home receiving video messages and trinkets from Josef. If Aaron had been more developed, or if he had been more involved in the interview process with Josef (if, say, those monologues had been dialogues), the film's tension would have expanded accordingly. As it is, this asymmetry draws attention to just how gimmicky and manufactured the film is. This film was clearly designed as an experiment in how to make a minimalist film, and too much attention is drawn to the film's sense of cleverness.</div>
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Still, it was an enjoyable enough ride, and I found it all worthwhile for the final encounter between Josef and Aaron, which gave me a small chuckle at first, and then a larger guffaw as the scene kept going and I realized exactly what it had all been leading up to. It's not hard to imagine that the entire film was put together just for that one nearly-final image.</div>
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Final Rating: <b>3(out of 5)</b></div>
The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-36327809246457949912016-01-23T23:20:00.000-08:002016-01-23T23:23:19.730-08:002016 Movie a Day: Poltergeist (2015)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's a certain film criticism that goes along the lines of 'there's no real reason for this to exist.' You see it a lot with remakes, where the person making the comment is announcing their displeasure at a beloved property being rehashed. It's an argument I've made a few times myself, but I've recently come to the conclusion that I should stop saying that. Art, even crassly commercial art, doesn't need a reason to exist beyond its own existence. Movies exist to, first and foremost, entertain. I think people forget that sometimes when they gravitate towards challenging arthouse fare, and they begin to look down on more blatantly commercial endeavors. But they forget that even the most glacially paced, abstractly plotted, cerebral thinkpiece is still meant, at least on some level, to entertain you. What people find entertaining is highly subjective, and there's no reason a superhero movie or a horror movie isn't as worthwhile a way to spend 2 hours as your average Fellini film. I've seen the 'why does this exist?' comment in almost every Poltergeist review I looked at, and yet the movie does exist, it's here, so might as well not bother complaining about that basic fact. And so I will talk a bit about the recent remake of Poltergeist, and I will be critical of it, but I will never question it's existence.<br />
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That being said, I have to admit that this film did mostly inspire fond recollections of the original film, and never quite improved on the original formula. In fact, as the film went along it seemed to become more and more slavish to the original material. I will say this much; I enjoyed Poltergeist for most of its running time, though I felt it all fell apart in the film's final minutes. A lot of that was the casting; Sam Rockwell is great as the unemployed father who has to downsize his family into a less desirable (though still enviable) neighborhood, but he's great in everything he does, and Jared Harris, in the Zelda Rubinstein roll, though this time he's the host of one of those cheesy cable ghost hunting shows, is always a treat, although most films tend to underuse him, as this one does. But a lot of it also comes down to the tone established by director Gil Kenan, who captures a lightness, and a sense of fun, that is sorely missing from a lot of horror films these days. On the other hand, he also foreshadows the horror elements way too much in the early stretches of the film, during which anxious middle child Kyle Catlett wanders around the family's new suburban home and stares forebodingly at objects and rooms that will become important later on.<br />
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As I said, Poltergeist becomes less original as it goes along, and by the middle stretch of the film is basically following the plot of the first film beat for beat, with only minor tweaks. Thought that clown doll in the original was scary? What if this time there were a dozen of them? This wasn't too horrible, actually, and actually had a few fun moments. The scene in which the ghosts finally make themselves known (to the audience if not the family) came with a neat visual, as lightbulbs would turn on and then flare out just as the next one in line started to flare up. Also some of the ghostly white orbs had a neat old school look to them, complete with Spielbergian lens flares. If the film had actually carried on in this manner, I may have enjoyed it more. However, about 15 minutes until the end of the film, everything falls apart.<br />
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Throughout the film the big problem with it is that the reasons behind the paranormal activity is a little vague. Sure, the basic premise is the same as the original film;cemetery was moved, but really they just moved the headstones and left the corpses in the ground, which when you think about it makes no sense. Surely the construction of such a large suburban neighborhood would have required a lot of digging, <i>somebody</i> must have noticed those bodies. So I understand why there are pissed off ghosts, the film just never defines what the ghosts can do, why they're doing what they're doing what they're doing, or why they kidnap the youngest daughter. There's some throwaway line about how she can see ghosts, and is at the height of her purity (which comes across as creepier a sentiment than much of the ghostly activity), and yet once the ghosts kidnap her they don't appear to be very interested in her, and she just wanders around the ghost version of their house. <br />
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If the film is a bit fuzzy on the specifics of its own mythology, the finale is inexplicably vague and confusing, with the paranormal rules of the film seemingly changing at random with no visible rhyme or reason. Characters make sudden decisions that apparently help save the day, but it's not clear how or why those decisions work, or even why anybody thought to make them. It's also impossible to determine the fate of many of the major characters, with at least one person appearing to die before the credits roll, only to show up alive and well with no explanation in a post-credits tag. Really, it was surprising how confusing the ending was, and I suspect some studio notes may be to blame. Or perhaps the film was rushed into development before the script could be fixed and they just never figured it out. Whatever the reasons, the ending was enough to drop my rating by half a point or so.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>2.5(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-40455549332471898922016-01-22T21:51:00.000-08:002016-01-22T21:51:19.617-08:002016 Movie a Day: Saulabi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A couple of months ago, while my friend and frequent writing partner Rik (he of the <a href="http://workingdeadproductions.blogspot.com/search/label/Visiting%20And%20Revisiting" target="_blank">Visiting & Revisiting</a> series, and <a href="http://cinema4pylon.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">The Cinema 4 Pylon</a> blog) was up in the LA area for the day, we took a quick trip into Chinatown. It was ostensibly just a little bit of sightseeing as we killed time before a movie we were going to see that night, but not-so-secretly I was hoping to stumble across one of those video stores that specializes in cheap DVDs of Asian films not available in the American market. As luck would have it, we stumbled across a couple such stores, and I was able to pick up a couple titles I had been looking for, and a couple of Christmas gifts as well. At the urging of the second store's proprietress, who insisted it was one of the best films on the shelves, and in order to meet the 'buy 4 get one free' offer, I picked up today's film, Saulabi, a 2002 South Korean action romance set in feudal Japan. This information is being relayed as a form of full disclosure, because the DVD I bought had only Cantonese and Mandarin language tracks, and subtitles that were burned onto the image and read both Chinese and badly translated English at the same time. It is possible that this was not the most ideal manner in which to judge this film's merits.<br />
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Around the turn of this century, South Korean filmmaking seemed to go through a sort of renaiscance, with dozens of slickly produced blockbusters hitting theatres while at the same time a new wave of young, rule-breaking filmmakers came along. Saulabi was released in 2002, and seems to have missed that rising tide of quality Korean films. Saulabi (a Korean word that roughly translates as 'he who fights') is basically a classic Greek tragedy filtered through a Samurai film, with a layer of historical Korean references that probably went over my head a lot of the time. The plot was easy enough to follow once it got going, but I'm certain there were intricacies I missed due to mistranslation, or simply owing to my ignorance of the time period. To break it down into its basics; A band of warriors travels from Korea to Japan to repair the broken Heaven's Sword and return their nation to glory. Years later, one of these warriors meets a Japanese lord and begins to work for him, while also falling in love with the lord's daughter, who is engaged to be married to the lord's master. As you can see, it's a pretty simple love triangle set within the type of honor-filled, somewhat bureaucratic minefield that a lot of Japanese tragedies take place in (I'm thinking specifically of Chushingura, in which the entire sad affair is begun because a feudal lord didn't have enough tatami mats when a visiting official arrived).<br />
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The plot of the film is solid enough for this type of thing, but let's be honest, most of the appeal lies in the fight choreography, and on that front, Saulabi is a big disappointment. For the first hour there are only two brief fight scenes, one of which I'm not sure related to the rest of the story at all (again, not the best subtitles). The swordplay is of the old school Kendo variety common in most samurai films, although it never looks or feels natural. I've been able to find very little information about this film online, but an editorial review on Letterboxd.com makes the claim that fight choreography was done by frequent Akira Kurosawa collaborator Eizi Takakura. The problem is, I can find no such name listed anywhere, let alone on an Akira Kurosawa film. IMDb doesn't list most of the crew, but I have trouble believing that anyone who worked with the great Akira Kurosawa had anything to do with this film's fight scenes. I saw a documentary a few years ago about LARPers who made their own PVC weapons and engaged in fake combat on the weekends, and the fighting in that film looked more realistic. In fact, on almost every front Saulabi feels like very little effort went into it. At one point the lord's retinue is travelling through a small Japanese village, which looks authentically like the time period it's supposed to be set in, but the director makes no effort to hide the very modern houses and buildings that are visible just behind this set. It also doesn't help that the lead, Sang Hyun-lee, wears a series of incredibly unconvincing fake beards, and acts with a sort of eternal poutiness.<br />
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I don't want to be completely negative about the film, but I must warn you that it's just not very good. It does, however, pick up steam during its final half hour, which appears to span a few months but, at the end, is suddenly revealed to have spanned about 20 years. I'm not saying the acting, directing, or fighting suddenly improve, I'm just saying the amount of incident on screen starts to pile up and it gets comparably much more fun to watch, culminating in an ending so tragic and sudden it inspires dismissive laughter more than the tears the filmmakers were obviously hoping for.<br />
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Final Rating: <b>2(out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-24277371973084197932016-01-22T09:22:00.000-08:002016-05-28T08:53:11.829-07:00A Visiting & Revisiting Special: Should There Be a Boycott of the 2016 Academy Awards?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: red;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This is the second part of a discussion between me and my partner Rik over on The Cinema 4 Pylon. Please head over there to read the first part at: </span><a href="http://bit.ly/1nqDmkS" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #fefefe; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15.36px; text-decoration: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1nqDmkS</a></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">4. Do you believe a threatened
African-American artistic boycott of the 88th Academy Awards in February will
be effective in solving the problem of racial diversity within the Academy? Or
does it need to be much broader in scope to have any real effect?</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Aaron:</span></b><span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Do I think it
will solve the problem? No, definitely not. Do I think it will help to bring
attention and to the problem and the need to fix it? I will answer with a
resounding yes. Already the publicity has convinced most rational people that
this is a real issue. As I said earlier, Hollywood will only really follow the
money; it has no real political or social leanings of its own, no matter what
George Clooney wants to think. Hollywood can lead the charge on issues of
social justice, and it definitely has in the past, but only once it’s been
proven to be profitable. I don’t mean to sound cynical about the Dream Factory,
but I think it helps explain why the entertainment industry can be this weird
mix of progressive ideology and regressive social viewpoints.</span></div>
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<span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As it stands, I
think this situation has been a total embarrassment for the Academy, and
there’s really no way they can just ignore this. Last year, when Selma star
David Oyelowo was snubbed for Best Actor, the Academy could at least say ‘Yeah,
but the film was nominated for Best Picture, so it’s not like we’re ignoring
you.’ They could hide behind that attitude even when <i>Selma</i> lost to a movie about a middle-aged white guy grappling with
his insecurities. But this year, with so many great performances and films
helmed by and featuring people of color, how is it none of them got nominated?
It boggles the mind that <i>Straight Outta
Compton</i> only got recognized for its screenplay, because it is otherwise the
exact sort of movie the Academy loves to gush over: popular, crowd-pleasing,
and based on a true story. It hits all of the expected and required beats so
perfectly that its lack of inclusion can almost only be read as racist.<br />
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<span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">And don’t get
me started on <i>Creed</i> (which, full
disclosure, I have not yet seen). A widely acclaimed, profitable movie written
and directed by a black man, about a black man, and the only nomination in the
film is for the old white guy that helps him out. This is sort of to be
expected, though, because if there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than money,
it’s patting themselves on the back, and Stallone’s character in <i>Creed</i> must have hit that sweet spot of
white liberal guilt that allowed Academy voters to vicariously feel like the
good guy, helping the disaffected black youth. A similar phenomenon was likely
at play when <i>The Blind Side</i> and <i>The Help</i> were massive hits awarded with
Academy recognition. People want a social issue that they can be the hero of,
and so they see Sylvester Stallone helping this kid out, and think to
themselves ‘Man, I’d love to be that guy, and prove we aren’t all racist
assholes.’ This should not be read as me stating that Stallone doesn’t deserve
the Oscar nomination; everything I hear is that he’s quite good in the film,
and of course he was nominated for the original <i>Rocky</i> way back when. But to single him out in a film that is
getting a lot of acclaim for both its star, Michael B. Jordan, and its
co-writer/director, Ryan Coogler, seems a bit odd.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Rik:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As we were putting this
piece together, Academy president Cheryl Boon Isaacs came out with a statement
lamenting the lack of diversity in her organization. Isaacs, who is black, is
the only non-white member of the 43-member executive branch, and she put out
the statement in response to both Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who both
stated they would not be attending the Oscars this year because of the lack of
diversity in the nominations. Isaacs said the Academy was instituting a
five-year plan, with a goal of 2020, to drastically expand the membership of
the Academy to make it more racially and gender diverse.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I personally wish that someone
besides Jada Pinkett-Smith had been the first to really speak up about this
issue, because she is married to someone whom it is widely believed should have
received an Oscar nomination this year. Lee himself had his own horse in
the race with <i>Chi-Raq</i>. While their announcements were certainly
heard, they could potentially just be perceived as so many sour grapes. On the
other side, Lee also just received an Honorary Oscar in November for his
lifetime of film work, and so his absence from the February ceremony when they
call his name will be noticed greatly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">No call for a wider boycott has
actually been put out, but what if it did? I am not sure it will be all that
effective without Hollywood itself changing massively in the types of films it
puts out and how it hires minorities across the board. But if a boycott did
occur, it would have to include far more than just African-Americans or
Asian-Americans or women... it would need to be as diverse as the intended
goal. Isaacs said the Academy's goal was 2020, and that seems to have been said
to buy them some time, but will people be accepting of this type of a “wait and
see” response? The only real way to get the Academy's notice is to hit them
where it hurts the most: a full-scale boycott of the broadcast itself, and that
might including hitting potential advertisers in the pocketbook as well.
Otherwise, it will be sound and fury. And then, the only option would be to
wait for five years to see if anything has happened.<br />
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And I somewhat agree on your point about Stallone’s nomination possibly
fulfilling a form of white liberal guilt on the part of the members who voted
for it, but from my side, I just see it as another example of a Supporting
Actor award nomination (or even win) being used to recognize a longtime member
for his successful career in Hollywood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>5. Will you skip watching the Oscars this year in recognition of a possible
boycott, or can you not keep away?</i></span></div>
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<b>Rik:</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> I guess the question that we
should have asked if “Would you support such a boycott?” My answer would be no,
even though I am as desirous of an outcome of wider diversity in the industry
as the rest. I just don’t think it is the solution to the problem.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As for skipping the Oscars? Not a
friggin’ chance. Can't happen; won't happen. Unless the response is so big that
they have to cancel the broadcast, I will be watching the Oscars this year. I
would gladly boycott sponsors of the show, but their commercials don't affect
us anyway since we purposefully watch the film on a delay so we can zip past
most of the ads. Can’t boycott something if you don’t even know they are
sponsoring something. (I suppose a list would get compiled, so maybe then…)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I haven't purposefully skipped
the Oscars since I was a kid, so why would I start now? It's one of the few
ceremonies that I continue to celebrate, even if I readily admit that I don't
usually agree with most of the nominations or winners. For me, it is the last
bastion of old Hollywood that most of the world gets to see, and I don't want
it to go away. They just need to be more inclusive across the board.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Aaron:</span></b><span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Yeah, you
pretty much answered for me; I will definitely be watching the ceremony. At
this point there is no way the issue won’t be addressed, either by a presenter,
a winner, or host Chris Rock, and I’m looking forward to that. But then, I’d
just be watching the awards anyway. While I realize the awards show is flawed,
it’s always been that way. The movies that get nominated and awarded are never
the ones I want, and the award is next to meaningless to anybody not in that
room. It’s Hollywood congratulating itself for a few hours, and selling
advertising space while doing so. This year the scandal gives the show the
opportunity to be relevant and meaningful for the first time… maybe ever.</span></div>
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<span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I see there
have been some calls for Chris Rock to join the boycott and step down from his
role as host this year, and I dearly hope he does not listen. If he leaves the
show, sure, the parade of white stars and producers will paint an ugly portrait
of racism in<b> </b>Hollywood, but it will
also deprive the show of the one voice that could honestly address the
situation from the viewpoint of someone affected by it. If we see Brad Pitt get
up there and talk about diversity in Hollywood, or George Clooney talk about
how Hollywood should lead the charge on these issues, it’s going to feel just
as masturbatory as the rest of the ceremony. If Chris Rock is up there
speaking, or if Spike Lee actually was allowed on stage, it would be an
opportunity to actually speak out and affect some change. </span></div>
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<span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">In the end I
think my thoughts echo those of Viola Davis, who said “The problem is not with
the Oscars, the problem is with the Hollywood movie-making system.” The Academy
Awards are a reflection of the year for the Hollywood studios; it doesn’t fully
reflect the face of what is really going on in American cinema. A lot of the
most vibrant and diverse works being produced will never make it onto a ballot,
partially because a lot of those films, and the artists working on them, are
non-union and therefore have no voice in the voting process.</span></div>
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<span style="background: silver; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Take the 2015
film <i>Tangerine</i>, which is miles away
from the type of fare the Oscars usually reward, and is therefore nowhere to be
seen in the list of nominees. <i>Tangerine</i>
follows the story of two transgender women as they scour West Hollywood for the
pimp who has wronged one of them, and was one of the most energetic and vibrant
films I saw last year. The film was shot for around $100,000, and on an iPhone
no less (though you wouldn’t notice it if you didn’t know that information
beforehand), which was necessitated by the fact that no studio in Hollywood
would have dared fund the film. Like I said, not the type of film the Academy
would normally praise, and yet that speaks to the blinkered existence in which
the Academy lives. <br />
<br />
So, you have a vibrant film scene happening under the radar in Hollywood, a
scene that is inclusive of all comers, and more representative of what most
people experience in the world around them. The fact that these films, and
filmmakers, are excluded from awards recognition is not really the fault of the
Oscars, outside of the fact that union membership seems to be an unofficial
requirement of becoming a voting member. In order for the Academy Awards to
recognize more diverse works, they need to urge their members to look outside
of the big studio output, or the<b> </b>big
studios need to start making a more diverse product. Right now it’s a little
bit like a feedback loop; the studios continue making whitewashed tentpole
movies and crowd-pleasing dramas, because that’s what audiences and awards
shows like. The awards shows like those whitewashed crowd-pleasers because
that’s the only thing being made, and on and on and on it will go until someone
decides to make a change. I believe the decision to expand Academy membership
and recruit new members is the right one, but it remains to be seen if it will be
enough. I’ll tell you one thing, I am actually more interested in seeing this
year’s Oscars than I have been in quite awhile.</span></div>
The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20515365.post-84769333721728396382016-01-21T21:53:00.000-08:002016-01-21T21:53:28.574-08:002016 Movie a Day: Jupiter Ascending<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWjSww7yoAfSnPSGcJ7b6UWra88QvlzL9Va0fUevQAElpQVYj6FatTlLhoVz1dQtmhxBZM32aNcwTUHuW3gMAPAvgppiNSiNKpIrNZfr1Owgi-8Yp6lIFCPRGiKO0fWAo89Fk/s1600/%2527Jupiter_Ascending%2527_Theatrical_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgWjSww7yoAfSnPSGcJ7b6UWra88QvlzL9Va0fUevQAElpQVYj6FatTlLhoVz1dQtmhxBZM32aNcwTUHuW3gMAPAvgppiNSiNKpIrNZfr1Owgi-8Yp6lIFCPRGiKO0fWAo89Fk/s320/%2527Jupiter_Ascending%2527_Theatrical_Poster.jpg" width="216" /></a>One of the great paradoxes of the modern age of filmmaking is that a large number of movies are made every year that are seemingly designed with my particular tastes in mind, and yet I like so few of them. Slickly produced action and horror movies in the 'isn't this shit awesome?!' mold flood the theatres every year, and every year I dutifully check in on them and feel nothing bit a nagging boredom as they go through the motions of presenting me with everything my 13 year old self would have killed to see, with production values my younger self could never have imagined. Like Priest, about a man of the cloth hunting down vampires in an old west setting, or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, which is about Abraham Lincoln hunting vampires, or I, Frankenstein, about the titular doctor's monster fighting demons throughout the ages. I should love them, but they all feel so lifeless, so free of personality and individuality, that I can't seem to muster any enjoyment out of them. Which made it such a modest joy to finally sit down and watch Jupiter Ascending, the latest (and possibly last) big budget mashup of pulpy comic book influences to come from the Wachowski Siblings. Say what you will about it's byzantine plot, so overstuffed that it feels like three movies stuffed into one, or complain all you want about the silliness of Channing Tatum playing a half-wolf, gravity-defying surfer dude by the improbably name of Caine Wise trying to save the life of Mila Kunis as a housekeeper who is secretly the intergalactic queen of our section of the universe with the even more improbable name of Jupiter Jones, but at least the film has a personality.<br />
<br />After the Matrix, the Wachowskis have had trouble recapturing success, though personally I've found everything they've worked on to be worthy of attention. I wasn't a huge fan of the Matrix sequels, particularly their mix of boring committee dialogue of the type that sank the Star Wars prequels with MTV-ready rave scenes, but they at least showcased filmmakers taking the philosophical discussions within their film seriously. I'm quite fond of Speed Racer, and Cloud Atlas may be their masterpiece. Although these films all have their followers, they've each fared successively worse at the box office. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal before Jupiter Ascending came out, the Wachowskis seemed to realize that their Hollywood moment was coming to an end: "We've been lucky," Lana says. "People at studios have been interested in our crazy, strange brand of complexity. And we've been allowed to keep making them. Will that continue? Probably not." "But it was a good run," Andy added.<br />
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So, with the knowledge that this would probably be their last chance to play around with a huge studio budget at their command, the Wachowskis appear to have thrown every leftover script idea they had into one go-for-broke, crazy ass movie, peppering things throughout with references to the sci-fi and fantasy properties that have inspired them. The film isn't the most original, groundbreaking story you're likely to see, and they actually pilfer a couple of concepts from their own films, but it has a goofiness that overpowered me into just grinning along with every ridiculous development. The film's major downfall, and it is a rather big one, is that the duo haven't gotten any better at dialogue or exposition. It's never a good sign when a film begins with a voice-over that explains the rules of the world we're about to see, and Jupiter Ascending frequently feels like it's stopping to impart jargon-filled information we need to digest in order to keep up. This is something they've struggled with through their entire career, but it's at its worst in this film, even though the exposition scenes usually come with a few crazy looking aliens.<br />
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Jupiter Ascending is no classic, but it's better than its current reputation would suggest. For once there's a film that appeals to everything 13 year old me would want, complete with totally awesome skating scenes and a 'chosen one' story that thankfully doesn't feature a drama-killing prophecy. Taken on those grounds, the film is a lot of fun, although it does make me excited to see what the Wachowskis might do now with a smaller focus, a tighter budget, and more polished dialogue.<br /><br />Final rating: <b>3.5 (out of 5)</b>The Working Deadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14516757941688921732noreply@blogger.com1