gulag Reviews

24x36: A Movie About Movie Posters (2016)

Bait and Switch on the Subject Matter

[5/10 · 30 March 2022]

So I just watched 24 X 36. As it is not a bad documentary. But ironically on many levels the film is promoted as something it isn't. That is, everywhere on the packaging and in the copy it is sold as a survey of the history of film posters. (Granted the trailer mentions 'fans' recreating movie posters.) This is what I was interested in. But this really isn't the subject matter of the doc. The largest part of the film deals with the Mondo posters and the collectors market for alternative posters. But actual film poster history is given a short shrift.

For instance, Saul Bass is mentioned as the most important graphic poster designer of all, yet only in conjunction with a Mondo poster artist wanting to remake a version of Saul Bass's poster for Hitchcock's Vertigo. Less than a minute of screen time. And no information about Saul Bass is given at all, including why Bass is so important. Early movie posters are glanced over in a few scant minutes, as mostly made by unknown artists. Yet I wanted to see a discussion on film poster history. The only two periods mentioned in 'any' depth are the 50s and the 80s. And the 80s come across as some sort of apotheosis, which it wasn't.

Then comes the all-consuming nightmare of bad photo manipulated headshots of stars that has continued into the present. And while you get a few people discussing the change into this truly catastrophic mode, the important reasons for why this happened are largely omitted in the rush to get to this films true purpose; the collectors market for alternative film posters. If this had been titled the Mondo posters movement I certainly wouldn't have bought the Blu-ray.

I was hoping to see anything about foreign film posters. Or on the amazing posters made in Poland or the Czech Republic during the Iron Curtain era. But I know why this happened, for the very same reason that the poster art has degenerated into digital photoshopping. By current era documentary filmmaking logic you can't do an actual history of something, you need to tell a specific story. And the history of film posters is not a personal story. But the modern artistic film poster recreation phenomenon is. . But hey then sell THAT. It shouldn't have been sold '...as a movie about movie posters'

Like I say, not a bad documentary, yet it was a bait and switch on the subject matter. And it will probably take a long time before someone can tackle this subject again.

And why is the actual poster for the film such a muddled piece of art?

Ukraine on Fire (2016)

Serious one-sided pro-Putin propaganda.

[1/10 · 20 March 2022]

Cut and paste montage work. Only interviews with those who supported the narrative. Including Vladimir himself. No historians. No experts on Eastern Europe. Supposedly Ukraine's Euro Maidan was both taken over by fascist and backed by extreme leftist George Soros. Poor Oliver Stone just seems like ghost here. This is no objective attempt at understanding. And the director is a known propagandist. Don't trust this at all. Especially now. Grade A propaganda.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–2021)

Afternboon Special version of The Walking Dead

[3/10 · 11 October 2021]

This is a poorly conceived commercial tween woke afternoon special version of something happening in the Walking Dead world with mandatory diversity casting and lessons in every episode. This does highlight what made the original series so good, even in its later slightly PC incarnation. Hint: You start with the story, not with the target audience.

Pretty Is (2017)

A slice of messy life.

[7/10 · 9 July 2020]

An interesting character study that left me wanting to know more as it concluded. This also seems to be a Kristine's rehearsal for Looking For Alaska. Somehow she has this kind of of bittersweet character nailed.

In Search of Darkness (2019)

So many good movies, but no real focus.

[5/10 · 27 May 2020]

In Search of Darkness sounded like a great idea to examine the horror films of the 1980's and maybe ask why it was the kind of epoch it was. But soon after it started I could feel what was going to happen. Essentially it goes year by year and looks at the films that essentially there were interviews for. Which was quite a bit, granted. But I immediately noticed that there was no organizing principle. No historical examination. No critical perspective. And at well over 4 hours that is a great fault. I'm sure fans of the idea of the 80's as the great decade of horror films, I'm not one of them, will just be happy to see so many favorites mentioned. Very much a fan effort that just goes on and on. Lots of useful information. But no narrative at all. You could stop the film at any year and walk away and not feel compelled to come back. Again unless you are an 80's horror fan. Period. And we seem to have bred fans who can only deal with exhaustive compendiums. (You'll probably see lots of comments lamenting films not discussed below.) But I was looking for the meat.

To deal with the 80's properly you'd have to discuss it's prehistory in the films of the 70's. And how the 80's changed the formulas. Then you'd have to deal with the films by subject. So starting the 80's off with a section on Slasher films would have been a good place to start. Really examining the effect of make up and prosthetics on the craft of storytelling would have been good. Some of this was dealt with, but in a slight and simple way. There are no real horror historians interviewed. And there are lots of anecdotal interviews about what happened on the sets. So again history and context is rarely mentioned.

There were a couple of very large oversights. One being the original Evil Dead. It was barely mentioned during the discussion of Evil Dead 2, but it was a very important film for the age. And they had Joe Bob Briggs whom I'm sure would have loved to discuss it. (His essay on it is brilliant.) Then where was Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer? A film whose struggle to be seen gave us the signs of changing times. And why did this era end? Was it just because the calendar changed? (More 80's style horror films were made into the 90's.) Did films like Henry or Silence of the Lambs have anything to do with it?

And it becomes very clear that the second half of the 80's is filled with loads of sequels and jokey horror films. And frankly isn't nearly as crucial as the first half. No discussion of a diminution of quality? Everything is essentially the same. What about the larger cultural disgust with the blood and gore in the films, which came to a head by mid-decade? And why did certain films get so slagged off, The Shining, The Thing, etc, to later be seen as classics?

I applaud the film in many ways for getting so many interviews. And yet for being so long it just meandered without a real introduction or conclusion. Why were the 80's important to horror films and to society? The answer is not found here. But it is an enjoyable film if not so meaty.

Siren (2018–2020)

Bjork with Fins Lost on Land

[3/10 · 25 May 2020]

My rating just keeps dropping the longer I watch. I wanted to like this because this because I find mermaids & sirens fascinating mythological creatures. I have stuck with it until what I desperately hope is the end. Season three episode 10. The thing immediately struck me as off once they made 'diversity' choices for not only the town, I've lived in the Pacific Northwest in a small fishing town, it's largely white with natives. One or two black folks if any. Only a few Asians. That's just the reality. So imagine my surprise to see so many of the characters are black, or part black. But! I said okay it's Hollywood. They are ignorant of real life to make political points. But then you have multi-racial mermaids! Which makes no sense from a species perspective. The Mermaids have such a small gene pool that they should all look almost identical. Again overworking the diversity angle to make points. And then the Haida related girl is half British half Nigerian. And I'm thinking what the hell? Are there no native American actresses? But after a while I just persevered and stopped thinking about it. Plots come and go with alarming speed. We spend half a season worried about the military, or Ben's mother, or oil drilling operations, or the cult, or the mermaids wars. And then these things recede. And the same is true of characters. We worry a little then things randomly change. Then there's an apologia for polyamory as Ben and Maddie indulge in 'love' with Ryn the mermaid. I'm sure that made a lot of folks wince. Okay fine, mermaids are hypnotic. But then the whole thing is weirdly dropped as Maddie moves on to her own merman. And underneath all of this I'm starting to get a trans allegory vibe. And sure enough mermaids changing sex becomes an issue as their transitioning hole needs to be fixed. And so bad PC writing with shallow characters envelopes everything by the end. And I'm thinking that the only way this could possibly redeem itself is if Ryn is responsible for the destruction of every character, much the way that sirens were traditionally pictured as seductive but deadly. But we keep getting cuddly vibes. And I'm not even going to discuss the acting. How can I when the merfolk are all given baby language, signing and hissing. What actor could surmount that? And how could anyone hiss underwater? There are just so many irrational creative choices that just seem to be there to make weird political points. Why did I watch so long? Because there was a bit of a hook I was holding onto. I kept hoping, as I was feeling the riptide pull me under. Don't waste your time. Unless you are really interested in how contemporary culture has perverted the image of the siren in our age.

Into the Forest (2015)

They would die fairly soon in the real world.

[6/10 · 28 December 2016]

Without getting into all of the other hot topics that this film engenders, as an Alaskan I can say that from a purely survival aspect they wouldn't make it a winter. And in fact if this was supposed to be anywhere in Canada where was winter? It always seemed green. There are few berries in winter. Unless they lived in a fairly substantial house they would freeze to death. And there is very little food apart from hunting in the winter. And they certainly did not learn enough to survive simply from books. They would run out of ammo soon. They showed no skill at creating tools or salvaging them. And certainly none at basic house repair. In fact I would say they were just about the unhandiest women I've seen in the woods. Essentially this was just an emotionally acted fantasy without much basis in the real world. Kind of a shame. I had hoped for more.

Me Before You (2016)

A Truly Dishonest Film

[3/10 · 13 December 2016]

So what does the phrase "Me Before You" mean? Does it mean I will be unselfish and put myself and my wishes before yours? Not from the context of this film.

For most of this movie I tended to be with it. It was refreshing to see Emilia Clarke as a vulnerable emotional goofball. And then came the point of decision. And she pours her heart out to him, revealing the depth of her feeling for him. And yet he resolutely chooses death. And then after what seems like it might have been a chance to ruminate over the meaning of life she is convinced very easily that the most loving thing is to be by his side at his chosen end. And he dies. Plot spoiled but you really should know this now before you see it. And she gets scads of money to follow her heart and and a goodbye note telling her to forget about him. Fat chance. At the point of decision I thought to myself if he chooses life even with his pain this would be a pretty good romantic movie. But then I thought if this story takes the road chosen by the obvious media proclivities of the 21st Century he'll choose to die, but he'll give her money. Sure enough.

And the moral to the story is this. Each person lives alone. Love is figment of the moment. Nobody changes their minds and to try to do so would be morally wrong. What is most important is to follow your dreams. Any serious lessening of the ability to do that would be to live so poorly that only death is a cure. So he can no longer follow his dreams, and though his existence clearly helps and changes her life for the good, that is NOT good enough reason to live with serious pain. And since she gets to follow her dreams everything is ultimately for the best.

What utter bullshit. It is really time to start questioning the assumption that the meaning of life is to follow one's dreams, especially since it is clear that this is the fondest wish of the commercial establishment upon us. It is only the illusion of choice. "Me Before You" now seems to mean I'm before you in line and you aren't cutting in. It becomes the complete statement of selfishness.

The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955)

Strange Atmosphere to a Grade Z film

[6/10 · 7 November 2016]

There's obviously no point in claiming that this is anything like a good story. And yet... There is a strange emptiness that hovers over this film. Consider the opening shot of of a desolate boat in the middle of nowhere and the sound of bells tolling. Or when the body is found on the beach the odd poses of the people investigating the scene. 'Investigating' is not the right word. They stand like figures in a De Chirico painting. And then there is a sense that everyone is under observation. People watching each other. Then silent moments of anguish fill in the blanks. Milner holds reaction shots curiously long. Uncomfortably long. And it's fascinating. Were this film in a European language it might be seen as an existential statement.

The Outer Limits: Don't Open Till Doomsday (1964) Season 1, Episode 17

David Lynch fans take note...

[9/10 · 10 July 2015]

This is a strange episode of The Twilight Zone. It feels like the missing link between Hitchcock's Psycho and David Lynch's Eraserhead. Like "Fiend Without A Face" this feels like one of the nightmare touchstones of Lynch's universe. Even down to the strange wind sound effects blowing through the background indoors. The odd blob creature, the circle in the dark, the cobwebs, strange Lady Hostess, the oddly alienated couple all seem very much like proto-Lynch. It doesn't make much sense as storytelling. But as nightmare??? It's damned near perfect. Watch Eraserhead on the same evening you'll see what I mean. If David Lynch didn't watch this I'll eat a worm.

The Unknown War (1978– )

The Pros and Cons

[7/10 · 17 October 2014]

Having just finished watching this epic telling of what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War I was struck by several things. In the interest of letting others make an informed decision about the recent DVD set I've decided to jot a few things down as Pros and Cons.

First the Pros... The number one reason to get this is for footage not found anywhere else, and lots of it. This covers aspects of World War 2 not even covered in other documentaries that feature the Eastern Front. A small sampling: The Russian attack on Manchuria/Manchuoko (not the small last minute attack western documentaries hint at), Yugoslavia (where over a million people died and yet this material isn't covered anywhere else), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (is there another documentary that covers the Czech uprising AFTER the fall of Berlin?), Hungary and the battle for Budapest, the Caucasus Mountain war, the Baltic states, Byelorussia (truly heart-breaking), Romania, and much more about Poland, Ukraine, the big Russian battles and sieges. This material itself would be worth 5 stars were it not for some of the Cons.

Another Pro: It is helpful in understanding a basic Russian perspective of the war (even as the propaganda has seeped into that viewpoint as our own has ours). It becomes clear that from a Russian perspective that the West promised help, it gave a bit, opened up little skirmishes in North Africa and Italy, dithered a lot and didn't really enter the war until June of 1944, when essentially the Russians had it largely sewn up on the Eastern Front. I'm not saying that that is what happened, but I believe I'm correct in stating that it's the Russian point of view even today. But I'm grateful to be able to crawl into that perspective.

Now the Cons... and there are quite a few. First and foremost, Burt Lancaster and Rod McKuen not withstanding, this was entirely an act of Soviet Propaganda, most of which could have been made in the 50s. Yet it does have the Detente flavor to it. The series was shelved for a while after the Soviet Afghanistan invasion. Nevertheless even though made in the late 70s not a word contradicts the essentially Stalinist interpretation, and not a word implicates Stalin in anything. Quite simply there were no Soviet mistakes. And we know far too much to swallow anything like that today. (To be fair, the Left in America hadn't really digested, or wanted to digest, Solzhenitsyn, the dissidents, or the evidence quite yet.) Fortunately Willard Sunderland's two part analysis (about an hour long) largely helps to correct that impression and I would add that as another Pro. Without that this would be an act of largely defused propaganda. And that's another reason why the propaganda isn't quite so bad, it's mostly been so unmasked and there are few old school leftists around anymore (at least in the West).

Other Cons... Sentimentality. There is a tendency sometimes to edit in such a way as to hammer a sort of Germans are Animals while Russians are Innocent Victims. And granted millions of innocent Russians did die, but who was sending all of these folks to the Gulags too? Who was starving Ukrainians? Who was purging the military before the war? Who was executing Polish officers at Katyn? Was it Stalin alone? For a much more balanced view check out Russia's War: Blood Upon the Snow made in the late 90s before Putin revived Russian Nationalism.

And, while there are other nit-picky Cons to observe, the last one I will mention is the music of Rod McKuen. He adds to the sentimentality in truly terrible ways. And at least five times he sings a cheap sentimental ditty over a montage near the end of an episode. Fortunately there are many episodes.

But even with those caveats the Pros win out. There are moments in the visual record that take the breath away. In a shorter and lesser documentary I would've knocked it down to four or five stars. But this is quite an epic. My feeling is that if you can take the Fifties Era pro-Americanism of Victory At Sea then you can surely find much to savor here. Dig in.

Inara, the Jungle Girl (2012)

Cult Film Hell and the Odd Charisma of Cali Danger

[2/10 · 8 August 2014]

I've been interested in the bizarre 'Jungle Girl' genre lately. So I bought Inara as one of the more recent examples. I generally don't go out of my way to write a review on every film I've seen. Yet this film compelled me to do so.

Where to begin? Some folks are just going to say this a badly made film. That's both understatement and a bit too harsh. Obviously on some level this was a labor of love. And it seems to have been made by rather timid fanboys. They seemed completely amazed to get to lens skimpily attired women and have absolutely no idea what to do next.

The story? Girl discovers she an Amazon queen after living a pointless life in the 'real' world. There is a little room for a good story here. But very little room.

The plot? Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall. It's astounding how often you just ask yourself "Why is this happening?' 'How could that happen?' Why does Inara wear hyper sexy clothes as part of her paramilitary unit. Why does the plane crash? Why do the women all wear Maybelline eyeshadow in the jungle? Why is there no nudity yet so much suggestion of titillation? And even finally how could Inara remember her mother when she was still in swaddling cloths? And I could list inconsistencies all night long. Or just plain puzzles: Where do these women come from? Why are they all around the same age? Why are they so ethnically diverse? Why do they speak another language? And then they can also speak English? Do they reproduce? And how is it that they all went to yoga class together in the jungle? Also we needed acres of exposition to grasp what in the world we were watching and we didn't get it. Except in one scene where a senior officer is explaining something for far too long.

Acting? The little girl did a little of it. After that? Wow. Someone mentioned that they used a bunch of female wrestlers. called Ring Divas. I can believe it. Where did they get those names? Cali Danger. Destiny Dumon. Empress Sayuri. Now dear Cali could actually turn into an actress. There is something fascinating about her. But in order to do that she's really going to need help from the director, she didn't get any here.

Directing? When? It's curious that with all of the DVD commentaries and special features these days that this director seems to have actually absorbed very little about the craft of directing. Scenes go on interminably without a drop of tension or interest. The final battle seems to have been run through once hastily. And why didn't these machine gun toting mercs just blast away? Why did they fight them with machetes? Okay so let's say you do have a final hand to hand battle, I don't remember seeing a drop of blood. And what was the point of the whole film? Was it a vaguely politically correct jungle movie about female empowerment? Since when are jungle movies ever politically correct? That's the reason they are interesting.

Now apart from the bad directing, acting, music (don't even get me started) etc there were a couple of good points. First of all occasionally the cinematography was good. In fact it made the women stand out in the lush greens and nighttime shots. It's a shame they didn't have anything to do. Also Cali Danger may not be much of an actress yet. Nevertheless she has some odd charisma, she needs to find a better project. Evidently this film was conceived and shot in North Carolina. Two cheers for the regional filmmaking and marketing. And they have marketed their little film with more moxy than went into the actual filming.

And finally I believe that in ten to twenty years from now this film will be a cult film of the so-bad-it's-funny category. I found myself hollering at the screen, something I rarely do. And I can imagine that in some strange way this film will have a weird life of its own.

Perhaps one day someone will make a serious Jungle Girl movie? It hasn't happened yet.

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear (2012)

A Work of Documentary Poetry

[10/10 · 21 January 2014]

The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear is truly a profound document of a specific time in the country of Georgia. Tinatin Gurchiani sets up a situation where people aged 15 through 25 (with some exceptions) arrive at a location to be part of this documentary, then she let's them talk and several times follows them back into their lives. There is no specific order to events. (This has bothered a few reviewers but not me.) This is certainly not a tourist documentary nor even a sociological examination. Yet I would also say that you can learn a great deal about Georgia by watching this film. But in reality her approach is poetic. She will just hold the camera still (occasionally I thought about Paradjanov or Tarkovsky) and simply show you a wall, a tree, a road, a village and most importantly faces. She made me want to travel to Georgia to know these truly human people in the midst of their difficulties.

Tinatin Gurchiani has made a documentary that is not only about life in Georgia, about hopes and dreams and about the wall these aspirations run into, particularly in her country. Yet is ultimately about life itself. It is about the way we often simply find ourselves stalled, delayed, waiting, sometimes even crushed and yet we are still moving, still hoping, still searching for meaning.

American Masters: Lillian Gish: The Actor's Life for Me (1988) Season 3, Episode 1

A Wise and Fascinating Actress

[9/10 · 14 January 2014]

If you are curious about Lillian Gish this is an excellent place to start. With interviews from Lillian Gish in the late 80's and clips from many films from The Unseen Enemy to the Whales of August, the film shows ample evidence of Miss Gish being one of the greatest actresses who ever shone on a screen. Clips from hard to find films like 'The Wind' and 'The Scarlet Letter' only make one desperately want to see these films soon. If there was ever an actress who sought for truth in her work it is Lillian Gish. The only real drawback is the slightly under an hour running time and the niggling question of where the outtakes of her interview went. It would have been great just to see all of her reflections in a stand alone form. After seeing this you can look for her films on DVD and hunt down a few of the books by and about her. Lillian Gish: Passion and Truth.

The Last Exorcism (2010)

An unusual film on many levels

[10/10 · 14 January 2014]

First of all I thought the ending was the best part. If you thought it was randomly tacked on you obviously weren't paying attention. It was carefully, sneakily alluded too several times. And it was straight out of Lovecraft.

Secondly complaining about the quality of the film is another useless criticism. It is supposed to be a fake documentary. And in that it succeeds brilliantly. In the first couple of moments of the film I found myself reacting with a little skepticism, until I realized that the Cotton character was pitch perfect for a contemporary fraud. Likewise Ashley Bell does a perfect job. She was just off enough, unlike a movie actress, to make me believe in her. The other actors likewise all felt more like real folks than actors.

Thirdly this was not pastiche. This was not a crude slapping together of Rosemary's Baby, Marjoe and the Exorcist. (And when have you seen these things put together before???) Yes it had elements linking those films, but it was hardly culled from them. And the imitation documentary angle really threw it into another zone.

And most importantly the film actually had some intellectual muscles on it. It was a bit of a treatise on the loss of faith in a deeply ironic time. Eli Roth and the other producers say as much in their commentary. Having Cotton pick up his plastic cross to try to find faith again was at the heart of the whole film.

Now the people who hate this film seem to be the kind of folks who like a horror film to run on predictable tracks. I have a friend who just told me she thought it was stupid. No further explanation. She's hated some other films that seemed to have a point to them as well. Well for some people things just suck or are stupid. The cure for such simplistic criticisms might be to watch a few films with subtitles: fat chance of that.

But for my money... If a films engenders really polarized opinions something interesting is most likely going on. And if you like films with brains and subtlety and good acting check this film out and make up your own mind.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

A Dark Beautiful Lie

[6/10 · 14 January 2014]

Watching Perfume I found it a fascinating film up until the moment of the orgy scene. Listening to Tom Tykwer in the "Making of..." I can believe he saw it as a metaphor for celebrity in our time. Yet the orgy and everything that followed it struck me as false. I wasn't squeamish about the bodies, though I did start wondering about the folks involved with the shooting, but it seemed to me that it was also related to the concept that the genius can break all of the rules and somehow that is excusable. The Producer says that the film is supposed to be amoral, that is without a moral compass. So in the end the overwhelming shared erotic experience somehow excuses the 13 plus girls who had to die to make this divine scent, in other words the film really winks at human sacrifice, implying that when it comes to our sexual desires nothing is more important. (This interpretation is underscored by Alan Rickman's character asking for forgiveness.) I know the whole thing is a fable, yet it certainly does have a moral bearing: The truly gifted person is not understood and is thus excused for treating their fellow human beings execrably, if they can produce something miraculous. I would have accepted the orgy scene if they had gone all the way and ripped each other to shreds or done what "his people" do at the end, rip him to shreds and eat him. But ironically their final cannibal act is treated like a benediction in the film.

But at least Tykwer did get me thinking. I'll give it that much. But Run Lola Run is still his masterpiece.

Death Line (1972)

Deserves to be Remade

[7/10 · 14 January 2014]

Death Line AKA Raw Meat is quite a unique little film.

Others have described the plot etc. I'd just like to say that this is a film that really should be remade. The original, while fascinating, has many contradictions in tone, awkward transitions between procedural and horror, between mythic and comedic. Yet in the hands of a director who can see the potential for this story it could be expanded upon and updated easily into a true classic. Watch the film and then imagine it being directed by a Guillermo Del Toro or even Chris Carter or perhaps Brad Anderson giving it the 'Session 9' treatment.

Also a superior level of acting would have helped astoundingly. Yet there are so many interesting ideas rumbling around in here.

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) (2011)

Medical Curiosities and Poetry

[9/10 · 14 January 2014]

This is a fascinating journey through the exhibits and archives of the famous Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. The film is like entering into the text of the famous Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, but as poetry. It is not a film for the squeamish, as images of deformity and antique medical instruments must indeed resonate in the darker human recesses. Nevertheless I found this film moving, certainly not a mere field trip.

By the way you can find this DVD through the museum itself. If you have been following the films of the Brothers Quay then you will certainly add this to your collection.

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

Perhaps the Greatest of all Clown films

[10/10 · 14 January 2014]

This might be the best Lon Chaney film ever made. It strikes such an unusual tone. And the use of clown imagery is haunting and evocative of a time long gone. Chaney has many moments that can rip your heart out. His use of the clown smile creates utter tension between humor and pain conveying depths of torn emotion. Norma Shearer is also quite interesting in this film. And the circus imagery is beyond classic.

The only real quibble I have with the Warner Archive edition is that the soundtrack while not wholly inappropriate is a sort of mishmash of various styles. They need to commission a new score and get this a better release. The clarity of the film is great. There are occasional film glitches and spots that also are begging for a nice restoration. But I'm not complaining. I saw this with piano accompaniment in New York once and have been desperate to see it again. I'm grateful that it was finally reissued at all.

Dagon (2001)

Dark Symbolist Nightmare

[10/10 · 14 January 2014]

*** Major Spoiler Alert ***

Stuart Gordon's Dagon is an intense and unique film based mostly on H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth and his much shorter work entitled Dagon. This is really epic material in a strangely soaked Spanish environment. A Lovecraftian cult worshiping the underwater deity Dagon have taken over a small town on the Atlantic coast of Spain. A sailboat on pleasure cruise ends wrecked there. They will not be leaving anytime soon.

Now situationally this is a fairly obvious menu. Gordon does, at one point, dive off the gory edge, but this is a Stuart Gordon film after all. Meanwhile the chase through dripping dampness of the town is really a pulse quickener. What makes this work is the danker than dank waterlogged environment and the extraordinarily emotional relationship of Dagon's daughter played in a one of a kind performance by Spanish actress Macarena Gomez to our trapped nerd, played by Ezra Godden.

Macarena plays the part of tentacled siren princess with real fish-eyed believability. She was given instructions by Gordon (whose previous Lovecraft works include From Beyond and Re-Animator) to keep her eyes from blinking. When in the end Uxía (Gomez) craves Paul (Godden), whom she calls Pablo, she calls out to him with such an urgent imploring sad doomed yet loving tone in her voice she becomes perhaps the ultimate mermaid nightmare: Her eyes filled with wells of tearful salt water, her robes of gilded Symbolist splendor. She reveals the dark secrets of the unholy sect.

Uxía: Pablo, it is your destiny... We had different mothers, but the same father... We are children of Dagon. Your dreams. Remember your dreams, Pablo. They brought you here. Paul: No. They were nightmares. They weren't real. Uxía: Every dream is a wish. Paul: Somebody help me! What's happening to me? Uxía: You are my brother. You will be my lover - forever.

The tone Macarena hits here is the crescendo of the entire film, that sense of hopeless beauty and tragic certainty. I don't agree philosophically with the fatalism of that black romance, but who hasn't felt that temptation to give into it. And as Paul sets himself on fire and plunges into the sea Uxía follows. And together they descend into the depths of the tentacled God Dagon's realm. One feels the drowning, yet liberation. Yet we know to follow is to be annihilated.

I can't think of another film to present the darker aesthetics aspects of the antique Symbolist dream so vividly. For those with strong stomachs yet sensitive hearts I strongly recommend Dagon.

The Day (I) (2011)

Ashley Bell: Dark Samurai for the New Dark Age

[10/10 · 14 January 2014]

The Day is quite impressive. From its drained color to its standoff in the house the film creates its own space in a post-apocalyptic world that seems like another story from same future as The Road. (No animals, dead flora, cannibals.) All of the actors give strong performances but Ashley Bell is a real standout in a performance even better than The Last Exorcist films. She is an actress that creeps up on you... literally both in this film and in the Last Exorcist she seems mousy, almost dismissible to begin with. Then she does something and you can't take your eyes off of her. I don't think she's everyone's cup of tea. But by the time she walks off into the distance at the end she is a dark samurai in the New Dark Age. I, for one, wanted to see where she would go next and whether she could fully recover her humanity. The Day seemed like introduction to her story.

Jesus Camp (2006)

Fear and Fearing

[2/10 · 29 September 2010]

I just saw Jesus Camp several years after the fact. I was leery of it since certain of my friends were a little too enthusiastic about it. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. As a Christian I was mostly aware of this sort of thing. Sadly there has been too great a divorce from rationality amongst the religious folk of our times.

These poor charismatics thought somehow that letting these folk make a documentary might be a good witness. It wasn't. They didn't realize that all you need to do to make queasy liberal folk truly nervous is show them what goes on in some, too many, of our churches. It's clear though that once again the Christians presented here are clearly imitating what they perceive as Islam, at least the radical factions of it. It is part of the post-911 American outlook which shows no signs of disappearing anytime soon.

The filmmakers act fair, but their eerie music score leaks through quite a bit of the film and gives away their game. For them this is a warning shot and wake up call to the other America. They let one Christian DJ who rightly opposes this sort of thing speak as a measure of balance. But really it was through their feigned neutrality and lack of narrator that they speak with their own voice. A narrator might have required a bit of context. How did such a style of Christianity come to exist? Does it represent the the whole? The implication of the intertitles providing statistics lead one invariably to that conclusion.

In a way the film provides a hyper-politicized context which is part of the the post-911 world just as much as right wing paranoia. Both the film itself and its subject are laden with unspoken fear. But context and research would have provided a deeper picture. It's a shame that most documentaries being made these days have to micro-focus, thus omitting any sense of history.

An unexplored subtext for instance might have focused upon the relationship of this sort of pseudo-Christian approach with ways in which this approach to faith is most likely built upon the branded nature of our commercial culture. In other words these people are a natural result of the shopping malls and television screens of America... just as the filmmakers are.

Nightmare Man (2006)

Beware the Nightmare Man......

[1/10 · 5 April 2008]

I rarely will write a review to say how bad a film is. Like many horror aficionados I will put up with a lot for a sublime moment. After hitting real pay dirt with this series' "Borderland" I thought I'd give this a try. Talk about a pointless exercise.

Is it a demon film or another slasher flick? Who cares? Even the filmmakers didn't seem to care. The film begins in mid-action and never bothers to provide even a flimsy rational for why anything is happening. Does the mask connect to the demon? Was the mask really purchased for a sexual aid or was that a nightmare? Why does the husband want to kill his wife? Why does he hate her? Who is this guy he is paying? Are people like this listed in the phone book? How did the demon get into the wife in the first place? Does anyone care about any character in this film? Was there a point to any of the nudity in this film? It certainly wasn't to be erotic. Did they cover the camera lens with mud before shooting? I mean jeepers if you're going to take the time to raise the money to make a film why waste so much footage on such low grade material? Okay I'm done. JUST STAY AWAY!!!

PS Suspect any of the 3 plus star ratings you read, they are probably the work of shills.

Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival (1996)

A Crucial Piece of Evidence

[10/10 · 18 January 2007]

I find it very interesting that it took 25 years to get this documentary seen. Meanwhile there are now generations who believe the Woodstock myth: That one should follow one's instincts and intuition minus logic minus reality. (Yes I know there are better aspects of the dream.) Even the more well known Altamont festival took years to be as known as it now is, which still pales in comparison to Woodstock. Everyone knows Woodstock. Just as everyone knows the flower power myth and the San Francisco dream. Yet the media didn't really cover the failure of the hippie dream. (The media also hardly covered the deaths of Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison.) I suspect that was for two reasons: One, it didn't mean that much to the straight media at the time; and two, there was a lot more money to be made off of the dream than off of its failure. And yet we all live in the fallout from that of that failure without really understanding it. Gimme Shelter, the film of the Rolling Stones at Altamont, is one essential document of the failure of that dream. And this film is another. I echo the words of the others here who recommend this to anyone interested in rock music. I would extend that to anyone who wants to understand why the present moment is what it is: Not as the final explanation but as a historical step along the way.

Yes there is brilliant music here. The Who's Naked Eye stands out as it does at the end of the film. And interestingly enough I'm sure it was placed at the end as a comment on the nature of such dreams. Pete Townshend understood fairly early on the failure of the dream. 'Won't get fooled again' is indeed the cynical motto of the years from Punk and Beyond. Now, however, even those words seem like a hopeless dream. I don't think we understand where we are until we understand that we will be fooled again and again, and until there is a major paradigm shift. As long as music is held in a divine light we will be drawn to it like locusts to a field of wheat. The new paradigm can't be left or right. Rather we need a view based upon intelligence over sensation. Yes Hendrix plays brilliantly here. But it doesn't make me feel good that he does. People worshiped him and let him kill himself. Ditto Morrison. Ditto the dream. See this film. Let your friends see it. Learn. Think.

Beowulf & Grendel (2005)

A wasted opportunity.

[2/10 · 3 October 2006]

I didn't read anything before watching this. I was hoping that in the aftermath of Lord of the Rings Beowulf might also be a fairly good film. It looks good. The weather is great. Iceland is a joy to see. But that's about it. They really wasted a fine chance to bring us the dark ages in mythic form. And they really destroyed the meaning of the story.

The worst parts are these: Grendel is made into a sympathetic human figure who basically just speaks a different language. The real Grendel is a bloodthirsty carnivorous monster and is the inspiration for Tolkien's Gollum. He's much more like an animal than human. Thus a whole subplot about Grendel's hurt feelings makes the story into an oddly politically correct mess at its core.

Selma... Who the hell is Selma? Just a trendy pretty witch girl. She represents the old magic. She is sensitive and pseudo-mysterious. Now I like Sarah Polley as an actress. But without some dialogue coaching here, she sounds like a refugee from "The Craft", not someone from the past. And her and her son's hairstyles are likewise so much anachronistic tripe. And what was going on with her and Grendel? Brendan the Celtic Priest? Umm, do you think Europe was really Christianized by buffoons like this? This was just a poorly written "comment" upon the Christian implications of the original story. Or rather one more chance to say that the wonderful pagan world was ruined by idiot Christians. If they were going to get all of the Christianity out of the narrator's version they should have just done that without the unclever potshot at Christianity.

Beowulf. Not a bad actor, but where did he get that "What the F..." lingo? Let's just blame the low grade imagination of the screenwriter.

There are I suppose people who don't really care about the original poem. And people who will mistake this for some sort of treatment of the dark barbarian times. Don't be one of them. Educate yourself. Read the original.

The sad thing is that it will be years before someone can attempt to remake Beowulf as it should be done. They wasted their chance.