tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13990577029680083402023-11-16T01:50:31.089-06:00the tulgey mazeA zoo in hell.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-41777338978903846662014-09-13T10:57:00.002-05:002014-09-13T10:57:45.362-05:00A Master Builder (2013) Film Review<div class="MsoNormal">
Original Site: <a href="http://tcdailyplanet.net/arts/2014/09/11/master-builder-creates-bridge-stage-screen">http://tcdailyplanet.net/arts/2014/09/11/master-builder-creates-bridge-stage-screen</a></div>
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Translating theater to film is often even more tricky than
adapting a book. The surface similarities of these time-based forms can make it
appear that all you need to do is set a camera in front of the actors and let
it play out. Of course, in practice, this is far from the truth. A “stagey”
film is removed from everything that makes cinema work, and care should be
taken to make their be a reason the play is on film and not the boards where it
comes from. “A Master Builder”, based on the Henrik Ibsen play, is the latest
effort to bridge the two forms. <o:p></o:p></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/AVvXsEgHu43OIFF9Qu3kIc0kp9kTMTKspj29QQfMk8Fz9nPd43Gi6u-hC-6nP9hxafoWG52_MkU5yKXlAa2_hBmkewlmyneXr07WVYum3E7F9_jQZ4RP4EMHLQ8aUWxpFVOlXPTFYRaaowcWDhs/s1600/MB024_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHu43OIFF9Qu3kIc0kp9kTMTKspj29QQfMk8Fz9nPd43Gi6u-hC-6nP9hxafoWG52_MkU5yKXlAa2_hBmkewlmyneXr07WVYum3E7F9_jQZ4RP4EMHLQ8aUWxpFVOlXPTFYRaaowcWDhs/s1600/MB024_600.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
Photo by Declan Quinn / Courtesy of The Ibsen Project LLC</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p>In this film, like the original play, Halvard Solness
(Wallace Shawn) is an architect who is the “greatest in the land” and is
approaching the end of his life. He’s still working, but is bed-ridden and
tended to by nurses at the open of the film. There’s a series of lifelong
dramas which circle his bed with the characters they spring from. There’s Kaia
(Emily Cass McDonnell) an assistant who is somewhat romantically entangled
with. She’s also entangled romantically with his hopeful apprentice Ragnar (Jeff
Biehl), a man who Halvard sees only as a man gifted with numbers but not
drawing. Ragnar’s father Knut (Andre Gregory) is long-suffering colleague of
Halvard. There’s Dr. Herdal (Larry Pine) a professional friend who has a
slightly ambiguous relationship with Halvard’s wife Aline (Julie Hagerty).
Aline is estranged from Halvard, something he blames on her depression rather
than his own narcissism.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then, Hilde (Lisa Joyce) a vivacious twenty-something enters
the home, draws him out of his hospital bed, and leads him into a series of
confrontations with his past and the people closest to him. She’s come to make
him fulfill a promise or bring a reckoning, it’s not completely clear.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory are the minds behind “My
Dinner with Andre”, a significant art film that only has the camera briefly
leave the restaurant the two men are dining in. “A Master Builder” takes a
similar approach, never presenting a scene outside of a handful of rooms in the
house. There are moments in the beginning of the film when claustrophobia set
in as I realized we might not be leaving the bed that Wallace is stuck in. As
each character enters the room, the camera is given a new position and after
Hilde enters the camera follows Wallace and Hilde’s movements through the house.
More interestingly, many technical aspects also shift. Hilde brings with her a
cinematic style absent in the “realism” of the flatter video segments that fill
the first half-hour. The aspect ratio of the film, the size of the frame,
changes to the more dramatic 2.35:1 as it cuts to Hilde for the first time. The
taller 1.85:1 aspect ration doesn’t return until Wallace climbs the “highest
tower” he’s built, near the end of the film. This is formally clever, but also
shows us that director Jonathan Demme (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Silence of the Lambs</i>) hasn’t forgotten this is still a movie. This
attention to cinematic style lifts the rest of the film from it’s stage
origins.<o:p></o:p></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>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
Photo by Declan Quinn / Courtesy of The Ibsen Project LLC</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The film is largely driven by dialogue, and that dialogue is
reliant on performance to give it full life. There’s a significant amount of
innuendo and implication in this translation (created by Shawn and Gregory
themselves) and it is on the actors to play these minor chords. All of them are
up to the task, and Joyce does a remarkable job drifting between innocent
hero-worship and stalkerish obsession. Rather than a one-dimensional monster we
can lock the door in front of, we want her to be on the screen as much as
possible. We can see why Halvard asks her to stay in the house at the risk of
encouraging her fantasy of taking over “his castle”.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Ibsen is often mentioned in the same breath as Shakespeare,
and this adaptation offers this same level of depth and complexity. There’s a
lot going in these two hours, and though it is not as heady as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Dinner with Andre</i>, it’s clear Shawn
and Gregory, by way of Demme and the cast, have a lot more than just the reconciliation
of an old man on their minds. There’s nothing as hackneyed as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sixth
Sense</i> trick ending, but near the end of the film it becomes very clear that
Hilde is luminous for more than her youthful view of the world. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This film was produced for under $1 million, but unlike most
releases, it actually delivers well above its weight class. I don’t expect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Master Builder</i> to be a runaway indie
success story, but it will grow an audience and I imagine become an important
part of Shawn and Gregory’s trilogy of theater. Rather than being merely a play
that happens on film, Demme has used his many skills to create a film that is
particularly cinematic. Halvard might appreciate that the filmmakers created
their own high tower, yet somehow managed to not fall off of it. Happily, we
can all enjoy the view.</div>
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- T.A. Wardrope<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-52043039762396105972014-08-30T09:38:00.001-05:002014-08-30T09:38:25.214-05:00Afflicted (2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTNH7S8k1fHhLbAIAxCDbvZwh-z0nyN8yCurFFRSFwTklbiJkW9Jn1ud1HtxegIMqIFgy0Xy78Sooxn7WpX98WynebMuIntQwoa62SajVJJbfwYJSKClM-1_a-n3MTZL8LgyLDP61ATY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-30+at+9.36.18+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Afflicted" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTNH7S8k1fHhLbAIAxCDbvZwh-z0nyN8yCurFFRSFwTklbiJkW9Jn1ud1HtxegIMqIFgy0Xy78Sooxn7WpX98WynebMuIntQwoa62SajVJJbfwYJSKClM-1_a-n3MTZL8LgyLDP61ATY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-30+at+9.36.18+AM.png" height="320" title="Afflicted" width="214" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Review: Afflicted (2013)</span></b></h2>
I really need to do more research before I rent a movie. Just grabbing stuff off of the shelf has its own pleasures and surprises, but you also run the risk of having two "found footage" movies back-to-back. I am almost as tired of talking about found footage films as I am with seeing them, so you can imagine my near panic when I realized this was a first person, found footage type horror movie.<br /><br />The film doesn't start out like you'd expect, and over ten minutes into it I was wondering if I had gotten the wrong film. Seemed like a typical vanilla indie road trip movie shot on someone's DSLR and GoPro. The plot that starts the movie has Derek Lee (Derek Lee), a man who has a life-threatening illness, and his filmmaker friend Clif Prowse (Clif Prowse), setting off on a live blogged, film documented, trip around the world. One of the goals of the trip is to get Derek down and dirty with a hot European woman, but when he does get Audrey (Baya Rehaz) in the sack, she reveals herself to be something other than a normal woman.<br /><br />I don't want to spoil anything, because the way this film handles itself after the scenes with Audrey are what makes it worth watching. Something that Audrey does to Derek turns him slowly into something else. As the affliction has its way with Derek, he becomes less and less human and more dangerous to everyone, especially Clif. <i>Afflicted</i> uses the aforementioned vanilla opening to contrast and set-up to drive the film forward. Even when they figure out what is happening to Derek, the more terrifying question about what to do about carries the film into its second and third acts.<br /><br />The performances never really convinced me that Derek and Clif the actors were anything but young filmmakers making a found footage film with their DSLRs and GoPros. This wasn't particularly meta, this was often annoying. Yeah, its cool you're making a movie about a not real you making a movie, but can we get on with the movie now? None of the performances are top notch, but they make the film work. Renaz clearly enjoys her part, but something in character is too reminiscent of any number of heroines in b-movie genre flicks. She even gets an action sequence in the end to show how much of an urban fantasy badass she is. Not terribly frightening or compelling, but its all fun and hits the marks it was aiming for.<br /><br />This isn't a high-end horror movie by any stretch,and if the filmmakers are to be lauded, it should be for knowing how to create a pop horror flick with just enough bro-daciousness to interest the mainstream, but clever enough to get the respect from horror fans.<br /><br />The special effects are in a similar tier. Most of them are above Syfy movie quality, but occasionally they slide back into low-budget cheese. As this is a found footage film, there is plenty of bad and careless camera work. Images go out of focus and lose their framing. Over exposure, under exposure and wildly swinging camera views form the visual language of this film.<br /><br />Somewhere in the heart of this is a horror movie that gets most things right. Making <i>Afflicted</i> without the found footage conceit would be difficult and much less interesting. I suppose you could say <i>Afflicted</i> was good enough to make me forget how much I hate this recent film niche. What redeems it for me was that they used a tired form to reinvigorate an equally tired kind of creature. Unfortunately, the limits imposed by the filmmakers and the form they chose prevent the film from becoming a really exciting discovery. Still, it's two hours of low-budget film viewing time I didn't spend watching <i>Sharknado</i>. That's pretty good right there. I'll take a found-footage film over <i>Sharknado</i> any day of the week.<br /><br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-27460525864732633012014-08-30T00:53:00.003-05:002014-08-30T00:53:49.499-05:00The Sacrament (2013)<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The Sacrament</i> Review</span></h2>
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Both Eli Roth and Ti West have come down a few notches in my own critical book lately. <i>Hemlock Grove</i> was kind of a miss and I haven't seen much else from Roth that has interested me. For awhile Ti West could do no wrong, but his segment on <i>V/H/S </i>mostly left me underwhelmed. Some horror filmmakers get it right a few times and then spend the rest of their careers trying to figure out what worked so well. I hope these don't have this problem.</div>
<br />Personally, I think the pressure of Blumhouse's genre machine is having a downgrade effect on other filmmakers. <i>The Sacrament</i>, with its low-budget DSLR feel and hastily concocted storyline feel like it was rushed through production, because, well, that's the way we make horror movies now.<br /><br />I'm going to say this now, because I don't see it being said in the top hits on Google. This is a movie about Jim Jones and Jonestown. Instead of a Senator paying a visit, it is a video team from Vice Magazine. Sam (AJ Bowen), the reporter, brings his cameraman Jake (Joe Swanberg) to follow Patrick (Kentucker Audley) as he tries to rescue his sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz) from a strange commune. I am sure it is not a spoiler to tell you that this idyllic commune is not as it appears. If you know the story of Jonestown, you can predict the entire rest of this movie, right down to the shooting at the airfield.<br /><br />As far as that goes, the film does a decent job of bringing this horror to fictional life. Father (Gene Jones) is one of the better Jim Jones I've seen and he also manages to work in a little bit of Kim Jong Un too. Amy Seimetz delivers a decent blend of psychosis and girl-next door charm. The sets are clearly drawn from the actual compound and most of the rhetoric is as well. I cannot figure out why there isn't a "Based on a True Story" title card because there is no escaping the deep shadows of Jonestown that fall across this entire film.<br /><br />There's not a lot of traditional horror either. The poisoning sequences are gruesome and painful. There is one pretty bloody end, but even the worst of that is taken off camera. Mostly <i>The Sacrament</i> is gunshots and threatening doom, with not much else actually happening.<br /><br />There is very little in the found footage genre that interests me these days, and I thought these guys were further ahead of the curve, so this film seems like a giant step backwards. Hopefully, this is just a short vacation before both of these horror stars return to the worlds they are so good at creating otherwise.<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyFs66LWuP1XuxaLLzvGcINJlODQB2g4tsoPBafBukR7UNASStyB9rPjoQhZs5ujxWZyFswrEpvDDvJOOJb3uoa6YfKHNzexb_qlZ0MoEGJth-H0I_ds4IuqVMukXe-2lgwSK2sd1TO8/s1600/sacrament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Sacrament" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyFs66LWuP1XuxaLLzvGcINJlODQB2g4tsoPBafBukR7UNASStyB9rPjoQhZs5ujxWZyFswrEpvDDvJOOJb3uoa6YfKHNzexb_qlZ0MoEGJth-H0I_ds4IuqVMukXe-2lgwSK2sd1TO8/s1600/sacrament.jpg" height="320" title="The Sacrament" width="215" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-90745426646727124482014-06-19T01:51:00.000-05:002014-06-20T10:37:43.167-05:00#MyWritingProcess Blog Hop<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">#MyWritingProcess Blog Hop</span></h2>
Thanks to fellow travelers <a href="http://www.blastgun.com/">Mark</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogagaard.blogspot.com%2F&ei=pSibU_GyHs-TyATw_4HwBA&usg=AFQjCNGG7iqYlXGjCL7Xg_zVqlqBcw0C2w&sig2=XzXr0aURDCjB9cdJsgMxOQ&bvm=bv.68911936,d.aWw">Dave</a> and <a href="http://evankingston.com/2014/06/05/mywritingprocess-blog-hop/">Evan</a> for including me in this tour. Here we go.<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; line-height: 17px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></i>
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<i>1) What am I working on?</i><br /><br />Right now it is 50/50 prepping for the launch of Arcadian Gates on <a href="http://www.blastgun.com/">Blastgun Books</a>, and the other time is spent on revising short stories and writing new ones. I've got a novel-length project that I am doing background and generative work on. It's kind of science-fiction, but also creative non-fiction.<br /><br />Additionally, I've got some flash stuff congealing for the Cesspool graphic novel/art book.<br /><br /><i>2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?</i><br /> <br />I feel like my writing has developed enough that is "my voice" within the context of whatever story is being told. So, in as much as I am an individual it is different. I suppose that doesn't answer the question, though. I feel like what I do is sort of slipstream, trying to merge my favorite genre forms with philosophical and metaphysical issues. Which much of SF does, of course, but I feel like I am bringing it with a particular surreal aesthetic. <br /><br /><i>3) Why do I write what I do?</i><br /><br />Honestly, I write the stuff that I know I cannot film practically. Writing offers an opportunity to create worlds that are consistent but do not have to worry about budgets, casting or art politics. Things can be done with words that cannot be done in a controlled way with imagery alone. <br /><br />Also, I love the environments of genre writing; the fantastic and the horrible, but I dislike the lazy writing that is associated with those forms. I am a bit of a frustrated poet and I need to get that kind of thrill somewhere!<br /><br /><i>4) How does your writing process work?</i><br /><br />Hmm. My rituals have changed over time. I usually do a bit of reading to see what is going on in the larger world of writing, maybe do some research for whatever I am working on. I put on iTunes and listen to either metal (Mastadon) or shoe-gaze psych music (Mogwai). Then, I jump into the writing and write until I get into a puzzle that I need to think about some more. I've found these breaks from the writing allow me to have the really creative solutions I want.<br /><br />Sometimes, though, there is just a lonely whispering voice that begs me to listen. I do, of course.<br /><br />Up Next: <a href="http://cloudscudding.livejournal.com/">Abra Staffin-Wiebe</a><br /><br />Abra's Bio: <br />"I grew up in Africa, India...and Kansas. Then I married a mad scientist and moved to Minneapolis, where I fold time and space to be a full-time fiction writer, part-time freelance photographer, part-time work-from-home employee, and full-time mother. My next project is learning to fold time and space to make this all physically possible! I've had short stories accepted by publications including Jim Baen's Universe and Tor.com. I specialize in dark science fiction, cheerful horror, and modern fairy tales."<br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-83103943761412893072014-06-12T11:43:00.003-05:002014-06-12T11:44:45.258-05:00The Naked Critic<h2>
<b><span style="font-size: small;">The Naked Critic</span></b></h2>
Over the last couple of weeks I've noticed recurring discussion, or blogging at least, about the changing face of media criticism. I suppose this article <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/are-critics-losing-their-jobs-because-reviews-are-money-losers" target="_blank">here</a> was the first bit of the current wave that I read, and as you can see in the comment section, I thought it was a very well-considered piece about the direction online criticism is heading. In summary, the usual mainstream media outlets are cutting back or eliminating paid criticism while unpaid or freelance criticism is creeping back to feature length. This is cool for several reasons, top of which in mind is that for once there is evidence to suggest that the entirety of humanity <i>isn't</i> getting stupider with every click of the trackpad.<br />
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Honestly, when I started posting my online reviews here I thought it was even more of windmill joust than posting poetry or fiction. I mean, who reads other people's reviews online? You can forgive me for thinking the forces of "THIS SUCKS" or "the first one is soooo boring and old"were destined to dominate the comment fields and product reviews for the rest of our lifetimes. Ironically, the only intelligent conversations I can usually have are with my friends in real life, or occasionally via social media. Forget about hive intelligence, we're dealing with cyber-herd consciousness on a daily basis.<br />
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Anyway, I've gotten good traffic on here. Nothing fantastic yet, but I've never really wanted it to be huge. Obviously, I didn't start this because I thought people would actually read it. I started posting these reviews because I enjoy writing them and because it helps me sort out my own feelings in reaction to any given work. I know people are out there and reading, some of you regularly, and I hope you find some satisfaction or illumination between the lines. Because of this audience, I've had to think a little bit more about why I am saying things the way I am saying them. Regardless of what some writers might like to think, knowing that someone is reading your work does make you think about the work differently.<br />
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When I was writing film studies papers as an undergrad I made a conscious effort to not discuss whether or not a film was "good". As a matter of art and culture, there is no real value outside of commerce for saying if a film is "good". The word doesn't mean anything because it is too relative. What is useful is deciphering what the filmmakers sought to do versus how that worked for any given critic. Comparing one film to another is fair in as far as they can reveal things in contrast which may be invisible in isolation. I guess I was ahead of the curve in some ways, because as <a href="http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/how-entertainment-weeklys-shifting-fortunes-reflect-criticisms-changing-place-in-the-media-economy?utm_campaign=how-entertainment-weeklys-shifting-fortunes-reflect-criticisms-changing-place-in-the-media-economy&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_content=how-entertainment-weeklys-shifting-fortunes-reflect-criticisms-changing-place-in-the-media-economy" target="_blank">this article</a> points out, no one really reads published reviews as part of a purchasing decision anymore. People read reviews to understand, to put into context and to be entertained. My reviews have always been as much creative non-fiction as they are "considerations," so I am pretty exited that this kind of criticism is gaining an audience out there in the interwebs.<br />
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If a friend asks me if a film is "good", I will give them my abbreviated thoughts, like most normal people do. If a stranger asks me, I feel the need to qualify and put it into context, because they have no idea what my tastes are and also because I have no interest in convincing them I am right. I am not selling them tickets and this ain't debate club, sunshine. The best of my opinion, allowed to take its full form in these "considerations", is the ability to have someone understand, maybe feel, my perspective like you might in the original work itself. Anyway, the short version. I am thrilled that criticism in a broader world is starting to value this more subjective, but more rewarding, way of considering the flashing light you watched uninterrupted for two hours.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Tom Cruise Theory</span></h3>
As another example of this, here <a href="http://www.citypages.com/2014-06-11/news/tom-cruise-on-oprah-youtube/" target="_blank">is an interesting article about Tom Cruise's</a> career. On one level it is about how the movie star has risen and fallen over the decades of working in what remains of the studio system. On a more interesting level, this is a look at how a modern critic constructs meaning out of a body of work. The writer, Amy Nicholson, has some great access to people who witnessed key points in Cruise's public life. The implication of her article is that Cruise is a noble actor who has been defeated in part by loyalty, and in part by a lack of awareness about how this new media works. She's constructed a counter argument to the prevailing narrative of "Tom Cruise the scientology crackpot who had a really good agent for a while."<br />
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I can't say I agree with her entirely, but I enjoyed and was very entertained by the way she constructed her case, her story about what Tom Cruise wanted to do and what actually happened. I don't believe in the Hollywood that she does, and there is a vague hint of nostalgia for the machinery and madness of old Tinseltown in between her words. Tom Cruise is crafted to be a noble, but still tragic hero. There is every possibility the whole essay is a very clever bit of marketing on Cruise's behalf, but it doesn't matter because the case that is presented is interesting. Maybe Mr. Cruise wrote it himself?<br />
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This is also worth noting because it constructs a narrative across many of his films, it creates Tom Cruise the character as it disguises it as biography. The author also tells the story of marketing mainstream cinema, about the changing notions of what a blockbuster can be, and how the handsome leading man, the right profile, is becoming the very thing many of us believed it to be already. The leading man is a naked emperor, something we always thought we needed but really don't. Tom Cruise will have to be an actor like every other actor, and all of us will be the better for it. Very soon big media film criticism will have a similar reckoning.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-68168531495365756452014-05-30T11:00:00.004-05:002014-05-30T11:01:28.474-05:00Dungeons & Drag Queens - ReviewOriginal Site: <a href="http://hellnotes.com/dungeons-drags-queens-book-review">http://hellnotes.com/dungeons-drags-queens-book-review</a><br />
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Dungeons & Drag Queens<br />
M. P. Johnson<br />
Eraserhead Press<br />
ISBN: 978-1-62105-103-9<br />
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Reviewed by T.A. Wardrope <br />
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“Dungeons & Drag Queens,” the latest novel written by M. P. Johnson, is a sword and sorcery tale that plays with genre in much the same way that its drag queen protagonist, Sleazella, plays with gender and her own sexual proclivities. Once the most powerful drag queen in all of Green Bay, Wisconsin, she finds herself teleported to the fantasy world of Houmak in order to become the bride of the great old god Houmak itself. Sleazella doesn’t think this sounds so great, and her escape from the wizard Dravor sets off an epic adventure that spans the lands of Houmak and beyond.<br />
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Published by Eraserhead Press, filed under Bizarro fiction, and featuring an image of a pink-haired drag queen holding aloft a skull on the cover; there is nothing about this book that should make a reader expect a standard fantasy adventure story. This adventure contains enough tropes to be recognizable as fantasy, though. There’s a wizard with a familiar; there are gigantic monsters, strange creatures in the forest, warrior tribes and a mercenary hero with a heart of gold. However, Sleazella’s way of the world leaves all of this drenched in sex and raunch. Fans looking for a “straight” adventure should pretend they never even saw this cover.<br />
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Though it is still a young sub-genre, Bizarro contains a broad range of works of varying degrees of estrangement from mainstream storytelling. Accusing some of these books as shock for shock’s sake is fair and often the reach toward absurdity and surrealist confrontation get too much in the way of narrative. Happily, M. P. Johnson does not have this problem. This story, as driven by cartoonish satire as it is, still moves at a brisk pace and is always entertaining. Sleazella is a character with depth and she develops as her challenges force her to. Much more than a stereotype in high heels, she brings heart to a story that could’ve been a hollow parody.<br />
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There are a few gags that get a little long in the tooth, and some Sleazella’s one-liners aren’t as hilarious as the others, but I took this as all part of the campy fun of this book. This book is spawned from a cult cinema sensibility and it should be enjoyed with that spirit. There are scenes to be horrified by, to laugh at, and to find sympathy with in “Dungeons & Drag Queens,” but if you are tied to more traditional kinds of sword and sorcery this will not be your cup of pink blood. Sleazella is a master of swordplay, certainly, but it’s not the kind of sword you are probably thinking of.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-40907134913555686932014-05-28T22:33:00.000-05:002014-05-28T22:33:03.487-05:00A Field in England (2013) - Review<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">A Field in England</span></h2>
<a href="http://boxd.it/3d6jV">http://boxd.it/3d6jV</a><br />
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The conceit of mainstream cinema is that everyone should or will have the same experience in front of the screen, whether it is fabric or plasma. A few minutes standing in a theater lobby as any movie gets out should reveal the misconception in that thought. A set of attentive viewers can agree on the basic plot and arc of the story, but dig deeper than that and you will see how personal the dream of cinema can be.<br />
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I enjoy experimental, avant-garde, surrealist, or whatever, film because it plays with this sense of shared dream-making. Some films will send the viewer into their own trip, others will somehow create a consensual sense out of meaningless elements. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375574/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank"><i>A Field in England</i></a>, directed by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1296554/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Ben Wheatley</a>, works at both edges of that polarity.<br />
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If I had to tell you what this film is about, it would go something like this. Whitehead (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790501/?ref_=tt_cl_t5" target="_blank">Reece Shearsmith</a>), a holy man in service to an alchemist, is sent to capture a rogue occultist during the English Civil War. Whitehead falls in with a group of deserters from both sides (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1027986/?ref_=tt_cl_t1" target="_blank">Julian Barratt</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0272252/?ref_=tt_cl_t2" target="_blank">Peter Ferdinando</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1757718/?ref_=tt_cl_t3" target="_blank">Richard Glover</a>), eventually convincing them to forego their quest for beer in order to help him find the occultist O'Neil (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806968/?ref_=tt_cl_t6" target="_blank">Michael Smiley</a>). They find him or he finds them, the film is (intentionally) unclear on this point. O' Neil captures them, with the help of his henchmen Cutler (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0691186/?ref_=tt_cl_t4" target="_blank">Ryan Pope</a>) and puts them all to work to find a treasure hidden somewhere in the fields. What they find is uncertain, but it unleashes a spiritual and formal storm which makes everything topsy-turvey.<br />
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There are long stretches where the characters do little more than talk and walk. This would be annoying if it weren't for the crafty dialogue and character work that is revealed in this banter. Furthermore, I believe most of the "hints" to the what is really going on in all of this can be found in the actual dialogue.<br />
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This is a strange little beast of a movie. Part existential new wave, part surrealist, part supernatural horror and part historical drama, it seems dead set on telling its story on its own terms. Of course, the further into the mushroom (yes, that kind) filled field our merry band gets, the harder it is to tell exactly what the story is. Visually speaking, we see people get shot, people get killed and the climax of it all is a several minute psychedelic tour-de-force which blends stroboscopic effects (flicker film), art film tableau, and multiple exposures. There is a Jodorowsky vibe to all of this, but the imagery is all drawn from the narrative of the film, not an external "object of desire", so Bunuel's narrative films are worth mentioning. The immediate experience of this is a bewildering spin of WTF that leaves the viewer groping for a thread of sense.<br />
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This is where it gets interesting and remarkable. As disorienting as the film is, it does communicate the story quite well. Well enough, that with the exception on one historical detail, I left the film understanding most of what Ben Wheatley explained in a bonus feature on the disc. In a sense, I "got it" without really knowing that I understood the film. <i>A Field in England</i> works on you like the mushrooms in the strange field. Disoriented, transmogrified, and beyond sense; it communicates like a soft hallucination.<br />
<br />
T.A. Wardrope<br />
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3.75/5 Stars<br />
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Original Site:<a href="http://boxd.it/38TEX">http://boxd.it/38TEX</a><br />
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Sometime around 1978 I brought my "Godzilla vs. Amphibion" record to show-and-tell day at Armatage Elementary School. This was by far my favorite record, even surpassing Elvis and disco Star Wars. I was expecting the kids, the teacher, to be won over by how awesome Godzilla was. Godzilla was popular at that time, but still somewhat of a geeky thing. Anyway, they were not won over and they did not respond to the awesome story of Godzilla laying waste to Seattle as he fought Amphibion. On one level I was very disappointed, but an another level it was my first taste of what it meant to like something which was not totally popular and it was delicious.<br />
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I enjoyed the 1998 Godzilla, by virtue of it being a daikaiju movie, but I never understood why those people called it a Godzilla movie or wanted to remake Godzilla. They had no respect for the fans and thought they could rework a subculture icon into a mainstream hero. Nothing new there, they've been doing that for decades now. In a perverse way, that film was pretty easy to digest, because there weren't any stakes at all. I knew it wasn't going to be awesome. Things were quite a bit different for Godzilla (2014).<br />
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The initial preview trailers gave me chills, Gareth Edward's Monsters (2010) was pretty much the sort of monster movie I would make, and if Hollywood has learned anything it is that they really do need to listen to the fans for an established character to work. As the publicity machine moved on, there was less and less to worry about and more to look forward to. Instead of worrying about it sucking, I wondered how I would react if it was totally and completely awesome. Would I be consumed by professional jealousy? Would I feel like my time in this world was done? What work would be left for to do if not a totally awesome daikaiju movie? On another level, I don't think I can handle a zombie-like Godzilla fad. I just can't.<br />
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Let me say, in the best and most excited way possible, that I do not have to worry about that, yet. Godzilla (2014) is very much a traditional Godzilla movie and one that honors the character and the fans. This will excite the loyalists, attract a new generation and happily alienate all the right people. This is not, of course, much like the first Godzilla (1954) movie, this is much closer to the Heisei and Millennium series of films. "King of the Monsters or saviour of our city?" asks a news crawl in the final scenes of the film, and that ambiguity sums up exactly what this iteration of Godzilla is all about.<br />
So, this puts this film in line with the majority of Godzilla films, sadly apart from the original, but happily immune to the silliness of the lowest points of the Showa era.<br />
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I can't think of a single Godzilla movie in which I think fondly of the human characters. Aside from Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Yamane, none of those actors can really compare with Gojira. The Showa era has a series of forgettable heroes, heroines, and children which always felt more like a way to fill time and save money simultaneously. I suppose, by contrast, it made the actual daikaiju scenes more exciting. Likewise, most of the anti-Godzilla JSDF were just plain annoying. I wanted any and all kaiju to smash those cretins. I hope I was supposed to feel that way.<br />
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So, Godzilla (2014) honors this "tradition" as well. Bryan Cranston (Joe Brody) is awesome, but sadly he disappears too soon. (Though as a matter of narrative logic, he had to be removed when he did, what else was a paranoid going to do when all of his conspiracies become mundane?) Juliette Binoche's (Sandra Brody) loss was tangible as well, she brought a lot of charisma that Elizabeth Olsen (Elle Brody) doesn't command yet. I guess we need to keep these things on the young side, though. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Ford Brody) spends most of the film being a slightly clueless hero. You can connect this back to the comic antics of Showa heroes, but I don't think it was quite that intentional. If the film's goal was to really highlight the "folly of man", Ford Brody was a great vehicle for that. Ken Watanabe (Dr. Ichiro Serizawa) gives one of the better performances, doing the lion's share of the Godzilla backstory. Unfortunately, I say this as constructive criticism, many aspects of his character come uncomfortable close to the "magical negro" trope. His character could have brought even more to the story.<br />
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As I said earlier, if you are disappointed by the human performances and you think that affects the quality of the film, you did not go to this expecting a Godzilla movie. You expected a Steven Spielberg movie or a Joss Whedon movie. I'm not saying this a hollow or soulless movie, by any means, Gareth Edward's talent is to infuse genre with humanity and subtle overtones, and this is in full effect in Godzilla (2014). There are moments of pure cinema genius in this film. There are visions that surpass anything done in a previous Godzilla film. When Godzilla emerges from the smoke and haze, towering over Ford Brody, the soundtrack drops to near silence and this epic portrait is unrivaled. This is the creature I could worship.<br />
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There is plenty of other imagery to get really excited about. The opening scenes are filled with homage to Godzilla and his universe. The opening title sequence is a delicious fever dream of paranoia which is pulled directly from Joe Brody's imagination. The fight scenes are delightfully cinematic and have a dynamism that is natural to the tradition of Godzilla, but also advances the visual language into the modern era. Moments such Godzilla slapping M.U.T.O. mid-flight into a building were amazing and didn't make me miss the suits at all. Made all the better because lizards actually do that. Trust me, I know.<br />
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This is certainly the super-sized version of Godzilla. Everything about it is gigantic (except for his spikes, which was disappointing), and while this has attracted some criticism, to me it feels more faithful to the original than anything else. When I say original I mean the Godzilla that lived on the page before any rubber was stitched together. Gojira, the Japanese name, is a combination of either "Gorilla" or "Monster" and "Whale" (I've seen both). Yet, this is the first time, aside from Showa human-like antics, where Godzilla has actually shown primate behavior. His expressions and fighting are distinctly gorilla-like, and I think this sort of attention to detail is what makes Godzilla (2014) something to celebrate.<br />
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The M.U.T.O. are a worthy set of adversaries. There aren't enough insect daikaiju in the canon, so these 8-legged beasties are welcome. Like the best of the enemies, they do actually threaten and overpower Godzilla. One high point of all Godzilla films are when the alien daikaiju have sympathetic moments. Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Hedorah are not completely inhuman creatures. The M.U.T.O. are following nature's course, eating and breeding as they should, but it just so happens they are millions of years out of place and a threat to everything else on the planet. Like Godzilla, they are not evil, but they will do what they will in order to survive. When M.U.T.O. howl in anguish at the loss of their eggs, it is hard to not feel sympathy.<br />
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Honestly, though I was rooting for a final showdown between Godzilla and the remaining military, I was relieved when it took a nap and went for a swim after the climactic battle with M.U.T.O. Godzilla has been through so much, all of us fans have, and it was so nice to just say "so long" to it. We all know you can't keep Godzilla down, so there was no point putting us through the emotional stress of killing him off pointlessly.<br />
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As a point of art, this choice resonates on a much broader frequency, too. The fact that humanity is facing very hard choices in our relationship to nature is no longer a matter of science-fiction films. That moment has passed. While we may not face Hedorah, Destroyah or M.U.T.O. anytime soon, the threats are just as large and just as powerful. I would be happy to have Godzilla around to keep us in our place or to unleash the blue fire of a thousand suns when we really need it most.<br />
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Skreeonk!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkuJ7uS8CxOkjfqSRjCj3lu8oA2C_3HFGCqrNkc4rrix3aeHjaouZetxPt8qQ2WP0eeKPUliwKo6kLQUNkmtAfLjpBcrBTw5re54ChhSwT0eNosCJITCg3k8fF7x8IDUjErDQY2HN-Z-4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-17+at+3.33.59+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Godzilla movie poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkuJ7uS8CxOkjfqSRjCj3lu8oA2C_3HFGCqrNkc4rrix3aeHjaouZetxPt8qQ2WP0eeKPUliwKo6kLQUNkmtAfLjpBcrBTw5re54ChhSwT0eNosCJITCg3k8fF7x8IDUjErDQY2HN-Z-4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-17+at+3.33.59+PM.png" height="400" title="Godzilla (2014)" width="265" /></a></div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-6343423371142235222014-05-12T22:28:00.002-05:002014-05-12T22:28:49.233-05:00Gojira (1954) Review<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Godzilla: The Original Version (60th Anniversary)</span></h2>
I don't know what it is that makes giant monsters so compelling. The fascination with stories about giant creatures goes back much further than the early fifties American atomic bestiary, earlier than the first "King Kong", probably even further than the golden age of mythic storytelling in ancient civilization. Whether this obsessions comes from some primordial memory of beings we've since otherwise forgotten or from a Jungian tendency to conceptualize the infinite and impossible as natural giants, these creatures have always been with us and always will.<br />
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"Gojira" (1954) wasn't the first giant monster movie. Depending on how you define "giant monster" that honor can go to the original "King Kong" (1933) or "The Lost World" (1925). "Gojira" wasn't even the first atomic age monster. "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (1953) was a dinosaur brought to gigantic life through nuclear weapons. There were five other Hollywood iterations of nuclear nature before the American version of "Godzilla, King of the Monsters " (1956) arrived. So, there is really no reason why this black and white movie which didn't use stop motion animation (mostly) should have the prominence it does. Yet, it has surpassed them all and become nearly archetypal. I often joke that Godzilla is the only supernatural being I can really believe in, but the truth is I am only half-joking.<br />
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I think it is somewhat uncanny that after all of these years of being a "G-Fan" I have finally seen the real cinematic evidence of what I knew to be true on an intuitive level. The fact that Godzilla (1956) is a just a pale shadow of the original is common knowledge, but I have to love it because it brought this great beast alive in my young imagination. Now, I am old enough to understand how limited and simplified that version is. That Godzilla fits in nicely with the 1950's American pop science-fiction narrative of science run amok; nature mutated and bent on destroying pretty girls and fancy cars. In these movies, the hero always kills the monster, order is restored and everyone can breath a sigh of relief that this will never happen again. The subtext, of course, is that as much as we destroy and screw things up, good old know-how is always going to win in the end. Right?<br />
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Restored to its original glory and the original running time, Gojira has a much different feeling. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to say the difference between the 1956 "Godzilla" and the 1954 one is similar to the difference between the 1936 "Dracula" and the 1958 "Horror of Dracula". (You could also make the case that it is similar to the difference between "Dracula" (1936) and "Nosferatu" (1922), but that is more a matter of style than actual substance.) This film, despite it's clear b-movie roots, is much more than a thrilling cautionary tale for teens. This is apocalypse before the apocalypse was cool, this is a memory of total annihilation made by people that have actually seen it happen. Go ahead and laugh at the special effects, but you may feel a bit awkward when a weeping mother and daughter are consumed by a sweeping atomic firestorm a few minutes later. This is a theater of doom made to signify something far greater than the meager Toho soundstage would allow. I guarantee you won't see teenagers joking sardonically about the Nagasaki atomic bomb in "The Blob" (1958), like you will in "Gojira" (1954).<br />
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This 60th Anniversary wide release is essentially the same as the 50th Anniversary release from 2004. Though it is delivered here in digital format, and I have to say that it is better for this preservation. The blacks are deeper and many of the details are sharper than in previous film transfers. Additionally, the translation and subtitles are new and improved. There is a bit more poetry in this version than I have seen previously and the actual pacing of the subtitles on the screen is more precise. In this print it is easy to see that the noir style is not an accident of contrast but a definite choice of cinematography. The soundtrack is cleaner too, and the overall effect is a more coherent narrative with stronger emotional effects.<br />
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Equally interesting is that this film is as much horror as it is science-fiction. The nod to expressionism through noir is explicit in many of the scenes of Godzilla looming over devastation. Imagery of victims being treated in hospitals, the long tracking shots over total devastation, the screams of victims crushed or burned all add up to an experience that is somehow prescient of the gritty apocalyptic horrors we've come to expect in the 21st century cinema. This isn't The Walking Dead, this is the walking death.<br />
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I am a fan of the Lovecraft mythos, and I have long seen the connection between the lurking doom of Cthulu and the undersea behemoth that we know as Godzilla. There is a deeper connection than just narrative overlap, though. In the world of H.P. Lovecraft, the cosmic terrors are merely signifiers for horrors that that the human mind can never really wrap its brain around. The true nightmare far exceeds anything our monkey brains can grapple with. This applies to our atomic fire breathing giant too.<br />
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In a world where all that remains of human beings are carbon shadows on brick walls, when the soil itself crackles with the energy of the sun, where you are spared the horror of sudden blindness by the incineration that arrives before the light itself, a giant "destroyer of worlds" is no laughing matter. Don't think that the thunder in the theater is mere special effect, or the light on Godzilla's spikes is an easy optical trick; this is the aftershock and earthquake light from an explosion that happened long ago and has taken this long to reach us.<br />
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Go, go, go, Godzilla.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge01yE9bkDgkfJmjnZVMhdc8LVpw-OcBwsPj264g0YK6621Ri6jpvQw8Vhb24Cb-wFHc-LUdVCw4PnoPZ0VGTIMqCd92m23bsVs3UzMNON_wyrSkCAG0fs1v24sMEEfMdetuBuxIIMXW8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-12+at+10.26.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge01yE9bkDgkfJmjnZVMhdc8LVpw-OcBwsPj264g0YK6621Ri6jpvQw8Vhb24Cb-wFHc-LUdVCw4PnoPZ0VGTIMqCd92m23bsVs3UzMNON_wyrSkCAG0fs1v24sMEEfMdetuBuxIIMXW8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-05-12+at+10.26.40+PM.png" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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T.A. Wardrope<br />
Original Site: <a href="http://t.co/wbqDs3ReD3">boxd.it/37v4p</a><br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-73410216565085656832014-05-10T11:32:00.004-05:002014-05-10T11:32:41.481-05:00And the Hills Opened Up Review<br />
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Original Site: <a href="http://hellnotes.com/and-the-hills-opened-up-book-review">http://hellnotes.com/and-the-hills-opened-up-book-review</a></strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the Hills Opened Up</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Oppegaard</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Burnt Bridge</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ISBN: 978-0-9886727-1-0</strong></div>
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<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reviewed by Todd Wardrope </strong></div>
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Horror novels are not easy things to write. Despite the many volumes to the contrary, sustaining a horror story for several hundred pages is a very tricky thing. The mood, mystery and threat which propels the best horror writing can be exhausting for both reader and writer if not done deftly. With <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the Hills Opened Up</i>, David Oppegaard has delivered a short novel that pulls that trick off with grace to spare.</div>
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Set in Red Hill, Wyoming, circa 1890, <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the Hills Opened Up</i> begins as these things often do, with something very unpleasant being unearthed by an unknowing and uncaring group of miners. This creature, rather than taking its time selecting its victims, begins a full-scale assault on Red Hill that shows no mercy or reason. The threat here isn’t so much a killer as a full-on agent of total apocalypse. Residents of Red Hill, sordid and innocent alike, do what they can to fend off the rising tide of death. Very few, if any of them, succeed and it is never pleasant.</div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And the Hills Opened Up</i> takes a cue from Stephen King or the <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Walking Dead</i>, as it travels with several characters who are caught up in the terror. None are favored and the cards are never tipped to reveal when and how each of them will meet their fate. There’s plenty of good character depth to most of the residents we meet, so their doom is felt even more acutely. Oppegaard makes it pretty clear from the start that women and children will not be spared out of some sense of generic decorum. Even so, Oppegaard knows when to look away and when to keep your gaze locked onto the crimson reaping of his monster. Humanity underlies every moment of the ordeal, and only one of the deaths feels like retribution. This is not the meting out of holy justice.</div>
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Oppegaard negotiates the narrow way of staying within the established pathways of genre and riding off that trail. You’ve got many of the stock characters of the western small town, but these types are used to good effect. Young Sherriff Atkins is the earnest “star” in town, but he’s not as confident as he acts. Reverend Lynch is neither pure holy man or faithless, he is one of God’s working men; he’s doing a job he doesn’t always like or understand.</div>
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With it’s genetic background of western and horror, <i style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And The Hills Opened Up</i> had to be a pulpish event, but Oppegaard builds his penny dreadful with firm paper and leather. As much fun as he is having with his mayhem, there are moments of prose genius and insight that stab harder than the claws of his vengeful demon. A brisk read, this book keeps mystery and danger going for the entire page count. You may feel, like many characters in the story, that the ending comes too terribly soon.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-89110481692920462052014-04-28T21:47:00.002-05:002014-04-28T21:56:04.672-05:00Concert Review: Graveyard, Kadavar & Bombus<a href="http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/arts/2014/04/27/graveyard-wkadaver-bombus" target="_blank">Graveyard w/Kadavar & Bombus at Fine Line Music Cafe Review</a><br />
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<a href="https://flic.kr/ps/FzCfY" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtuwblN3bx3RtK79Dzb7T2OeIuRM40SBP8kyMmDinjw3brfevom54JYbfIm7RBqn1FGrDmP0ZS76WmrPKrbkQZRe6WTesAfKHxu18Nl4qhE5DvpByKpQHU0XNoMDGSOOdo3GAYFP7T1hE/s1600/Kadaver_MG_6246.jpg" height="213" title="Kadavar" width="320" /></a><br />
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The complete <a href="https://flic.kr/ps/FzCfY" target="_blank">photo gallery</a>.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-83540136449019850162014-04-12T01:13:00.000-05:002014-04-12T01:13:23.557-05:00Carrie (2013)<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Carrie (2013): An Awkward Phase</span></h2>
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This movie is a problem.<br />
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News flash, right? This 2013 version of Carrie is a great example of what is most broken in the film industry at the moment. This was an unnecessary remake to begin with, as the original still holds up pretty well. The amount of re-interpretation isn't enough to make it definitively separate from the original, but is just different enough to make me wonder why they decided to make another "Carrie" movie. Hollywood hasn't ever really had a problem borrowing heavily from previous or competing films, so why the need to actually title this film "Carrie"? Kids who don't remember or care about the original film will have no investment in "Carrie" and the ones that do will probably be annoyed out of their gothy little socks.<br />
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Honestly, I fast forwarded through the "teen drama". The teens in the film felt too much like teens you might find in a tv urban fantasy show, too perfect and beautiful to be believed. The teens in "Carrie" '76 were typical, but they were believably typical. That's what made Carrie White's (Sissy Spacek) ordeal as painful as it was, you knew this was really happening somewhere. I don't believe these high school kids exist anywhere outside of Hollywood's dream of life.<br />
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So, I should totally trash this movie, right? That's the problem. There were many good things in this film. Julianne Moore really brought the creepy to Margaret White, displacing the borderline campiness of Piper Laurie's version with something more desperate and anxious. While no one is ever going to surpass Sissy Spacek's awkward and tormented Carrie White, Chloë Grace Moretz does bring something contemporary to this tortured "witch". Moretz's Carrie is shell-shocked to begin with, not just an awkward teen, but someone who is seriously out of place. Closer to a feral child than a shy girl. At times this performance is too cute and too clever, but for the most part it is an interesting take on the character.<br />
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I do not know if this rendering of the 2013 Carrie is the result of director Kimberly Peirce or Moretz, but this version is heavily influenced by relatively recent films like Sadako from "Ringu". Something in this film is closer to a classic monster movie than the tragedy of the 1976 version. There is a point in the film where it becomes clear that Carrie is beyond redemption, she has become the evil witch that her mother feared she always was. Her performance brings this creature to life, she leers through streaks of blood, lurches like a being possessed, is alight with evil glee at the mayhem she has created. <br />
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So, there was considerable creative work that went into making this modern "Carrie" a mutation of the original, one aspect suffers from oversight and is the biggest problem among many. The imagery of students being slaughtered in a gym, locked in with a blood-spattered classmate, and suffering at the hands of an "outcast" feels very different when not seen through the nostalgic filter of thirty or so years. I don't think I am particularly sensitive, yet I can't imagine anyway you couldn't make a mainstream movie about this and not be aware of the context of it is released into.<br />
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This lack of attention, this lack of commentary is a fatal flaw for Carrie. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to compare it to when "The Green Berets" was released, completely tone-deaf, in the midst of the Vietnam War. This is a spoiled creative opportunity, but also something that feels like disregard or even a kind of inhumanity that should be seen with suspicion. I expect that somewhere above-the-line there was a decision to not deal with these topics so as to avoid controversy or accusations of exploitation, but the lack of comment invites worse criticism.<br />
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Perhaps instead of creating a patchwork monstrosity of old and new, the filmmakers would have been better off creating a monster for our time and of our time. There certainly are plenty of them to be found.<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-445293726806436942014-04-05T23:38:00.000-05:002014-04-05T23:38:32.753-05:00Contracted (2013)<br />
"Contracted" - Cronenberg Interruptus<br />
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<a href="http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/contracted/">http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/contracted/</a><br />
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For all the bouncing boobs and sex scenes in eighties slasher films, there is actually an inverse relationship between horror and sex. The two are inseparable on a deep level, but the more sex and real horror get intertwined in a movie, the more people will repulsed by the very idea of the film. Over the last decade, their have been a few filmmakers brave enough to jump right over this line. "Teeth" (2007) springs to mind immediately; "Inside" (2007), "Thanatomorphose" (2012), and "American Mary" (2012) are most relevant here. "Nekromantik" (1988) is worth mentioning.<br />
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"Contracted" aims to be among their company. Samantha (Najarra Townsend) is roofie-raped at a friend's party and discovers the morning after that her body is strangely afflicted. There's a whole lot of blood down there, and it keeps coming out. A dark rash is spreading upwards from her pubic area, and she starts having a hard time focusing on anything. Things get worse. Parts fall off. Maggots appear. Sponteneous bruises. Her doctor can't help and she is mostly in denial to begin with. As she had been living as a lesbian prior to her date rape, she has a hard time admitting that she even had sex with a man. The worse she gets the more she isolates herself. Her religious mother is convinced Samantha, a former drug user, has fallen off the wagon. Her life falls apart as quickly as her body deteriorates without any clear reason why or how.<br />
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Samantha is not really a likeable character. You feel sorry for her, of course, but it gets harder and harder to sympathize with her the more she ignores the obvious problem. When the film enters the third act, she is much more a monster run rampant than a long afflicted person struggling to survive. Think "The Fly" with sex instead of a teleporter. Partly this is because the story gives us few reasons to root for her, but as much of the blame lies with Townsend's performance of her. She comes of as whiny, shallow and incapable of taking action at all. This is not Ripley. She's pretty much a feminist film theory disaster. When her lesbian ex-lover shuts her out, we can't really disagree with her. We've all known this woman and seldom would we think we'd want to watch a movie about her. Unpleasant screen characters have to be interesting,there has to be a reason to keep watching them. The only emotional suspense in "Contracted" is waiting to find out how much of her body falls apart before she really tries to save herself.<br />
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Despite this, it's not all bad. Director Eric England is brave enough or naive enough to stick his camera in places most men wouldn't ever want to go to. (I subconsciously chose to watch this back-to-back with the "Carrie" remake and was struck with the similarity as well as the massive gulf between the two.) So, there is plenty to horrify men as well as women. Horror is the key to this, because the film relies solely on the "ick" factor to drive it's anxiety. There's nothing terribly deep or really unsettling about these scenes, but there are plenty of bodily gross-outs. The post-coital maggots were a nice touch. The details of her transformation are rendered well enough by director and cast, but again, there are no stakes and we don't know how far this is all going to go.<br />
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You can hope for an all-out onslaught of decay at the end of this, but sorry, it's not going to arrive. I won't deliver the spoiler, but I will say the ending of this film takes a really sharp turn into mediocrity just when it needed to go all the way the previous seventy minutes were headed toward. This doesn't really offer anything you won't get in any number of low-budgie zombie flicks, sadly. As an independent filmmaker myself, I really wanted this film to succeed despite itself, but it didn't quite make it. I love seeing a filmmaker with limited means make a mind-blowing, original horror movie, but "Contracted" isn't quite there.<br />
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The production is perfectly competent, if a little pedestrian. This film was shot in L.A. and it shows in every single frame of this. I realized that I really never ever want to see mainstream Los Angeles in another movie again. For such a cultural center, it sure is remarkably bland and uninspiring to look at. The film's style was equally reserved, not straying too far from conservative film form to tell its story. Maybe the director wanted the normal nature of the production to act as counter-point for the challenging material, but it left me thinking something crucial was missing. What would Cronenberg do, Mr. Anderson?<br />
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I really should mention that the sound design tried really hard to do something really fucking cool. Sometimes, the sound department (Duncan Mathieson and Phillip Bladh) got it really right, but too often the layers came out as blaring cacophony. I can imagine this sounded different in a full surround mix, but the filmmakers would be well-served to remember that many of us still live in a stereo world. Also, if your go-to for ratcheting up tension is to crank the volume, you should really rethink the structure of the film itself.<br />
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To be honest, I have a masochistic habit of watching the dregs of horror offerings on Netflix, wondering how long I can watch them or marveling at how something so wrong can still get distribution. My reaction to most of these film is "Why?" Why were they made? Why were they finished? Why were they distributed? Why does this look more like the future of filmmaking then an abundance of riches? I didn't find myself reaching for "Why?" during "Contracted".<br />
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I know exactly why it was made and what it was reaching for. Unfortunately, the film sheds just enough light on the goal to highlight the exact gulf between the illusions of desire and the nitty-gritty of the act itself.<br />
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T.A. Wardrope<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-83561045288002164072014-03-26T22:32:00.004-05:002014-03-26T22:32:33.649-05:00The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)Absurd Symmetries: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"<br />
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<a href="http://boxd.it/2Q4EL">http://boxd.it/2Q4EL</a><br />
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I suppose it would be a bit controversial to say that Wes Anderson films are similar to cinema by other auteurs such as David Lynch or the Coen Brothers. On the surface, the worlds of Lynch and Anderson are universes apart, but their fundamental DNA is not that distinct. Both filmmakers create worlds to contain their stories, and those worlds only use the visual language of consensual reality to wrap their narratives in sense. Lynch's worlds are every bit as idiosyncratic and artificial as Wes Anderson's. They are equally artful, as well.<br />
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While most of Wes Anderson's films deal with separation and alienation of some sort, whether it by culture or family, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is drawn in much darker, wider, strokes than the earlier works. While all of his films are whimsy and fairy, this is one that is closer to the original works of Grimm than Disney.<br />
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In a story within a story, the owner of the Grand Budapest, Mr. "Zero" Moustafa relates how he came to be the owner. By explaining the adventures of M. Gustave, the concierge of the Grand Budapest during the twilight war years, he ties the fate of the hotel in with the whole trajectory of pre-Nazi Europe.<br />
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M. Gustave is a "flamboyant" character who also privately entertains the wealthy ladies he meets during the course of his duties. One of these ladies mentions him in her will, and this puts him afoul of the more evil branches of her well-to-do clan. One thing leads to another, and he hasto prove his innocence while surviving the fall into fascism all around him. This is a long and treacherous road, and there is much more violence, though still a bit cartoonish, then any of Anderson's other films. The nods to Kubrick's "The Shining" are not out of place in this world.<br />
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Performance in a Wes Anderson film is a mannered thing. As an actor you have two roles, that of the character you play and that of the character as it exists in Anderson's peculiar world of choice. You can't be angry, you have to be Wes Anderson angry. Most of the actors embody this attitude in the most entertaining ways, finding sympathy and pathos in even the most caricatured moments. Willem Dafoe (Jopling) recalls his Nosferatu performance from Shadow of the Vampire, but develops it with fascist undertones. Ralph Fiennes (M. Gustave) is larger-than-life but never ridiculous. Much of what he does is quite funny, but it is never played too much for laughs. His romantic idealism, his perfumed world, is the emotional heart of the entire film. Adrien Brody (Dmitri) is the Goldfinger to Dafoe's Oddjob. He's a spastic sort of evil mastermind, and there's a kind of raw savagery in everything he does which I've never seen in a Brody performance previously. All this despite the villain mustache.<br />
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There are the usual parade of cameos in this movie, but they are pleasantly paced and inspire a sense of "grandness" and scope for this story. This is an all-star cast, but a lo-fi presentation without the subtle fanfare of a film like "The Monuments Men". There are plenty of stars, but none of them outshine the light at the center of the narrative.<br />
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A Wes Anderson film is about Wes Anderson, of course. (I suppose a Michael Bay film is about Michael Bay, too, but we don't want to think what the means, do we?) He likes to be different, perhaps in a precious art school way, but there is a consistency to his vision. What separates his filmmaking from any number of earnest hipsters, is the fact that is balanced and symmetrical world is deeply off kilter and out of order. His harmonious compositions reflect a disharmony and brokeness. The Wes Anderson vanishing point, the focal point, is dead center, but that is really a distraction. This is slight-of-hand, we are watching one thing while being lead into another entirely. This technique is most effective here, drawing out the space between the cartoon malevolence and the truth only increases awareness of both.<br />
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Stylistically, Wes Anderson uses much of his old tricks; miniature work, animation, pushes and pulls, long horizontal tracking shots, and a very conscious framing throughout. Interestingly, he breaks form on a few occasions and I was relieved to see him pushing against his own style. There are some edits which navigate cinematic space in a way he doesn't usually do, and some of the camera work and placement is unsymmetrical. I don't know what this means in the larger design of his creation, but it is worth noting.<br />
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You could make the connection between the faded glory of The Grand Budapest Hotel and Hollywood itself, but that would be one of many possible subtextual readings. I suppose that the most useful way to see this film is to understand that even in the perfectly ordered world of Wes Anderson's Zubrowka, things are falling apart, falling into ruin and the center cannot hold any better than in our real world. This perfection he presents, this intelligent design, is merely an illusion which adorns the truth like a long abandoned wild west set sits in the desert. By attempting to disguise the truth, it merely draws that very thing into vibrant and brilliant relief. This is a perfectly framed picture that is really a window into chaos.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-81133913106209499772014-03-15T15:37:00.002-05:002014-03-15T15:37:56.512-05:00Dirty Wars (2013)<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Dirty Wars</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I was going to just ignore this movie, but then I noticed it was nominated for an Oscar. Excuse me? I stopped watching it when the protagonist "war reporter" explained that he had never heard of SOCCOM before like it was some sort of super-secret military group. No credibility. At all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">That is all.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-46211243001557084372014-03-15T14:17:00.001-05:002014-03-15T14:17:30.389-05:00Ender's Game (2013)<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Ender's Game</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRm-cVkzatlFYZPWg17gM-hSp6eHP7DSjdZil3HXQiFjirNG6_aXs6kNxTLa0g-n4JfT71kdv8dSqNTTsPkrKiAaybyTQyc5vvHk4PEucU2Y6sWO1ZZSv0vQ910cuqKMzLowdBWXJbYWA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-15+at+2.14.46+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRm-cVkzatlFYZPWg17gM-hSp6eHP7DSjdZil3HXQiFjirNG6_aXs6kNxTLa0g-n4JfT71kdv8dSqNTTsPkrKiAaybyTQyc5vvHk4PEucU2Y6sWO1ZZSv0vQ910cuqKMzLowdBWXJbYWA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-15+at+2.14.46+PM.png" /></a></div>
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Okay, so Orson Scott Card is a science fiction visionary if ever there was one. Unfortunately, he's gotten himself wrapped up with a point-of-view that is at the very least bigoted, at the most completely moronic, and is also, by virtue of being conservative, hostile to his chosen field of expression.<br />
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Plenty of visionaries are assholes in real life, that's for sure, but what makes his case rather tragic is how close he came to being truly prescient with the book this film is based on. Young men conducting war like it was a video game? Where have I heard of that happening? Mass violence abstracted with technology? What a strange and alien concept!<br />
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I don't know about this movie. There's some cool special effects, but that's about all there is to recommend. Harrison Ford (Col. Graff) is not at his best, he's like the President in "Air Force One" with a severe hangover or high amounts of THC in his system. He only is pretending to give a flying frack about this whole war for the future of humanity thing. Ender's (Asa Butterfield) transformation from idealistic kid to killer to rebel is an arc we've seen in many anti-war stories, but here it feels like kind of a whiney version of "Born on the Fourth of July" or grade-school "Starship Troopers".<br />
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Never mind that someone high on the food chain clearly thought this was the same sort of thing as "Hunger Games" or maybe wanted to make it more like "Hunger Games". Surprised they didn't change the title to "Ender's Games". (Asylum should get right on that!)<br />
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Overall, it's also tragic that there was so much outcry over Orson Scott Card's politics in regards to this film. Not because they were wrong, of course, but because if not for that, this film would have been forgotten that much sooner. Personally, I keep books and movies in different compartments of mental space, but I know that this film will color many people's view of the book. Which is probably the biggest disappointment of all. The correct response to this film isn't really outrage, certainly not awe, but quite exactly a soft and nearly unspoken "meh".<br />
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<a href="http://youtu.be/HZHwxIL9oYo">http://youtu.be/HZHwxIL9oYo</a><br />
<br />
T.A. Wardrope<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-289796688199950332014-03-15T00:44:00.002-05:002014-03-15T00:44:56.165-05:00Sharknado (2013)<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">Sharknado</span></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBsyLMNfUnivBim06Ru6NZ5X8DmTJuK5qdgMIGPYPZhZWSK2_nJdKq0WVlgF184d-2E94XKsd0dVzIWFm7v8hc6p1xqQeUvdm9pNin_Uy8v2twlYoEQ9B07EZLSzn2TLp2h2tqE9Gw-U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-15+at+12.43.16+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBsyLMNfUnivBim06Ru6NZ5X8DmTJuK5qdgMIGPYPZhZWSK2_nJdKq0WVlgF184d-2E94XKsd0dVzIWFm7v8hc6p1xqQeUvdm9pNin_Uy8v2twlYoEQ9B07EZLSzn2TLp2h2tqE9Gw-U/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-15+at+12.43.16+AM.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://boxd.it/2LhY5">http://boxd.it/2LhY5</a><br />
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If you read enough about genre films, sooner or later you are going to come to something about the allegorical nature of modern genre fiction. Going back to the very beginnings of both horror and science-fiction, we see a tendency to make subtle and not so subtle commentary on the state of the world. "Godzilla" and nuclear weapons, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and nuclear weapons, science run amok in all sorts of movies like "The Fly", "Metropolis", or "The Terminator". "Frankenstein" had a bit of everything; a little cautionary tale, a little indictment of human vanity, and body horror which was a century and a half ahead of its time.<br />
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"Sharknado" fits into the tradition by posing the question "What if climate change and overfishing created super storms that flung man-eating sharks into the air?" Watching "Sharknado", you can appreciate the intensity the filmmakers must have felt for their material. There is an amazing attention to detail in every digital frame of this epic monster movie.<br />
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While it is clear that the director Anthony Ferrante did his very best to coax every nuanced moment of the screenplay from his performers, this acute sort of performance rivals the visual mastery evident from the opening shots of the ocean to the final conflict with the flying sharks. Airborne leviathans is what they are really. Flying grey destroyers of worlds. The endless teeth of Nemesis.<br />
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The sharks themselves are rendered with such care and attention to detail that they challenge the god of sharks himself, Jaws, with their personality and menace. If this were in 3D it would be too much for the more weak-hearted members of the audience, no doubt. Yet for all of the allegorical flights into magical realism, "Sharknado" is firmly grounded in the practical "What-Ifs" of the situation. Like "The Walking Dead" every decision that the characters make is drawn with strokes of realism and practical solutions. We may not be facing flying sharks anytime soon, but if we do, we can turn to the survival skills of this plucky band of heroes for guidance.<br />
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<br />
<br />
Actually, no. This is pretty much just your standard SyFy dreck.<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-49043290342942029812014-03-09T13:08:00.000-05:002014-03-09T13:08:15.356-05:00Machete (2010)<br />
<a href="http://boxd.it/2IDmL">http://boxd.it/2IDmL</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjbeUK-Fa2C3ld6nw2uT0iSayY2AJzVO_uabX3K1nqo5deOMB8qpcrhCdeDGPGEUZIzeMLyOS6rYOfAi98t0LYzr_eEihfKQ1s6F2x2aPBpEhmCtb-DQZwy3A_ka1hHhTA3B7HrOYkU4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-09+at+1.05.12+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Machete" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjbeUK-Fa2C3ld6nw2uT0iSayY2AJzVO_uabX3K1nqo5deOMB8qpcrhCdeDGPGEUZIzeMLyOS6rYOfAi98t0LYzr_eEihfKQ1s6F2x2aPBpEhmCtb-DQZwy3A_ka1hHhTA3B7HrOYkU4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-09+at+1.05.12+PM.png" title="Machete film poster" /></a></div>
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<b>What I'll tell you at the bar:</b> Seems kind of violent for a kid's film.<br />
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<b>The real deal:</b> This is probably the best thing to come out of "Grindhouse", the anthology film that almost put the final nail in Quentin Tarentino's man-sized pine box. "Death Proof" was a mess, "Planet Terror" was cool but seemed a little outside the genre it was supposed to mimic. The trailers for films not yet made were the best part of it, and this feature film, along with "Hobo With a Shotgun" were spawned from them.<br />
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"Machete" is the story of Machete Cortez (Danny Trejo), a former police officer who was betrayed by a conspiracy he was an unknowing pawn in (See "Welcome to the Punch"). His wife is killed, his bright-eyed partner is shot and Rogelio Torrez (Steven Seagal) leaves him for dead. This isn't a spoiler, but the sequence where the partner is killed is hilarious and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Machete, in typical take no prisoners manner, hurtles his car toward the front gate of Torrez's fortress estate. In the resulting storm of automatic weapons fire, aimed only at the passenger seat, this partner (Vic Trevino) is riddled into a bloody pulp while Machete is unscathed. This is how you make an action movie, kids!<br />
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This movie is just a few dollars above the Troma level of filmmaking, but it offers similar pleasures. Completely over-the-top gore and action sequences, obligatory gratuitous nudity and dialogue which is a loving homage to the hamfisted expressions of the cinema that inspired it. Though parts of the film have digital film damage added to it, but there are other parts which are authentic recreations of the kind of filmmaking choices grindhouse filmmakers would make, both inspired and insipid. Off-kilter framing, unmotivated jump cuts, and off rhythm edits are all on full parade through the running time of Machete. Unlike other "dumb" films that have been released in the past few years, it is obvious this is a joke and intentional. The all-star cast of cameos sells it completely. Tom Savini gives one of his best onscreen performances, and Seagal works rather well as the unscrupulous drug lord. Trejo's performance is actually above the calibre of the material, he actually shows range far superior to the usual binary acting in exploitation films.<br />
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Relentless senseless violence. Naked women. Satire, star cameos and would you look at that poster! What else does a movie need?<br />
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T.A. Wardrope<br />
<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-32742338675786906342014-03-08T15:17:00.004-06:002014-03-08T15:17:53.115-06:00Devil's Pass (2013)<br />
<a href="http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/the-dyatlov-pass-incident/">http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/the-dyatlov-pass-incident/</a><br />
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Remember "Exorcist: The Beginning" ? Perhaps "Cutthroat Island"? How about "Nightmare on Elm Street 4"? When you remember them, are you awash in the sublime afterglow left by a tryst with cinematic mastery? Do you think "Wow, Renny Harlin is the most successful Finnish Hollywood filmmaker in history for a REASON!"<br />
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Do you, really? Wow. I was being facetious. For quite awhile Renny Harlin was the icon for everything that was bad in Hollywood filmmaking. Bloated productions, inane plots, tone deaf direction and relentless ego fueled by hair care products were his trademarks. Then along came Uwe Boll, Paul W.S. Anderson and SyFy to really put that into perspective. The depths are bottomless.<br />
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So I picked this one up, planning a hearty evening of beer drinkin' and Renny mockin' to bring back the good old days. Things started out looking pretty good, just like the old times, when I realized this was a goddamn found footage film about a group of young filmmakers. I can think of nothing that would interest me less in a genre film.<br />
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Then there was some UFO researchers and it got a little interesting, and then there was a bunch of stuff that looked like they could be some cut scenes from "Grave Encounters". Then, 30 minutes later, they actually got to the Devil's Pass, and then I actually put down the beer for a bit.<br />
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There's a sweet spot in this film of about 45 minutes when it is actually unnerving and creepy. Once this hapless group of filmmakers uncovers the first of several strange facts in the case of the Dyatlov expedition (See what I did there?), the whole thing gets really interesting. Screenwriter Vikram Weet even manages to work in a "Philadelphia Experiment" call-back. However, just as I was wondering if something happened to Renny Harlin in maturity that he lacked in his youth, the really bad CGI animated monsters were featured in close-up. These effects make "Warm Bodies" look like Oscar material. To be fair, the beings in question, looked really cool when they were in the background or in shadow. Not close-up. You know how they decided to keep the Xenomorph in the background because it looked to ridiculous next to the characters? Or how they kept Bruce's (Jaws) screen time to a minimum because it didn't move quite right? I don't think Renny remembers.<br />
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I can't decide if Harlin and company destroyed what could've been an awesome movie or if there was a brief flash of what got Renny to Hollywood in the first place. This film is full of puzzles.<br />
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T.A. Wardrope<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-72308300025372133982014-03-08T15:13:00.001-06:002014-03-08T15:13:02.467-06:00We Are What We Are (2013)<br />
<a href="http://boxd.it/2IDmr">http://boxd.it/2IDmr</a><br />
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<b>What I'll tell you at the bar:</b> Holy mother of god. How is it possible that an indie horror film this good ever got made?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeutynduJ-Nq_KubRSh6B8JbpnwZzYqtRaAo4XnHAT89BdhUM1RGT-ohyEqAZW9mEmaHiK3pzJpxfrgpYClSgtD4fU9cUKamqecur8BpDsMTD13uLIwG2l_nglUlQmAj3HV4xuf5r2TFY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-08+at+3.09.41+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="movie poster" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeutynduJ-Nq_KubRSh6B8JbpnwZzYqtRaAo4XnHAT89BdhUM1RGT-ohyEqAZW9mEmaHiK3pzJpxfrgpYClSgtD4fU9cUKamqecur8BpDsMTD13uLIwG2l_nglUlQmAj3HV4xuf5r2TFY/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-08+at+3.09.41+PM.png" title="We Are What We Are" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soup's on!</td></tr>
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<b>The real deal: </b><br />
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Personally, "Stake Land" came along at the worst possible moment for me. Jim Mickle's earlier film was released as the unfortunate mainstream vampire craze was fading into the much more unfortunate mainstream fixation on zombies. I read enough good things about "Stake Land" that I let it slip past my "thisshitisdrivingmeinsane" filter so I could watch it. I enjoyed pretty much everything about that movie, thought it was almost tragic how it arrived when it did. In another time, it might have been a real break-out.<br />
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"We Are What We Are" is an amazing follow-up and probably a masterpiece. This is sophisticated, haunting, gorgeous, and you know what? It's shocking. Not shocking in the "What will Tom Six do next?" sort of way, but in the "holy hell what just happened" sort of way. The climax of this film is as horrible as it is magnificent and I can't imagine a better ending for this story. Seriously, just watch it.<br />
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The film starts out slowly enough, maybe too slow for some, but it is evocative of moodier thrillers. From the very opening it has a Southern Gothic feel atmosphere, the instant suggestion that something very evil is lurking beneath an already oppressive small town world. As the Parker family disintegrates in the wake of their mother's (Kassie Wesley DePaiva) unfortunate death, the skeletons in the family closet become impossible to keep locked up. Bill Sage (Frank Parker), Julia Garner (Rose Parker) and Ambyr Childers (Iris Parker) create a malevolent family that is both less melodramatic than the Sawyers (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) but also unsettling. The Sawyers were indisputably horrible, the Parkers have a charm and look about them that covers their worse crimes with old-timey nostalgia.<br />
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Shot by relatively unknown cinematographer Ryan Samul, the film is a visual tour de force from open to close. Sure, it's easy to make things look moody in soft light, but it's not easy to get that look perfect. This is A-list level work here. I'll be watching Samul's career closely. This cinematic style is served well by Mickle's smart and equally precise direction of framing and performance. He knows what to look at in a scene and just how to look at it. I know this will be overlooked by many as a genre film, but there is considerable artistry and talent at work in We Are What We Are. Maybe it takes seeing so many godawful horror movies to really appreciate just how good this one is.<br />
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I know there are plenty of horror fans that will think this is pretentious and slow bit of precious filmmaking. Mainstream audiences will have little patience for the mood and pacing of the story, especially considering the unexpected savagery of the final ten minutes. However, if you have an appreciation for the literary foundations of the horror genre, if you can enjoy a nightmare with no tongue to plant in cheek, then We Are What We Are maybe the best place to spend an evening. You may want to politely decline if the Parkers ask you over for dinner, though. Or bring a salad.<br />
<br />
T.A. Wardrope<br />
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-80435741573892244652014-03-05T01:05:00.002-06:002014-03-05T01:05:52.089-06:00Something from Bob"That's what happens, though. You leave something and someone else gets it, and then someone else will get it after that."<br />
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Bob Mould<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-64725734914042823442014-03-02T01:57:00.000-06:002014-03-02T10:24:39.031-06:00My Work is Not Yet Done<a href="http://www.amazon.com/review/R1P35LMUM0L5V4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm">http://www.amazon.com/review/R1P35LMUM0L5V4/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2CcPdanrNxo6kTa73lbcGibVWUW2BocBmjmechgAI6mXRy4MrMMA8pQI2SMszSvSdHhGVOR-4R7d19GWzcaBW5GESVJqFVrIDKo7siSaDUSdQUbSCfu63U64CCh_00qXAn4rUHxQFgGM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-02+at+1.55.26+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Book cover" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2CcPdanrNxo6kTa73lbcGibVWUW2BocBmjmechgAI6mXRy4MrMMA8pQI2SMszSvSdHhGVOR-4R7d19GWzcaBW5GESVJqFVrIDKo7siSaDUSdQUbSCfu63U64CCh_00qXAn4rUHxQFgGM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-03-02+at+1.55.26+AM.png" height="320" title="My Work is Not Yet Done" width="221" /></a></div>
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One of the things I enjoy the most about Ligotti's style is his ability to merge the common-place with the universal dread that seethes just below the surface. He has quite a talent with warping the known into something, if not unknown, at least barely recognizable. While his vision may overpower his stories at times, they are always worth reading. "My Work is Not Yet Done" is a collection of three stories, the title novella, "I Have a Special Plan for this World" and "Nightmare Network". All are clustered around themes of corporate horror and dehumanization.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />While workplace violence may be a touchy subject, Ligotti merely uses this as a mechanism to crack open the real horror at the core of it all. Frank Dominio's journey from outcast to avenger and damnation peels back the layers of his workplace to reveal the primal cruelty and evil that pulls everything endlessly downward. The dark humor in the story is disarming; Frank Dominio is a variation of the insane clown trope, though we may not recognize it as such. I suppose without this humor this touchy subject would be unpalatable for most readers, but it also works as a distraction from the real killer that lurks behind everything that Frank is doing and will ever do. Ligotti loves his puppets and Frank is among their fractured and stained ranks.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Next to this story and its final effect the follow-on stories feel like they were just add-ons. They are both variations of corporations as godless hell, but "I Have a Special Plan For This World" works betters as a story. "The Nightmare Network" is an interesting piece but it doesn't have the coherent doom that is at the heart of the other writing in this book. Worth noting is that there is another Ligotti piece out there which shares a title with "I Have a Special Plan For This World". This prose poem, recorded with Current 93, could serve as the inspiration for the longer short story in this collection. Regardless, there is clearly a recurring theme of action driven by madness; an interesting outgrowth of Ligotti's rational and slightly Lovecraftian view of a universe insane with chaos. In a mad cosmos the only possible intelligence is senseless.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />So, in this book we see the upper management of the nightmare factory is every bit as doomed as those that toil under blood-fuelled mechanisms. A strange thing because by all evidence the company's owner has long since vanished.<br /><br /><br /> T.A. Wardrope<br /><br /><br /> 4/5<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-38053684098618942492014-02-26T11:38:00.004-06:002014-02-26T11:38:44.409-06:00A milestone of sorts.I know it's not a huge number in the international world of blogging, but as of sometime very early this morning, <u>The Tulgey Maze</u> hit 25,000 views. This won't get me a movie deal, but it's 24,997 more than when I started this.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NPpAO-Q4ku2JkaN_3rZqx51vOEucHrVoITDtx0pfGw8HOxZDXZwSILaM5O6eeW6GNo7EBhzlvTV0RYGguVyWqCwjmpl5LewFBFLQOD-h-Ibrq6OOHsfwZzX7jQczKZigTvOyP3R0xh4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-26+at+11.34.43+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1NPpAO-Q4ku2JkaN_3rZqx51vOEucHrVoITDtx0pfGw8HOxZDXZwSILaM5O6eeW6GNo7EBhzlvTV0RYGguVyWqCwjmpl5LewFBFLQOD-h-Ibrq6OOHsfwZzX7jQczKZigTvOyP3R0xh4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-26+at+11.34.43+AM.png" height="174" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That's my Alien:Redux post right there.</td></tr>
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As you can see, with increased care, attention to SEO and frequency there has been a general upward trend. As I commit more to this site, I expect it will grow even more. Thanks to all the readers!</div>
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-65322440583673994112014-02-24T22:16:00.001-06:002014-02-24T22:16:09.620-06:00Her (2013)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Letterboxd: <a href="http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/her/">http://letterboxd.com/t_a_wardrope/film/her/</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-vbO57EcL70K0VdnCYD7HHhOUjD1tgLJ_P9fkvnkCPJYwsSfoHo0OBLBlprDsb5J-7FLd8o8MD6ZaR1UjCED2NewniJy2TInq74NrCFgtfZBwlSXXhKSZzSQHIkJPQ1lAH5sMsl3e5Y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-24+at+10.12.55+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9-vbO57EcL70K0VdnCYD7HHhOUjD1tgLJ_P9fkvnkCPJYwsSfoHo0OBLBlprDsb5J-7FLd8o8MD6ZaR1UjCED2NewniJy2TInq74NrCFgtfZBwlSXXhKSZzSQHIkJPQ1lAH5sMsl3e5Y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-24+at+10.12.55+PM.png" /></a></div>
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I have to say listening to everyone talk about how great this movie was because it so timely addresses our relationships with smart phones made me less and less interested in it. A "timely" science-fiction film is usually a recipe for mediocrity. A film that's sole focus is our relationships with miniature computers is such a first-world idea of drama that it arrives draped in irrelevance. So I hated Her, right?<br /><br />Nope. This is a wonderful movie that operates on so many levels that it is selling it so short to say it is about "smart phones". That's like saying, for example, that "Hiroshima Mon Amour" is about globetrotting love affairs or that "Gravity" is about space travel. Sure, it is, but only on the most superficial level. Her is considered, smart and visionary. This is a word that is applied to much of Spike Jonze's work, but I think this is the most visionary film has he created in some time.<br /><br />In many ways this is the film that "Waking Life" tried to be, the film that "What the Bleep Do We Do Know" thought it wanted to be, maybe even a lo-fi "Prometheus". Implicit in the film are many questions that most of society hasn't even thought to ask yet, and the climax of Her is based on a complete inversion of how we understand the world and intelligence.<br /><br />Joaquin Phoenix (Theodore Twombly) carries the film with dexterity and restraint. There must have been a temptation to take this into over-the-top satire or Woody Allen neuroticism, but Jonze and Phoenix keep it grounded and believably human. Fantasy drama as opposed to fantasy melodrama. Scarlett Johansson (Samantha) is equally adroit at bringing full life to a disembodied voice. Remarkable because that there was an opportunity for her to be visible in the film, but instead they choose to have another woman serve as the surrogate Samantha (Portia Doubleday).<br /><br />As with his other films, there's a good amount of production design in "Her", not quite to Wes Anderson levels, but enough to make this an artificial world. Lo-fi sci-fi, like I said earlier. Closer to "Safety Not Guaranteed" or "Primer" than "Where the Wild Things Are". There's a lot of good cinematography throughout the film, but strangely this may be the film's weakest point.<br /><br />There's a lot of visual motifs that are too timely or too current. It's a modern style that works within our understanding of the film; we've seen it in many technology commercials (looking at Apple here), but I think ultimately it will make Her feel dated or shallower then it is. I suppose it makes sense that a film which is, on a surface level, about a product should look like a series of product ads. However it's a style that really undercuts a bit of the potency of the film's foundation.<br /><br />Given that the film is about the human, transhuman and the post-human, it would be nice to have a been treated to imagery that reflected that changing realities that both Theodore and Samantha explore. At it's worst, this makes it feel like a slipstream novel that flirts with the fantastic, but doesn't really commit. "Her" is much more than that, but many may be distracted by a surface that may obscure, rather than magnify, the depths below.</div>
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- T.A. Wardrope</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1399057702968008340.post-58382527572045707932014-02-23T00:45:00.002-06:002014-02-23T00:45:37.747-06:00Big Ass Spider! (2013)Letterboxd:<a href="http://boxd.it/2DwOj"> http://boxd.it/2DwOj</a><div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBkAKhW1i-eHSysyFzC0mXIop_odyURDLEt6iW1HEH3wnv4Kc03B1KBDsbVs0UjuiDyCULD_qzglLH77XkUf1TH40yFOP-5S7d985bA6jl3N3_s-Mnrq-Dy8vZgf6dIoIR5OXrMHsXlA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-23+at+12.44.21+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Big Ass Spider!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBkAKhW1i-eHSysyFzC0mXIop_odyURDLEt6iW1HEH3wnv4Kc03B1KBDsbVs0UjuiDyCULD_qzglLH77XkUf1TH40yFOP-5S7d985bA6jl3N3_s-Mnrq-Dy8vZgf6dIoIR5OXrMHsXlA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-02-23+at+12.44.21+AM.png" title="Big Ass Spider!" /></a></div>
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<br /><br />First of all, let me say that I want to give props to the practical effects team for Big Ass Spider. I've been bitten by a Brown Recluse, and I watched in curiosity as the venom spread across my foot before I realized something was really wrong. If I had seen this movie before I was bitten, I would know exactly what a Recluse bite looks like.<br /><br />Anyway, the first time I watched The Blob (1958) I was freaked-out. I was probably 7 or 8 and had managed to sneak a late-night viewing after I spotted it in TV Guide. I stayed up all night after watching that, just imaging The Blob slowly creeping up the first victim's hand. This wasn't the first giant monster movie, but it made an impression. Between that and Destroy All Monsters! I was hooked for life.<br /><br />I'd be willing to bet Mike Mendez, director of Big Ass Spider! has a similar story. The film demonstrates an affinity for giant monster movies that is lacking from the usual hack-fest b-movies that get foisted on us fans. Not to mention a mastery of the basic building blocks of filmmaking. Mendez and DP Benji Bakshi took care in how they structured the visuals of the film and while you can't call this a masterpiece, it was nice to see some art brought to the subject matter.<br /><br />The digital effects are mixed. Some are cool, some are just a hair better than the half-rendered stuff you see often on SyFy or Netflix. Yet, it is forgivable because the film is just fun enough. Many of the performances are as mixed, but the best come from actors that are in on the joke, such as Ray Wise and Patrick Bauchau. Greg Grunberg (Alex Mathis) is entertaining but some of the joke delivery is a little too self-conscious.<br /><br />Big Ass Spider! belongs in the upper ranks of recent monster movie releases, and it's nice to see someone take on this material that isn't aiming for the lowest denominator of cable audiences. Lloyd Kaufman's cameo was an inspired one, and this film could have benefitted from a Troma touch. Their best films demonstrate the blend of shlock and satire that this is aiming for.<br /><br />I should also mention that there are several low-budget special effects companies that specialize in military hardware. It's a bit nit picky, but the scrawny special forces and their gear in this film were just ridiculous. A little more attention to this kind of detail would have helped too.<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><iframe src="http://www.indiehorror.org/linkexchange/linkexchange.php?userid=312" width="200px" height="240px" allowTransparency="true" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com