Okay, let me try this again. X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (3,5*) I downloaded this film because it was part of the "10 Essential B-Movies From the AIP Library". While I have not heard of AIP before, the term B-movie always tickles my fancy, especially when the premise revolves around a doctor who invented a substance to create X-Ray eyes. Corman is aware of the fact that this premise is enough to create an interesting film as long as it fast-paced and has interesting visual effects, so thankfully he does not wallow too long in unnecessary plotlines. Additionally, there is quick-witted dialogue, a subtle philosophical subtext about the limits of human vision, and cheap-looking but nevertheless stunning visual effects, making this an enjoyable flick without getting overly exploitation.
Humanoids from the Deep (2,5*) Since I enjoyed the previous flick that was directed by Roger Corman, I decided to look up some essential Roger Corman films. While Humanoids from the Deep is technically not directed by Roger Corman, it still featured on a large number of lists due to the fact that he had a big hand in the production of the film. Reportedly, he added a lot of sex and violence to Barbara Peeters' cut. When she finally saw the final cut, she asked to have her name removed from the project. I do not want to imagine how patronizing this must have been for Peeters, but judging from the film I do feel there might be a point to Corman's intervention, because it turned out to be a pretty decent B-movie. There are some hilarious monsters, a waver-thin storyline about evil corporations taking over regional lifestyles, a fair amount of titties, and extremely mediocre acting. Primarily, the chaos and carnage of the last scene is memorable though.
Ned Rifle (4*) What drew me to this film was the combination of Aubrey Plaza and Hal Hartley. For some reason it always struck me that Plaza would be a perfect actress for the deadpan aesthetics of Hartley's movies and besides that she is not unpleasant to look at. This film is about Ned Rifle, the son of charismatic refugee Henry Fool. He goes out to kill him because he feels that he is responsible for the incrimination of his mother. On route he finds Plaza who, as it turns out, is the girl who had sex with Henry at age 13, therefore making him a criminal, and now, fully grown, wants to find and be with him again. It is an interesting psychological dynamic that is presented quite trivially in this film which I think is a lot more interesting than making this fact the core of the film, which it easily could have been. At heart I think the film is a coming-of-age film in which the protagonist has to shake off the forceful impact that his father has on his life and learn to make his own decisions (this is also why religion is a constant presence in this film). The ending is nice, because with a very simple gesture it illustrates that the protagonist has developed in such a way that he is able to withstand his father's influence. When his father, just shot and barely breathing, tells him to run from the police that has surrounded him, thinking he has deliberately killed Plaze, he simply refuses and the film ends. It reminds me of a Dardenne films such as Le Fils where one simple final gesture is imbued with incredible, powerful emotions. In the case of Le Fils it is the older man who in the final scene embraces the younger boy as a gesture that implies so much more than it simply shows. It is not only an embrace, but an embrace that illustrates forgiving and finally coming to terms with years of resentment and anger.
Atlantic. (2,5*) Due to some thesis stress it has been a while since I've watched a movie, but I finally found time to go the Filmhuis in The Hague with a friend. The choice was between Ryan Gosling's Lost River and the Dutch production Atlantic. Perhaps unfortunately, we choose for the latter. The premise of the film is pretty decent: a Moroccan fisherman who happens to be a proficient windsurfer falls in love with one of his Dutch visitors and decides to make it across the Mediterranean Sea by windsurfing, probably to visit her. The story starts with the beginning of this journey and as the film unfolds this journey is interwoven with everything that precedes it. We learn that since he has lost his mother he feels lost in life, especially since he falls in love with a woman who is impossible to attain. The metaphor of windsurfing is therefore very apt, since it is easy to get lost out on the ocean. While the cinematography of the film is great and the aerial footage of our protagonist surfing out on the open ocean is amazing, the film just checks off too many cliches of pretentious art-house cinema. Many shots seem incredibly unmotivated, there is gloomy, pseudo-poetic voice-over narration, and of course the endlessly repeated trope of the ethnic, non-white person doing this extraordinary thing we should all see. I do appreciate how our protagonist seems to be granted with enough agency to make his journey a personal trip and not one motivated by economic necessity, even though there are hints at the great Other across the ocean that exerts influence over his life. Ultimately, however, the whole thing was a bit too tedious for me and at a certain point I simply found I didn't really care about the characters anymore.
Dredd (3,5*) Superhero movies or comic adaptations are usually not particularly ma thang, so this is a film I would not have easily picked out to watch myself. However, since this is top-10 material for my gf, it was bound to happen that I would see this film at some point. I'm glad I did, because this was straight up, no-nonsense entertainment. In a post-apocalyptic world where everyone seems to have lost their moral sense and crime reigns high, judges are the only ones who seem to care about what happens to the world. Dredd is one of these ruthless judges and one day he takes a female rookie with paranormal abilities under his wings to do a routine checkup in a massive apartment complex. They find the perps and all seems to go well, but since they also arrested an important informant, gang-leader and rules of the block Mama, bad-ass female villain played by Lena Headey, decides to close the entire apartment complex and urges everyone to kill the two judges. This is a very bleak premise since they have no way to get out and an entire block is chasing them. Luckily, Dredd's incredible power combined with Anderson's psychic abilities get them through. What makes this film so appealing is, first of all, that while the action scenes are pretty intense, they never get stretched out too long. Second of all, the film contains some beautiful slow-motion imagery that is actually narratively justified since it conveys the experience of taking the slo-mo drug. Thirdly, the female characters are not helpless victims, but have a lot of agency. When Anderson gets caught she is not rescued by Dredd, but frees herself and eventually even rescues Dredd from a seemingly certain death. Finally, Dredd is just a great character. He has some sweet badass one-liners and it is funny that we never really see his face. All the acting that Karl Urban does is with his mouth and he does it very well. All the small nuances of the mouth vividly express Dredd's emotion or mental state. So while in essence this film is purely about entertainment, there are enough factors that make this into an outstanding film.
Twilight (2,5*) Everyone who has visited the internet every now and then in the last six years knows that Twilight has been wrecked to pieces by everyone 'with a decent taste in movies'. However, in cases like this, films are often being destroyed due to their fanbase, which especially in this case makes it an easy target, rather than actual artistic merits. Nevertheless, since a film about teenage romance between a vampire and a naive teenage girl does not really appeal to me that much, I never took the time to watch the film. One time, I have seen some parts of it on TV and without admitting it, I was a little intrigued by the strange color palette that is used. Now, I finally got to see the film from beginning to end. Basically, there are plenty of reasons why this film is indeed not worth of anyone's time, but granted, at the same time it does have a lot of redeeming qualities. What makes this a bad film is primarily the HORRIBLE dialogue which does not seem to have been revised after its first draft. Sometimes it's so cringeworthy it gets fun, but mostly it is just cringeworty. Also, the film's actual plot only starts to unfold about two-thirds into the film, which does not really make sense. Oh, and why on earth would a vampire be sparkly? Nevertheless, the film is pretty entertaining. The battle scenes are quite fun and some of the effects used are pretty cool. As mentioned, its color palette also gives it a unique charm that, especially compared to other teenage movies (which it essentially is), is actually quite dark. However, most of all, watching this film genuinely made me quite curious about the next one, which is, whatever way you twist it, a good sign. Considering that this film was made as a simple independent production that just happened to blow up the way it did, I feel this movie deserves a lot more slack than it has received.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (1,5*) Whereas the previous film was already borderline bad, let there be no doubt that this one definitely is. Due to some small hints at the Jakob story in the first part, I was kind of excited about how that would evolve in this part. What I got was a lot of Jakob's abs, lots of jeans shorts, some bad CGI, and most of all very little compelling narrative. Dialogues in this film are still horrible and Bella's crazy infatuation seems to be taken a step further. Looking at this in light of gender politics actually makes it really fucked up, because why is she not able to function without a man at her side? After being dumped by Edward she slowly falls for Jakob before finally making the obvious choice by going back to her sparkly vampire. What I am most offended by, however, is the complete lack of action in this film. When you think about it, literally nothing happends. The evil vampires that haunt Bella do not get close to her and then she goes to Italy to save her emo vampire to stop him from killing himself. There are a couple of action scenes that should pass as exciting, but compared to the previous film, which actually had a way smaller budget, these scenes make little to no impact. All in all, it seems like this part is a transition film that builds up to the action that we will find in the next film. Unfortunately I am afraid part three will not be much better.
Harry Brown (2*)
I am normally not the type to be really nitpicky about the political/ideological message of a film if it is not too overly explicit and if it is a film I enjoy. However, with Harry Brown, I feel the representation of youth violence is so twisted that it genuinely affected my pleasure watching this film. The bleak first scene already sets the stage when two guys on a scooter semi-accidentally shoot a woman that is strolling around with her baby. While the boys are fleeing the scene they get hit by a truck and die. Apart from the fact that this never gets mentioned in the rest of the film, it is highly unrealistic representation of youth violence in Britain. Nobody ever gets shot out of nothing in broad daylight. This kind of excessive violence is maintained throughout the rest of the film. Every working class youth is portrayed as a twisted and psychotic human being, incapable of participating in society. Harry Brown (played by Michael Caine), the sober yet strong (ex-marine) old man that gets heavily affected by this violence when his wife and only friend die goes out on a warpath to kill every person that has been involved in the killing of his friend. It's such a simple-minded, conservative fantasy to think that going out to kill everyone that is supposedly a bad person in the name of justice is actually righteous. Because what is this justice? The film completely neglects the systematic discrimination and neglect the elements that force young people to relapse to violence, drugs and criminal behavior. I would say that battling that problem would be far more admirable. In any case, Michael Caine is a good actor, particularly for this role, but not good enough to save this film from its horribly simplistic and sensationalist view on society. Oh, and the CGI that is used to portray blood in this film is ridiiiiiiiculously fake.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (1,5*)
In all honesty, I was asleep during large parts of it near the end. However, the reason I'm giving this 1,5, rather than 1, as I did with the previous one, is that I had the feeling that this one was a little denser and action-packed. Instead of just drawing out the incredibly dull and messed up romance between Bella and Edward, there was actually some werewolf vs vampire combats going on. While I was slightly exited about what would happen next after the first one, the feeling has completely vanished by now. However, I will remain strong and watch the rest of the films.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (1*)
Yeah, so this is the one where Bella and Edward finally get married (this whole thing is stretched out for 30 minutes), have sex one, and Bella gets pregnant. (I guess Edward shoots some super potent vampire goo). Then this mutant-vampire baby gets too big for Bella's precious body and everyone starts spazzing out over it. She almost dies, but then becomes a vampire. Oh and Jakob makes some shirtless appearances every now and then. It's very clear that the decision to spread out the last book in two films is a poor one, because literally nothing of interest happens in this film. Besides that, this might be the most ridiculous one of the series so far. Edward is a super abusive husband who does not let Bella have any say in her pregnancy, the whole werewolf feud makes no sense to me, and why is vampire sex such a big deal?? BOO!!
Ever since I first heard the term Vaporwave, looked at some of the imagery that is associated with the genre and heard some of the music, I have been heavily intrigued by it. In my opinion there are no other genres out there right now where imagery and music combine so well together. In the case of James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual, the music conjures up the idea of a hyperstylized surface without any depth reminiscent of most commodities in capitalist society. Chuck Person's chop and screw take on '80s and '90s pop and R&B classics on Eccojams Vol. 1 primarily provokes a feeling of uncanny nostalgia. While Yung Bae's Bae, perhaps not completely vaporwave but nevertheless within the same realm, is simply twenty minutes of blissful, innocent joy. The following documentary explains clearly the origin of the genre and the way it will (or should) move forwards:
As the narrator mentions in the video, the strength of the genre lies for a large part in the way uncanny sounds, that reminisce mall muzak, pass through your ears as fleeting and ethereal sounds; sounds that you hear once and probably never hear again, an experience I can subscribe to. Nevertheless, what I want to do with this blogpost is bring these airy and fugitive sounds back to earth by taking a little time to reflect on what I hear. In this blogpost I will therefore annotate all the vaporwave albums I listen to, hopefully in order to get a better grip on all the intricacies and differences within the genre, while also taking the time to appreciate what is actually being made. (I will not make new entries as I do with films, but continuously update this post until it hopefully reaches something of substantial length).
Bl00dwave - U L T R A D R E A M (2015) To me, this album conveys a midnight car drive through Japan's urban landscape where, despite the smooth surface of everything around you, you cannot escape an indeterminate feeling of incredible melancholy. Last.fm tags the artist as retrowave, which I guess make sense due to its reliance on retro vocal-jazz and R&B songs from the '80s that have been heavily slowed down, chopped up, or just generally creepified. Sometimes it includes the sound of a driving vehicle, a person browsing through different radio-stations, or the radio skipping, thus enhancing the experience of immersion in this melancholic midnight drive. All in all, an amazing and moody vaporwave album that despite its tones of melancholy also contains enough positive notes to balance out. My favorite song on here is '2 4 H O U R S', which samples Fifth of Heaven's 'Just a Little More'. James Ferraro - Far Side Virtual
Chuck Person - Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010)
That this is a great release should come as no surprise once we know that Chuck Person, aka Daniel Lopatin, usually operates under the moniker of Oneohtrix Point Never, the ambient/plundertronics producer who has released a number of critically acclaimed albums and worked on the soundtrack of The Bling Ring. While this album is not as known as his later albums this is a crucial vaporwave release since it was one of the first ones to refashion nostalgic '80s tunes in a manner that become so ubiquitous in vaporwave nowadays. The first track of the album is a droney repitition of "hurry boy she's waiting there for you", taken from Toto's 'Africa', thereby setting the tone for the rest of the album. Uncanny, nostalgic memories of a past that we, speaking for myself here, have never fully experienced. Another highlight is the revision of JoJo's 'Too Little Too Late that transitions smoothly into Ian van Dahl's 'Castles in the Sky'. But basically every song has the same eery quality that makes this an enthralling release from start to finish.
Yung Bae - Bae Hong Kong Express - HK GNUSWVS - Itale Cisco Vol. 1
Polar Sea 360 While this might not be a film in its traditional sense, seeing that I write a thesis about interactive documentary, I thought it would be nice to include this project in my diary as well. It presents itself as world's first 360° documentary, which means that it is a documentary where the user is able to rotate the screen at will during the story. The story tells us about people living around the polar sea and their experience about the receding ice cap. We hear different sides of the story, because we are presented with natives recollecting about their lives 50, 60 years ago and we hear the captain and the chef of a strangly decadent cruise ship that travels the polar sea. What I found striking was that an old inuit woman did not believe that the warming of the climate could be the result of human doing, because human beings are too insignificant according to her. A younger inuit woman said she was happy with the warming of the climate, because she hopes to find trees on her soil one day. Both of these views are something you do not expect to hear and already make the project worthwhile. Besides this, I think that the option to rotate the screen suits the project very well since it really provides you with a sense of immersion in the polar landscape in a way that I have not experienced it before. There is a certain time lapsed scene of different types of weather rapidly following each other, while the image stares out over the sea. This combined with a slowly rotating screen felt really special to me. I hope more projects similar to this will be developed in the future!
Night and the City (3,5*) While this is a good film-noir, I feel it lacks a little bit of everything to be a true classic. The story is about a young hustler who "just wants to be someone" and scams his way around town to become the most important wrestling promoter in town. Obviously, doing this gives him a lot of enemies which eventually leads to his demise. The cinematography is good and the black and white chiaroscuro is nice, but not as spectacular as in The Third Man. The rise-and-inevitable-fall narrative is appealing, and probably the best asset of the film, but has been done better in other noirs. The protagonist, played by Richard Widmark, is cool, but not as remarkable as a Burt Lancaster or Humphrey Bogart. The acting in general is actually quite poor in this film. Negative as this all may sound, this was actually an entertaining watch that is recommended for everyone who loves the dark and eerie quality of film noir. Additionally, RYM made me find out about the term film gris which apparently is a subgenre of film noir where the boundary between good and bad is blurred. Seems like an appropriate term for this film, because every character in this film has something likeable and evil about them, even the woman who seems to love Widmark forever betrays him in the end.
Mauvais Sang (4*) Watching this from the balcony of De Nieuwe Anita, on wooden chairs, and with a guy next to me who literally was on his phone for the entire film while producing disgustingly slimy coughs might not have been the optimal setting for watching this film. Nevertheless, this mysteriously beautiful piece of art sucked me in right from the start. Technically, the film is about Denis Lavant, in another amazing role, who has to steal a deadly virus for a bunch of thugs and about his love (amour fou, as Jeffrey calls it) for the girlfriend of the prime thug. Primarily though, I feel that it is an ensemble of great, mesmerizing, and unconventional scenes. What stood out for me was the parachuting scene which displays Lavant's incredible physical capabilities and some beautifully serene shots. And obviously, the scene where Lavant dances to Bowie's 'Modern Love' should also be mentioned. However, about halfway through the movie lost a lot of its initial momentum and I had to force myself to stay focused, which was unfortunate. Nevertheless, the occasional great scene and the magnificent use of primary colors (primarily blue and red, therefore reminding me of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut) made for a thrilling watch. After the screening someone noted that perhaps, by the time Carax made Holy Motors, he had realized that he was more proficient in creating weird and unique scenes rather than an entire film, thus explaining the setup of that film. Definitely makes sense to me.
Gamer (3,5*) Despite often being classified as a B-movie, for obvious reasons (poor acting, over-the-top action scenes, an excessive amount of gore, unnecessary tits), this film has much going for it. In short, one could classify this as a dystopian science fiction film and the premise is that there is one company which has been able to find a way to make mind control possible and uses that in order to create games where people pay to control other people. The first one they created is a lot like The Sims (although a lot more sexual, which I guess is inevitable when people get full control to play out their fantasies). Afterwards, a FPS game in the vein of Call of Duty is created. This is where we find the protagonist of our story, played by Gerard Butler, who is controlled by a seventeen year old kid. Eventually, with the help of a hacker organization led by Ludacris, Butler finds away to turn off his mind control and eventually kill the evil boss of the mind-control company. All in all, I think the film is a clever commentary on the way life is becoming increasingly 'gameificated' and spectacular. A contemporary version of Debord's Society of the Spectacle perhaps? Besides that, despite the fact this might be a B-movie, the way it is shot is crazy at times. Weird angles, unconventional editing, a very polished and a game-like colour scheme all contribute to that. It seems like the directors have a particular vision of contemporary society and know how to convey that in a filmic language that is both entertaining and engaging.
Superbad (4*) What can I say? This must be the gazillionth time I have seen this film, but it remains really funny, particularly after a couple of drinks. Despite the fact that is your typical American high-school comedy that is completely fixated at losing virginity, excessive drinking, and the word dick, the constant flow of one-liners and funny situations just make this a really entertaining film("Prepare to be fucked by the long dick of the law", "Do you know what kinds of food are shaped like dicks? The best kind!", etc). Besides that, the cast is top notch: Michael Cera and Jonah Hill, who I think is at his funniest in this film, are a hilarious duo; the same goes for Bill Hader and Seth Rogan; and on top of that there is McLovin to steal a couple of laughs. What I think is usually overlooked about this film is that the soundtrack is also completely on-point. From the funky opening scene to the ending with Curtis Mayfield, everything has a certain style to it which fits the film very well. My hunch is that director Greg Mottolo has a nose for what kind of music works well in combination with the story that he tells, because the soundtrack of his next film, Adventureland (in essence also a teen flick), despite being completely different, was equally amazing and on-point. In any case, this is probably my #1 guilty pleasure.
While watching America's Next Top Model with my roommate I asked her whether she was stoked for Zoolander 2 which is supposedly coming out next year. Turns out she has not even seen the original Zoolander, so obviously there was no other choice than watching that again. This was the second time I watched the film and afterwards I was surprised to find that I rated it very low after the first time, because I really enjoyed watching it now. Definitely the funniest role of Ben Stiller I've seen. The constant pouting and the occasional magnificence of 'Blue Steel' definitely make this a comedic performance of excellent quality. Granted, the humor borders on juvenile at times, but I think it succeeds in not getting too corny which is something the film definitely should be praised for. The pre-walk off scene where Derek and Hansel face each other directly for the first time is definitely the high light of the film for me.
Office Space (3*) Another film watched with my roommate and another one that I've already seen before. However, whereas I definitely rated the previous one too low after the first watch, I may have overestimated this one a little bit. I remember this as being very hilarious, but it did not do the same for me this time. Nevertheless, as a big fan of Dilbert and the Dutch '9 tot 5' comics, this film cannot do much wrong. The film's humour drives on recognizable situations with an absurd twist, dead-pan dryness and the comedic highlights of this film are the moments where mundane scenes are juxtaposed with gangster music. And in all fairness, these are all things that I enjoy. Nevertheless, I think there were opportunities for more comedy and unfortunately, story-wise this is not too exciting. Therefore, if we could just watch and enjoy the printer scene again, that would be great.
Beau Travail (4*)
After having seen Claire Denis' latest film Les Salauds last year and thorougly enjoying this enigmatic thriller I got intrigued in the rest of her work. I was already aware of the existence of Beau Travail, but for some reason I never got to watching it. I've considered it, but there was always something that would convince me not to. However, after hearing my friend speak so passionately about the film I finally decided this morning I should give it a go. I am very glad that I did, because like Les Salauds this film is another enigmatic, mysterious, yet beautifully shot piece of work. There is a weak narrative thread about an army commander who, for no obvious reason, hates one of his new recruits and plots against him which results in almost taking his life. However, what makes this film particularly special for me were the beautiful landscapes, the unique way the film depicts male bodies, and Dennis Lavant's incredible acting performance. Throughout the film he convincingly plays someone who's trying his hardest to supress his emotions, therefore making the seemingly inappropriate, where the army commander dances very expressively to 'Rhythm of the the Night', extra powerful. The exaggerated physical movements of the dancing are a way of finally releasing all the tension that has been building inside of him. All in all I would say that 'haptic' would be an appropriate description of the film.
35 Rhums (4*)
As a result of the beauty of Beau Travail I knew the next film I would be watching was going to be another film by Claire Denis. 35 Rhums follows the relation between an immigrant father and daughter living in Paris and their relations with neighbours, colleagues, friends, etc. What I enjoyed about the film was the incredible tenderness with which the story is told. A tenderness that resides in simple gestures and looks, but also the narration of the story. The film never explicitly presents you with narrative clues, but only hints at past events, unresolved feelings, and future directions. By the end of the film I'm still not sure what exactly the deal is with everyone involved, but by then the unfolding events have completely absorbed me and made me feel for and with the characters. Ultimately, I think this is a story about resolving past conflicts in order to move on and the pain that sometimes brings. That is why it is interesting that the father is a metro-driver (a mode of transport that can only move in a fixed path), while during the end where things are starting to get resolved, he drives a car (a mode of transport which allows more freedom). There were, however, a couple of loose ends in the film which I think could've been worked out better, or perhaps just left out (e.g. student protests or the guy who sends Jo flowers). There is a also an interesting hint at France's colonial past, another past conflict that needs resolving. Whereas Beau Travail is about (mostly white) French people habitating in Africa, this film is about Africans living in France. What I appreciate is that in both films this is never the main focus of the film, but sort of oozes through the actions unfolding on screen. I think Ranciere would agree that this mode of address is more politically efficient than a direct confrontation with facts and images of misery would have been. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed this heart-warming picture. And oh my God, there's just something about Denis and portraying sensuality and tenderness in dance scenes. I can't get enough of it!
