Jodorowsky shakes Cannes with lauded double feature
Truly a controversial week at Cannes if there ever was one, people cannot be surprised that Alejandro Jodorowsky’s presence at the prestigious festival was a topic of many conversations within the film scene. While the notorious director has been keeping busy with writing and lecturing over the past years, he’s also managed to quietly sneak back into the film circuit this year with The Dance of Reality. His first film in nearly a quarter of a century, The Dance of Reality is a surreal, autobiographical fantasy of Jodorowsky’s life. Set in the author’s hometown of Tocopilla, Chile, the movie follows…
It’s not Candyland, it’s Monsterpalooza
Back in 1992, I went to the second Lollapalooza music festival. It, and similar music fests seem, to me, more like automat concert experiences than innovative cultural experiences. Regardless, all that Monsterpalooza has in common with the music festival of its namesake is a conglomeration of like-minded consumers and merchants. Straight up: this is an exposition for the public to load up on monster gear. Masks, props, toys, magazines, posters, signatures and make-up classes were all on display for us, the drooling horror community, to gobble up. If you’ve never associated horror with cleanliness, it’s time you lathered up with…
V/H/S/2 (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]
It’s funny how quickly the mind is willing to quit analyzing a movie when it’s actually scary. Last year, V/H/S, a film widely lauded as the game-changing horror anthology, milked the minutiae of the found-footage subgenre dryer than each bore-and-snore-inducing Paranormal Activity film combined. And, because it forced audiences to commit their attention to ineffectual non-events shot with insufferable faux-shaky cam, V/H/S’s general nastiness and casual misogyny seemed to take center stage; the film’s most problematic aspects seemed more interesting to discuss than its attempt to reinvent its tropes of choice. But here’s the thing about its sequel, V/H/S/2: it’s…
The Machine (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]
Welsh writer/director Caradog James’s second feature, The Machine, asks its audience a difficult question: in an age of artificial intelligence, what does being “human” really mean? While The Machine, like its namesake in the film, functions well enough—like a diluted Blade Runner or Minority Report — its narrative and character development are completely robotic. James’s film may be able to deliver a clever imitation of a great story, but it lacks the depth to do anything more. For all its high production value, it’s a pretty face with no soul. Dr. Vincent McCarthy (Toby Stephens), a computer expert working underground —literally—…
Mr. Jones (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]
Karl Mueller wrote last year’s truly awful apocalypse flick The Divide, directed by Xavier Gens, which posited that when the chips are down, 99% of people will turn into slavering, sub-human monsters. Incisive stuff. Now he’s back with his directorial debut, Mr. Jones, which boasts a much more interesting setup. Scott and Penny (Jon Foster and Sarah Jones), an artsy young couple with marriage problems, repair to the desert so Scott can focus on finishing a nature documentary, only to discover that they’re living next to a famously reclusive artist, Mr. Jones. As they investigate Mr. Jones’s reputation (inscrutable; possibly…
Michael H. Profession: Director (Film Review) [Tribeca Film Festival]
Debates concerning filmmakers’ “intent” are a pastime that voyeurs both professionally and recreationally critical will, as long as films keep being made, continue to engage in. Like it or not, auteurism is here to stay, and while close reading a filmmaker’s body of work doesn’t fly in all circumstances, the exercise has its benefits. To understand great directors’ many contradictions, themes and patterns of meaning are better isolated and come to terms with than simply written off in general terms as “style” or “truth-seeking.” Right? Enter Michael Haneke. Haneke is here to tell you that your analyses aren’t really all…
Days of the Dead – Precious Moments
If this horror fan thought he’d walk away from the Days of the Dead horror convention unscarred…he was wrong. Why yes, I believe those earrings do go nicely with your eyes. This is one of many creations on display throughout the exhibitors’ room. I suppose I could also share images from the VIP lounge, which was located in another room at the L.A. Convention Center, but then…I’d have to charge you. The sledge-wielding maniac / star of the new horror film Sledge wants YOU. Max Wasa is a back-up singer for Alice Cooper, an actress, a model, and a music…
Cheap Thrills (Film Review) [BUFF]
Despite illusions of stability, society teeters on a fault line that can be triggered by the simplest disturbance. The U.S.’s own economic trajectory, subject to more ebbs than flows of late, leaves a lot of hard-working folks behind. In order to survive, most of us have had to make concessions. These compromises, we hope, give us safety and security in a landscape of uncertainty. The desperate behavior of our citizenry, however, betrays those notions, and many resort to unsavory acts just to make ends meet. These issues permeate the atmosphere of E.L. Katz’s thrilling debut feature Cheap Thrills, a film…
Guilty of Romance (Film Review) [BUFF]
Normally, when a filmmaker wraps up a film series, its reasonable to expect a decisive finale. In the case of Suicide Club director Sion Sono, though, we’re talking about poet-turned-film-provocateur for whom normal is rarely part of the equation. His latest mind-boggling film, Guilty of Romance, is the conclusion to the “Trilogy of Hate” that includes the films Love Exposure (2008) and Cold Fish (2010). These three films are only loosely connected by the outrageous material explored by Sono. Here, he completes the triangle in the manner he does best: with lots of deviant sex, arresting imagery, and dismembered bodies. The…
E.L. Katz Dishes Out “Cheap Thrills”
Genre fans should get a thrill when Cheap Thrills, the directorial debut of screenwriter and actor E.L. Katz (Pop Skull), makes its east coast debut at the Boston Underground Film Festival (screening at 9:15 pm on Saturday, March 30 at the Brattle Theatre). The film, co-written by Trent Haaga (Chop, Deadgirl) and David Chirchirillo (Half Bad), has been described as an outrageous, horror version of The Hangover. With the pedigree involved in its creation, Boston genrephiles are guaranteed a disturbing cinematic ride replete with over-the-top gags and grue. Cheap Thrills stars Pat Healy and Sara Paxton – last seen together in…
