Ebonyks Reviews

Journey to Mecca (2009)

This should have never been released for Imax

[4/10 · 10 November 2010]

I saw this film and was blown away by the technical shortcomings, more specifically, how out of focus this entire film is. I'm not a regular Imax viewer, and this may be a very common problem, but it seemed as if virtually none of the film was in focus. I'd say less than 20-30% of footage had a clear focal point, and that was typically less than 10-20% of the total screen. The only exceptions were scenes involving CGI maps.

The topic was interesting, my knowledge of the hajj was limited prior to seeing this, and the film created the 14th century cities with style, but technical issues impacted my enjoyment of this film. It's a shame too, there are so many seemingly beautiful desert landscapes in this movie.

Oddsac (2010)

Disjointed hogwash

[2/10 · 23 August 2010]

Let me first off lead by saying I am (or perhaps was) a rabid animal collective fan. I've seen them perform live before, and am familiar with their entire discography. This movie does little to provide an extra dimension to the animal collective 'experience' (and no, sadly, drugs don't seem to help much either) The visual experience of this movie is headache inducing, and it just keeps coming. Watching this, you quickly wonder how it became a full length movie project. Lots of quick cuts between disjointed scenes come together over heavy layers of visual effects and editing create a narrative that is impossible to follow. There are long stretches of this movie which play out similar to a winamp visualizer. There's never any attempt to explain the purpose of the visuals, and therein lies the conundrum of oddsac. The narrative isn't compelling enough to add up to anything, and the visuals simply aren't interesting enough to occupy a viewer for the running time.

As for the music, I'm lukewarm about it. It's a continuation of the musical direction taken with merriweather, which wasn't my favorite but there seem to be many who disagree with me. There's a whole lot of geologist tweaking knobs in this soundtrack, creating music that would sound more at home on warp than anything else animal collective has ever released. It's less pop-infused than merriweather however, more suited for a background situation than being blasted at a party. If you like that artistic direction, you won't be disappointed with the music of Oddsac.

My advice would be to simply close your eyes when this starts playing, or find a soundtrack later on if you're an animal collective fan. The visuals distract from any value that the soundtrack creates.

Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret (2008)

Presents an uncomfortably intimate perspective into the lives of new mothers

[3/10 · 24 March 2010]

Let me preface this review by giving my background.

I'm a 23 year old male nurse who has a fair amount of experience with the process of childbirth and labor. I've sat through actual births before and given support to new mothers. I am by no means bothered or queasy about the process of birth.

And yet, this was one of the most disturbing movies i've seen in my life. It's not the process of child birth, it's the eerie level of intimacy which surrounds the entire movie. There's lots of footage of cuddly couples to be which in the context presented, comes off to me as voyeuristic. It's being given an uncomfortably close look at the lives of new mothers.

There's plenty of educational value to this film, and i'd have no qualms with recommending this movie to the intended audience. But for every male in my age demographic who has their girlfriend present this movie to them, expect a night of awkward cuddling without any real satisfaction.