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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Another young adult novel adaptation
Saw this with my daughter and fiancé recently at the request of my daughter. She had read the book and enjoyed it so was interested in seeing the adaptation. Despite some minor variations, the film stayed mostly with the plot of the book apparently. Having not read the book, I cannot comment on these differences at this time.
What I can comment on is the apparent phenomenon of adaptations of young adult fiction novels into films. A string of formulaic, dystopian type thrillers came on the heels of The Hunger Games (2012).
The Hunger Games actually does have a redeeming message about class, although by the end it reveals itself to be ever so slightly a reactionary message. The Giver (2014), however, an apparent Hunger Games clone, has an entirely Ayn Randian objectivist message that I don't recall getting from the book when I read it as a teen.
I do remember it being influential on my thinking as an angsty youth who suffered as an individualist beneath the wheel of conformism. I calk it up to youth. Seeing the adaptation of the Giver years later revealed it to me to be a profoundly reactionary, right-wing message. A utopian society where there are no poor, no wars and not crime but there is also not individualism sounds a lot like Cold War anti-Communism in the context of a few years of radical thinking and praxis.
This brings me to Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) directed by over-rated "auteur" Tim Burton. First, the plot has the unfortunate odor of blockbuster super-hero type films that have flooded theaters with mediocrity lately. The message appears to be that "peculiar" is "special" and that "special" means that you have super- powers to do things that are what Hume would define as miracles: "a violation of the laws of nature." This is maybe a liberal attempt at teaching that people with disabilities are valuable to society, but fails to convey this message as all the "peculiarities" of the children are supernatural things that are in fact very useful in a number different context. Rather than disabilities they are super-abilities. Tim Burton follows a string of shitty films including the bastardized remake of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), the incredibly boring Corpse Bride (2005) and the profoundly awful Alice in Wonderland (2010).
Some of Burton's early films including Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ed Wood (1994), Beetlejuice (1988) and Mars Attacks (1996) were rather inspired. However, at this point Tim Burton's aesthetic is tired and run down and his films are commercial, CGI-infused visual spectacles that attempt to make up for lack of good story telling by offering a lot of flashing lights on screen.
Miss Peregrine kept my attention and did have some interesting moments and ideas, but it suffered from the society of the spectacle pathology of CGI obsession and constant action rather than character development and commentary.
Don't Breathe (2016)
When Men Try Too Hard to Make Feminist Films
I recently saw Don't Breathe (2016) and immediately had some opinions on it. The writers/directors are Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, the men behind the bastardized Evil Dead remake. Don't Breate came off as a film directed by men that tried too hard to be a feminist film. Instead of an emancipatory message for women who resist patriarchy, the heroine is met by disappointment, especially when men whose characters are straight from the "damsel in distress" genre of medieval legends. She cannot count on men to save her, however, so it is up to her to discover her own method of escape, but in the end her oppressor and captor gets away because of a patriarchal, and preferential to military veterans, justice system.
I do, of course, get the irony of me, a man, criticizing a film made by men for not being feminist enough. However, truly feminist cinema, as I have written about before, is that which is written from the female gaze and offers a genuine critique of patriarchy that offers a method for liberation. Basically, Don't Breathe tries too hard and fails at being a feminist film.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Counter-cultural cooptation
Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde was one of the first films to break the production code era's taboo on gore and graphic violence. Of course, Bonnie and Clyde is more than just bloody bullet holes. It is actually a somewhat subversive film that follows a dust bowl Robin Hood and Maid Marian while they recruit disciples and stuff their pockets all while taking care not to exploit the impoverished.
The film takes place during the depression and FDR campaign posters are prominently displayed throughout the film. Beatty's Clyde Barrow is morally opposed to taking money from the poor, but morally inclined to take money from the banks. From the scene where he allows the sharecroppers' whose home was foreclosed by the bank to shoot up the place, Beatty's Clyde proves himself a 20th century Robin Hood. Of course, historical proof probably is inclined otherwise.
Penn's Bonnie and Clyde are not meant to be historically accurate portrayals, though. The film was released in 1967 at the heart of the so-called "Summer of Love," when the American counter-culture was possibly at its most strong. Additionally, Hollywood was suffering a lull. The supposedly depression-proof industry was suffering because they had failed to produce many memorable films during the production era (other than a handful of film Noir classics).
The ending scene of Bonnie and Clyde is considered a classic and I will spoil it for you: they get filled with bright red bullet holes. Even after reading these spoilers, the film is worth watching. It was the harbinger of a renaissance in cinema. Soon after Roger Corman, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as well as Robert Downey's crew had shot some brilliant films inspired by the indulgences explored by Beatty's Bonnie and Clyde. Bless Beatty and Penn!
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com
Begotten (1989)
Student film at its worst
After some deliberation I have decided that this film is not actually worth watching. Begotten is an early film by E. Elias Merhigne, who would later become known for the Shadow of the Vampire. Shadow of the Vampire is actually a brilliant film, not only thanks to Willem Dafoe's intense portrayal of Nosfereatu and John Malkovich's iconic portrayal of Murnau, but also thanks to I discovered this film on some sort of social media related to artistic horror cinema. Of course, artistic doesn't often mean good and the number of times artistic actually means pretentious is enough to make any cinephile uncomfortable. The Begotten is a film that has taken what the early David Lynch shorts had in terms of creepiness and stripped it of any sense of narrative or even cohesive form. Begotten instead replaces these essential elements of film with some vague, religious symbolism. However, unlike the films of Lynch and Jodorowsky, the religious imagery comes off as completely disingenuous. The shear length of the shots wreaks of pretension and an overly ambitious attempt at being "strange." All in all, this film tries way too hard and in so doing fails at either being disturbing or profound, when it sets out to be both. One can identify elements of Maya Deren, especially Meshes of the Afternoon, but still, the film fails to live up to its ambitions as a work of creepy art. Another film make that comes to mind who has done similar things is Crispin Glover with this What Is It? trilogy. However, even Glover's purposely shocking, pretentious Nazi Shirley Temple and Down syndrome sex imagery is superior to the half-assed attempt that Merhige made in Begotten. The sparseness of the soundtrack and the juxtaposition of nature sounds with a repetitive beating heart does invoke a creepy and even spiritual element. Still, I can't help but feeling that this is some charlatan ploy to evoke some primal fear in me and it doesn't quite work out for a hardcore genre fan. I must admit, I enjoyed moments of this film, but all in all I must say, this is a pretentious work that gives art cinema a bad name. Cinephiles must live not on convulsions alone. Begotten is a student film that doesn't nearly live up to the legacy of student films like Lynch's the Grandmother or Cronenberg's From the Drain.
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com
Inhyeongsa (2004)
The House on Haunted Hill Formula
The Doll Master is the directorial debut of South Korean director Yong- ki Jeong. It is a story in the House on Haunted Hill (1959) format whereby a wealthy eccentric invites a group of unwitting outsides to their manor for twisted reasons that they're less than upfront about.
In this case the eccentric rich person is some sort of doll maker who adorns her house with creepy, life-sized dolls. Every room has some sort of doll in an unsettling pose. Of course, it isn't long before people start dying and you can guess the rest.
This film was not entirely thrilling as it was a hackneyed, cliché premise and the acting and filming weren't entirely impressive either. Worth a watch if you're in for some light entertainment a la Steve Beck's remake Thir13en Ghosts (2001), but hardly an earth-shattering experience.
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com
Kansen (2004)
Reminds me of Secret Rendezvous
Infection is a film by prolific Japanese horror director Masauki Ochiai (also known for 2008's Shutter). It takes place in an understaffed and underfunded hospital. A patient is brought in by an ambulance, but the hospital clearly cannot handle someone with an infection of this type. The hospital director, however, is convinced this will be the doctors' break-through discovery and bring them all fat grant checks. As with all horror movies, there are, of course, disastrous consequences.
What I liked about this film is the pervasive feeling of loneliness and anxiety throughout the film. It's the kind of feeling you might get when you wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, but have no recollection of the specifics of the dream. The viewer is thus thrust from the garrison of comfortability, down into the eerie nether regions that lie beneath the rabbit hole.
I would also say that one might pick up thematic hints of Kōbō Abe's 1997 novel Secret Rendezvous. Infection is not nearly as openly sexual as Secret Rendezvous, but anxieties about medical science and hospital settings, sexual tension between males and females and questionable medical practices are themes present in both works.
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com/
La montaña sagrada (1973)
We Really Need to talk about the Holy Mountain
Let me just say, although I was not all that impressed by El Topo
(I tended to enjoy Fando y Lis
a little more), I'm glad John Lennon and Yoko Ono went to see it at a midnight showing. They convinced the Beatles' manager, Alen Klein, to bankroll Jodorowsky's next film, what some would call his most self- indulgent (and consequently most brilliant) the Holy Mountain.
Does the film live up to the budget? Let's put it this way, Jodorowsky never made a better film since, even though his concept for Dune would have been brilliant. The Dance of Reality was a pretentious jab at communist discipline and any non-religious approach
However, the Holy Mountain has always stuck with me as one of the most brilliant films of all of cinema history. I can't help, even as an atheist, feeling shame a being mocked by Jodorowsky's psycho-magic in the documentary about him, Consellation.
He, the director who forced his actors to take Psilocybin mushrooms during the "hump the mountain" scene. He who, at the end of the film assures that all we have just seen was a film and not actual reality. He who can read your fortune in the tarot deck.
I understand why some might be taken in by cults and cult films are called that for a reason. They offer the perfect escape from just the wrong situation. The Holy Mountain is one of those films. And it was genuinely, Babylonianally hedonistic and subversive. You can enter a world where it doesn't matter if you mutilate animals or make bombs into toys. The journey is the same. You might be Jesus of Muhammad, but you're still just in Olympic competition with Zeus and Aphrodite at the Pantheon Bar and it's Karaoke night. A drunk guy can go across the mountain, but he can't ascend because he can only travel horizontally.
I love you and I'd like you to know, this film has not always or even often done right by me. As a matter of fact, strict, fundamental adherence to this film could result in some dangerous fundamentalism. Of course Jodorowsky free's you from all that at the end when he declares the whole previous hour and a half simulacrum of reality a film. Just watch it already.
this review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com/
The Invitation (2015)
Paranoid Cinema
I just watched Karyn Kusama's the Invitation (2015) and was both entertained and stressed. The film is best viewed if one knows very little about the plot so let's just say it's about some people that get invited to a dinner party in LA. Of course, it is a thriller, so there is obviously more to it than that.
It reminded me of a few other dinner party films: the Dogme '95 film the Celebration (1998) directed by Thomas Vinterberg, Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game (1939) and the contemporary film The Perfect Host (2010).
This film is of course completely original, but definitely fits into the dinner-party-psychodrama category with the above mentioned. What impressed me about the Invitation was also the balance between intense interpersonal drama and tense psychological mind games. I give it 8/10.
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com/2016/04/paranoid-cinema- invitation-2015.html
Squirm (1976)
Brilliant pest/disaster 70s b-movie
Squirm is about worms. Not just any worms, though. Freaky Georgia worms with tons of legs and, yes, fangs. They bite, but normally they're OK. You can even use them to fish with. However, if they come in contact with electricity they go crazy, and there's so many of them in the ground that once they come up the humans don't have a chance.
Squirm, although a major studio release (Universal), has the feel of an indie grindhouse/exploitation film. You also get the sense that the actors in this film are real country people. These yokels don't come from Los Angeles. If they're not GA natives they're from somewhere in the deep south. Of course, the city slicker is the protagonist, but that doesn't stop the locals from treating him like dirt (ironically, the thing worms live in).
This film is fun and will at times make your skin crawl. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com/2016/04/squirm-1976.html
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
A History Text but not an Analysis
*May contain spoilers, but not really* The first thing that struck me about this film was the absence of talk about revolutionary theory or even tactical practice. With a name like it has one might think it would unpack the nuanced and much debated term "vanguard" a little more. The influence of Mao Tse Tung thought is completely absent apart from a sign that says "Chairman Mao says: Free Huey," which is never explained or even mentioned. Primarily the film tells the story of what happened, but does not explore motivations, expectations, hopes, dreams or rationale any more than is necessary for a cursory tally of events.
However, it is actually an entertaining film for precisely that reason. There are guns, there is action, there is insanity; or more properly put, allegations of insanity. Actually, the film is pretty sensationalistic. If you're a radical interested in an analysis of the BPP this is not the place to look. I get the sense that the interviews in the film are brutally chopped up.
My favorite part of the film was also my favorite part of BPP history and that is Fred Hampton's work in Chicago and his resulting assassination by agents of the state. The film actually does make a pretty good case for why Hoover's FBI, the Nixon administration and the cops in Chicago considered him dangerous. However, one of the strongest arguments for his perceived danger from the state (and I do think it was justified) is the eloquence of his speeches and clips of these speeches are sadly lacking. One my favorite speeches is the one where he says: We've got to face the fact that some people say you fight fire best with fire, but we say you put fire out best with water. We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism.
We ain't gonna fight no reactionary pigs who run up and down the street being reactionary; we're gonna organize and dedicate ourselves to revolutionary political power and teach ourselves the specific needs of resisting the power structure, arm ourselves, and we're gonna fight reactionary pigs with INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. That's what it has to be. The people have to have the power: it belongs to the people.
In the film this speech was cut off after the first two sentences.
Additionally, the film focused solely on what was going on with the Panthers at the time and completely obfuscated the context of the time. It made mention of white allies but it did not talk at all about the Weather Underground, for example, who issued a "Declaration of War" against the US government in response to the assassination of Hampton and subsequently bombed multiple government buildings.
Like I said, this is an entertaining movie and some parts are even inspiring, but if you're looking for the definitive story of the Black Panther Party, this is not the place.
D@bbe (2006)
Sharia cautionary tale: Brilliant, but not necessarily for hardcore genre fans
Dabbe is a landmark in Turkish cinema. It is one of the first and to this day only truly Turkish horror franchises. Dabbe is about a Djinn, but it is about more than that as well. One scene that truly alerted me to the uniquely Turkish nature of this film was when a female coworker goes into the first victim's (a male's) house she finds it strange and a mess. She says, "So I should clean up, then?" as opposed to "Do you want me to clean up?" That way it is not her suggestion and if the male coworker does not want her to clean up (which ends up being the case) it is a misunderstanding on her part, not a rejection of a suggestion on the male's end.
I say this is not for hardcore genre fans because 1) it doesn't show any gore: all the action is implied, probably to get around Turkey's censorship laws. 2) the acting and the production are not as inspired as even many American and European indie horror films: there are some brilliant aesthetics in this film (the scenes that take place amongst the ancient ruins and the one in the shop with the traditional plates are nothing less than stunningly beautiful), but the production is not as sharp, nor is the dialogue or the execution of said dialogue as good as Western horror. These sins can be forgiven, however, as this film is revolutionary for Turkish cinema.
It is a cautionary tale in that it warns about the dangers of the non-Islamic world, particularly via the internet. It is faithfully a Muslim film, through and through, as it adheres to the official Islamic ideology in its cautionary message. The moral of the story appears to be: Don't get too curious about things Haram, because there is always the potential for hell to break through, given an invitation.
That said, this is essentially the message of many Christian demonological films like Rosemary's Baby, the Blair Witch Project, Exorcismus, It Follows*.... However, the moralism/fundamentalism is more subtle in these Western films. Dabbe is an in your face morality play, and that's fine. I don't watch horror films because I believe the myths and tropes they portray to be true, nor do I expect them to even have a good moral message.
Recently, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was touted, by Vice (it's primary distributor) and American critics as a revolutionary, Iranian, horror film. Unfortunately, it is not particularly Iranian, and as such, not particularly revolutionary. The actors are Iranian and the dialogue is is Farsi, but it was filmed and distributed in the USA.
Dabbe is different because, although it is from Iran's neighbors to the West, it is indeed a Muslim/Sharia film and retains many tropes of both Turkish and Iranian cinema and culture. It is brilliant for what it is: an Islamic horror film (about a Djinn, an Islamic demon) filmed under quasi-Sharia (with all its censorship and moralism) that stretches the boundaries of filming in the region. The very idea of a Muslim horror film is controversial. Since that is the case, however, it may not be especially engrossing for Western horror audiences. Still, a great film and worth watching, especially if you're into international cinema.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Orientalism is at work in my insistence that this film is indeed uniquely Turkish and uniquely Muslim. Perhaps it is simply the Muslim version of stories like the Christian the Exorcist, the Buddhist the Curse or the Jewish the Possession et al. However, I do think the elements of Islam that are incorporated into this film are, indeed, what make it unique and special. This film is worth watching simply because it is a Muslim demon story, not a Christian, Buddhist or Jewish one. If it were Christian, Buddhist or Jewish it would require more sophistication, eloquence and style. Maybe I am exorcising Muslim horror cinema here. Perhaps that makes this review fundamentally Orientalist. If I am guilty of that, I do apologize. Still, this is an important film, albeit maybe not the greatest horror film or even a contender when compared to the multitude of brilliant, demonological films from the Asia, Europe and the USA.
There is, also, a lesson here for Western audiences, coincidentally. Our obsession with communicative capitalism has not necessarily been beneficial culturally. Our anonymous rant platforms have descended into shouting and trolling contests. Our occasionally righteous voices are drowned out by the irrationality of reactionism. At the same time we are supposed to understand that this is good for democracy and liberalism. It is estimated that up to 60% of divorce petitions in the United States mention the website Facebook. Is communicative capitalism opening portals for Djinns to come through, or is it the serpent himself? The one that promises knowledge, the insidious light bearer? The one that brings light with a detrimental price? Perhaps the Western/liberal world has something to learn from Islam and Sharia. Certainly that was the lesson a Western view could take away from films like the Separation.
*A few others I might invoke by way of comparison are Unfriended, Pulse, Suicide Circle, V/H/S, Ringu, Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Nights.
Moebiuseu (2013)
Psycho-sexual pitting Freud and Buddha against each other
This movie is about penises getting chopped off and the aftermath therein. It is the epitome of a psycho-sexual thriller and it has all the Freudian trappings: castration anxiety, Oedipal anxiety, incest, impotence, masochism, phallocentrism, rape ad nauseum.
The primary theme of the film is a phallocentric look at emasculation. However, this does not necessarily make it a misogynistic film. Indeed, through its phallocentrism it reveals maleness to be much more infantile (there's Freud again) than it may intuitively seem.
A father cares about his son's sexuality and his safety. However, he is emasculated by the act of his son's emasculation (by the Oedipal matriarch). The gun he uses to sympathize with his son is also a phallic symbol and the blood splatters he spares his son are the final orgasm. The Oedipal complex is in full effect here, even before it is revealed that once the son regains his sexuality he can only be made potent by the one who robbed him of it in the first place.
There is a woman in the film who represents the interloper into the family unit. Ironically, the interloper in the relationship between the father and son is not the mother, but the woman who represents the pure sexuality of the other. This also reveals to us a life lesson: We can't always love the one we screw, and we can't always screw the one we love. This is a tragic dichotomy that punctuates this Shakespearian tragedy of a film.
There is finally the Buddhist redemption from the Western, Freudian pathology. Elimination of suffering is to be found, not in the pursuit of pleasure or passion, but in indifference to both pleasure and pain. Masochism and hedonism are two sides of the same coin and reality is to be found, not in a Jungian choice between love or fear (or the Freudian sex or death), but in the middle path: indifference. To not care is to become enlightened.