Playlist Round-Up

Please note the lack of a colon in the title. I did not recently watch a film about a cattle drive. However, I have mentioned colons a lot recently. Then again, I am getting older. I do eat a lot of cereal, so I hope that counts for something.

But, no, this post is about two films I did not completely watch recently*. Generally, I try to slog my way through these things, but maybe this is a new trend that's another side effect of aging. Life's too short for some of this shit.

The Headless Woman

Film Comment magazine ranked this as the second best film released in the U.S. in 2009 and one of the best of the decade. It's about a non-decapitated woman who may or may not have killed a boy with her car (if you're wondering, she doesn't get out to check). Director Lucrecia Martel has said this is an examination of class differences in her native Argentina and a lot of critics have parroted those thoughts. Maybe it was the language barrier, but I found it difficult to gain any traction with the story. It is a series of slow, meandering scenes with no dramatic payoff, no tension at all, the type of movie where no one talks about anything and everything is implied, but implied under a blanket in a dark room. It got to the point where I had to fast forward to the end. And I don't think I missed anything. (It helps that this art house favorite only scored a 6.4 on IMDB.)

Aaah! Zombies! (or, for some reason, Wasting Away)

I tried to watch this 2007 movie three separate times and combined only made it about halfway. There's a clever hook here: the main characters are all brain-chomping creatures (not really zombies!) but don't really know it. The film alternates between their normal POV and everyone else's perspective of the monsters they have become. And it's a comedy! But it's really dumb. Amateurish acting and an ambition for camp that is undermined by a script that just isn't smart enough to pull it off. This may very well be a fun movie to watch with a group, but since I watch movies alone in my hole, I couldn't get into it.

*And by recently, I mean several weeks ago since that's when I thought I posted this. Oh, me.

Playlist: Youth Without Youth

Why? Francis Ford Coppola's 2007 return to filmmaking

Yes, it was 10 years since Coppola last directed a movie (1997's forgettable The Rainmaker) and far longer since he had made a film. This and his follow-up, Tetro, are testaments to the resulting beauty of an artist rediscovering the love for his medium without the oppressive hand of a studio suit telling him how to be creative. These are indie arthouse films distilled from the mind that almost died under the bloated epicness of Apocalypse Now and all its fallout (Jack, anyone?).

I'm still trying to digest YWY. It's part Phenomenon, part Benjamin Button, part Mulholland Drive. I would go so far to say that it is a science fiction film, albeit one with far loftier ambitions than your standard time travel by the numbers fare. Not that it's a time travel movie...although it's not exactly not one either. Ok, let's go to the man himself, FFC, who calls it a meditation on time and on consciousness...a beautiful love story, or a mystery. Well, that clears things up.  

The source material was a 1976 novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade about a professor (Tim Roth) who gets hit by lightning and starts a "new life with startling intellectual capacity". What's real and isn't, what happens and doesn't, is never clearly resolved. But thought-provokingly, not frustratingly. It's a film about ideas, or rather, the meaning and origin of ideas. I can't wait to hear Vin's take (yep, I saw a FFC film before him. Boom!)

Playlist: Big Man Japan

Magnolia Pictures is far and away my favorite film distributor right now. Started in 2001 and now part of renegade NBA owner Mark Cuban's media empire, Magnolia has been responsible for parting the mainstream for some of the best indie and foreign films of the decade. As if that weren't enough, in 2007 Magnolia launched a new division, Magnet, that according to their press release, would specialize in the "wild, unquantifiable and uncompromised." Basically, some killer genre movies that we wouldn't be able to see otherwise (and may not have even been made.)

But, wait, it gets better. The following year, Magnet unveiled the Six Shooter Film Series.  to give a theatrical release to the world's best genre films. In their own words, the inaugural class gave a theatrical release to six films "from the vanguard of quality worldwide genre cinema. With each film hailing from a different country, the series aims to bring fans of horror, sci-fi, alternative comedy and Asian cinema a mix of the most intelligent, genre-bending titles available from around the globe." That's as pretty damn cool as mission statements get.

I was first drawn to Big Man Japan because it looked like possibly the goofiest movie ever. Directed by and starring popular Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, it tells the story of an alternate Japan beset by actual attacks from city-thrashing monsters. Not traditional movie daikaiju, like Godzilla or Mothra, but freaky, human-like beasts that include, yes, a giant baby.

But the story is about the title character, Masaru Daisato, the latest (and possibly last) in a heroic line of men who can transform to gargantuan size when needed to defend their nation from monsters. Told in faux-doc style, we follow Daisato as he tries to cope with the burden of his "gift", his estranged wife and daughter, and fellow countrymen who have grown apathetic to him and his role in society. And this is the heart of the film and what lifts it beyond just a visual novelty.

I wasn't expecting the level of poignancy Matsumato achieves, not just in the scenes of Daisato's daily life, but during the mega-battles as well. It's billed as a comedy and it is, but one of those sneaky good comedies where the laughs blanket a deeper level of sadness.

Then there's the end. I have no idea what happens. Really. And it's pretty hard to explain other than to say during Big Man Japan's climatic fight with his arch enemy the movie suddenly becomes a different movie. Sort of. Again, I don't know. It's ridiculous.

Playlist: "Advantage"

I've been into shorts lately and I'm also going to refrain from making a clothing joke. You're welcome.

I caught the 11 minute "Advantage" on IFC and while its run-time was less than the total commercial-time during an episode of Lost, Australian director Sean Byrne packed it well. It opens with a young couple stumbling home from a night out when they come across a fenced-in tennis court. As stumbling young couples tend to do, they decide to...hold on, let me fire up the euphemism machine...rattle rattle clank...harness the underwear unicorn. Really? Is this thing still under warranty?

Right, ok, so they're harnessing when the lights turn on and the loudspeakers blare what can best be described as Satanic techno. They're not alone. In the worst possible way. The rest--remember it's all of 11 minutes--is spoiler territory. It's freaky and well done and Byrne impressed me enough that I'm interested to see his full-length horror feature, The Loved Ones, this August. Anyone catch it?

Playlist: Postal

Uwe Boll:...doctor, lover, German, Independent and irreverent

Sounds good right?...I always heard terrible things about this guy, this is the only movie I have to go on...I do not recommend it unless you like the following:

using a cat as a silencer, Dave Foley's penis, use of flower to find the "wet spot", killing many many children, making fun of 9-11 and the terrorists who killed everyone at the twin towers, Nazi gas chamber playground, Vern Troyer being raped by 10,000 monkeys, penis dolls, Hitler as a Disney-like character you can take pictures with...the list goes on and on...and it was funny, just down right funny.

I recommend Postal

Playlist: The Butcher

Korean Movie. Makes HOSTEL look like MARY POPPINS. I kid you not. You have been warned.

(Ed. Note: Here's a link to the trailer. NSFW. And it might not be safe at home, either.)

Single Malt Cinema: Episode 0

In the kickoff installment of our podcast series, our dashing hosts use the Spanish film Timecrimes as a launching pad for a conversation about time travel and all its fantastically opaque implications. They may have also had a couple of drinks.




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