After the weekend’s tropical storm debacle, I thought of the perfect movie for this week’s Movie Club – Peter Weir’s unsettling mystery ‘The Last Wave’. Eerie ambiance, indirect answers, a shallow but fascinating glimpse into Aboriginal life in modern times, plus Fortean weather!
Not available on instant view. Well, that’s ok, I have an ace up my sleeve for perfect Labor Day viewing – a classic comedy about the great suburban nightmare, starring America’s Most Likable Guy Tom Hanks! ‘The ‘Burbs!’
Not available on instant view. FINE. Well how about the live-action Fleisher Bros. cartoon ‘The Forbidden Zone?’
NO?! WELL THAT’S IT, I GUESS THIS WEEK’S MOVIE WILL HAVE TO BE ‘DEF BY TEMPTATION’ THEN, WON’T IT? WE’LL JUST HAVE TO SETTLE FOR DWAYNE-WAYNE IN A MOVIE DESCRIBED AS ‘An evil succubus is preying on libidinous black men in New York’, THEN, HUH?
FIIIIIIIIIINE. Unless, of course, anyone else has a suggestion.
Memes are funny things. Once a niche term of social sciences, they’ve become part of our national lexicon, something even mom knows about.
Of course, variations on a theme existed long before they were defined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, ‘The Selfish Gene’(thanks, Wikipedia), but this was a perfect confluence of a phenomenon needing a name and a word floating around sounding all sciency: the meme. Now, one cat picture passed around does not a meme make. A hundred variants of Nyancat (Mexican, Rasta, Nazi, flying over various cities, IRL, sans cat, plus Bollywood) however, is the very essence of the thing. Something grabs hold of the collective’s attention and mutates outward to all possible permutations. The result: something so far removed from the original, so rich and saturated with humanity, it becomes as strange as a fairy tale (themselves the burnished results of many hands).
Now that the lecture’s out of the way, may I have the honor to present: THE RESULTS ARE IN, a site devoted to the best moments of Maury Povich. Many of these chosen moments are not those of revelation, immediate physical violence, or fat babies stuffing their face with M&Ms. That’s far too easy (plus they have a separate site devoted to just that). No, whoever crafted (and I do use that word with care; these images were lovingly chosen out of thousands in an episode and placed together for maximum effect) these went out of their way to select that which we might have otherwise overlooked.
Several articles have cropped up touting the GIF as THE medium of the decade. I beg to differ as I’ve been a fan of the animated GIF since I found out they existed. Sure, it’s awesome now that people are using them to make wizard photos (seriously it’s like Harry Potter except shouting ‘accio remote’ still doesn’t work), but the GIF’s true genius lies in repeating a moment in time much as it might play in our heads over and over, allowing all the strangeness, harshness, silliness to play fully before our eyes. GIFs bring back that which everyone claims the internet takes away from us- that everyone sees only surface and plumbs no depths. With the GIF, all viewers become expert in a chunk of time, stretched to infinity.
And so I’d like to thank the fellow behind THE RESULTS ARE IN! for choosing only the best audience reactions, eye rolls, and weird freeze-frame facial expressions and sharing them with the world.
Welcome all once again to the gentle shambles that is the Instant Queue Movie Club. Upon finally, belatedly watching last week’s film. ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’, I instantly realized I should’ve watched it in theaters. Between the haloing, color glitches, frame jumps, moire effect and general compression, all that is crappy about streaming video was made glaringly obvious by the film’s deep, saturated blacks, slow movement in long-held still images, and lots of slightly moving leaves and grass.
Technical limitations aside, I was also perplexed by the story in a way that most likely speaks to cultural limitations. I get his son turned into a monkey ghost, really I do, even though as I type this the very thought of typing ‘I get his son turned into a monkey ghost’ seems screamingly ridiculous. But what of the end of the movie? Did the film crew just have an impromptu photo shoot with some soldiers, or was that the son’s ultimate fate, and if so, why? Or was that a past life of Boonmee, who mentioned in passing his regret at killing communists? Was the story of the princess and the fish a past life or just a larger cultural reference I’m missing completely? And why did the monk see himself at the end? Did they even go to karaoke?
None of which diminished my enjoyment of the natural beauty captured at leisurely pace, or the supernatural depicted in a frank and straightforward manner. If anything, questions are better than a solid ‘yep, that was a thing that happened there, alright’ reaction. It means the filmmaker trusted the audience to fill in their own gaps.
Since I’m still exuding so much mental effort over last week’s film and setting this up a mere day ahead of time, it seems only fair that this week’s film be a no-brainer. Something to enjoy even while inebriated, or perhaps while making a sandwich or crocheting; something where you can enjoy the company, but that doesn’t demand your total attention. That’s why this week’s movie is Mystery Science Theater 3000′s ‘Werewolf’, a personal favorite and an excellent example of the general stupidity that is MST3K. I’ll spare everyone the essay for now and go into why I so adore watching puppets watch a movie next week.
Hey Everybody! I put off writing this movie up so I could do a well-thought-out, 50-cent word 10-page thesis, but clearly that didn’t work out, so it’s bullet-points instead. Let’s start with the obvious: this movie was fun! Not the deepest, most coherent comment on society, with a thin plot and plenty of loose ends, but still a genuinely enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half. Why? Oh, perhaps it was the rare joy of two young, attractive female leads who are somehow capable of having both personalities and self-defense skills at the same time (Kate Beaton and pals did an excellent comic showcasing what passes for ‘strong female leads’ in the movies nowadays).
Sure, they talk about boys, especially potential last guy on earth Hector (more on him later), but it ties back into their sisterly dynamic! Speaking of which, these ladies enjoy/have sex without too much guilt! UNPRECEDENTED! They’re unapologetically sexy (the scene where Samantha coyly says ‘Hiii!’ before kneeing a mall jerk in the groin is a perfect example), but SEXY is not the beginning and ending of their character description. It seems silly to be so giddy about what is certainly a B-grade apocalyptic flick with serious retro charm, but THERE ARE THAT FEW EXAMPLES OF DECENT LADIES IN THE MOVIES.
And though this film already has more decent ladies in it than all 3 Transformer movies put together, IT ALSO HAS CALAMITY JANE! AKA Mary Woronov, former Warhol Factory model, writer, painter, and star of numerous excellent (or if you’re into irony, “excellent”) films including ‘Death Race 2000′. Here she’s a scientist AND the lone voice of morality in a group of amoral nerds who survived the apocalypse!
Back to Hector, this film has another rarity: Ethnics! And not as broad stereotypes or zany sidekicks, but AS NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS. Though they did sort of highlight the importance of family to many Hispanic people when Hector risked life and limb to see if they were ok, that’s a far cry from having him shout ‘AIII NO ME GUSTA!’ while getting chased by zombie cops, something I strongly suspect would happen if say, Michael Bay were at the helm (see, Talking JiveBots). Also, a Japanese girl because, why not? EXACTLY. The ethnic makeup of LA is not solely tall blond interchangeable women, despite what casting would have you believe.
And finally, this film may be the finest example of gradual color filter use EVER. Don’t forget to check out this week’s film, ‘Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives’. I only have a small idea what it’s about, but I’m already sold on the concept of ghosts haunting people, not real estate. Silly American ghosts, with their fixations on property values.
I’ve posted random stuff online for several years and am happy to provide a pleasant visual forum for visitors to oggle. I hope this site offers tidbits of interest to the curious reader, and useful information for the crafty.
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