Category: Cinema

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Underrated

I’ve always felt Constantine was a vastly underrated film.

Damn…now I’m going to have to go watch it.

Although I must admit, I found Matt Ryan’s portrayal of the titular character on the short-lived television series much sexier. That was another one of those series that unceremoniously got canceled on a cliffhanger. Bastards.

Addendum: I always confuse this one with The Ninth Gate, another vastly under-appreciated bit of horror.

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This Fundamental Aspect Went Right Past Me

I may have been a little hasty in my initial judgment of BACKROOMS. Obviously YouTube is now overrun with analyses and deep dives, and after watching many of them I have to admit I missed a fundamental aspect of this film and what the Backrooms are, that may ultimately change my opinion of the film.

The Backrooms are a modern-day metaphor for A.I. I mean think about it: at a cursory glance they’re a copy (although sometimes admittedly strange) of the real world. But the deeper you look, the more fucked these rooms become. And the still-lifes? The renderings of living humans is horrific. The same goes for modern-day A.I. On the surface, A.I. generated content looks okay, but the deeper you look at it, the more errors stand out: people with six or more fingers, legs missing or completely out of whack, eyes that just aren’t right, and dozens of other things.

And if you generate a picture and want A.I. to do it over again to change something, it moves further and further with each generation from your original intent. It’s unnerving, much like what you see in the Backrooms.

An interesting take on the film, to be sure. I may have to go back and see it again…

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Another Disappointment

Perhaps disappointment is too strong a word. I left the theater (yes, I actually ventured out to a real theater today) feeling…underwhelmed. As I told a friend, perhaps i’m so thoroughly familiar with the lore of the Backrooms world that nothing really grabs me about it any more. I found Kane’s original five videos far more engaging.

Don’t get me wrong: the performances were spot on. The sets and effects were of a quality that we’ve all come to expect from a summer movie. But in trying to explain what the “monster” was, I think Kane and crew missed the mark. The monter in his original videos is never explained; it just is, and I think they should’ve done the same with the movie. The unknown (and its motivations) is far more viscerally frightening than a monster whose origin and motivations are all explained and tied up with a neat little bow.

Or maybe I’ve just become so old and jaded that movies in general no longer give the that endorphin rush they used to when I was in my 20s and 30s.

At this point, I’m expected to be sorely disappointed by the two other movies I’m actually going to a theater to see this summer, Disclosure Day and of course, DUNE 3. I hope i’m proven wrong; I hope at least one of them wows me.

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Released 39 Years Ago

“Dolly…Dolly…you’ve got a willie!”

My favorite film of all time, Personal Services (1987)

Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

The Germans were obviously more liberal in what they showed in their trailers:

Some clips:

An interview with the filmmakers:

As I’ve told people over the years, if you can appreciate this film, you’ll understand my sense of humor.

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One Of Two Films This Year That I’m Actually Going To A Theater To See

Backrooms is one of two films I’ll be venturing out to actually see in a theater this year. (The other being DUNE3.) I purchased my ticket today, not that I fear I’ll have any trouble getting in…

I first stumbled across The Backrooms on YouTube back in 2002. Posted on the Kane Pixels channel, at the time the initial video terrified me because I hadn’t run across anything like it previously. Was this real? Rationally I knew it couldn’t be, but the environment was so damn convincing.

In the intervening years, The Backrooms has become somewhat of an internet sensation, with multiple videos being produced by dozens of creators. Some of the videos are really good, expanding upon this strange universe and some are…well…not.

There were rumors last year that a feature-length film was in the works, even though I couldn’t imagine how this story would be brought to the big screen. Well, apparently it was more than just a rumor. Kane Parsons—the original creator of The Backrooms—is directing this A24 production, which is being released later this month (on my birthday, no less!).

If you’re curious, Kane’s original videos can be seen here,

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In 1974…

In 1974, John Waters’ **Female Trouble** was a blistering satire on American celebrity culture. As Dawn Davenport’s fall from a Christmas lunatic to a criminal celebrity, the film used Divine’s gender-bending performance to explore and subvert traditional conceptions of the family and sex roles. It helped to define the “Dreamlanders” style, which combined street realism in Baltimore with melodramatic camp.

For the mainstream audience of 1974, the film was largely treated as an assault on public decency. Though it found a rabid audience in the “midnight movie” culture with other avant-garde classics, established audiences and critics often reacted to it with both visceral disgust and cynical bewilderment. It was often dismissed as “amateurish” or “vile” by the critical establishment, which had trouble understanding Waters’ irony. This however functioned as an ironic achievement for the film, and eventually led to the film’s evolution from a shunned midnight movie to a cult masterpiece of independent cinema.

[source]

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Cautiously Optimistic

Villeneuve lost me at the end of Dune 2 when Alia failed to be born (much less kill the Baron) and Ciani stormed off into the desert. If he had stuck to the original storyline Dune 1 and Dune 2 would’ve been the consummate adaptation of the “unfilmable” novel.

After seeing the trailer for Dune 3—nee Dune Messiah—however, I’m cautiously optimistic that Denis will somehow wrap up the director’s interpretation of the first two books of the series into something closer Herbert’s vision of Paul’s journey..

The scene of Alia especially—or rather St. Alia Of The Knife as she appears here—on the palace balcony gave me chills.

Nailed it, Denis!

As did the nearly unrecognizable Robert Pattinson as Scytale and this…sarcophagus. Who is in there? Is this Scytale presenting Paul with the gift of Hayt, the ghola of Duncan Idaho? Or is it Edric floating in spice gas as he meets with his fellow conspirators?

In any case, these two scenes one give me hope for Villeneuve’s redemption.

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Fosse, Fosse, Fosse!

The amazing and beautiful Suzanne Charny!

Sweet Charity – American musical comedy-drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse in his feature directorial debut, written by Peter Stone, and featuring music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.

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