Part-time prevaricator
Those who know me, know I like quirky movies. I’ve seen quite a few over the years at the Evans Theatre—Top of the Food Chain, Six String Samurai, Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter[1]It occurs to me that all three of these were midnight shows., and dozens of others.
Add to the list[2]And pin it to the top, too. Universal Language, which I saw just a few hours ago and wish I could watch again.
Continue reading “Review: Universal Language”
David Lynch has left us. He made some amazing movies, some of which we showed at the Evans Theatre.
I remember showing Mulholland Dr. back in ’01. In that era we were showing two films a weekend: one would play on Friday at 7:00pm and Saturday at 9:30pm, and the other would be Saturday and Sunday at 7:00pm. I watched most of Mulholland Dr. on the Saturday early show, and had to leave before the end of the movie to set up for the second show (I was the late-show projectionist that night).
It was a surreal movie, with a lot of disparate things going on, but by about 8:45pm, when I had to exit the theatre, I felt like I had a handle on what was going on, and how things were going to tie together in the end. I knew I’d be able to watch the whole thing on Sunday night, and test my theories.
(For those who have seen the movie, I left right around the time Betty and Rita found the blue box.)
Well, Sunday night I settled in and watched the movie start to finish, and, uh…
Long story short, I had no idea. Shortly after I’d left the theatre on Saturday, everything changed. I still am not convinced I understand what was going on, despite having read many an article with titles like “What’s really going on in Mulholland Dr.” But what a ride it was.
Farewell, Mr. Lynch. We will not soon see your like again.
I recorded Johnny Mnemonic last night and watched it this morning, and here’s the Mastodon thread that I sort-of live-tooted while I watched.
begin thread
Is it retrofuturism if I watch Johnny Mnemonic—made in 1995, set in 2021—in 2024? Or is it something else entirely?
Either way, this movie is a weird artifact. It’s based on a William Gibson short story, featuring the first appearance of Molly; but when it was made, IIRC, someone had the film rights to Neuromancer, and since Molly’s a big character in that, they replaced her with a different character.
I saw this in the theatre, or—more likely—at the drive-in. (There’s some retro for you; anyone still have a local drive-in?)
My memory of the movie is that they got some of the Gibsonian aesthetic down—
holy crap, is that Ratz, tending bar?
—sorry, got distracted. They got the look of the thing, but they missed the storytelling by a wide, wide margin.
Also, I distinctly recall two quotes about this movie, one from a review and one from Gibson.
The review: “You know your movie’s in trouble when the two most convincing characters are played by Dolph Lundgren and Ice‑T.”
(My reaction at the time: “You forgot Henry Rollins.” But now, about 30 minutes in, Rollins’ acting was pretty wooden.)
The other quote, from William Gibson, is one that I’ve held on to.
“Once you sign the cheque [from Hollywood], your creative control ends. They can fill it with dancing pink rabbits and you can’t say a word.”
(paraphrased from memory, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got the gist of it)
I recorded this off the TV, and the ads are amusing: most of the technology in them is light-years ahead of what the filmmakers predicted. (But then again, science fiction isn’t about the future; it’s about the present.)
Did he… did he just ask for a “Thompson iphone”?
(Probably “eye phone” but it was a weird bit of prescience)
Also, this 2021 internet is wild
Someone just said “Crazy Bob’s Computer Shop” with a straight face and if that’s not acting, I don’t know what is.
I’d love to find a copy of New Rose Hotel, based on a different Gibson short story, and see what it’s like. Compare & contrast.
Huh, the Yakuza baddie in Newark is played by the same guy who played Zatoichi.
Henry Rollins is back, and he’s very much Henry Rollins-ing all over the place.
Ice‑T, in the very next scene, remains convincing.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen this that I can’t remember if Jones the dolphin makes an appearance, or if he’s only in the short story.
320GB is a lot of data, yes, but back in ’95 it would have been a lot
I can’t help but think
MollyJane might be more comfortable if she had an undershirt between her skin and that chainmail tank top she wears.
Oof, 20% on Rotten Tomatoes (and a whole 31% from The Audience)
Ah, there it is, the burning VW Bug (as I recall this was the source of WG’s comment about “dancing pink bunnies”)
Aaaaaand the “room service” soliloquy (which reminds me of a 3rd quote I saw about this movie, in another review; the reviewer said that “I want room service, dude!” would’ve been more in keeping with Keanu’s acting chops. (You have to remember this was made long before movies like The Matrix and John Wick, back when we thought maybe Keanu Reeves had peaked in Bill and Ted.)
But honestly, watching this movie now, the “room service” soliloquy might be the closest thing we get to a genuine emotion from Johnny, or from most of the characters.
That bridge that houses “Heaven” echoes the Bridge trilogy, too, which IIRC was Gibson’s next work after finishing the Sprawl trilogy.
Also I’m not sure the screenwriter fully grasped how encryption (or I guess enciphering) works, but then again I don’t think Gibson was a computer scientist either.
Wait, there’s two flaming VW Bugs in this thing? How did I forget that?
I like how the Lo Teks in the movie use crossbows and dress like Mad Max extras, but in the short story “low tech” was a sawed-off shotgun in an Adidas bag padded with tennis socks.
The Preacher seems like a pro-wrestling gimmick incarnated. (Also like a dancing pink bunny, q.v.)
this CG is… well, “dated” is probably the kindest way to put it
A lot of CRTs in 2021, apparently
Impressive how quickly the baddies’ office tower caught fire once the download happened
Boy, there’s sure a lot of 90s industrial music in this.
So, as I recalled, the movie is strong in suggesting a William Gibson milieu, but not nearly as strong at telling a story in that milieu.
Which is a little odd, given that the screenwriter is [checks notes] William Gibson.
Anyway, this was fun. I’ll leave this as a coda, from the Music section of the credits:
“Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk”, written by Bono and the Edge.
fin
Leland inherits a guitar from his “uncle[1]More likely his dad.”. Ray—once a touring musician, now a successful oilman[2]He’s the type who would bristle at the suggestion he’s an “oilperson”.—gets a call from a former bandmate, letting him know their deceased friend left his guitar to some kid in his area (“and you might want to check in on it before it turns into firewood”).
Kind of like Viking last week, this one’s a Canadian comedy that becomes less funny in the second half. Where Viking went a little dark, though, Guitar Lessons delves deep into the characters’ flaws, and shows us how they try to fix themselves. There’s a deep lake of drama under the surface laughs. This film has things to say about fatherhood—biological and adoptive—addiction, growing up (for both teens and 50-year-olds), privilege and wealth, relationships, and life in oil country. It’s also beautifully filmed: meditative in its framing. There’s a long sequence of Ray cleaning, repairing, and polishing his old friend’s guitar, wordless. The shots of the countryside and the towns throughout are lovely, too.
I quite enjoyed it.
Tonight I showed / watched the movie Viking at the Evans.
Five astronauts have been sent to Mars. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Viking Society gathers five other people—their psychological profiles matched as closely as possible with the Martian astronauts—to try and head off any possible problems on the Red Planet.
But they’re only human, so naturally things go a bit wrong. Some take things a bit too seriously; others, not nearly seriously enough.
I thought the movie was pretty good. It was quite funny until suddenly it wasn’t funny at all anymore. I was amused at the acronym for the analog NASA (ASEA, the American Space Exploration Agency; people in the movie definitely were asea). I think the fact that most of the music reminded me of the soundtrack to the short film “They’re Made Out Of Meat” added to my amusement.
Once the turn from comedy to tragedy[1]Maybe “tragedy” is too strong a word; drama? happened, I was still locked in to the story. The scene near the end in the phone booth felt pretty raw to me.
Smile and say “astronaut”.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Maybe “tragedy” is too strong a word; drama? |
|---|
Last night we checked out the movie everyone’s been raving about: Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was a great film, hilarious and heart-rending, touching on complicated themes[1]I kept thinking about some of Borges’s “games with infinity” stories, especially when Joy was talking about her experiences with the multiverse.. I never thought I’d feel emotional watching a stone with googly eyes roll off a cliff, but here we are. If you’re looking for a film filled with love, despair, tax problems, kung fu, multiverse-hopping, and wild costuming, this is the one for you.
Then, standing in the lobby after the show, we decided to also watch Minions: The Rise of Gru. This was a much less complex film, but fun in its own way. I thought it might be a “How Gru Met His Minions” origin story, but they were already together at the beginning; it’s more of a “Gru’s First Crime” tale instead. If you want a silly caper filled with yellow nonsense-spouting blobs in denim overalls, this is the one for you. (I appreciated some of the sight gags: in one scene, three Minions construct elaborate disguise—including one painting itself like a brick wall—to infiltrate a villain’s lair, even though there’s a stack of blue-and-yellow bags of fertilizer lying on the lawn; in the end credits, there’s a drawing of the Minions’ Halloween costumes—Oompa Loompas.)
The connecting thread: Michelle Yeoh, who played Evelyn Wang (the main character) in Everything Everywhere All At Once and voiced Master Chow (who taught the Minions kung fu) in Minions: The Rise of Gru.
I enjoyed both movies for vastly different reasons. Good times.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | I kept thinking about some of Borges’s “games with infinity” stories, especially when Joy was talking about her experiences with the multiverse. |
|---|
I watched Top Gun: Toppest Gun[1]OK, fine, Top Gun: Maverick. last night. The movie, once it got going[2]It was 25 minutes late starting; at least three different people, myself included, went to ask when they planned to start the movie., was—
Well, it was a Top Gun movie, that’s for sure.
(For context, I was in Air Cadets as a youth in the 1980s, and so I was legally obligated to see Top Gun approximately 6.02×10²³ times.)
There was Tom Cruise flying planes worth quajillions of dollars. There was Tom Cruise charming a lady. There was Tom Cruise riding a motorbike with no helmet because that’s what heroes do. There was Tom Cruise, being brash and breaking all the rules. There was Tom Cruise grinning boyishly, endlessly. (“This is my only look,” indeed.)
Aside from Tom Cruise, there were other items in this movie. There was Val Kilmer in the Admiralty now. There was a shirtless game with balls (more oval this time). There was a smirking jerk pilot and an elite fighter pilot who needed glasses (wait what)[3]If they explained why his callsign was “Bob”, I missed it.[4]Also: as I mentioned, I was in Air Cadets in my youth. I applied to learn to be a glider pilot. Not a fighter pilot, a glider pilot. I was turned down because my glasses were too thick.. There was a very very tight timeline that they still interrupted for an important funeral. There was dogfight training and a barroom singalong and some very very handwaved geopolitics. There was a trench run with a target not much larger than a womp rat[5]Wait, that might be a different franchise with a sequel 30+ years in the making.. There was dogfighting—good thing they trained for it.
There were jet planes. Oh my word, there were jet planes. Some of them were fifth-generation, whatever that means; better than F‑18s in every way, apparently, though (spoiler alert) it sure didn’t end up seeming like it. There was a single, incredibly convenient F‑14.
There were tailhooks and catapults and missiles and chaff and “out of missiles, switching to guns”. There was a yellow-tinged montage of fighter jets departing a carrier to the dulcet tones of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone”.
I went into this movie with a bad attitude, I’ll admit it. Most of the mol of times I watched the first movie weren’t my choice; at Cadet camp, the first person to get to the staff lounge got to pick the movie for the night, and most everyone else wanted to watch Top Gun again[6]And again and again and again..
The movie delivered in a lot of ways. I can see where people and critics like it. The actors are all very very good, the bit of necessary exposition when we’re introduced to The New Crop of Top Guns is handled about as well as it could be[7]Exposition is always a tightrope between eye-rolling “as you know, Bob” dialogue vs. the audience later saying “OK, now who’s this person?”, and the stunts are breathtaking. I admit I laughed a few times (the “What were you thinking?” “You told me not to think!” “…Touché.” exchange was well-played, I thought).
I got what I expected. I got a Top Gun movie. I still don’t know if that’s what I wanted.
Cover photo by Darren Nunis on Unsplash. This is not one of the F‑18s in Top Gun.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | OK, fine, Top Gun: Maverick. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | It was 25 minutes late starting; at least three different people, myself included, went to ask when they planned to start the movie. |
| ↑3 | If they explained why his callsign was “Bob”, I missed it. |
| ↑4 | Also: as I mentioned, I was in Air Cadets in my youth. I applied to learn to be a glider pilot. Not a fighter pilot, a glider pilot. I was turned down because my glasses were too thick. |
| ↑5 | Wait, that might be a different franchise with a sequel 30+ years in the making. |
| ↑6 | And again and again and again. |
| ↑7 | Exposition is always a tightrope between eye-rolling “as you know, Bob” dialogue vs. the audience later saying “OK, now who’s this person?” |
Strong opinion time: The Wrong Trousers, whose chase scene is presented here, is the best heist movie ever made.
Last night my wife and I were contemplating going to the movies. She really wanted to see the cystic-fibrosis–related teen rom-com/drama Five Feet Apart, and I wanted to see the post–alien-invasion SF drama Captive State. So we compromised: she went to Five Feet Apart, and I went to Captive State.
Continue reading “Review: Captive State”