Oh yeah, OK, put in some col_mx work in today.
#1 Wake In Fright
You all couldn't of have reached out and let me know what was about to happen in the second half? Couldn't let your dear fellow Filmspotter from the desert KNOW?
I mean, I loved this at the top, you could see the Lynchian (though this basically predates him, that's my reference point for bonkers absurdism) hell hole he was getting trapped in. The coin flipping game was giving me a heart attack, and I was just watching on my couch, but the sinking feeling I go when I know he was to lose everything and any hopes, plans, or optimism for his holiday vacation was done. And when he gets there, he just says f it and takes drinks from anyone and gets involved in some of the most cruel, sketchy, and ridiculous forms of activities. To this point, I'm loving the technicolor, the fill of color does wonders on the vast desert and dusty almost wild west looking place "The Yabba". I appreciated that it is a film that has its protagonist questioning his sanity and reality without the psychoanalysis, the world just isn't the world as he knows it. Even with how good I think Gary Bond is as John Grant, or how this feels like a more lo-fi surreal, bananas bender, I can't watch it again, and I'd only recommend it guardedly, and this is where we get back into having messages before or after films justifying atrocities therewithin.
Bottom line, the kangaroo hunt might be the worst animal cruelty I've seen caught on tape. I almost turned it off. I was pissed the rest of the film. I read up on it and saw that this expedition with licensed hunters was going to happen anyway, so it wasn't a hunt FOR the film (though one can question, with the crew there, would these hunters have acted as savagely? Maybe they would've been more savage.) But we're talking kangaroos crawling around with their intenstines being pulled out, among other awfulness the crew saw. It was so bad, the crew faked a power outage to end the hunt prematurely. Not just that, but then the film had to go the extra mile and show the guys slitting kangaroo's throats up close. No, this would not necessarily bother if it were fake using practical effects, but by this time I've seen so much true life carnage, I didn't have it in me for even a fake hand-to-hand killing. When this film finally got put together completely, it was screened at Cannes, where 12 people walked out. Now, the animal welfare group who encouraged including the carnage in the film thought it would be a way to teach people about how heinous these hunting sprees can be. So where do I actually sit on it? I'm gonna take a revised Touki Bouki stance. I gave that 3.5, but I'll never watch it again for the animal slaughters being performed, no matter the point, and it really should be like a 2 or 2.5. Same with Wake in Fright, I think there's some great stuff going on, the film is a fascinating exposure of toxic masculinity and, to be sure, just a bit down on people in general, but it's well-shot, gets you disoriented, and even at the end where
Grant just tried to end it and fully recovered, that was nuts. And, I mean, I've never been more intensely interested in a flip of a coin. The theatre of the bizarre, but I can't watch that kangaroo slaughter ever again.
#2 mid90s
Just a cool ass movie about growing up in the mid 90s, trying to find an identity when your brother is emotionally unavailable and is passing his trauma onto you, mom is a little off her game, and you just don't know what makes you you. In fact, there's all sorts of trauma and skeletons in these kids' closet, so they find skateboarding as the equalizer, somewhere they can go to be themselves. You got a pretty cool 90's hip-hop soundtrack with a lot of Wu, even a Gravediggaz (RZA's OTHER group) track, but also some Morrissey, inexplicably, as Ray was helping Stevie get through his shit with his brother and they skated down that big street at night. There are elements to my adolescence in several of these characters, though I don't want to make this some sort of weird autobiography. Just a lot of connections to it.
I even knew four kids who lost their lives in a drunk driving crash, around the ages of the kids in this show. A LOT of connections. I love the obvious "full screen" ratio, the cinematography is not to be messed with, they capture these big skate meetings showing the energy, the socialization, and even the empathy between skaters and the down and out in the community. Hill and his crew knew where to scan and pan, where to stop and linger to catch a moment in the midst of many moments worth being caught. I just really liked the vibe. There are some strong homophobic slurs used, especially by a young boy with a particularly tough, abusive home situation, a word that was used a lot back then, and it was tough on my ears. It was real, though, and while hearing grown men throw that around like pretty much has me turning off the program, kids coming of age get cut some slack from me, especially since the real mentor figure to the group, Ray, was holding it down for them, being that rock, and not feeding into the hate. I loved watching him take care of Stevie, almost like a guardian angel type thing. There's certainly more than a little nostalgia at play as I saw this work, but long as you know what it is, you can savor it from time to time. I'm the guy who keeps the family photos and other memorabilia, anyway, I love memories, looking back, even when it's hard. Watching mid90's was kind of like that for me.
A little more early morning movie rants, but I felt like getting a little more colloquial today after some of the more serious conversations we've been having, and I've been enjoying a lot.
I purchased Akira, so should be able to get that in before the month's done.
