Rock wrote:

Porky's
Class
 

Pretty spot on with both.

Was never a big Porky's fan, and it seemed to me more in line with the more obnoxious fratboy sex comedies of the era (Hardbodies, Spring Break, etc.).

Jinnistan wrote:

As if David Lynch and Tim Burton gave birth to a love child at the Henenlotter Hospital where all of the doctors are Devo.

Very quotable: "Feelings are just filthy prayers", "nympholepsy", "Want to rub my snugglebucket?"

Final film for the great Fox Harris, who died prior to its release from lung cancer.  Which is unfortunate, considering the amount of gratuitous tobacco here.

9/10

If I can gesture you towards the less reputable corners of cinema, Stephen Sayadian's porn filmography is worth exploring. He might be an easier entrypoint for serious appreciation in that he seems pretty indifferent to the actual sexual activity, and prefers to use the structure of a porno for whatever aesthetic or structural games he has on his mind. Agency over female pleasure and voyeurism are recurring concerns ("I know you're watching me" is a line that popped up in all of his movies I've seen), but Dr. Caligari is perhaps the most forceful expression of those ideas, without the reprieve of periodic sex scenes to ease the assault.

Nightdreams is one of my favourites of the genre, and combines an almost Cronenbergian coldness with some pretty imaginatively conceived and aesthetically diverse scenarios. (At one point the heroine has sex with a box of Cream of Wheat while "Old Man River" plays on the soundtrack and a piece of toast plays on the saxophone.) He's actually only a screenwriter on this (alongside Jerry Stahl), but it was directed under the Rinse Dream pseudonym he later took on, and feels very much in line with his later films.

Cafe Flesh is the best known of his work and was a minor crossover hit on the midnight movie circuit. (I first heard of it when Heino mentioned it on RT.) There's a mix of really elaborate stage sequences and a cool dystopian atmosphere. Michelle Bauer plays the lead role, but a body double steps in for the more graphic scenes.

He did two sequels to Nightdreams. (I think there's a Cafe Flesh sequel as well, but he wasn't involved from my understanding.) I've only seen Nightdreams 3 (Nightdreams 2 I only found on a really degraded transfer). It's like a more explicit Dr. Caligari, and suffers by the comparison, although there's hints of an interesting chintzy video aesthetic. Of all the porn directors I've sampled, he's the one who best understands how to use the limitations of video to create a distinct aesthetic.

Party Doll A Go-Go! parts 1 and 2 I think develop that aesthetic a lot more thoroughly. There's barely any plot (in the second one, one of the girls can’t stop “the wiggle” and needs to be rescued with an emergency injection of “boy jerky”), preferring instead to montage through the proceedings in a way that seems to double back on itself, poking fun at the genre while developing its own infectiously kooky vibe. By virtue of the approach, this probably has the most great lines. “They’re overcome with retro wordplay…Us modern girls prefer synthetic future”.

Apparently he did a pair of western-themed pornos in the same vein, which were weird enough to get him fired from the production company who employed him at the time. I have sadly been unable to track these down.

I have reviews on Letterboxd for most of the above, but really I should direct you to the now defunct House of Self Indulgence blog, which has a lot of very entertaining writing on Sayadian's films, in prose that perhaps channels his work.

Last edited by Rock (7/17/2022 10:04 pm)

Someone must have thought that the problem with Ti West films is that they needed more camp.  And judging by the critical praise of his new film, I suppose that's what they wanted.  Cartoons and caricatures, an homage to Tobe Hooper but not even shot on film.  It suits a generation who confuse content for substance, karaoke for creativity, memes and tropes for human behavior in our simulation-obsessed culture.

It occurred to me while watching this that there was a shorter timespan between the Universal James Whale films and Young Frankenstein than there is between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and this, which really isn't a flattering comparison for the latter if it assumes to be taken seriously as a sincere genre exercise.  But the problem with camp is that it sacrifices sincerity outright.  And then what's left?  A lot of karaoke of better and more sincere movies.

5/10

Another disappointment, this time from Alex Garland.  But in many ways, much better executed than the generic plagiarism of X, this one more subtlely plagiarizes more obscure folk horror tropes, and does manage some striking sequences throughout as well as being anchored by a stronger more humane performance from Jessie Buckley.

The problem is that it simply isn't very well written, a problem already evident in the contrivance of its flaccid three letter title, which narrows and exhausts a lot of potential in what is much more fecund subject matter.  The recurring motif of the sheela na gig offers a great deal of murky mythic rumination, much more complex than reductions of patriarchy and religion.  But even within those structures, it feels that there's a lot of missed opportunities narratively and figuratively.  And a lot of those missed opportunities also come about because Harper (Buckley) is not very well-defined character, but rather a cypher, which Buckley does her best to emotionally develop, vaguely a victim of at least one manipulative relationship and therefore Woman-writ-large.  We see her react to a number of affronts, social and domestic, but we don't get a fair sense of her as an interior individual.  (Needless to say, we don't get that from any of the other characters either; everyone is playing non-people.)

We do get an admittedly rather audacious bit in the third act which is thrilling and disturbing and supplies a strikingly original vision to the proceedings, but then it's back to CS&N and dandelions and other faux-sensitive A24isms.  I may have to say, I think I might be over this A24 thing by now, tbh.

7/10

I see that talking shell movie is an A24 joint. Now that legitimately looks like one of the worst things I've ever seen.

Oh, the shell doesn't only talk, it also has shoes on.

Ya know, part of me thinks, hey, it's cute that A24 is willing to try its hand at a kids movie...

Following the end of his marriage, documentary filmmaker Dean moves into an Airbnb...

Oooh kay.  Maybe not kids movie then.  That does make it a little more insufferable.  Starting to look like a movie for affluent millennial naval-gazers who are, let's say, emotionally immature, childs at heart!

Alan, his pet ball of lint.

Hm-mm.

Marcel and Connie bond over their mutual love of 60 Minutes and Lesley Stahl.

Lesley Stahl....herself

Dean uploads his first video about Marcel to Youtube, where it quickly becomes a cultural phenomenon.

Who can't relate?!?  "Everybody's doing the Michigan Raaaag!"

The shells would take shelter in a sock drawer when the house's previous owners, Mark and Larissa, started knocking objects over while fighting.

Oh fucking Jesus

After one fight, Mark accidentally packs the shells into his suitcase while moving out, leaving Marcel and Connie as the only ones left on the property.

So this is the kind of kids movie that Where the Wild Things was supposed to be, for those adult children who still haven't healed from the trauma of growing up?

....overwhelmed to discover how large and vast the world outside his house really is. Realizing that the world is too big....

Marcel urges Dean and the crew to check in Mark's sock drawer, where the entire shell community is discovered. They reunite in the Airbnb with Marcel, who is able to give Connie a proper funeral. Dean moves into his new apartment and begins dating again. Reunited with his family, Marcel confides to Dean that he often finds himself going to the Laundry Room window alone, and feeling the wind blow through his shell. Marcel shows Dean the sound it produces, remarking on its beauty as he stares out the window.

  I see that it took four people to write this little movie.
 

It's probably not healthy how mad I was getting both times I saw the trailer ahead of screenings, but glad to know I'm not the only one who finds it revolting.

I'm extra annoyed that this will be easy to see in my city, including the big arthouse theatre. Meanwhile, RRR barely played here despite the city having a large South Asian population. Would love to meet the numbnuts programmers who thought the shell movie would get more people to your struggling arthouse than one of the most popular movies in the world right this year.

Yeah, I caught RRR on Netflix, which has it in a number of dubs (Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam) but not in its original language (Telugu). But the movie is chock full of big, bold imagery that would have been ideal to see in a theatre environment.

They Drive By Night

I guess what annoys me about their model is that you can get asses in seats with diverse programming. The closest I've seen to screenings being sold out outside of the festival was during those Shaw Brothers screenings. There's an audience for seeing movies from other cultures, provided that they're, you know, entertaining. Much more so than that stupid shell movie or the other crap they get that seems calculated for critical acclaim. I assume the powers that be would want to foster that kind of audience, but no, we have to go with the same boring ass crap their 100-year-old donors aren't scared off by.

All that being said, I did just order a festival package lol