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Re: Recently Seen
Rock wrote:
It's been interesting to see some of the spin on this era from younger critics who may not have been born when they came out (not that that would have been necessary.) I think that your review is spot-on in its neo-blaxploitation vibe, although I think Black Caesar may be the more apt comparison than Superfly, and I think that citing King of New York in comparison is legit. Of the films in its wake, I would recommend the deep cuts like Deep Cover and The Glass Shield.
More contentiously, I saw an article a few months ago that was calling out Boyz in the Hood and Menace 2 Society, arguably two of the most critically acclaimed of the early 90s black crime films, as propaganda for what would become the '94 crime bill, so-called perpetuation of the myths of black community dysfunction, fatherlessness, predatory behavior, etc. It makes me wonder if any of them have seen these films or are just going off of their reputation of scary-looking posters, because clearly the depth of character in each of them complicates such a depiction. To me, it seems almost like an effort to - excuse the phrase - whitewash the real problems in these specific (economic more than ethnic) communities and the very real criminal predations that these communities had to endure. I liken it to another recent effort to relabel "gangs" as the more positive-sounding "street fraternities" as a means of rehabilitating their image of exploiting youth for profit and power.
Maybe it's the Scarface connection, but it's been interesting that New Jack City has escaped such retrofitting even if it's essentially a similar morality tale. Because it's a bit more glamourous, if not glamourizing, a bit more cool on its surface than the more stark and bleak latter films, it gets a pass for not airing its community's dirty laundry.
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Re: Recently Seen
It's been interesting to see some of the spin on this era from younger critics who may not have been born when they came out (not that that would have been necessary.) I think that your review is spot-on in its neo-blaxploitation vibe, although I think Black Caesar may be the more apt comparison than Superfly, and I think that citing King of New York in comparison is legit. Of the films in its wake, I would recommend the deep cuts like Deep Cover and The Glass Shield.
More contentiously, I saw an article a few months ago that was calling out Boyz in the Hood and Menace 2 Society, arguably two of the most critically acclaimed of the early 90s black crime films, as propaganda for what would become the '94 crime bill, so-called perpetuation of the myths of black community dysfunction, fatherlessness, predatory behavior, etc. It makes me wonder if any of them have seen these films or are just going off of their reputation of scary-looking posters, because clearly the depth of character in each of them complicates such a depiction. To me, it seems almost like an effort to - excuse the phrase - whitewash the real problems in these specific (economic more than ethnic) communities and the very real criminal predations that these communities had to endure. I liken it to another recent effort to relabel "gangs" as the more positive-sounding "street fraternities" as a means of rehabilitating their image of exploiting youth for profit and power.
Maybe it's the Scarface connection, but it's been interesting that New Jack City has escaped such retrofitting even if it's essentially a similar morality tale. Because it's a bit more glamourous, if not glamourizing, a bit more cool on its surface than the more stark and bleak latter films, it gets a pass for not airing its community's dirty laundry.
I've had Deep Cover on my radar for quite some time. I know Criterion put out a release a few years ago, but I keep hoping it'll hit one of my streaming services. I see The Glass Shield is by Charles Burnett, and To Sleep With Anger was one of my better first-time watches last year, so I'm interested to check this out. Also, I think Ice Cube can be a pretty good actor in the right role.
I have not read the article you're referring to, but it seems idiotic that these movies that shed light on a world previously underexposed in mainstream cinema (and happened to be very good to boot) are now being criticized in a misguided social-justice-aligned argument for not lining up neatly to whatever agenda the author has in mind. I feel like I've seen Colors cited similarly, and while Hopper obviously doesn't bring an inside perspective to the material, I think the compassion and anti-establishment sensibility that he brings to the movie make it hold up pretty nicely. I think a lot of these writers just don't know how to read movies.
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Re: Recently Seen
The return of David Cronenberg to his "body horror" milieu is a menagerie of his classic themes, the dual corporeal/carnal disgust/arousal (Shivers, Dead Ringers), the intersection of flesh and technology (The Fly, Videodrome), the taboo of the intoxication of trauma (Crash, Naked Lunch), body modification as a desperate form of mortal control (The Brood, eXistence), the opposite of pleasure is not pain but numbness (pretty much all of the above). "Surgery is the new Sex" has everything you'd want a new Cronenberg film to promise.
Does it work? In some ways better than others. The film flirts with some issues of environmentalism and evolution that are not fully fleshed out, and made more complicated by an almost completely incoherent government plot which isn't so much a spoiler than a tease. Unlike Videodrome, the self-consuming obscurity of these aspects of the plot don't have the symmetrical paranoia to justify keeping it obscure. It just feels half-sketched, tacked on, an excuse-of-a-vehicle on which to carry its other themes. And ultimately, the themes are more like familar Cronenberg touchstones than explorations, like a self-homage, without the resolution of his earlier, better work.
Where it succeeds is where you'd hope and expect, which is its graphic imagination. The film is dank and dark, the technology is classically garish and gothic. Howard Shore provides another evocative soundtrack. Viggo Mortensen looks like Darkman for some reason. And Lea Seydoux, an excellent Cronenberg muse, seems to be channeling the occult soul of Marjorie Cameron's Scarlet Woman, decadence and indulgence, invoking the refinement of flesh. Maybe the problem with the film is that it's ultimately too secular, not indulging enough in its mysterious and sinister spiritualism. But then, it probably wouldn't quite be a Cronenberg film, ever the clinical doctor he is.
7.5/10
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Thread Starter- Jinnistan
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Re: Recently Seen
I thought that chair was pretty funny.
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Thread Starter- Rock
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Re: Recently Seen
On your last point, I mentioned this before, but I was once at a Q&A with him after a showing of The Brood. To be honest, he seemed pretty bored and far less articulate than he's been in most interviews I've seen with him (this was part of a retrospective and I think he was doing a lot of these in a short amount of time), but he seemed especially annoyed when the host, a religious scholar, offered a half baked religious read of his movies.
I did walk within five feet of him when I gunned it to the bathroom after, though.
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Re: Recently Seen
And I think your middle paragraph hits the nail on the head about my muted reaction to the movie. I rewatched Scanners later that day, and there's a movie that MOVES. Just relentless forward momentum. Crimes feels meandering in comparison. Not entirely a bad thing (it's not entirely unpleasant to hang out with D. Cron and friends), but keeps it in a tier below his best.
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Re: Recently Seen
My 4th of July viewing. I admit. I laughed a little. A few times. A couple more than I should have. The situational humor is better than the dialogue, which is lazy enough to have been written by a meme-generator.
6/10
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Thread Starter- Jinnistan
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Re: Recently Seen
I did walk within five feet of him when I gunned it to the bathroom after, though.
Well, you don't want to follow whatever he's dropping, do you?
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Thread Starter- Rock
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Re: Recently Seen
He did not go to the bathroom.
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- Jinnistan
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Re: Recently Seen
He did not go to the bathroom.
You think he's one of those guys who can never go to the bathroom outside of the home?
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Thread Starter- Rock
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Re: Recently Seen
He did not go to the bathroom.
You think he's one of those guys who can never go to the bathroom outside of the home?
Maybe he used the VIP (read: accessible) bathroom. I didn't stick around long enough to find out.
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Re: Recently Seen
Maybe they let him use the staff bathroom. Who knows, JJ.
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Re: Recently Seen
Maybe he's incontinent.
We will never know.
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Re: Recently Seen
One more thing about Crimes: I don't know if it was intentional, but Don McKellar bore a distracting resemblance to Jordan Peterson.
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Re: Recently Seen
One more thing about Crimes: I don't know if it was intentional, but Don McKellar bore a distracting resemblance to Jordan Peterson.
I did notice that. Hard to imagine that it would be intentional, but who knows.
And this isn't to make fun of Canadians, but Peterson's voice usually gets compared to Kermit for being a bit high and whiny. For me, it gives me more of a Norman Bates' mother feel. Then I think of Jordan wearing a wig and a dress and attacking promiscuous young women, and it then feels way too on the nose.
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