This isn’t exactly movie-related but my experience at the Boards of Canada Inferno listening party was quite cinematic…
I enjoyed the album very much. I’ve had the chance to digest it a few times already as best as anyone can digest a decent quality phone recording of something (I recorded the audio in full for myself for the drive home afterwards and I won’t be sharing or distributing it).
What I found most interesting about this latest album is a handful of songs did not sound like Boards Of Canada at first. But after a few bars or 20-30 seconds in - a particular chord would play or a vocal sample would get dropped and it immedietly sounded like them. I liked that. They sound new while still retaining their signature sound (one song in particular sounded like a reworking of Aquarius). It should also be noted that the majority of Inferno was somewhere between mid 70-mid 80 bpm.
One signature sound/quality that was not present for me was nostalgia. Anyone familiar with BoC knows that nostalgia is often associated with their sound but I did not feel that. Everything felt current and present. Throughout the listening there was a flaming hexagon collage projected for everyone to see which sort of felt like a basic statement of “we’re are in hell together”. While it’s still very difficult to disassociate the imagery from the event with the sounds of the album - certain aspects of Inferno felt more cold, blue and icey than they did hot, red and hell-ish.
Not to sound too cynical and cliche, but as an American - the world does feel very troublesome right now (to me at least). BoC has mentioned real life events like 9/11 influencing the vibe of Geogaddi (2002) so this wouldn’t be the first time that the current state of the world dictated the sound of their music
There is definitely a light shoegaze quality to some of this album. If I’m not mistaken, BoC has name-dropped My Bloody Valentine in the past as an influence. Inferno might be the first clear/non-arguable example of this (I also hear elements of Silver Apples, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins). But if anything - it sounds like they drew influence from the sounds of their last album.
Inferno feels like the perfect response to BoC’s last album in terms mixing, “sharpness” and the overall vibe. If Tomorrow’s Harness was a warning of things to come - Inferno is just a confirmation that we’re living in the world the brothers predicted for us in 2013.l (if anyone listens to El-P, Tomorrow’s Harvest going in to Inferno feels like the perfect parallel to Fantastic Damage going in to I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead).
I had a fun time. There was a great sense of community. I met a couple of Reddit, IG and Discord folks in person and had some cool conversations. I’m looking forward to listening to a good quality version in less than a week!
Make sure to check out my Boards of Canada scratch videos and be on the look out for a very special BoC mix I have planned dropping very soon…
Upgrade is one of those movies that’s totally fine but you’d think it was my favorite movie based on how I talk about it and defend it all the time. I know that doesn’t make complete sense but that’s the only way I can describe it. This is the true definition of a comfort film. There’s nothing original about the story but the execution is just right. I think media consumption is suffering because a lot of people have this expectation that a movie has to be an instant classic before the final credits role. If the impact isn't felt immediately then the movie is treated like a disposable piece of nothing. Sometimes it's ok for a movie to be fun/entertaining and grow on folks over time. This has been relationship with Upgrade. I never get tired of watching it. Imagine the basic plot of Robocop with a few tweaks, more “bisexual lighting” and a fraction of the budget.
In the film, Logan Marshall Green plays "Grey Trace" - a recently widowed and disabled auto-mechanic that agrees to be the guinea pig for a controversial procedure, “STEM”, that will allow him to walk again. As the movie unfolds we learn that Trace’s paralyzation, STEM and the death of his wife are all connected.
The Robocop comparisons are super obvious but Upgrade director Leigh Whannell made a point to mention the similarities himself...
Robocop / Upgrade
With Upgrade, there's certainly a nostalgia there associated with '80s sci-fi films that I grew up with, like Robocop - Leigh Whannell, Vulture
Robocop / Upgrade
Besides the basic premise of a man turned in to a half human/half robotic killing machine, there are some very specific moments/beats between the two films that go beyond basic nostalgic influence.
Robocop / Upgrade
Some of the key similar moments between Robocop and Upgrade are even shot the same…
Robocop / Upgrade
Upgrade was also understandably compared to Venom as both movies were released the same year, each focusing on characters losing control of their bodies to some sort of outside/alien force (it should also be mentioned that Logan Marshall Green and Tom Hardy kind of look alike).
Upgrade / Venom
The movies that inspired me are the movies that I always loved. Films like the original Terminator, which is one of my favorite films. RoboCop, The Thing - Leigh Whannell, thenerdstemplar.com
Terminator / Upgrade
The Thing / Upgrade
I'm always a little apprehensive to compare anything to David Cronenberg. The older I get the more I'm finding that a lot of people don't exactly understand his films and/or his ideologies, but...Whannell does mention him as a major inspiration. Outside of the basic "gore" element, there is a very surface-level Cronenberg quality to certain aspects of Upgrade...
Cronenberg is a seminal filmmaker for me. I love the topics he covers: this messy world of the body. He finds the human body horrific, and all of his stuff gets tossed into the soup of my subconcious. Videodome, eXistenz, movies like that are there, and being able to draw on those influences is great. Usually, when I'm writing, what I do is I go, "OK, so you've got this sort of Cronenberg/Terminator thing going on. What are you gonna do with it?" - Leigh Whannell, Birthdeathmovies.com
Videodrome / Upgrade
Videodrome / Upgrade
eXistenZ / Upgrade
And I know almost every movie can be connected to Stanley Kubrick in some way, but as Upgrade unfolds, "Stem" starts to act just like Hal from 2001...
2001... / Upgrade
The subject matter of Upgrade was certainly prescient given the rise of artificial intelligence everywhere (it seems like so much of what we read and deal with online and in academia has become a hybrid of the human element mixed with AI). All the elements for a great essay on the parallels between Upgrade and modern AI are there. I’m more interested in this film on an entertainment level. It’s just a fun action sci-fi story with a great droany score. It has to be noted that the music for Upgrade is great and works as a standalone entity. Jed Palmer’s score would mix in perfectly between early 90s Autechre and modern-day Brian Eno.
My only complaint is that there wasn’t a part two. I know it can get tiring having to deal with non-stop sequels and “cinematic universes”, but in the case of Upgrade it makes sense. Not to spoil the film too much but the final moments of Upgrade end on a sort of cliffhanger. Sure not everything needs a sequel and you could use your imagination to think up your own Upgrade cinematic universe, but I wanted to see it for real. *SPOILER* - the movie ends with STEM taking over Trace’s body and turning him in to the villain. At the same time - the police officer that’s tasked with trying to stop Trace/STEM is left paralyzed/immobile and in the perfect position to have a similar STEM-like procedure done to her in order to track down the new rogue STEM/Trace). While Upgrade didn’t break any box office numbers, it still made a $14 million dollar profit off of a $3 million dollar budget and gained a small but dedicated cult fanbase. On one hand, I know Blumhouse has bigger priorities but I can’t imagine it would have been that much of a gamble to make a sequel.
Perhaps Upgrade should have been a direct-to-video release from the start. This way we would have definitely got a sequel like all the Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White DTV films that maintain a dedicated fanbase.
This is hardly a masterpiece but it remains one of my most revisited films of the last decade.
My relationship with Dragged Across Concrete doesn’t fall under the category of like or dislike. For me it's an interesting mess with good and bad qualities. This is one of those movies where I allowed the opinions of others to really cloud my own personal judgement before I actually saw it. The first time I saw this I expected to see a movie about two white nationalist police officers sharing racist jokes for two hours but that wasn’t the case. Outside of a few specific moments, this movie wasn’t the major racist cop slop that some folks tried to make it out to be. ...It was only minor-level racist cop slop.
This is a gritty crime drama centered around two shady cops. While it's nowhere near as good, Dragged Across Concrete falls under the same category as something like The French Connection. The difference between a movie like this and something like The French Connection is that Dragged Across Concrete really emphasizes the idea of bystanders filming police (voyeurism of police is a huge part of this movie). I appreciate a good gritty cop drama with the protagonists in positions where they’re supposed to be the good guys when in fact they’re the bad guys. Folks love using descriptors like “complex” and “complicated” to describe shitty characters now more than ever but I’m not doing that. Some characters are just bad. Police dramas like Narc, Copland, Prince Of The City and more fall perfectly in to this category I'm talking about. Dragged Across Concrete may not be as good as those other films I’ve named but it still deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation.
And for those of you questioning my inclusion of Copland in to this category - just imagine the number of times Sylvester Stallone’s Freddy Heflin ignored blatant low/mid level corruption or police brutality. Again - I think Copland is very good but you’re being naive if you think Stallone’s character is this pure-hearted police officer that’s better than his peers.
I think some viewers still haven’t grasped that just because someone is the main character in a film that it doesn’t mean we have to root for them. There are backstories behind both cops in Dragged Across Concrete that might make someone feel sympathy for them. I don't. And that's ok. I still find the movie to be somewhat interesting.
Anyway… some of the qualities about Dragged Across Concrete that most folks called “bad” are what I liked about it. The film was criticized for it's long runtime, the deadpan delivery, the chemistry between the actors and the long stretches of time where nothing really happens. The movie was also heavily criticized for its own brand of social commentary and overall worldview that might be considered right wing or even alt-right. But we'll get in to that shortly.
I completely understand why a boring film would be an issue for some but I like boring movies as long as there’s an interesting payoff at some point. Director S. Craig Zahler is known for his extreme violence and explosive finales. So for all the “boring” stakeout scenes of Mel Gibson & Vince Vaughn just sitting in a car, I knew there would be some kind of explosive finale. There’s a sort of Americanized Bresson-ian quality about Zahler’s last two films that I enjoy (stunted emotions, dry deliveries, human reactions that don’t match the situations around them, etc).
I also like actors stepping out of their comfort zone. Much like Dragged Across Concrete’s predecessor, this is Vince Vaughn doing something slightly different. He’s played dislikable characters and straight up villains in the past, but it was always Vince Vaughn being some iteration of himself. That’s not meant to be an insult as plenty of actors have made great careers out of playing slight variations of the same person. But films like Brawl In Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete show that Vaughn has some range outside of snarky wise-ass.
I haven’t been able to enjoy anything Mel Gibson has done in a long time for personal reasons but this is an exception. Possibly the only exception. I don’t expect anyone to share my personal views but there are just some factual things we all know about Mel Gibson that I don’t like and I just don’t want to engage with his work anymore. And to be honest, has he done anything good or interesting in the last 20+ years outside of Dragged Across Concrete? As long as I don’t try to rally the troops to get people to agree with me or use what little online platforms I have to slander him, I can quietly just not watch anything Mel Gibson is in without it being an issue. I also don’t retroactively dislike anything he’s done in the past that I enjoyed. I still love Mad Max, Lethal Weapon and more. I just don’t like the guy or the majority of his work today. Outside of what I’m writing right now, I dislike him quietly. More folks should try that.
The pairing of two specific actors like Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn in a movie like Dragged Across Concrete during the Trump-era is certainly a choice. I want to preface this by saying that anyone can cast whoever they want in their movie. Gibson and Vaughn work well together. But somebody somewhere behind the making of this movie had to be conscious of the type of pre-judgement this movie was going to receive by pairing up someone like Gibson with an open Trump supporter like Vaughn in a movie surrounded with and clouded by Maga-ism. I don’t think it’s all the movie’s fault. Filmmakers can’t always control their fanbase. I'm sure Martin Scorsese didn't envision frat boys hanging up posters of Travis Bickle on their wall. I doubt Stanley Kubrick thought people would think of Alex as "cool". But when S. Craig Zahler is buddied up with and co-owns publications like Rebeller, its not out of line to question if his movies do have some kind of a right wing agenda. To be clear - that doesn’t mean Zahler’s art should be suppressed or stopped. He just shouldn’t act so disingenuously confused when he’s associated with “right wing” art and politics.
Most internet searches on Zahler, his films or Rebeller bring up articles like these first:
As for Mel Gibson - I don’t think anyone completely knows all of his personal political beliefs (despite who he aligns himself with these days), but we do know some of his views on a few specific groups of people that place him outside of any liberal/left/“woke” category which kind of automatically gets you labeled “right wing”.
This image is formatted like a meme (I found it on the internet) but if you haven't seen Brawl On Cell Block 99, I assure you this is direct dialogue lifted from the movie (it's from a different scene than the one from the image above). When I see stuff like this it makes me wonder who actually finds this funny or witty. Not so much because it's low-hanging fruit racism either. It's just not funny from a comedic standpoint.
S. Craig Zahler takes this conveniently neutral position on issues like race, politics and social issues. He’s too smart to be this naive. Like I eluded to earlier, I think it’s disingenuous. He certainly doesn’t owe anyone an explanation on his personal views even if they don’t align with mine or yours. But when all of his movies have the same potentially controversial or problematic themes about race and social issues, it shouldn’t be considered out of line when he’s asked certain questions about not only his films but his personal views. I guess it depends on who is doing the interview or who is doing the critique on his work. It is my opinion that anyone with extreme views on either end of the spectrum shouldn’t be taken too seriously and need to stay away from critiquing art. On one hand, I can see how an uninformed Joe Rogan listener with limited political knowledge that blindly loves Donald Trump and the occasional racist joke thinks that Zahler makes movies for him or her. But I can also see how an emotionally unstable modern-day left-leaning person that makes everything about personal identity politics would allow themselves to get worked up over certain aspects within Brawl In Cell Block 99 or Dragged Across Concrete.
Personally, I think Zahler probably has more right-leaning views in his personal life. But as an artist I really don’t think that he makes movies with hardcore maga dorks or sensitive theater kids in mind.
And let me be clear, I’ve never aligned myself with anything politically “right”, but modern-day liberals and left-leaning folks can sometimes be pretty racist and bigoted in their own unique way but it never gets called out the same way racism on the right does. But that’s another conversation for another time. Modern-day liberal/left-leaning/diehard democrats are so far gone these days that I, a Black person, was called “right wing” for being critical of One Battle After Another on a podcast because I called out the problematic handling of race and Black women specifically.
Anyway...
S. Craig Zahler was already criticized for his presumed social, racial and political views prior to Dragged Across Concrete.Bone Tomahawk and Brawl In Cell Block 99 don’t exactly have scenes or scenarios that cast people of color in the best light (he’s not obligated to make people of color out to look good either). One could say the same thing about the white characters in his films but it is clear in his filmmaking that we’re sort of supposed to be on their side or at least have some of sympathy for them even with all their colorful views on Latinos and Black people.
I think the reason why Zahler gets criticized more than Tarantino for his handling of race is because he’s more blunt and realistically cynical. Tarantino is far more goofy with his n-word bullshit. He also masks it by showing off his knowledge of Blaxploitation films and uses his friendships with Rza and Samuel L. Jackson to shield himself from any genuine criticism. It just feels more real when the characters in Zahler’s movies make an off color remark about Mexicans or Black people. I truly believe that if Mel Gibson hadn’t been cast in this and two very specific lines of dialogue concerning Black people and Mexicans were removed, Dragged Across Concrete would have been treated a little differently. On the surface it is a pretty tame story. Two police officers are suspended for six weeks without pay after being caught on film using excessive force towards a (Latino) drug dealer. The problem is they’re both in need of immediate money for personal reasons and can’t go six weeks without their paychecks. After being tipped off about a planned bank heist, our suspended cops go rogue in an attempt to intercept the money. Naturally things go wrong and everyone has to try and clean up the mess left by the botched robbery.
While Gibson and Vaughn are certainly the main characters in Dragged Across Concrete, it’s the film’s supporting Black characters that end up being the most fascinating. Part of me thinks Zahler did this on purpose as a way to silence and/or challenge his critics that label him as a racist or a bigot. I kind of wish he didn’t do this because it doesn’t feel totally genuine. Addressing critics in such a direct way feels cheap. And just because you make a Black character the “winner” in the end doesn’t make you not racist. You really can’t win. The final scene feels like Zahler looking directly in to the camera at left-leaning critics and going “See? The Black guy lives in the end. What now???”
This is an interesting film that’s been tainted by the maga dorks and the liberal theater kids I mentioned earlier. But if you have any type of nuance or appreciation for imperfect cinema with a few good qualities, this can bring about some interesting dialogue.
