RATS!

 

Rats! fits in perfectly with movies like Repo Man, Tapeheads or even Dude Where’s My Car? (judge all you want but that movie is funny). The basic plots are all similar on a surface level – an aimless stoner gets caught up in a plot involving guns, murder, nukes and/or bombs, aliens, the FBI or a close combination of everything in the case of Rats! After getting busted for tagging, a young punk/graffiti writer (“Raphael”) is used as a pawn by a crooked police officer to go undercover to try and bust his cousin who may be in possession of nukes. These nukes are just the tip of the iceberg as we’re exposed to one absurd semi-connected event after another.

On the most surface of levels, Rats! is the type of movie to be compared to the work of someone like Harmony Korine because of all the vulgarity, randomness, occult imagery and connections to death metal. But, the more you watch Rats! the more you’ll find it pulls from recognizable sources like Spielberg, DePalma, Tarantino and Lynch (at this point in time, what movie doesn’t).

Crrie / Jaws / Rats!

Reservoir Dogs / Rats!

Blue Velvet / Rats!

Un Chien Andalou / Blue Velvet / Rats!

I doubt Wild Style played a part in the development of this movie, but the graffiti element made me think Zoro and his tagging...

Wild Style / Rats!

If you’re looking for a contemporary comparison, this falls in line with the films of Joel Potrykuys (we cover Potrykus’ work a lot on this blog). The opening scene of Rats! Is very similar in tone to the opening scene of Potrykus’ Ape (both directors are also very reference-heavy so the connection makes even more sense). I doubt Rats! director Carl Fry is familiar with Potrykus but it’s interesting to me how both of their movies start with an aimless small town youth tagging up their town as a way to show rebellion.

 

Ape / Rats!

Rats! plays out like something made by the little brother of an old gen-xer. Someone who never actually saw a full episode of Pete & Pete or you can’t do that on television, but instead they heard about it from their older sibling and watched a couple of clips on youtube for context (based on everything I’ve said so far, it should come as no surprise that this movie relies heavily on nostalgia). Rats! is also the perfect movie to share with someone who loves to complain about things being too “woke”. The type of movie that disproves the whole; “you could NEVER make a movie like THIS today” or “everyone is SO easily offended”. At times you’ll find yourself questioning if this movie is completely satirical, completely offensive in a rebellious immature teenager kind of way, or a combination of the two. I’m still not completely sure but I do know that this movie is genuine and has heart. I’ll need to watch it a few more times but after my first viewing I can say I enjoyed it very much. I wouldn’t blindly recommend this to most people because there is a lot of gratuitous vulgarity and senseless violence. But if you don’t mind that kind of stuff and are looking for a surreal, fun and sometimes uncomfortable 79 minutes – this might something you’d enjoy.

A FEW MORE WORDS ON THE CINEMATIC INFLUENCES OF JOEL POTRYKUS

A tale straight from the bible...
Snow White /
Ape

I don’t mean for all of my writing on Joel Potrykus to be attached to other filmmakers, but given what my blog is partially about (visual comparisons & connections), it’s kind of difficult to not focus on that.
To be clear - references, similarities & homages aside, I’m a big fan of his work. His openness about his influences just makes my appreciation that more heightened. He made a comparison video of his own films himself (click here). 

...but I think I found a few more visual similarities (or I could be reaching).

Last month we touched on a handful of visual similarities between Portykus’s films and everyone from Haneke & Alan Clarke to Murnau & Linklater (click here to go to the article). After exploring all of his feature films and reading a handful of interviews, I came across a few more homages & visual connections that I wanted to highlight…

In my review of The Alchemist Cookbook I brought up his nods to Alan Clarke (click here).

It doesn’t take much to realize I lift the openings to all my films from Clarke’s MADE IN BRITAIN and Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES - Joel Potrykus, RapportoConfidenziale.com

But it appears that his love of Clarke extends a bit beyond opening scene of This Is Britain…

Elephant /
Buzzard

The Firm /
Buzzard

Road /
Buzzard

Road /
Ape

The way drug use & addiction are casually introduced in Potrykus’ early short film Coyote is similar to how Clarke handles the same subject matter in Christine… 

Christine / Coyote

This connection to Clarke led me to Harmony Korine who Potrykus has shouted in the past…

Gummo / Buzzard

Harmony Korine made it cool to use natural lighting - Joel Potrykus, RapportoConfidenziale.com

This connection makes sense as Korine is also an Alan Clarke Enthusiast…

If there is any British film maker that has influenced me, it’s Alan Clarke. For me he is the most important. He came out at a time in my life when I needed something like that - Harmony Korine, Vertigo Magazine

Rita, Sue& Bob Too /
Gummo

For me Clarke was the most important filmmaker. He made this movie ‘Christine’, which people don't really talk about much, which is one of my favorite movies - Harmony Korine, Vice

Christine / Gummo

That earlier comparison to Gummo is not much of a reach but Potrykus has made it clear that the spaghetti scene in Buzzard was a reference to Kubrick…

The Movie Mezzanine: In the pantheon of movie spaghetti-eating scenes, you easily knock Harmony Korine's Gummo off the throne. It's this rare moment of happiness for Marty. Was that all done in one take?

JP: That's another really important scene, which is originally lifted from A Clockwork Orange when towards the end, [Alex is] all cleaned up and he's taking a shower and wearing a robe and eating spaghetti. He's happy like he's at home, right before they poison his wine. That scene is really important because that's Marty in a foreign environment, the only time we see him clean, and he's wearing white instead of black, and he's eating essentially real food as opposed to, you know, Hot Pockets or Bugles.

A Clockwork Orange/
Buzzard

The idea of a struggling comic that develops a weird growth on his body in Ape appears to borrow from The Dark Backward… 

The Dark Backward /
Ape

The basic premise of the main character with growth forming on his body also reminded me of How To Get Ahead In Advertising which I came to find out was an influence on Potrykus as well…

I saw this one at a young age, and it warped my taste in the best way possible - Joel Potrykus, Criterion 

How To Get Ahead In Advertising /
Ape

We touched on this in my review of The Anarchist Cookbook last month, but there’s some early Linklater in Potrykus' films...

 

It's Impossible To Learn How To Plow... /Coyote

While his latest feature Relaxer is a loose remake of Luis Bunuel’s The Exterminating Angel (the basic idea of not being to leave a room in Exterminating Angel is morphed in to not getting off of a couch in Relaxer)...

The Exterminating Angel / Relaxer

...the final scene where the main character takes on the form of a Christ-like figure has the DNA of what feels Bunuel’s entire filmography…

The Milky Way / Relaxer

L’Age D’Or / Relaxer

Simon Of The Desert / Relaxer

I try to steal a lot from Bunuel - Joel Potrykus, Criterion.com

Un Chien Andalou / Buzzard

We also see shades of everyone from Brian DePalma to John Landis…

                                                                  The Fury / Relaxer

I just spent a whole summer watching, like, two-hundred movies. And in there was American Werewolf in London, and that kind of changed a lot of things for me. Seeing that kind of blend of horror and comedy, and [director John] Landis going whatever direction he wanted - Joel Potrykus, 366weirdmovies.com 

American Werewolf In London / Coyote

Before the year is over I'll be sharing my thoughts on Buzzard but until then I just wanted to share a few more words (and comparisons) on a filmmaker I've quickly come to admire.

ALWAYS SHINE

The greatest thing about Sophia Takal’s Always Shine is that she doesn’t try to hide her influences & inspirations. Takal’s film is, without a doubt, from the school of Bergman’s Persona in that it’s about mental illness and the loss of identity from the perspective of an actress/performer who essentially "cracks" due to pressure & stress (pretty much the premise of Persona on the most basic level). But to get from Persona to Always Shine there’s a few stops along the way in the form of Images & Three Women (Robert Altman), Sisters (Brian Depalma) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch), Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky) & The Clouds Of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas). There’s obviously a bunch of secondary films that could be mentioned (The Swimming Pool, Inland Empire, etc) but we’re just going to stick with these core films.

Persona / Always Shine

Persona / Always Shine

Images / Mulholland Drive / Always Shine

Mulholland Drive / The Clouds Of Sils Maria / Always Shine - all three films feature similar rehearsal scenes that blur the lines between fantasy & reality...

Mulholland Drive / Always Shine

...Brian De Palma and other influences, like Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman - all those directors are very astute observers of human behavior. ...Another [reference]: I saw the movie Black Swan. - Sophia Takal

And by pulling from so many great filmmakers, Takal ended up making a film that is all her own (it should be noted that she avoided the sexual tension angle that almost always comes along with these kinds of movies when you have two attractive leading ladies)...

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to. – Jim Jarmusch

There’s nothing more hilariously frustrating than when a filmmaker claims to be a hardcore cinephile/movie nerd yet when they get asked about an obvious homage or reference in one of their films, they suddenly get amnesia and/or don’t know classic films by people like Godard & Truffaut.

Take a guy like Quentin Tarantino for example. He always goes on about every rare movie he’s seen and how much he loves video stores and how much he loves to consume film. But when asked about The Bride Wore Black and it’s (obvious) influence on Kill Bill, he had this to say…

QT: Here’s the thing - I’ve never actually seen The Bride Wore Black.

Interviewer: Really?

QT: I know of it, but I’ve never seen it. Everyone is like, oh, this is really similar to The Bride Wore Black. I’ve heard of the movie. It's based on a Cornell Woolrich novel too, but it’s a movie I’ve never seen. The reason I’ve never seen it is because…I’ve just never been a huge Truffaut, fan. So that’s why I never got around to see it. I’m not rejecting it, I just never saw it. I’m a Godard fan, not a Truffaut fan. So I know of it, I know all that stuff, but it’s a movie I’ve never seen.

Interview: I thought of it because The Bride has that list of names she checks off.

QT: Oh, is that in there too?

For those that don’t know, both movies are about a woman seeking revenge on the people responsible for her husbands murder on their wedding day. Sound familiar?

The Bride Wore Black

Or how about Xavier Dolan who claims to have only seen 1 or 2 Godard movies…

Contempt / Heartbeats

Nicolas Winding Refn is always namedropping & bragging about all the movies he’s seen yet he claims to have never seen Bergman’s Persona…

Persona / Fear X (even I admit this one is a bit of a reach but I think you see what I'm getting at)

I obviously have no way of knowing who has seen what. Sometimes movies slip through the cracks. No one has the ability to see every movie ever made, but I always find it odd when lovers of film claim to have never seen certain specific classic/"important" movies.


Always Shine is the story of two friends/fellow actresses (“Beth” & “Anna”) on opposite ends of the career spectrum. Beth’s career is on the rise while Anna is still struggling to book commercials. Beth’s growing success makes Anna somewhat jealous especially since they both kind of look alike (Anna is clearly wondering what Beth has that she doesn’t considering how similar they look). The two friends go off for a weekend getaway where the tension between the two friends gets so thick that their relationship takes a turn for the worse…

Sophia Takal is a woman unlike Bergman, Lynch, Altman & co. I’m not saying men can't make great films about women (because they absolutely have), but who better than a (talented) woman in the film industry to make a film about being a woman in the film industry? Always Shine has layers to it because outside of the actual movie, it’s safe to assume that the actresses in the film have gone through the same auditions & rejections as the characters they portray.

While Always Shine may not break new ground in terms of plot, it’s execution is a breath of fresh air because we get a woman’s perspective on a film centered around women. Takal also manages to pull off a frightening & thrilling film without the use of monsters, ghosts and other typical supernatural elements & jump scares that one would expect these days.
Always Shine would make a hell of a triple feature with Persona & Mulholland Drive.

THE CINEMA OF DAVID GORDON GREEN TOLD THROUGH IMAGES & STILLS

While Terrence Malick is definitely the indirect influence for Green's early career, I still like to give direct credit to David Gordon Green and his debut feature George Washington for kicking off this new generation of southern-based poetic indie films. Green pretty much took the style that Malick reemerged with in 1998 (The Thin Red Line) and veered off in to a different lane. Clearly a young 26 year old director (like Green was at the time of GW's debut) wasn't the first to show a different side of the American south in the year 2000, but ever since the heavily Malick-influenced George Washington debuted, more & more films that were similar in tone & atmosphere began to emerge. You know - films like; Mud, Take Shelter, New Jerusalem, Ballast, Beasts Of The Southern Wild, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Undertow, As I Lay Dying, All The Real Girls, etc. You could even throw Upstream Color in to the mix given it's dreamy atmosphere along with director Shane Carruth's southern roots.

While I only really like some of the aforementioned works (Ballast, All The Real Girls & Upstream Color) and find the rest to be "ok" (Shotgun Stories), Overrated (Mud), very problematic (Beasts Of The Southern Wild & Ain't Them Bodies Saints) or just plain bad (Take Shelter), they all still show a more complex & poetic side of the American south that can be traced back to Green and his early work.

With recent stuff like Our Brand Is Crisis & The Sitter, some would say that David Gordon Green has moved on from "The New South", but his work on shows like Eastbound & Down & Vice Principals (along with semi-recent films like Joe) shows that his Southern roots are still intact...

MALE BONDING

David Gordon Green doesn't get enough credit for showing the sometimes sensitive side of men and their/our ability to bond with one another. Prior to stuff like Our Brand Is Crisis & The Sitter, almost every film he made dealt with friendships between males of various ages (All The Real Girls, Prince Avalanche, George Washington & Pineapple Express) or the bond between brothers (Undertow & Your Highness)...

George Washington

Joe

Prince Avalanche

Pineapple Express

Undertow

All The Real Girls

RECURRING SHOTS

The cinema of David Gordon Green wouldn't be what it is without these key shots & settings...

George Washington

Undertow

Your Highness

Joe

Prince Avalanche

Stronger

Stronger

Undertow

George Washington

All The Real Girls

Undertow

George Washington

Snow Angels

All The Real Girls

Undertow

Prince Avalanche

George Washington

Prince Avalanche

Snow Angels

Undertow

RECURRING SETTING: THE SOUTH

After a few personal conversations with various friends I came to the realization that north of D.C., the south has a bad reputation thanks in part to us Yankees up north (that's not to say that some southerners don't play in to some of the negative stereotypes, but still...). Over the years I've heard some pretty crazy generalizations about the south by people who have spent none to very little time there outside of Miami which almost doesn't even count. I'm not gonna sit here and try to say that the racism in the south isn't deeply rooted unlike any other place in this world. History clearly proves this. But at the same time, I spent five years living in Virginia (the home of the Confederacy's capital) and the most racist things that have ever happened to me in life so far have taken place in my ultra liberal P.C. hometown of Amherst Massachusetts, Milford Connecticut and New York City. I mean seriously, a lot of my friends question how things are in the south as if places like Boston or Howard Beach don't exist in the north.

Outside of the race issues, there's also the stereotype of southerners being dumb country bumpkins and Green's movies kind of debunk this to a certain extent. There's a slow simmering poetic ambiance to his movies (specifically his early shorts and his first three features).
Be honest - what cinematic world would you rather visit - the rude & busy world of NYC, the superficial world of L.A., or the relaxed slow moving world of the American south? It's understandable if some of you rational thinkers still picked NYC or L.A., but for those of you who always complain about being broke, anxious and/or depressed due to city life - you might wanna consider embracing the beauty that is southern hospitality.

All The Real Girls

All The Real Girls

All The Real Girls

George Washington

George Washington

George Washington

Joe

Joe

Joe

Undertow

Undertow

Undertow

INFLUENCES & VISUAL SIMILARITIES

David Gordon Green will probably be synonymous with Terrence Malick for the rest of his career (not only was George Washington considered an homage to Malick, but they also worked together on Undertow). But if you look a little deeper you'll see that his films have visual similarities to everyone from Takovsky & Dreyer to Charles Burnett & David Cronenberg.

Unlike other filmmakers who deny or don't acknowledge being influenced by obvious sources, David Gordon Green is always open about his love for Terrence Malick. On the commentary track for the George Washington DVD, he drops Malick's name numerous times.

And if I may be so bold to say, I feel like the post-2005 Terrence Malick was influenced by his unofficial "pupil" (Green) post-George Washington. I know that by saying Malick was influenced by David Gordon Green really means that Malick was actually just influenced by himself, but ever since he produced Undertow, he got the courage to go even deeper in to his own style. From The New World to Tree Of Life to To The Wonder, Malick's work has become more daring & experimental.

The Thin Red Line / George Washington

Killer Of Sheep / George Washington

Buffalo 66 / All The Real Girls

eXistenZ / Pineapple Express

Blowout / Vice Principals

Taxi Driver / Vice Principals

Do The Right Thing/ Vice Principals

Ordet / Undertow

STEPPING OUTSIDE OF THE COMFORT ZONE...

With the exception of Pineapple Express I'm not a fan of Green's recent/post-southern films (with the exception of Prince Avalanche). But these entries are designed to look at a director's entire career so here you go...

Our Brand Is Crisis

The Sitter

Your Highness

Pineapple Express

Manglehorn

UNEXPECTED MOMENTS OF VIOLENCE

Green's cinematic universe is often tame & meditative then out of nowhere he surprises us with an explosive bar fight (Joe), a gunshot blast (Snow Angels), a murder/accidental death (George Washington & Undertow), or, most recently, a literal explosion (Stronger)...

George Washington

a random fight breaks out in Joe

the Boston bombing in Stronger

All The Real Girls

Undertow

Snow Angels

Pineapple Express

SINGLE PARENT HOMES

I'm not sure if this is intentional but since day one (Physical Pinball), the family units in Green's cinematic universe are often run by one parent. And they aren't the typical single mom homes either. Films like Physical Pinball & Undertow show that while they are in the minority, men are also capable of raising families on their own which is something you don't see on the big screen too often (and when you do, the men/fathers are often clueless idiots about raising children)

Physical Pinball

Snow Angels

Undertow

All The Real Girls

these single parent homes sometimes bring about tension within the family...

FAMILY/FAMILY TENSION

From dead parents & custody battles to unresolved sibling rivalry, the families in Green's films could use some therapy as far as I'm concerned...

George Washington

Snow Angels

Undertow

Undertow

Your Highness

YOUNG PEOPLE/CHILDREN

Green's films are quietly energetic mostly in part to his young actors...

George Washington

Physical Pinball

All The Real Girls

Undertow

Manglehorn

Snow Angels

Pineapple Express

The Sitter

YOUNG LOVE

Young love is awkward. It fills you up with that fun kind of anxiety that you hate & love at the same time. You can't fully be yourself and you say the most random things. There are some moments in All The Real Girls that seem a bit forced. Random lines like; I had a dream that you grew a garden on a trampoline, and I was so happy that I invented peanut butter or moments between Schneider & Deschanel where they stammer & stutter nervously in each other's presence but when you think about it we've all said random & embarrassing things or have been nervous & anxious around someone we're in love with or have feelings for.

All The Real Girls

George Washington

Snow Angels

Undertow