I joined the guys over at the 26 movies from hell podcast to talk non-vampire VAMPIRE films. Specifically Bill Gunn's Ganja & Hess and Abel Ferrara's The Addiction.
Click here or the image above to go to the episode.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Monday, November 23, 2020
ZEBRAS IN AMERICA EPISODE #140: CHARLES BURNETT
Charles Burnett was kind enough to chat with Scott & I about 30 years of To Sleep With Anger, spirituality, legacy, Los Angeles and more (click here or the image above to go to the episode)
WRONG REEL EPISODE #525 – 25th Anniversary Double Feature: Casino & Heat
In case you missed it, Rob Cotto & I joined James on Wrong Rell to chat about the 25th anniversary of both Heat & Casino (click here or the image above to go to the episode).
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
THE SCHOOL OF PERSONA PART ELEVEN
Here's the latest entry in my ongoing exploration into the visual similarities shared between Bergman's Persona and countless other films.
Enjoy...
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| Persona / Ex Machina |
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| Persona / Come and See |
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| Persona /The Skin I Live In |
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| Persona / Portrait Of A Lady On Fire |
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| Persona / The Truman Show |
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| Persona /Oldboy |
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| Persona /Oldboy |
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| Persona / Single White Female |
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| Persona / Bad Blood |
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| Persona /Minnie & Moskowitz |
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| Persona /Images |
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| Persona / Images |
Friday, October 16, 2020
THE SCHOOL OF TARKOVSKY PART 26: THE ENCHANTED DESNA
Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan’s Childhood and Yuliya Solnsteva's The Enchanted Desna have some basic similarities in terms plot. Both films deal with Soviet History under the umbrella of war through the eyes of young children for the most part (both Tarkovsky & Solnsteva play with the idea of time, flashbacks & memory as well).
But it’s the imagery of both films that really ties them together.
Solnsteva already had a rich & long history in Soviet cinema long before Tarkovsky was even born (she’s mostly known as an actress for her lead role in Aelita: Queen Of Mars)...
Aelita: Queen Of Mars
And I can’t make a blog entry like this without mentioning Aelita’s strong influence on Fritz Lang’s Metropolis...
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| Aelita: Queen Of Mars / Metropolis |
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| Aelita: Queen Of Mars / Metropolis |
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| Aelita: Queen Of Mars / Metropolis |
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| Aelita: Queen Of Mars / Metropolis |
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| Aelita: Queen Of Mars / Metropolis |
But just because a filmmaker has been established for decades doesn’t mean they're above influence from the younger generation. Even visually. As you’ll see below, there are way too many specific examples (both major & minor) of visual similarities between both films that would lead me to believe she was subconsciously influenced by Tarkovsky’s feature debut.
I think the examples below back my theory. Enjoy...
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
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| Ivan's Childhood / The Enchanted Desna |
It also should be noted that Tarkovsky was influenced by the films of Solnsteva’s husband (Alexander Dovzhenko) which makes for an interesting additional connection....
The opening to Dovzhenko's Ivan seemed to have rubbed off on the opening sequence of Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev...
Ivan / Andrei Rublev
Thursday, October 1, 2020
FAUNA: TIFF 2020 HIGHLIGHT #5
After praising this movie on twitter and on the pink smoke, I came to the realization that I may have built up everyone’s expectations. I do stand by my overall assessment that outside of the basic plot, Fauna has touches of everyone & everything from early Amat Escalante & Jim Jarmusch, to Soderbergh’s Schizopolis & pinches of Lucrecia Martel. I’d even go so far as to compare Fauna to Yorgos Lanthimos’ underseen debut; Kinetta as both movies have the same dry low-energy/deadpan-ish atmosphere.
There’s even a brief moment that felt like an homage to a scene in Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise where we get a shady exchange/hand-off...
Stranger Than Paradise /
Fauna
Nicolas Pereda even goes so far as to make the actors in Fauna wear intentionally bad wigs just like Soderbergh did in his film...
Schizopolis / Fauna
Schizopolis / Fauna
But don’t expect the outward silliness of Schizopolis or the creepy surreality of The Untamed (Escalante) or Zama (Martel). If anything, it’s like the banal & “boring” parts from all the aforementioned films mixed in to one subtle movie mixtape. Considering what the film is “about”, I think director Nicolas Pereda made an intentionally boring film to throw the audience off. Every synopsis about Fauna on the internet focuses on Perada’s commentary about drug trafficking & drug culture and it’s negative effect on Mexico (recent stuff like Sicario, Narcos, etc).
When the average person thinks of those things they probably imagine coke deals, shootouts, throat-slitting etc. Fauna has absolutely none of that. Actually, Nicolas Pereda’s criticism of the romanticization of Mexican drug culture doesn’t even come in to play until the last 30 minutes and the film is only 70-something minutes to begin with (there is a brief moment early on in the film where he addresses a Narcos-like show but you don’t even realize the importance of that moment until the very end).
I appreciate Nicolas Pereda essentially trolling audiences (in the most mature way one can troll) who are/were expecting scenes of Uzis & AK-47s or drug kingpins surrounded by cocaine bags and instead he gives us an almost Chantal Akerman-esque story of two sibling going off to the Mexican countryside to visit their parents (while there are some outright criticisms of the romanticization of drug culture on Mexico, the bulk of the film is an intentionally “boring” and somewhat awkward family reunion).
Fauna is most certainly an acquired taste. It feels like the equivalent of going to see a traditional stand-up comedian but getting Neil Hamburger or Andy Kaufman instead. If you like Hamburger or Kaufman then great! If you don’t, you’ll probably walk out 15 minutes in to the show.
When the average person thinks of those things they probably imagine coke deals, shootouts, throat-slitting etc. Fauna has absolutely none of that. Actually, Nicolas Pereda’s criticism of the romanticization of Mexican drug culture doesn’t even come in to play until the last 30 minutes and the film is only 70-something minutes to begin with (there is a brief moment early on in the film where he addresses a Narcos-like show but you don’t even realize the importance of that moment until the very end).
I appreciate Nicolas Pereda essentially trolling audiences (in the most mature way one can troll) who are/were expecting scenes of Uzis & AK-47s or drug kingpins surrounded by cocaine bags and instead he gives us an almost Chantal Akerman-esque story of two sibling going off to the Mexican countryside to visit their parents (while there are some outright criticisms of the romanticization of drug culture on Mexico, the bulk of the film is an intentionally “boring” and somewhat awkward family reunion).
Fauna is most certainly an acquired taste. It feels like the equivalent of going to see a traditional stand-up comedian but getting Neil Hamburger or Andy Kaufman instead. If you like Hamburger or Kaufman then great! If you don’t, you’ll probably walk out 15 minutes in to the show.
Friday, September 25, 2020
WITH DAD
Soren Sorensen’s With Dad is a film that gives me hope when it comes to the positive exploration between fathers & sons on the big screen. In this short documentary, Sorensen chronicles Massachusetts photographer Stephen DiRado’s handling of his father Gene’s 20 year journey and eventual passing from Alzheimer’s disease. Doing what he knows best, DiRado photographs his father over the years. These pictures eventually became a photo journal called "With Dad" (the photography is obviously a key visual element in the documentary making it more of a collaboration between Sorensen & DiRado). The idea of a video camera (Sorensen) documenting someone doing their own form of visual documentation (DiRado) comes off like a slightly less chaotic, although equally “enjoyable”, version of William Greaves’ Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (a documentary about the documentation of the making of a film). The difference between these two films is that With Dad has one less layer than Greaves’ film.
As someone form (western) Massachusetts (with a lot of Massachusetts pride) who looked up to their father, you can imagine how much a film like this speaks to me. There’s even a section in the documentary that focuses on DiRado’s father’s renal failure which became a little extra personal as I’ve had a kidney transplant myself, and my father essentially passed away from complications due to renal failure.
I don’t deny that my fascination & enjoyment of this film is bias. There are too many personal factors in the movie that make it impossible to not be. Simply put - I’m this film’s target audience (as a native of Massachusetts I also noticed & loved the Papa Gino’s shoutout towards the end). So perhaps that clears up why this review, to some degree, has kind of been about me and my own personal feelings so far. My father encouraged my artistic side much like Gene did with his son. Stephen's photography comes off as an extension of his father's own artistic side (Gene DiRado was a cartoonist for publications like the Boston Globe).
In addition to something like Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Sorensen’s latest Film has a subconscious connection to Errol Morris’ B-Side as both films follow Massachusetts-bred photographers (DiRado & Elsa Dorfman) and their relationships with their respective families (both subjects even photograph their family using similar cameras)
With Dad / The B-Side
With Dad is currently doing the festival circuit (it recently won various rewards at festivals in Houston & Rhode Island) and exploring various streaming options for the future. I urge anyone who enjoys any of the aforementioned films & filmmakers mentioned in this piece to seek it out once it becomes available.
You can catch screenings of My Dad at these upcoming festivals:
GlobeDocs October 1-12filmfest.bostonglobe.com
Chagrin Documentary Film Festival October 6-11chagrinfilmfest.org
Black Bear Film Festival October 16-18blackbearfilmfestival.squarespace.com
Mystic Film Festival October 22-25mysticfilmfestival.com
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