Lo-budget, hi-concept sci-fi - FREQUENCIES, COHERENCE

We're 1/4 a ways already into the New Year, with the Summer Movie Season about to get underway and already having had one big sci-fi spectacle - JUPITER ASCENDING - take a big pratfall during the Season of Dogs that is the movie season at the beginning of the year. JUPITER had money and talent behind it, lots of visual flair to make the fanboys pee their pants, and a script/story that didn't match the spectacle meant to prop it up. So it tanked - hard - and once again, the death knell for big budget sci-fi starts to toll.

What is it about big ideas that studio-backed science-fiction simply cannot get? We're years past the whole 'sci-fi is for kids' mindset that made Irwin Allen a fortune in the 60's, but Stanley Kubrick appears to be the only filmmaker to successfully work on that level. Christopher Nolan certainly gives it a grand effort (INCEPTION and INTERSTELLAR; and I'll even count Wally Pfister's Nolan-clonish TRANSCENDENCE), but just cannot stick the landing satisfactorily. Everyone else is chasing a franchise or doing requels of things that should be better left alone.

Whereas on the smaller level, sci-fi appears to get a fairer shake; there's as much cheese found as the usual studio product, but you'll also find the rare gem amongst the turds - movies like PRIMER, SLEEP DEALER, EUROPA REPORT, to name a very few. 2014 had two films of note that garnered great word of mouth on the film festival circuit and which are now available via VOD or physical media.

 

Now showing on the Showtime cable networks, Darren Paul Fisher's FREQUENCIES (AKA OXV: THE MANUAL) was a festival darling for most of 2013/14, gathering good reviews from critics and audiences alike. Set in an alternate world/time which is not quite here and not quite now; it's a universe where human beings have what is called 'frequency' - if one has a high frequency, then one would be considered 'lucky' - things will always go right for that person. If one has a low frequency, then everything will work against that person.

In this world, a person with ultra-high frequency would never meet a person with ultra-low frequency - but in a school, classmates Marie and Zak, high and low, are able to do that for exactly one minute before their environment attempts to correct that flaw in nature. For years, both continue the experiment until school is finished and they both go their separate ways. A little later, Zak and Marie run into each other again and Zak claims to be able to change his frequency. That claim and its results will eventually lead to events that change Everything...

FREQUENCIES is very clever, smart lo-key science-fiction that also plays as a clever romantic comedy - the world building is very well done, eschewing gadgetry and concentrating on the people and relationships.

Special-edition discs (Blu and DVD) are available directly from the filmmaker, although the Blu-Rays seem to go quickly, being non-region; the DVD is non-region, but PAL, so one should have an all-region player, if getting the DVD. It's packed with features including a commentary, behind the scenes feature, outtakes and deleted scene, cast auditions and director Q&A. Probably expect an R1 release in both formats later in the year.

FREQUENCIES - TRAILER from Darren Paul Fisher on Vimeo.

Also a festival darling for 2013/14 is James Ward Byrkit's ensemble drama COHERENCE, which also got rave reviews from critics and audiences who saw it. What starts off as a dirnner party among friends turns into something quite else due to the presence of a comet passing by the Earth. That's probably all you should know going into the movie; most of the fun is from the various turns that the story takes and the less you know beforehand, the better.

This is Byrkit's first feature, though he's no novice - he's contributed to the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series and credited with the story for RANGO, among other work on that film. He does an excellent job with his cast, which includes Nicholas Brendan (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, CRIMINAL MINDS) and Elizabeth Gracen (HIGHLANDER: THE RAVEN).

Oscilloscope Pictures releases the movie on DVD (no R1 Blu-Ray as of yet), with an informative commentary with Byrkit and making of featurette - and this is one picture that you will be watching multiple times.

Here's an interview with Byrkit I did for 366 Weird Movies.

Recent viewing: Inherent Vice, Brewster McCloud, The Babadook

As mentioned earlier, some accounting of recent media viewing...

The first reviews are a motherfucker...

INHERENT VICE

By now, most of the critical reaction to Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel has turned out decidedly mixed and disappointing box office turnout has making the analogy that this is PTA's "1941" [Steven 'Bulletproof' Spielberg's infamous Bete Noire of 1979 which pulled him from the top of the heap until RAIDERS]. Which might be overstating things slightly, but you really have to wonder if most of these people have even heard of Thomas Pynchon or even put any thought into what an adaptation of his work would even be by a director whose love of subverting expectations is pretty much his established style?

That said, it's no big surprise that this adaptation - a pretty faithful adaptation of the novel - would probably not go over well with the general audience, despite what seems to be a can't miss setup... a stoner-noir of hippie private-eye 'Doc' Sportello (Jocquin Phoenix) who gets pulled into a mystery by an ex(?)-girlfriend, Shasta (Katherine Waterston) whom he still carries a torch for and which leads him into other mysteries which all seem tied into one BIG conspiracy/mystery with many players, most who work with him/against him depending on whatever situation he turns up in.

This sounds like a hoot, like THE BIG LEBOWSKI - which is basically Pynchon-Lite appropriated by the Coen Brothers which had Jeff Bridges as a clueless stoner who gets caught up in a neo-noirish mystery and which turned into a beloved cult film. Unfortunately, most didn't seem to take to INHERENT's languorous approach to plot or character and seemed to be pissed off that the movie wasn't anything like LEBOWSKI.

Not to jump on anyone for not liking INHERENT VICE - after all, it is based on a Pynchon novel and anyone who's read him knows that straightforward plotting is not what draws one to Pynchon - but what was surprising, to me at least, was the hardcore dissing of the film by people who profess to love the work of Robert Altman. [Residing near Kansas City, MO, those connected to film are very quick to invoke the name of Altman, especially when it also involves his successful work, like M*A*S*H]. Watching VICE put me in mind of another misunderstood film that also got little respect and box office at the time of its release, but is now regarded as a classic - THE LONG GOODBYE, directed by Saint Altman.

INHERENT VICE isn't as audience friendly as THE BIG LEBOWSKI was; and nowhere near as concerned with plot trajectory -- it's not the destination that's important, it's the journey and the characters met along the way. And maybe more of the public will be more appreciative in 20 years - when Everyone will LOVE the film.

Fuck Da Haters, Dude

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BREWSTER McCLOUD

Speaking of Altman... those aforementioned acolytes that like to invoke the holy name apparently don't feel the same of invoking the work which doesn't fall under the 'Success' banner, which with Altman seems to be missing the entire point - my guess is that they'd felt the same about BREWSTER McCLOUD at the time of its release as they felt about INHERENT VICE now. Of course 40 years later, they're bound to look at BREWSTER with some fondness.

BREWSTER is best described as an Altman fantasy, the first before delving into later works like IMAGES, 3 WOMEN and QUINTET. Basically pulling one element from a script by Doran William Cannon (SKIDOO) - the idea of a boy building a set of wings to fly - the script was tossed out by  Altman, and the story reworked by Altman and writer Brian McKay and during production, much was improvised constantly. That the resulting film makes any sort of coherent sense at all is a testament to the talent of everyone involved because it does seem to be the sort of film whose charm is mainly due to the death-defying act of not collapsing into chaos, but always being on just the verge of doing so.

Altman manages to keep the absurdities aflitter around that central concept - set in Houston, our title character (Bud Cort) secretly lives in the Astrodome while working on a set of wings for human flight. At the same time, Houston is plagued by a series of random stranglings, which bring hotshot San Francisco detective, Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy) to town. Amongst those two plot tentpoles are a variety of characters: Stacey Keach as a miserly landlord of rest homes, Sally Kellerman as Brewster's guardian (fallen?) angel; and in her debut, Shelley Duvall as a Astrodome tour guide who gets involved with Brewster. There are also a lot of allusions to birds throughout - pay close attention to names of places and license plates, as well as Rene Aborjonois as a lecturer on birds who acts as a chorus. Micheal Murphy's character is a parody of Steve McQueen in BULLITT and there is also sequence that parodies the famous car chase.

It may not be for everyone, but for those in the mood for a bit of whimsy from the late 60's/early 70's, it'll fit the bill nicely. Available on Burn-On-Demand DVD from Warner Home Archive.

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THE BABADOOK

Jennifer Kent's feature has been hailed as one of the best horror films of the year, and I get in line with the rest to back up that statement, although calling it a 'horror' film somewhat marginalizes it - by rights, Kent and her two main actors should also be amongst the list of nominees for awards, but such is life.

One of the  refreshing things about the film is the situation that sets the events in motion - the relationship of a grieving single mother and her problematic son, which is a change from the usual gang of idiots waiting to be killed, or some lame franchise creation. The two main influences of the film are REPULSION and THE SHINING, as well as the feel of a Grimm Fairy Tale come to life. Also refreshing is the level of ambiguity that Kent allows in the story; audiences nowadays are not huge fans of ambiguity, as witness by some of the pushback on the film, calling it 'not scary'. If you're expecting the usual jump scares and blood, yeah, it certainly ain't in that league -- THE BABADOOK isn't 'thrill ride horror', it's meant to be The Real Thing.

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This weekend has two good film events scheduled: in Lawrence, KS, there's the Free State Winterfest, Friday & Saturday Jan 30 -31 which will screen THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL and GONE DOGGY GONE,

And in North Kansas City, The Panic Film Festival returns to the Screenland Armour Fri-Sun. Jan 30 - Feb. 1 for an eclectic selection of horror and sci-fi films, as well as special guests and events. Films of note are LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S 'THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU', WOLFCOP, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, DARK WAS THE NIGHT, STAR TREK II - THE WRATH OF KHAN, HEAVY METAL, among others.

GUILTY... OF BEING WHITE! SESSION ONE - MANDINGO

... and it's a life sentence.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Court is now in session...

We present the first exhibit in evidence... MANDINGO.

 

   It's kinda like shooting fish in a barrel to lead this series off with this title, which is far more notorious than seen, at this point. Shawn Edwards, a critic in Kansas City had this as part of his 'Soul Cinema' series at the Mainstreet Alamo Drafthouse, and it tied in perfectly with my intent - unfortunately, weather scrubbed my trip into seeing this bigscreen (and an actual film print), so out came the DVD copy for another look. 

  Quite a bit has already been written about the film, which has undergone a push towards critical rediscovery and reappraisal (among the first being Dennis Cozzalio of SERGIO LEONE AND THE INFIELD FLY RULE, and NOT COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU). Although the perception of the film, as lurid, trashy button-pushing melodrama that embarrassed everyone involved is not too far off the mark, the fact is that MANDINGO was a big hit for the studio and Dino DeLaurentiis at the time of its release. Critical reception to the film was very bad in the U.S. (it fared better with critics overseas), which caused the studio to have issues with it after it was made. There was no embarrassment on the part of the filmmakers, who took the subject very seriously.

  Yes, the movie IS trashy melodrama, like the book that it's based on... there's no way around that. But the reason why the book became such a sensation (spawning ghost-written sequels, and an unsuccessful adaptation on Broadway) was that amidst all the melodrama and the sex, there was also the presence of what I term, "the stink of Truth". The intent of the author, Kyle Onstatt, might have indeed been to just write a trashy novel, but he was born at a time (1887 - MANDINGO was published when he was in his 70's!) when slavery's end was just a generation behind, but direct survivors were still around... and a good portion of the most outrageous behavior depicted has indeed been verified by accounts.

  Even by the 70's, depiction of that time in the Black American experience was pretty limited on-screen, at least in America - foreign producers did finance the first hard looks at that period, and you may well notice the name of MANDINGO's producer...  but this was, for an American studio, really the first time to tackle such a subject as a major motion picture. And for most of the audience, to see depicted explicitly the punishment of slaves, black children used as furniture, the slaveowner sleeping with his female slaves, was probably just too much to take, except as seen through the eyes of 'camp'. Of course, the bit that EVERYONE remembers who watches the movie is the coupling of slave owner wife Susan George with Ken Norton's title character.

   But past all the luridness and sexual hijinks depicted (which were actually toned down for the film, believe it or not), is the hypocrisy that is present at the core of slavery, which the movie does confront unflinchingly; and that may be the real reason why this film gets under the skin of so many - there's no sentimental look at the Old South present here, only the goings on of what can happen when one group of people treat another group like property.

  Olive Films finally released MANDINGO on DVD a few years ago, remastered but with no additional material for context... for that, you can refer to Paul Talbot's MONDO MANDINGO, a thorough look at the entire world of MANDINGO, from book to movie - and for a more direct comparison of book to film, blogger Greg Bunche took the plunge, scrounged up a copy of the book and tackled the bastard like a man.

Ruling: GUILTY!!

  

Happy 2013

OK, it's been awhile. I'm quite aware. Things have settled down, and we're back on the horse again. We'll start out with a project that I started to do sometime ago - but as things worked out, it's probably good that I procrastinated.

Court will be in session this week... you've just been served.

A LOST Thought...

Obviously, I've invested a lot of time in this show to stick it out to the bitter end... but I wonder -

Has it ever occurred to anyone since midway through the first season, that instead of scattering around like roaches every time something happens, if anyone on the show actually took like, 2 minutes to actually LISTEN to someone else, or ask questions, or even THINK about what they're doing, a lot of the drama would be avoided, or cut back considerably?

I'm sure there's a lesson there...