The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “Angst (1983)”

So it’s the day after the night before. All over Iceland, everyone is waking up to a new dawn, a dawn where everything looks the same but the reality has altered irrevocably. Yes yesterday was election day and in a pique of nostalgia and sheer pigheadedness, enough Icelanders voted in the same clowns who right royally fucked Iceland over a few years back. Oh man, we’re going to have some very interesting years head of us!

So it’s perhaps understandable if everyone got a little hammered last night in order to take away the pain. But even so, things are going to be a little gloomy. and to help with that gloominess, this week’s edition of the Sunday Cult Film Corner, is a deeply disturbing and unpleasant film about a man’s decent into murderous insanity. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you ANGST!

Directed in 1983 by Gerald Kargl, Angst opens with a man being released from prison after serving 4 years for killing an elderly woman. But very quickly he feels the urge to hurt and kill people, almost immediately attempting to kill a female taxi driver. However he is unsuccessful and he flees the scene. He then comes across a secluded home where a family live alone. He then take out his murderous obsessions on all of them, while his inner monologue tell of his abusive childhood. And that’s it.

Loosely based on an actual crime case-in 1980 Werner Kniesek from Salzburg horrendously murdered three people, and little known, even in Germany, ANGST is a deeply disturbing and nihilistic film that’s tough going for you to watch at times. Sparse and  minimal in its narrative, there is hardly any dialogue spoken by the actors with most of the lines coming in the form of the killers inner thoughts. The film also lays everything out in the open, with no attempts to explain or sympathise the killer’s actions or intentions (It’s likely that the killer is unsure himself). It all just unfolds before your eyes as something bad that just happens with no underlying rationale. There’s no clean-cut ruthlessness or high-end gilding the lily imagery going on here. Everything is portrayed in ultra-realistic bleakness that shows the messy reality that comes from killing people, The murder scenes are extremely unpleasant, drawn out and violent, with a visceralness that would make you think of the murder scenes from Dario Argento. But whereas those scenes were highly sexualized and fetishsized, in ANGST, they are, ugly nasty little affairs that aren’t remotely cool or sexy.

But despite the high levels of violence, ANGST is a very well made film, with an astonishingly high level of skill in the cinematography. Standout scenes include the long opening take as the killer is released from prison which mixes fast moving, irregular camera angles, and the scene in the cafe where the camera focuses close up on the killer’s face as he starts to bug out from the thought that people are watching him. The power in this scene is also down to the acting of Erwin Leder as the killers. Despite uttering almost no dialogue, he gives a very physical, very real performance of a man who is exlpoding in 10 different directions at once that completely goes against the grain of you average cinema serial killer. Whereas those characters are portrayed as hyper intelligent, charming evil geniuses who can quote Shakespeare, Leder’s character can barely keep it together in normal society and comes across like a stunted freak.He cannot control his compulsions and comes across more like a wild animal instead of a sadistic mastermind.

The film has strong parallels with other psycho thrillers such as “Seul Contre Tous,” (Director Gasper Noe cites ANGST as a major influence) and “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” But if anything this film is even darker, more unflinching and nihilistic that those, and probably shares its darkness more closely with another German horror film “Schramm,” directed by L’enfant terrible film maker Jörg Buttgereit.

ANGST is a film that will make you a little queasy, but as a documentation of the true natures of madness and violence, it certainly doesn’t come harder and nastier than this. Best get that whisky on the go.

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner; “O Lucky Man! (1973)”

 

Ahh – the day of rest and instead I’m writing a whole load of stuff to satisfy the whims and urges of the expectant readership of the local paper, as well as trying to sort out all sorts of wheeling and dealings. PLus – Babies! Yup I spent today also at the latest addition to the AMFJ cult, little Esja Mae Fulton Aðalsteinnsdóttir. She looks cute, but also pink and wrinkly, like all lovely newborns. I expect her be a full on black metal Valkyrie by the time she’s 8 years old.

So now that I have finally found some time to rest and eat burgers, it’s time to reminisce of the event of the week, namely that the Ice Queen of the free market Margaret Thatcher has popped her clogs. Good riddance I say. And the event since her passing has only helped to reinforce the notion that while there may be a lot of thins that are fucked up in Iceland, my homeland seems to be slowly slipping into an ugly mire of greed and nastiness.

I was hoping to find a couple of films with regard to the impacts of Thatcherism, such as “How To Get Ahead In Advertising,” or Ken Loach’s “Riff Raff.” But instead I’M going towards a film made in the 1970s and charts the state of a man journey through a corrupt and Byzantine UK society. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you O LUCKY MAN!

Directed in 1973 by Lindsey Anderson, it star Malcolm McDowell as Michael, a young sale trainee for a coffee company. Ambitious and with a grasping desire to get to the top of the career ladder, he accepts the chance to sell coffee in the North East. While on his travels, the film unravels into a sprawling odyssey of the varied strata of the British political class system and the inherent corruption within. On his way he encounters a gentlemen’s sex club, is a victim of torture by British military intelligence, submits to bizarre medical tests at a private clinic, encounters a travelling rock band and their alluring groupie (played by Helen Mirren), works for her corrupt industrialist father, and ends up in jail after being framed for selling weapons to African dictators. All the while the films shift to the film’s “House Band,” (Led by the Animals, Alan Price) who, acting almost like a Greek chorus, play songs warning Michael that he must abandon his idealism if he is to succeed in this world.

O LUCKY MAN! is not your conventional satire. Inspired by Voltarie’s novel “Candide,” the erratic plot is far from linear and will often take left turns or move into dead ends before a new twist arrives to keep you on your toes. Many of the scenes have a slightly episodic nature that are often separated by fade to blacks, or musical interludes from the house band. Such a narrative gives the film a decidedly surreal air to the proceedings and often invites multiple viewing which reveals different aspects of the film. While watching this film, it actually struck me that in any ways it’s actually a Grant Morrison comic transferred to film. The idea of exposing the brutality and violence imposed by the state on the people is often explored by Morrison. Meanwhile scenes such as the torture session interrupted by the tea lady can be seen in THE INVISIBLES, and the very meta ending of the film and the breaking of the fourth wall of storytelling has been explored in Morrison run of ANIMAL MAN.

Despite the bawdy nature of the film, the comedy and the messages contained in the film are very black and biting, showing through allegory the rather ugly face of life in Britain and the corrupting nature of capitalism. Many of the characters in the film act out of their own selfish self interest, from police officers threatening to frame people for crimes they knew the didn’t commit, to governments keeping its interest abroad by dealing with 3rd world dictators.

At the heart of the film is the attack on the idealism of the main character Michael. It´s best to see O LUCKY MAN! as the middle section of a trilogy of films from Anderson that started with “If….,” and ending with “Britannia Hospital.” While “If…” showed the McDowell character as full of carefree abandon and idealism that was apparent in the ’60, O LUCKY MAN see the same person now a bit older, still clinging to the ideals, but thinking more and smiling less. His innocence is gradually eroded as the film progresses as he realises that he may not actually be in control of his own destiny. By the time you reach “Britannia Hospital,” the idealism has been replaced by a toxic cynicism which was all to prevalent in the ’80s.

O LUCKY MAN! is the type of intriguing, inventive film that doesn’t really get made these days. It’s messages and ideas are densely layered and interconnected and requires you to think, it´s cult appeal apparent form the fact that you get something new out of it every time you watch it. So get your coffee on the go and watch this viciously surreal flight of fancy. (The entire playlist is HERE)

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)”

Man today has been booooring! Lots of looking at boring figures and stats for something that i have to put together this week. Oh, and there’s that endless stream of transcribing interviews and  lots of other flotsam. Oh indeed a glamorous life it is for us all.

It’s at times like these that you need, in the words of the infamous Alex from A Clockwork Orange, a bit of the old Ultraviolence. 

And if it´s Ultraviolence we need then there’s only one film that can satisfy our urges to kill and win. And that is the subject of the latest instalment of THE SUNDAY CULT FILM CORNER. And…. ooh boy… this one is a doozy! Ladies and gentlement i give to you, ‘RIKI-OH:THE STORY OF RICKY’

The story of Ricky is rather simple in the year 2001, all prison have been privatised. Ricky Ho (Fan Siu-wong), is sent to prison for 10 years after killing a local crime lord responsible for the death of his girlfriend. While in prisons he is confronted by the violence and brutality that is the reality of the system now in place. Vowing to clean up the system he must confront and defeat the vicious gang of four and increasing nasty and outlandish gang leaders, as well as the evil Assistant Warden, who becomes hell-bent on killing Ricky. It leads to a massive showdown between the two men.

Now there are Kung Movies. then there are violent kung fu movies. then there is RIKI-OH!!! People don’t just get punched  - they get massive holes punched in their guts, head explode, guts get torn and used as weapons (?). The violence here is not just brutal, it’s so over the top that it end up being really hilarious, as people have mentioned, it’s in the realm of the early Peter Jackson movies ‘Braindead’ and ‘Bad Taste.’

And at the heart of it all is Riki-Oh. Now this is not a Bruce Lee type of Kung Fu fighter.  Oh he has skill and strength, but the amount of pain he endures to defeat his opponents borders on the truly masochistic. Not only does he  get the shit kicked out of him, he get spikes driven through his body, has massive stone slabs hurled at him and at one point managed to gain the movement in his arm by tying his tendons back together (I’m pretty sure that’s not a technique advocated by the General Medical Council)! the man is pretty much a walking punchbag where you end up going “Just how much fucking punishment can this guy take?”

In many ways all this ultraviolence is just as well as the low budget means that some of the effects are cheesy, bordering on the imbecilic. Rubber heads, bargain supermarket offal, that sort of thing. Technically the film is also a bit on the shabby side. The sets are shaky and the acting and dubbing is all pretty horrendous. Also there are a few moments that are ripped off from other films such as the skull punch x-ray moment from Sonny Cihba’s ‘The Street Fighter.’

But in terms of cheesy, over the top b-movie violence and action, this is hard to beat. So practice channelling your Chi and your 5 finger death punch and get watching some the most outlandish chop socky marital arts nonsense around!

 

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “Peeping Tom (1960)”

Well hello there!

Things have been really slow today, possibly due to the amount of alcohol imbibed at the annual end of year party by the company that Mrs Sex Farm works for. As well as having the delights of ’90s pop masters Sálin Hans Jóns Mins performing to the slightly drunken crowd, we also had the delights of the voice of conformity, JÓN JÓNSSON play his stuff as well. All the booze in the world couldn’t help me. Gave ti a good try though.

So tonight I’m a little fuzzy, which is the perfect state to watch and take in a superior piece of nasty psycho-sexual horror that ended up destroying the career of the man who made it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you PEEPING TOM.

Directed in 1960 by Michael Powell it tells the story of Mark, a lonely, sexually repressed man who works for a film crew and as a part-time soft core pornographer. Mark is obsessed with the idea of fear, and it manifest itself on the faces of those who are frightened  this obsession and how it affects people, this obsession stemming from being subjected to traumatic psychological experiments as a child by his father. As he obsessions grow, he starts to kill  women, recording the fear on their faces as he kills them.

At the time of making PEEPING TOM, Michael Powell was considered on of the best UK directors of his time, directing films such as ‘Black Narcissus,’ ‘A Matter of Life and Death,’ and ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.’ But when this film was released, it pretty much killed his career stone dead. the level of critical backlash was that strong. But since the film’s initial panning, PEEPING TOM has since undergone a major critical reappraisal.

It´s certainly a film that was years ahead of its time. While thriller with voyeuristic and psycho-sexual overtones are pretty much stand in today cinema, back in 1960, Powell was breaking new ground in filming the philosophy behind sexual violence and what drives people to act on their impulses. It certainly has a very intimate, almost seedy quality to it, like spying or coming across something that you really should not see. This feeling is accentuated by the lighting and cinematography that drips colour across the screen and provides and intriguing atmosphere of London at night, and threatening darkrooms.

Another reason PEEPING TOM works in its objectives is due to the performance of Carl Boehm as the creepy lead of the film, with his clean-cut, almost shiny exterior masking a whole bag of insecurities and neuroses. the horror in Boehm’s face as he is forced to speak to his neighbours and the women he photographs is painfully etched onto his face. With this and the abuse he suffers as a child, you actually start to feel a pang of sympathy for his plight. that is until he kills another prostitute. Apparently it was this humanising of the evil protagonist that was so shocking for the critics at the time. Boehm’s performance is complemented by that of Anna Massey as his downstairs neighbour who reaches out to Mark.

An interesting fact is that Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ came out at the same time, but received little of the backlash that Powell’s film received. And yet I feel that for the most part, PEEPING TOM has aged better than the celebrated shocked. It’s a highly intelligent film that still manages to retain its level of tension and fear. So you should turn off the lights and prepares to feel really uncomfortable…

 

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “New Jack City (1990)”

New Jack City

Today has been a day of impotent anger. It’s not really an emotion that common to Sunday lunchtime (Usually comfort laziness and tea drinking – if tea drinking were an actual emotion), but that was before my friend Ragnar posted a link this morning to a feature from the N+1 magazine titled Raise The Crime Rate.

It’s a powerful denouncement of the state of the US criminal Justice system and how racism, the war on drugs, privatisation, and shifting of the risk of crime and violence from the streets to the supermax jails has created a US prison system that is seething, all encompassing moral and ethical black hole, a gulag that if you get sucked in, you’ll pretty much never get out, so to speak. The article pretty much lays the blame at everyone’s door, from politicians across the ideological spectrum, to corporations, the middle class and even New York hipsters. Some of the things that it calls for to solve this are either radical (abolish the current prison system) to uncomfortable (Increasing the use of the death penalty for recidivist crimes, such as robbery and rape), but I really recommend that you read it.

Part of the article touches on the rise of crack use in America in the 1980s and the ensuing hysteria and moral panic that ensued. And reading that has given us the inspiration for this weeks instalment of the SUUUUNDAY CUUUUULT FILMMMMMMM CORNAH! Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you NEW JACK CITY.

Directed in 1991 by Mario Van Peebles, it stars Wesley Snipes as Nino, a New York crime lord who rises to the top of the food chain, in the production and distribution of crack cocaine in the city, becoming so powerful that he and his gang take over an entire city block which they turn into a fortress. In order to take him down police officer Stone (played by Van Peebles) recruits two cops  Scotty Appleton (Ice-T) and  Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson) to take Nino down. the film becomes a battle of wills and guns between Nino, who becomes drunk on power, and the cops, who will stop at nearly nothing to take him down.

As a crime film, you can see today 20 years on how New Jack City sets its stall out from the very beginning about the evils of crack. And it ain’t subtle. the opening credits has Police sirens blaring, women screaming, and desolate inner city squalor, with radio news items telling of the robberies and murders due to an “Evil new drug called crack that is hitting the streets.” It’s just manages to keep on the right side of moralising about the realities of the drug trade in the ’80s, but only just with the criminals are larger than life, smooth taking and photogenic, while there are numerous montages about how crack is killing a generation of young people. But the film somehow manages to straddle between urban bleakness (“Dead Presidents”) and caricatures of the hood (Trespass).

In terms of the film itself, the plot owes a debt to classic Bogart/Cagney gangster films such as “Scarface,” with the story of the rise and eventual fall of a hungry, ambitious criminal who utilises the American dream of capitalism on the drugs trade. But it definitely feels of its time, chock full of ’80s pop culture tropes (Adidas street wear, Flavour Flav, boom boxes), along with a bumping soundtrack from the likes of 2-Live Crew, Ice-T, and new Jack Swing acts such as Colour Me Badd, and Johnny Gill

The main thing that stands out with the film is the acting of snipes as Nino, blending a mix of smooth charm with cut-throat ruthlessness, and Ice-T as the single minded cop on a crusade to bring down the Kingpin. Both show some rather powerful acting chops in what would be career defining roles for both of him.

So if you want a slice of the hard life from the ’80s, then get your pipes ready and blast some rocks to the new jack hustlers.

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “Dreamscape (1984)”

Dreamscape

Yaaaaawn…..

Today is one of those days. A weekend spent partying and drinking and all sort of sill things has meant that today has been spent drinking cups of tea and lolling around the flat in a state of torpor, watching rugby, and sorting out stuff for a new mix that will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. That should be a lot of fun.

But as ever, Sunday evening is now here and that can mean only one thing. Yup, it’s time for the SUNNNNNNNNNDAY CULLLLLLLLLLLT FILMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM CORNNNNNNNNNNNAH!! (Belch…).

And for this week’s instalment  i present to you a low slung ’80s sci-fi classic with a stellar cast, psychic assassins, and strange government conspiracies. Ladies and Gentlemen, i give you DREAMSCAPE.

Directed in 1984 by Joseph Ruben (Who would later go on to direct such Hollywood fare as sleeping with The Enemy, The Money Train, and The Forgotten), the film stars Dennis Quaid as Alex, a young psychic who drifts around using his powers for things such as winning at gambling. After being found out, he is coerced into re-joining an academic research project funded by the government and managed by Alex’s former mentor, Dr Novotny (Max Von Sydow). The project aims to help people with sleep and psychological disorder by allowing psychics to enter the patient’s mental state while they dream. But the project is hi-jacked by powerful government agent Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), who plans to use the project to train  assassins who can kill people in their sleep. Alex and scientist Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw) find themselves in danger when they uncover Blair plans to use a dream assassin to kill the US President. Together they vow to stop Blair before it´s too late.

Dreamscape mixes several genres into its flesh. There’s some Sci-Fi, some thriller, some action, some psychological horror. Despite it’s rather stellar cast, Dreamscape is most definitely classic pumped up B-film fare and at times feels more like a TV film that something from Hollywood. The dream sequences seem rather cartoonish and due to the rather low-budget, the special effects have really not aged well. The script is no great shakes, and the characters don’t have that much to them. But the cast play it reasonable straight (aided along with George Wendt, as a Novelist investigating the project, and David Patrick Kelly as the psychopathic assassin). Dennis Quaid in particular shows a lot of flashy wit and the charming smile and demeanour that would serve him well on films such as Innerspace, Great Balls Of Fire, and The Big Easy.

So if you fancy some classic schlocky ’80s sci-fi action, then pull the chair up and give this a blast. But be careful when you get to sleep, OK?

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “De Lift (The Lift), 1983″

Wow. we’ve been away for too long here, haven’t we?

I mean, when was the last time we actually did one of these on the blog? It certainly feels like months ago. But I’ve spent the afternoon at a kid’s birthday parties, followed by watching documentaries on The cult leader Jim Jones, as well as the history of Euro schlock horror, so I am feeling in a bit of a malevolent mood. As I am now supposedly a man of leisure and can now do what I like (within reason, and the bounds of a moral society), i think we should fire up this little spot again, don’t you think?

Well without further ado, welcome back to the corner of weird, fantastic, confounding, and sometimes even unsettling celluloid moment. You know what time it is – it’s time for the SUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDAY CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULT FIIIIIIIIIIIILM COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORNER!!!! (parp…).

And for this week (and maybe the next week or two), I’m going to the land of dodgy cheese, sex tourism, and burst your eardrums gabba hardcore. Yup, the flattest land of them all Holland, for a funky little cult horror number that will make you want to take the stairs after seeing it. Ladies and gents, i give to you THE LIFT!

Directed in 1983 by one Dick Maas. It tell the story of a lift in a fairly nondescript building in Amsterdam that begins to malfunction and develop a mind of its own. It begins to cause the deaths of several people in some rather grisly ways, but upon inspection, no one can find anything wrong with it. Getting to the bottom of why the lift is acting the way it is becomes an obsession for the lift company’s maintenance technician, Felix. As he delves deeper into the lift history, he is joined by a sexy female tabloid journalist and they start to ask questions of the lift company’s shadowy electronics partner RISING SUN, and their experiments with developing a new type or microprocessor. As they try to get tot he bottom of this mysterious conspiracy, Felix and the journalist find that they are in more danger than they thought.

“The Lift” is pure ’80s euro tack horror, with bleeding colours, truly bad opening film company title credits, and the odd moment of gratuitous nudity. But despite a low-budget and minimal cast, Mass manages to create some rather grisly death scenes and some genuinely eerie moments. alas the movie has not aged that well. For starters while other film about murderous inanimate object have fared better (“Christine”, “Maximum Overdrive ), a lift can only really do some damage if you actually get really close to it. Plus there are moments in the film (where they conduct their “investigations”), where it is a little boring. It only gets really exciting towards the end, or when the lift starts getting murderous intentions.

But hey – It’s A FUCKING KILLER LIFT!! You certainly don’t see that every day!

So if you fancy a bit of fun this evening, put your feet up, crack open a Heineken, and watch this glorious tacky Dutch horror classic!

 

The Sunday Cult Film corner: Last Night A DJ Saved My life – A disc Jockey double bill…

Good evening sinners…

As cultural avatars of the 20th Century, the Disc Jockey surely ranks as one of the most powerful. They have similar capabilities to viruses in the way that they transmit and spread culture in the form of music and ideas. Film also loves the idea and the world of the DJ, often using the role as a plot device to hold everything together, (Do The Right Thing. The Warriors, Vanishing Point, Grosse Point Blank, American Graffiti, etc, etc) but often things become more complex when the DJ, or their job takes centre stage. DJ’s are often seen as cool, sexy, complex characters for the movie world.

Although YouTube does not have such classics such AMERICAN HOT WAX, PLAY MISTY FOR ME, or TALK RADIO, it has provided two fine examples of the genre that form the basis of tonight’s Sunday Cult film Corner double bill.

First up is PUMP UP THE VOLUME. Directed in 1990 it stars Christian Slater as Mark, a teenager living in a boring suburb in Phoenix, Arizona. By day he is a loner and rarely mixes with anyone, but at night he broadcasts a pirate radio show under the moniker “Harry Hard On”. His anarchic shows prove popular with the bored teenagers in the area. but as his fame and influence among his audience increases, the authorities, from the police to the FCC, decide to shut him down.

PUTV is one of those films that does its best to portray its world as painfully “Cool”, as the opening credits, with the graffiti style lettering, casts a voyeuristic eye over the tools of his trade, tapes of alternative music and various pop culture detritus that mark him as a cool outsider. Plot-wise, the film is no great shakes. There’s the standard love interest, the run against the law, the mark of being a free individual and the whole “just be yourself” feel-good message. At the time it was considered edgy, but the years have not been kind to the film.

While Slater does his usual charismatic vulpine act that we saw him do in HEATHERS, the real star of the film is the music, which featured tracks from the cream of alternative music at the time (Soundgarden, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Henry Rollins). I actually bought the soundtrack album as many of the tracks featured are bloody excellent (check out Henry Rollins’ version of “Kick Out The Jams”. Effectively PUTV is a rather shallow film where the music upstages the actors.

 

The second in our DJ double bill is PONTYPOOL. Released in 2009, it stars Stephen McHattie as Grant Mazzy, a former shock jock DJ who is reduced to working as a radio announcer for a radio station in the small Canadian town of the Pontypool. One night the town comes under attack from a mysterious virus that is turning the local populace into rage filled “zombies”. It becomes even more ominous when it seems that the virus is being transmitted through the English language, with the virus latching onto certain words as the victim hears and repeats the sound or word. As the staff at the station barricade themselves in the building, it becomes a fight for survival against both the horde outside, and the virus lurking in their own language.

Based on the novel “Pontypool Changes everything”, PONTYPOOL is a tight, clever, claustrophobic little nugget of a film that gets around the low-budget by utilising the layout of the radio station very well. As the film progresses, it racks up the tension rather nicely, as it shows workings of the station as the drama of the story begins to unfold. The casting is also impeccable, especially that of McHattie as the wise cracking jerk of a radio DJ. It’s an interesting twist on the zombie film by playing with the power of the transmission of language.

So that’s your night’s viewing sorted. Now I’m off to scour the airwaves for some inexplicable strangeness…

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: Gregg Araki double Bill

Ahhh….

So for those of you who may have heard, I’m in a bit of a mess today. But thankfully I’m not dead. This means that i managed to complete that stupid marathon yesterday in (almost) one piece. But i have paid a heavy price for such folly. Knees are shot. muscles torn, and a general feeling of “is that it?” has descended upon me. But rest assured i WILL NOT be doing that shit again.

So thinking about today’s post, i was reminded a few days ago of a couple of friends who had made some positive comments about the films from the director that we’re going to highlight this week. And the general response was that his movies were unflinching and raw, but still contained a kindness that didn’t resort to mawkish sentimentality. So who is the subject of tonight’s SUNDAY CULT FILM CORNER?? well ladies and gentlemen, i give you a double bill from acclaimed direct GREGG ARAKI.

Seen as a leading light of the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1980s and ’90s, Araki’s films explore themes of confused sexuality, disaffected youth and obsessive love against a background of hallucinatory imagery, extreme violence and disaffected nihilism. His films can be sometimes uncomfortable viewing (his films have scenes of murder, rape, and overt drug use, while his subject matters include child abuse, being with HIV, and the end of the world), and yet despite having a punk rock sneer in his aesthetic, there’s an undercurrent of empathy and kindness in his work that’s more prevalent in his later movies. A true indie stalwart, his best work is often a mix of low-budget art house and sleazy B-movie. Although best known for THE DOOM GENERATION (his ’90s road movie paean to Nine Inch Nails), tonight I’m going to highlight two films from the opposite ends of his film making.

First up in tonight’s double bill is NOWHERE. Directed in 1997, it was the last in his ”Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy” (of which TOTALLY FUCKED UP and THE DOOM GENERATION were the first two of the series). Starring Araki regular James Duval (as well as an ensemble cast that includes Heather Graham, Ryan Phillippe, Mena Suvari, Kathleen Robertson, and Denise Richards), it tells the of the trials and tribulations of a promiscuous teen couple and their circle of friends and acquaintances. Dark tries to deal with his emotional issues with his girlfriend, while also having feelings for a gay classmate, while his girlfriend Mel also has a lesbian lover. The film segues into the lives of the couple and their friends as the film’s world descends into a drug and sex fuelled surrealist nightmare of epic proportions.

NOWHERE is a supremely trashy movie in the best possible way. All of the characters display the highest level of “whatever” style cool detachment and disaffection, of playing at being older and more cynical than their teen years, yet all the while trying to hide and escape from their own fears and anxieties. Indeed, the film seems to have a real sense of emptiness that mirrors the lives of the protagonists and their pop cultures that they ape. ‘Nowhere’ is also a total fucked up head trip of a film. Playing more like a surreal dream than a movie with “plot” and “narrative”, the visuals and colour-scope of the film literally bleed into your visual cortex.  It’s definitely the perfect film to watch while zonked out of your skull, while going “whatever”.

The second film in our double film is MYSTERIOUS SKIN. Directed in 2004, it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet as two teenagers who were both sexually abused by their baseball coach while they were younger. The film goes on to explore the effect the abuse has on their lives. One of the teenagers (played by Gordon-Levitt) remembers the whole incident as a rite of passage and becomes a sexually compulsive male prostitute who moves to New York to seek his fortune. Meanwhile the other teen (played by Corbet), represses the whole incident, building up a tale that he is a victim of alien abduction to explain his constant nosebleeds and bed wetting. While searching for an explanation for his unexplained dreams, he comes to believe that another boy may have been abducted with him and he goes in search for Gordon-Levitt, bringing the two together in a crushing realisation and uncovering of painful truths.

While MYSTERIOUS SKIN is considered as Araki’s most “conventional” film in his canon, it’s still a harrowing and difficult film to watch, mostly for its frank (yet not graphic) depiction of child abuse and scenes of sex, violence and rape. Despite the hard watch on-screen, there’s a real tenderness shown by Akari towards the two main characters. Both have clearly been damaged by the incident and are trying to deal with their traumas the best way they can. The highly emotional and heart-rending climax to the film just leaves you wiped and wanting to sit in a darkened room for half and hour. This is down mostly to the quality of acting across the board, especially that of Gordon-Levitt as the cocky nihilistic young man who is described by his friend Wendy as ”a bottomless black hole.”

As an extra aside, one of the main features of both films (and of Araki’s films in general) is the use of music in the soundtrack to his movies. His love and use of shoegaze music in particular provide an element of atmosphere and dreamlike dislocation to his movies. Mysterious skin for example contains the likes of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and Sigur Rós in the soundtrack, adding an extra emotional layer, especially in the closing credits. I heartily recommend getting the soundtrack to the movie if you’ve never heard of these bands before.

And that’s it for this week. Now if you’ll excuse me. I’m off to sit in my dark room for a while and moan the pain away…

 

The Sunday Cult Film Corner: “The Loneliness Of the Long Distance Runner (1962)”

Christ my legs are in bits.

Oh sorry to be a bit of a moaning old shit-bag here. It’s just that I’ve been doing some heavy training today, the last before I undertake a supremely foolhardy challenge next weekend. Yes yours truly is going to be running the Reykjavik Marathon! Don’t laugh you fuckers! It’s true. It’s way too long and pointless to really go into the whys and  hows of the whole thing, but a drunken brag before Christmas last year meant that I’ve been pummeling the pavements and footpaths all over Reykjavik these past 7 months. I hate it. I hate this world and i hate running. Perhaps a tidal wave will hit Reykjavik this week so i can get out of it. Probably not.

But with this in mind i have to get back onto more pressing matters. Matters such as the latest instalment of our curates egg known as the SUNDAY CULT FILM CORNER!!!!!! (snarl..)

And because I’ve sent the beginning of this blog post moaning about running and stuff, I have a pretty timely and appropriate entry for this weeks episode. A film about freedom, rebellion, class struggle and the redemptive qualities of running. Ladies and Gentlemen, i give you THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER.

Directed in 1962 by Tony Richardson, it stars Tom Courtenay as Colin Smith. After being sent to a Borstal for robbing a bakery, Colin catches the eye of the strict governor for his abilities as a long distance runner. As his talents gain favouritism with the governor and jealousy with his fellow prisoners, Colin comes under pressure to win a cross-country race against a private school. the win would be a PR coup for the Borstal and Governor’s regime with the prisoners. Colin must decide whether to play ball and possibly gain early release of be true to his conviction and be his own man. As the film progresses, we’re told through flashback about Colin’s life and how he came to be arrested in the first place.

TLOTLDR is a one of the best examples of the “British New Wave” films that came out in the late ’50s/ Early ’60s, such as “Look Back In Anger”, “Saturday Night And Sunday Morning” and “This sporting Life”, which has the archetype “Angry Young Man” at the centre of it all. These films are not shy in showing just how shit and grey life was really like at the bottom rungs of the social ladder for young men at that time. They were yearning to break the shackles that were placed on them by their parents, peers and society at large at the time. And TLOTLDR is no exception. With a terminally sick father and an uncaring mother, Colin sees little future for him.apart from getting a job at the same place that has made his father sick. He’s certainly a guy that pissed off with the world and he wants to rebel against it any way he can.

The film itself is like many others in it´s canon. Forward thinking in it´s cinematography (it uses a lot of roaming outdoor shots and fast cutting scenes) and taut in it’s direction, for a film about rebellious youth, it’s not as black and white as it seems to be. Colin is certainly rebellious, but almost to the point of pig headedness, at times failing to see the bigger picture about what could be best for him. Meanwhile the governor is not a stereotypical prison warder. He is measured and rational, a man who merely just wants the borstal to win. In this the performances of Courtenay and Michael Redgrave (as the governor) are nothing short of brilliant.

So instead of watching that shit excuse for a closing ceremony, get a pint of warm bitter, some pork scratchings and watch some REAL Britishness, got that?….