Under discussion:

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters  (2007)

King of Kong: A fistful of quarters

            Christians have Jesus Christ, Islam has Allah and classic video gamers have Billy Mitchell. The man who held the Donkey Kong record for almost twenty five years is the subject of a documentary in which an unknown newcomer in the classic gaming circle, Steve Wiebe, poses a serious threat to Mitchell's ancient record and the subsequent mind games that ensues between both men.

Mitchell is a character unlike any other. Not only does he compare himself to the Red Baron, the most prolific World War II fighter pilot, he also models his life around the idea that he is leaps and bounds ahead of the pack when it comes to classic gaming. Although the community is so small and otherwise insignificant, he revels in the fact that he sits atop a virtual throne and praised by his followers. He exudes a level of confidence so unhealthy that it borders megalomania. His ties are decked in American colors and his trophy wife follows him around with a fake smile of epic proportions. Mitchell's public appearances are carefully choreographed and his constant smugness makes it easy to dislike him as a person. In his mind, he is truly the greatest classic gamer ever, although many of his records have been broken since the 80s.

That leads us to his competitor, Steve Wiebe. When he proclaims to having a new Donkey Kong record, the married father of two from Washington State quickly becomes thrust into the gaming limelight as he does his best to withstand the onslaught from the myriad of Mitchell disciples wishing to see him fail. Wiebe is Mitchell's anti-thesis: timid and soft-spoken, unaccomplished and unstylish. Although he has always been talented at several things, he was never able to overcome his greatest nemesis, himself. Too afraid to stand up to others and often failing at the most critical moments in his life. A self-taught Donkey Kong expert, he manages to beat Mitchell's long-standing record of 874,000 and is soon recognized as the all-time best. It's around this time that his rivalry against Mitchell goes into fifth gear.

Without giving away too much of the movie, it's a fascinating portrayal of the lengths at which some people will go to defend what is theirs. It also exposes the other major players in this scene, people such as Walter Day and Robert Mruczek, founder and head referee respectively of Twin Galaxies, the only ‘official' score keepers of classic gaming. These people would appear demented by the untrained eye, but they just live for their passion. Day refers to gamers as superstars and often speaks extremely highly of Mitchell, a regular occurrence in the documentary. Brian Kuh, another disciple, is sent to Wiebe's house on one occasion to ‘investigate' his Donkey Kong machine in the hopes of finding incriminating evidence that would discredit the record he had set on it. The movie probes even further into the compulsivity that most gamers have: a lot of them will stoop to sabotage and deceitful behavior to put someone off their game. I guess that only goes to show how important this is to them.

The most frustrating element of the movie lies in the fact that Mitchell repeatedly refuses to accept Wiebe's challenges, wherever they are. The aura of mystery that surrounds him is astonishing, considering that he is a staunch advocate of playing in front of an audience to have a gaming record validated. At one point a competition is held no more than ten miles away from Mitchell's home yet he declines to even appear. Mitchell might seem confident of his abilities on the outside, but that flair is overshadowed by his reluctance to meet or even play head to head against Wiebe, the only other player in the world capable of beating the record.

The movie does an excellent job of portraying the childishness exhibited by Mitchell and his followers. I laughed out loud when Kuh sneaks upstairs and calls Mitchell to update him on Wiebe's progress during a game. Mitchell, sitting comfortably in his living room looks completely unfazed, as if he were planning his next move at the very moment. Further more, the absurdities caught on tape are consistently topped by others: Walter Day referring to Mitchell as a Jedi, calling the gaming community ‘his child' or the obsession over reaching the mythical kill screen in Donkey Kong. So much importance is placed on these scores and results that it consequently traps these people in this surreal world that is restricted to other ‘mortals', i.e. normal gamers. The doings of this tightly-knit community left me baffled by the end of my first viewing but as I watched more and more, I came to understand their motives. Why would people let something so trivial take over their entire lives, you might ask? It's an addiction I suppose and everyone has a different one.

The saga continues to this day, as the Donkey Kong record continues to be broken, almost on a yearly basis. At the end of the movie we're told that Wiebe had successfully taken over as the official record holder with a score of 1,047,000 points, but Mitchell allegedly took back his title on the 25^th anniversary of his first record-setting day. The virtual war has just begun...

naked-lunch.org

Under discussion:

The Nomi Song  (2003)

The Nomi Song (2005)

Directed by Andrew Horn

Looks like an alien, sings like a diva!

An incredible documentary about Klause Nomi, a cult figure in the New Wave Underground scene during the 80`s.

Nomi was a German emigrant who in the 1970s and 1980s took downtown New York by storm with his unique look and incredible operatic voice. Dressing like David Byrne while spiking his hair and applying layers of eyeliner and white powder to his face, Nomi would sing pop standards like opera arias. He first came to the attention of New York's art scene in 1978 with his performance of Vaudeville in a "new wave" format at a four night event MC'd by artist David McDermott. The reaction was so overwhelming that he was invited to perform at all the top clubs in New York City, assembling a group of unknown artists at the time including Joey Arias, Jean Michel Basquait, Keith Haring and Johnny Sex.

Andrew Horn's portrait of the new wave star Klaus Nomi is quite simply a master piece. A vivid portrait of not only the man, but an era in which the underground ruled New York and a time in which the city itself was more welcoming to new and upcoming artists. The movie gathers interviews from many of the people who congregated around Klaus before his death in 1983 along with rare live performances from the man himself. The memories are vivid and touching, truthful and unforgiving. Sharing his darkest secrets to praising him as a genius, these testimonies are the making of a legend. The film takes us from the point in which he immigrated to the States, through his underground struggle; His pursuit of greater stardom in abandoning the East Village for a record deal and finally to his taking ill to what was then called the "gay cancer"

The party was over" says painter Kenny Schraf looking back on those pre-AIDS days. Klaus Nomi was the first semi-well known figure on the New York scene to die of the disease. He is best known to the mainstream for his back up vocals to David Bowie's Saturday Night Performance. However he will forever be loved and honored in the scene that matters (The Underground) with films like this exposing him to future generations.

Jimmy D.

Under discussion:

Dance of the Dead  (2008)

Dance of the Dead (2008)

When he couldn't get a green light for Dance of the Dead director Gregg Bishop took $15k which he earned from the profits from his short film and funded his own movie. The result was the hitThe Other Side  released in 2006. The film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and was picked up for a theatrical release. It was a huge hit with critics and after the producers saw his film they finally gave the go ahead forDance of the Dead. Thank god!

The film doesn't isn't in any way groundbreaking. If anything it could be best describes as a cross between Return of The Living Dead and Carrie only with the cast of Fast Times at Ridgemond High.  It all takes place around an all Americanhigh school on prom night. Of course like most high schools, the institution is located next to not only a graveyard but also a nuclear power plant. A chemical gets leaked without any explanation (but who needs on in a zombie film) and the dead turn to life.

The film's premise is very simple but the key to its success is that it never takes itself seriously. It takes you on a fun ride right from the first five minutes and never gives out. More importantly for a low budget film, the production values are great. They make with what they have and they do not aim too high. Too many small movies try to hard to do too much and we usually end up with bad computer effects. Here they stay away from CGI as often as possible and do an excellent job with the make up and prosthetics.

Joe Ballarini's smart script follows a group of outcasts from the school into the graveyard and all around town. In fact the best part of the film comes half way when the children shelter themselves in what appears to be a mansion.  Much like Night of the Living Dead, they board up the windows and doors in hopes to keep safe. Only they quickly discover they hid themselves inside a funeral home. All hell breaks loose and the children regroup only to getaway in what else but a hearse.

The cast of Dance of the Dead was put together with mostly non actors from Georgia with the exception of  Jared Kusnitz (Doll Graveyard) and Randy McDowell (Good Intentions). Jared Kusnitz, was actually in another  SXSW ‘Midnight movie called Otis. Here he pulls off another great deadpan performance and lands himself in a better film.

According to director-producer Greg Bishop, they "searched for months for the right kids, ones who were good at improv and whom acted natural. Justin Welborn who also appeared in THE SIGNAL steals the show in this film. He plays the student delinquent Kyle a redneck bully who has a reputation of beating up the student population. When the zombies come out he manages to turn his anger on them and in one of my favorite scenes takes out a dozen or so zombies in what resembles a WWE hardcore wrestling match complete with elbow drops, body slams and an onslaught of weapons.

Dance of The Dead may not be at the same level as Shaun of the Dead but it makes for an entertaining time. Highly recommended for any genre enthusiasts or a group of friends getting together for a movie night. Besides that what other movie has ever featured a zombie sex scene?

Dance of the Dead will be distributed from October 2008 by Lions Gate Entertainment in a deal with Sam Raimi's new partnership Ghost House Underground. The film is expected to be part of Ghost House's inaugural slate of offerings dubbed "October Horror".

Jimmy Dean

www.naked-lunch.org

The Killer of Sheep

Killer of Sheep; don't let the title put you off!

In cinematic history (that's a really long time!) few films have portrayed ghetto life as accurately and humanely as ‘Killer in Sheep'. What aspects, you might ask, make it a real standout among others? Well, consider the fact that it was shot by a UCLA student on weekends with a shoestring budget, using a mostly amateur cast. Charles Burnett, the director of this poignant tale, unknowingly created a film that has acquired cult status since its creation thirty years ago. Although very few independent movies that suffered the same initial fate as Killer of Sheep (limited distribution) can be called "cult films" today (Punishment Park and Stroszek come to mind), critics unanimously lauded this simplistic production for its accurate depiction of the down-and-out lifestyle many people suffered in Watts, an African-American ghetto of Los Angeles.

I had never heard of this movie until our Arts Editor told me about it but the title and circumstances surrounding the film's release immediately caught my interest. It opens with a powerful scene involving a father (Stan) and his oldest child. Stan berates his son for refusing to protect his younger brother when a group of children ganged up on the latter. His fiery gaze burns a hole through his son's eyes while he chews him out, reminding him that family comes first and that under no circumstances shall one abandon the other. The ferociousness of his speech does not set the tone of the film however, as we discover later on that Stan is an insomniac whose brutal labor at the slaughterhouse directly contributes to his disassociation with reality. Through a series of loosely connected vignettes, his daily happenings and those of his friends and family are played out in or around his poor neighborhood.

One particular dinner scene establishing Stan's disjointed reality has him staring right into his plate, daydreaming of who knows what, aloof and content. His wife and daughter look on although fully aware of his all-to-common behavior. Other interesting scenes involve the neighborhood children who play in the rubble of destroyed and abandoned buildings due to the lack of organized activities. At one point, Stan and a few friends plot to rob and kill someone for monetary purposes. Whether it's the sight of a young boy wiping the dirt off his pants or a young girl singing to Motown tunes, the message is always present; desperation, frustration and unlimited hurdles fuel these people's lives. Poetic yet heartbreaking, Killer of Sheep reveals itself as truly original in its goal to publicize the sometimes dangerous and highly volatile life in Watts. Fortunately for North American moviegoers, the movie has been restored and enlarged to 35mm by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and Milestone Films, thanks in part to a donation from filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.

In terms of music, the songs chosen by Burnett exemplify the wonderful talent pool that African American artists have created. "This Bitter Earth", sung by Dinah Washington, is played during an especially tender moment between Stan and his wife. As they gently sway to the soulful melody, they hold each other tight; the wife grips her husband's shirt tighter and tighter, perhaps in response to the lyrics that remind her of the south she grew up in. When the song ends, Stan leaves the room and her frustration boils over as she sits on a window sill, sobbing away while a voiceover confirms her nostalgic moment. In addition, I admired the Lynch-like use of dark, ambient music to set the tone for certain scenes, a definite reminder of Eraserhead, another movie you kids should see a.s.a.p. Killer of Sheep was not immediately released upon completion due to a snafu involving the musical rights; that is, until the restorers could pony up the 150,000$ required to secure the rights.

Although it has been brought up to modern standards, the movie succeeds in keeping its message fresh and delivers the same emotional punch to its audience as it did thirty years ago. Its impact on the way we think about poor, urbanized areas was not imminent, but rather delayed. In 1990 the Library of Congress declared the film a national treasure and placed it among the first 50 films entered in the National Film Registry. In 2002 the national society of Film Critics named it one of the 100 essential films of all time. Such praise for such a modest movie only goes to show that it deserves the distribution it is finally getting.

www.naked-lunch.org

The Strangers
Directed by Bryan Bertino
Rogue/Universal

There's a war of approach currently being waged in the field of mainstream American horror. On one hand you've got the "more is more" contingent, made up of "torture porn" progenitors Eli Roth (Hostel) and the Saw series, as well as Rob Zombie's retro gorefests (House of 1000 Corpses, the cred-busting Halloween remake). On the other sits the small but significant movement towards no-frills horror more or less grounded in reality - last year's Vacancy, while only fitfully effective, springs to mind, and so does The Strangers, a movie so doggedly minimal that one senses the screenplay could fit in your pocket.

The film opens with its most unusual set of decisions: a stern voice mentioning the frequency of violent crimes in America, and mentioning the story's (dubious) ties to a specific real-life incident. The film's opening scene skips to the end, showing us the viscera and destruction in and around the home where Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) will spend the next 80 minutes getting terrorized by a masked trio of remorseless invaders. Following this peculiar opening (which serves to dampen the film with a sense of inevitability, cutting strongly against the post-Sixth Sense "twist ending" trend) we get the obligatory 20-minute opening to inform us of the strained relationship between our protagonists and to familiarize ourselves with their environment. Tyler and Speedman do a fairly good job of communicating the unspoken history they share, although given the circumstances surrounding the tension between them (Tyler quietly rejected his offer of marriage earlier in the evening), their interactions evoke too much comfort and not enough caution. The film misses a major opportunity here, in that it could have used this setup to explore the tension between them, but instead (as expected) their bonds simply heal themselves as a result of the ensuing terror.

To Bertino's credit, however, some of his decisions (as director and screenwriter) are bracingly original; the film's greatest innovation by far lies in its unorthodox treatment of the folk and country music that intermittently plays from the couple's gramophone. The film's most effective moment comes with a tense confrontation involving a gun, an axe, a piano, and Joanna Newsom's "The Sprout and the Bean." The scene mines the sonic tension in Newsom's double-tracked vocals ("should we go outside?") and spare harp plucking. Another scene memorably milks the Appalachian harmonies and odd intervals that characterize Gillian Welch's Time: The Revelator by looping two seconds ("quicksilver girl") from "My First Lover" for what feels, briefly, like an eternity. The soundtrack represents another categorical rejection of the heavy-metal excess that has pervaded recent horror (see: the soundtracks for the Saw movies). The film also contains the longest stretches of silence and inaction seen in a major American horror film in a long time, making good use of ambient noise and shadows (never more effective than the moment in which the bag-headed intruder slowly emerges behind Tyler in the kitchen, as unfortunately revealed in some of the film's posters).

Bertino shows his weaknesses as a filmmaker when he distrusts elements he has already established; the decision to separate the lovers for much of the film's last half-hour both robs the film of its only real character interactions and feels maddeningly improbable. He also doesn't shy away from two major horror movie tropes: a character intoning that they'll "be right back" as a harbinger of doom, and a highly questionable final shot that rings hollow with familiarity and cheapens the film's opening gambit. Until that moment, The Strangers feels like something very strange indeed: a horror movie with an argument. That phrase of course brings to mind Michael Haneke's Funny Games, a considerably more brutal film that essentially acted as a movie-length guilt trip on the nature of entertainment. The Strangers, on the other hand, is unconcerned with the nature of film, instead serving to emphasize the ordinary nature of the crimes on display - underlined by the decision to stage the ritualistic carnage that takes place near the film's end in the full brightness of morning, punctuated with barren shots of the surrounding countryside. Bertino's debut turns out to be a deeply flawed one that only communicates that one idea effectively, but that puts it ahead of some of his contemporaries, most of whom (Haneke included, given his masturbatory shot-for-shot "U.S." remake of Funny Games) feel the need to stretch out their one idea over the course of several films. It remains to be seen if Bertino's small, but welcome eccentricities will prevail in future endeavors or if he'll fall prey to the self-cannibalization that has characterized the genre's other recent would-be auteurs.

naked-lunch.org

Dance of the Dead (2008)

When he couldn't get a green light for Dance of the Dead director Gregg Bishop took $15k which he earned from the profits from his short film and funded his own movie. The result was the hit The Other Side  released in 2006. The film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and was picked up for a theatrical release. It was a huge hit with critics and after the producers saw his film they finally gave the go ahead for Dance of the Dead. Thank god!

The film doesn't isn't in any way groundbreaking. If anything it could be best describes as a cross between Return of The Living Dead and Carrie only with the cast of Fast Times at Ridgemond High.  It all takes place around an all American high school on prom night. Of course like most high schools, the institution is located next to not only a graveyard but also a nuclear power plant. A chemical gets leaked without any explanation (but who needs on in a zombie film) and the dead turn to life.

The film's premise is very simple but the key to its success is that it never takes itself seriously. It takes you on a fun ride right from the first five minutes and never gives out. More importantly for a low budget film, the production values are great. They make with what they have and they do not aim too high. Too many small movies try to hard to do too much and we usually end up with bad computer effects. Here they stay away from CGI as often as possible and do an excellent job with the make up and prosthetics.

Joe Ballarini's smart script follows a group of outcasts from the school into the graveyard and all around town. In fact the best part of the film comes half way when the children shelter themselves in what appears to be a mansion.  Much like Night of the Living Dead, they board up the windows and doors in hopes to keep safe. Only they quickly discover they hid themselves inside a funeral home. All hell breaks loose and the children regroup only to getaway in what else but a hearse.

The cast of Dance of the Dead was put together with mostly non actors from Georgia with the exception of  Jared Kusnitz (Doll Graveyard) and Randy McDowell (Good Intentions). Jared Kusnitz, was actually in another  SXSW ‘Midnight movie called Otis. Here he pulls off another great deadpan performance and lands himself in a better film.

According to director-producer Greg Bishop, they "searched for months for the right kids, ones who were good at improv and whom acted natural. Justin Welborn who also appeared in THE SIGNAL steals the show in this film. He plays the student delinquent Kyle a redneck bully who has a reputation of beating up the student population. When the zombies come out he manages to turn his anger on them and in one of my favorite scenes takes out a dozen or so zombies in what resembles a WWE hardcore wrestling match complete with elbow drops, body slams and an onslaught of weapons.

Dance of The Dead may not be at the same level as Shaun of the Dead but it makes for an entertaining time. Highly recommended for any genre enthusiasts or a group of friends getting together for a movie night. Besides that what other movie has ever featured a zombie sex scene?

Dance of the Dead will be distributed from October 2008 by Lions Gate Entertainment in a deal with Sam Raimi's new partnership Ghost House Underground. The film is expected to be part of Ghost House's inaugural slate of offerings dubbed "October Horror".

Jimmy Dean

www.naked-lunch.org

Repo! The Genetic Opera
Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman

            Fewer words, I imagine, strike greater fear in the minds of audiences and producers alike when the words "passion project" are thrown around. After helming three straight Saw sequels, long-suffering director Darren Lynn Bousman finally gets to cut loose creatively with his gory rock opera Repo, which evolved from a series of quickie stage improvisations courtesy of the film's writer/composers, Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich. Unfortunately, the film turns out to be more Across the Universe than Hedwig and the Angry Inch, eager to please but ultimately less than enjoyable for anyone not a devout enthusiast of its chosen musical framing – except in this case, it's a nostalgia-fest for turn-of-the-90's goths instead of baby boomers.

            Bousman, to his credit, assembled an intriguing cast: Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anothny Stewart Head (a stage veteran who's also appeared as Frank n' Furter in Rocky Horror), Spy Kids star Alexa Vega, elevator-music superstar Sarah Brightman, renowned character actor Paul Sorvino (Law and Order, Goodfellas), horror vet Bill Moseley, and, in a shrewd bit of meta-casting, tabloid magnet Paris Hilton. In much the same manner that reading the cast list seems to create a logic fissure in the universe, the film's disparate elements never coalesce into anything coherent. Ostensibly an elaborate comment on consumer society and celebrity obsession, Repo seems to serve mainly as a hyperactive springboard for a filmmaker overeager to prove his uniqueness.

            Set in a cartoonishly grim future, Repo revolves principally around Nathan (Head), a "repo man" who impolitely collects organs from hapless citizens on behalf of GeneCo (led by Sorvino's sinister, dying Rotti), a massive conglomerate that swooped in to commodify healthy organs following a deadly epidemic of organ failures. His daughter, Shilo (Vega), is ill with the blood disease that claimed her mother, and is kept in unwilling sanctuary in his home. Meanwhile, Rotti's offspring (Moseley, Hilton and Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre) bicker, in an obvious nod to King Lear, over which one will inherit their decaying father's empire. Oh, and somewhere in the mix there's also Mag (Brightman), a celebrity singer with GeneCo-implanted holographic eyes who's trapped in a dead-end contract.

            If the plot seems needlessly dense, that's because it is, and the film is crippled at the outset by its ludicrous number of characters and plot threads, never to recover. This undercuts both the plot's coherency – already tenuous at the outset – and the integrity of the performances proffered by its diverse cast. Particularly wasted is Moseley, who brings his character to slyly sadistic life, but doesn't get much chance to develop in his eight or so minutes of screen time. Others get shoehorned into thankless roles – Vega, who has Broadway experience and shows evidence of being a capable performer, is saddled with a bratty, shrill heroine, and Sorvino, as the film's principal villain, is never able to find a consistent tone either of internal anguish or righteous indignation, largely because he's provided with a few too many motivations relating to nearly every other character. The supporting cast is uniformly competent – including the widely reviled Hilton – but none besides Mosely leave much of an impression. Head's "repo man" suffers most - his character enjoys his grisly work at some points and is disturbed by it at others, simply at the film's convenience, making him useless either as a figure of scorn or sympathy.

            Smith and Zdunich don't only botch the film's plotting but also its densely arranged musical score, which spends most of its time occupying a confounding space somewhere between Ministry and Evanescence that simply shouldn't exist. Occasionally, a novel vocal harmony or passably funny lyric will arise (particularly in scenes where Head and Sorvino duet), but none of the individual songs are at all memorable. There's an opportunity for redemption in the film's embrace of over-the-top satire near the film's conclusion (featuring a memorable moment where Hilton's character loses face a bit) but ultimately opts for a lame, sequel-ready non-ending. For all of the film's references and targets, its Vaseline-on-the-lens aesthetics, leaden musical numbers and generally witless approach keep it from joining the ranks of the beloved "outsider" musicals its creators so obviously worship.