LFM Reviews Why Horror? on Showtime

 

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By Joe Bendel. Finally, horror movie writer and fan Tal Zimerman answers the question us genre fans get all the time. Basically, that would be “wtf?” To put it in other words, why do we watch such outrageous and often horrific images for our own amusement? Zimerman puts fandom on the couch and pronounces it of sound mind in Nicolas Kleiman & Rob Lindsay’s documentary, Why Horror?, which airs this Friday on Showtime.

Zimerman started as a fan and collector, eventually evolving into a magazine writer. However, when he became a new father, he took a harder look at all the spectacularly gruesome DVDs, books, and posters that gave his home such a distinct identity. Obviously, this was the time to re-examine his lifestyle, so he might as well do it with a film crew in tow.

Starting with his family, Zimerman traces the development of his fandom. He had one good friend and fellow horror compadre in high school, who is now a programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, so the whole fandom thing clearly worked out for them. He also takes a wider cultural-historical view of the genre, eliciting analysis from art historians, literature professors, cultural anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists. By widening the cultural focus, Zimerman also gets to travel to Japan to discuss horror manga and Kaidan Kabuki Theater, as well as celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Still, he is a good sport for allowing several research scientists hook him up to various monitors while he watches some blood and guts.

The big takeaways probably will not be especially shocking to anyone. A case is made that horror fans live more fruitfully because they are more fully aware of man’s mortality and they are better suited to deal with the darker manifestations of human nature. It also turns out guys are more likely to score if they take their dates to a horror movie, provided they act appropriately stoic and manly.

They also legitimately argue there is no better way of studying a society or country’s fears and hang-ups at a given time than through its horror flicks. People’s collective Freudian baggage comes out embarrassingly plain as day. A cigar to an eyeball is never just a cigar to an eyeball. It represents the threat of nuclear weapons, modernity, globalization or what-have-you.

However, Zimerman and company miss part of the appeal of these films. Nothing sharpens your sense of humor like a horror movie. We’re not talking about campy Roger Corman mutant-monster movies here. The more perverse and extreme a film might be, the more your inner comic sensibility looks for an opening to score a laugh—at least that is our personal experience.

Regardless, Zimerman and the gang cover a lot of ground, touching base with most of the acknowledged classics, but also squeezing into plenty of 1980s VHS rarities. He talks to a veritable who’s who of horror filmmakers, including masters like George Romero, Don Coscarelli, Takashi (The Grudge) Shimizu, and John Carpenter, up-and-comers like Karen Lam and the Soska Sisters, and figures in between, like Eli Roth and Ben Wheatley. It is breezily entertaining, but with enough substance to make you feel like you partook of some serious cultural criticism rather than just gawking at some gory clips. Recommended for genre fans, Why Horror? premieres this Friday (10/30) on Showtime, with subsequent broadcasts scheduled on the related Showtime networks.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 29th, 2015 at 2:50pm.

LFM’s Jason Apuzzo Receives 2015 Folio Eddie Award

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Earlier this week, LFM’s Jason Apuzzo was honored with a 2015 Folio Eddie Award for Best Single Article (Media/Entertainment) for his article Visions of Grandeur: The 85th Anniversary of The Big Trail.  The article appeared in the April 2015 edition of American Cinematographer.  American Cinematographer also received an award for Best Full Issue for its Sept. 2014 issue (featuring Guardians of the Galaxy on the cover) and earned an additional honorable mention for its Oct. 2014 Gordon Willis tribute issue.

Jason wishes to thank the team at Folio, and also thank and congratulate AC editor-in-chief and publisher Stephen Pizzello, managing editor Jon Witmer, and the entire AC team.

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:38pm.

LFM Reviews East Punk Memories @ The 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Anarchy was all very well for the UK, but not for the Captive Nations of the Warsaw Pact. Of course, that only made Hungary’s early 1980s underground punk movement embrace the music and its nihilistic ethos with ever greater fervor. Having secretly documented them in their prime on Super 8, Lucile Chaufour returned three decades later to see how angry and rebellious they still were in East Punk Memories, which screens during the 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Communist authorities did not like punk—and the feeling was mutual. Homegrown Hungarian punk bands verbally smashed the state every night with politically charged lyrics, such as: “you’re just a street kid, you’ll never be party secretary” and “Communist drug, no seduction needed.” You sort of need to hear them in the original Hungarian for the full effect.

Several of the survivors of the Hungarian punk scene speak without nostalgia for the frequent feeling they experienced during the Socialist era that they were being followed (which they often were). Nobody is ready to shed a tear for Communism, but many are pointedly disappointed with the austerity and rising nationalism that followed. One former punk probably speaks for them all when he tells Chaufour he would not want to relive the Soviet years or the current era.

From "East Punk Memories."
From “East Punk Memories.”

Yet, indirectly but unmistakably, Chaufour and several interview subjects hint that the punk movement might be partially responsible for the current state of things. It seems a legit skinhead faction eventually split off from the Hungarian punk scene, apparently reading too much into Sid Vicious’s swastika. You have to wonder if the current public discourse would be better if they had focused more on the black flag.

Perhaps, it is also telling that nearly every former punker is holding a beer in their “after” interviews. That is the Eastern Europe I know and love. Introspection and candor are also healthy, so maybe the former punkers are ready to help Hungary take the next step. The depth of their insights is somewhat inconsistent, but it is still an intriguing and appropriately grungy film. Recommended for Cold War punkers, the fifty-one minute East Punk Memories screens this Friday night (10/23), as part of the AMNH’s Margaret Mead Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:37pm.

LFM Reviews Julia

By Joe Bendel. What Julia Shames really needs is some firearms training from an old school vigilante like Death Wish’s Paul Kersey. Instead, the rape victim is recruited by a vaguely satanic, crypto-feminist cult. Sexual politics take a sinister turn, possibly even trumping revenge in Matthew A. Brown’s Julia, which opens today in select cities.

This Julia should absolutely not be mistaken for the 1977 Lillian Hellman film, although she might approve of the later film’s sentiments. Mousy Shames (how’s that for a heavy-handed name?) is brutally raped and left for dead by a former co-worker and his three thuggish friends. However, she survives because the reluctant one feels a last minute pang of conscience. Walking through Brooklyn in a daze, she is quickly identified and recruited by Dr. Sgundud’s cult-like organization.

JuliaHe promises empowerment and revenge against the testosterone-driven rape culture, but his rules are rigid. First and foremost, she must forgo personal vengeance, in favor of waging a broader campaign against aggressive and entitled men. During her probationary period, the mysterious Sadie will be her coach and minder. Soon, they are also lovers. However, Shames is about to break Sgundud’s cardinal rule, because what’s the point of revenge, if it isn’t personal?

By genre standards Julia is unusually stylish, particularly Frank Hall’s electro-minimalist score. Unfortunately, the film is an absolute traffic jam of half-baked revelations and awkwardly didactic plot points. Rather than thrilling or scaring, the most applicable adjective-verb is “frustrating.”

Right from the start, Brown makes it clear there will be no vicarious satisfaction allowed from Shames’ vengeance-taking, which is problematic for a revenge thriller (Reversal, now known as Bound to Vengeance is an example of how this is done right). Instead, there are horror movie trappings mixed with a hallucinatory psychological drama, overlaid by a lesbian co-dependent morality tale. Even more distracting, Brown opens a huge can of worms with Sgundud’s big reveal, without ever really dealing with the implications.

Frankly, this film often feels like it is at war with itself, which is a shame, because Human Centipede’s Ashley C. Williams really is quite good as Shames. Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson’s eerie urban cinematography is also quite effectively disorienting, like prime David Lynch or Fabrice du Welz’s Alleluia. Yet, Brown keeps pulling the audience out of the action, making a point of showing us exactly what Julia is not. Not really recommended despite its technical merit, Julia opens today (10/23) at the AMC Burbank Town Center 8.

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:36pm.

LFM Reviews Land of Songs

By Joe Bendel. For the better part of the Twentieth Century, the Soviet Union gave the Baltic States the Blues. Lithuanians responded by singing their traditional folks songs—and engaging in armed resistance. Sibling filmmakers Aldona and Julian Watts journeyed to their grandmother’s Lithuanian homeland, to record the Dainava region’s folksongs for posterity in Land of Songs, which screened during the 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Dainava ladies might be getting on in years, but they are no shrinking violets – and they join together in song remarkably harmoniously. As in Estonia, Lithuanian folk songs played a major role in the revolution against Communism, but unlike the massive Laulupidu song festival in Tallinn, which remains a hugely significant national cultural event, the folk singing tradition appears to be falling out of favor with younger Lithuanians.

LandofSongsThere are some eerily evocative performances by the distinguished ladies of the Ethnographic Ensemble of Puvočiai that seem to harken back to some mystical time before time. However, they cannot match the triumphant emotional crescendo of the massive Laulipidu performances. Still, the film really starts to come together when they link the Dainava folk songs with the Forest Brothers resistance movement. It is pretty significant to watch and listen to the Partisan veteran code-named “Tiger” singing some of their patriotic anthems in the bunker that was once his home. The Watts (director Aldona & cinematographer-co-producer Julian) also incorporate some wonderfully striking archival photos of their subjects that really give viewers a sense of the dramatic sweep of their lives.

Land of Songs is a lovely film that captures the idyllic beauty of the Dainava region (a.k.a. “The Land of Songs”) and the sly humor of its residents. It offers some solid history and accessible ethnomusicology. Frankly, Land really deserves to be picked up for a national audience on PBS stations (and with its sixty minute running time, the film could easily accommodate their broadcast schedules), but for now, look for it on the festival circuit. Highly recommended, Land of Songs screened this Friday afternoon (10/23) with the short doc The Ladies, as part of the AMNH’s Margaret Mead Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:35pm.

LFM Reviews Matria @ The 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. They were spryer, but the 100,000 man-strong volunteer defense force of traditional Mexican charro rodeo riders were about as unlikely a fighting force as Dad’s Army. Of course, it was all for show. Oaxaca Congressman and National Charro Association president Antolin Jimenez was the showman behind it. He was also filmmaker Fernando Llanos’s grandfather. Despite his prominence, Llanos’s family never really talked about the old man, so he conducts a personal investigation into his family history in Matria, which screens during the 2015 Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History.

MatriaJimenez was about as colorful as you can get. As a young man, he quickly rose to become one of Pancho Villa’s most trusted lieutenants. However, he could see the writing on the wall and therefore proactively planned his exit strategy. Basically, he sold out for a government position and gold. He did well for himself, eventually representing Oaxaca in congress on three separate occasions. He also became the leader of the charros, even though he was personally all hat and no cattle. However, he was a cold, distant person, so many in his family still have trouble dealing with his legacy. In fact, that is true of both his families.

Regardless of Llanos’s personal issues (Jimenez died soon after his birth), it is impossible to get bored with his grandfather’s roguishly eventful life. Considering the film really started as his journey of discovery, Llanos mostly takes himself out of the picture, rather conscientiously. Viewers certainly get a sense of what opportunities were available for an ethically flexible adventurer in early Twentieth Century Mexico. Llanos even finds a way to shoehorn in a performance from Lila Downs (a veteran of the Oaxaca music scene), who sounds lovely as ever.

Llanos balances the tension between the angst of his family drama and the Flashman-like appeal of Jimenez’s exploits relatively well. In the process, he gives us a perspective on bourgeoisie Mexico that we rarely get to see. Along with Llanos, we do come to appreciate Jimenez for all his flaws. In fact, it is easy to believe things would be better if he were still representing Oaxaca and cutting political deals. Even though it is just over an hour in length, the pacing is a tad inconsistent (and Llanos is bizarrely preoccupied with Jimenez’s Masonic membership), but the charro leader’s story is still intriguing enough to pull viewers through. Recommended for those fascinated by strange but true history, Matria screens this Sunday (10/25), as part of the AMNH’s Margaret Mead Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on October 23rd, 2015 at 11:32pm.