Movie Review Gerry

Gerry (2002) 

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Gus Van Sant

Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck 

Release Date February 14th, 2003

Published February 8th, 2004 

There has always been a hunger for films that challenge traditional cinematic form. Films that break with convention and deliver something that is diametrically opposed to Hollywood filmmaking. For the most part these challenging films came from Europe where the avant-garde arose as an artistic movement and a reaction to the encroachment of Hollywood formalism into European film markets. These challenging films are still being made but the hunger for them has died down, beaten back by the invention of the blockbuster and the big business that is Hollywood.

These films, however rare, are out there and Gerry from director Gus Van Sant is one of the most fascinating.

The film begins without credits. We simply open with light classical score and a long shot of a car on a lonely highway. This shot lasts for three or four minutes before switching to a shot of our two protagonists played by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon as they continue to drive. No words are spoken. Finally, they reach their unspecified destination, a hiking trail through the desert. Still no words are spoken.

It isn't until the 8-minute mark that a line of dialogue is spoken but it's not very enlightening except as a minor sign of things to come. A sign that says this is not a film where dialogue is going to explain, enlighten or entertain. As the two friends continue their journey, they bail on the hiking trail for a supposed shortcut before finally becoming lost in the desert. All of the film’s dialogue act as conversations that have already started before we met the two characters. There is a joking conversation about Wheel Of Fortune, some odd conversation about what I think was a video game, but not anything that is going to lead to a conventional plot.

The lost in the desert situation is no Blair Witch exciting fight for survival or wacky slice of life ala some ridiculous sitcom. It simply is what it is, two guys lost in the desert looking for a way out. The two characters never react the way you would expect from a conventional plot. There is very little whining or carrying on. Indeed neither character seems all that concerned about surviving or dying. If they are concerned they keep it to themselves, it's up to us in the audience to fill in the blanks.

In it's minimalism of one handheld camera, sparse dialogue and characters, Gerry is a direct challenge and reaction to the typical explain-it-all-style of the Jerry Bruckheimer era. No obvious explanatory dialogue that leads the audience to obvious conclusions, no quips and no filler before the next explosion of bullets. Gerry has none of those elements and goes to the very opposite extreme. For that I was willing to stick with and feel rewarded at the end. Challenged to create much of the movie in my own mind I was mesmerized by the film and it's techniques.

The films title is odd and not just in it's spelling of the oft-used name. In the film, both characters refer to one another as Gerry but one suspects that it is neither of their real names. In fact, Gerry is an in joke amongst Damon and Affleck's circle of friends. A “Gerry” is a fuck-up, someone who constantly screws up. A fitting title for two guys who manage to get lost in the desert in this day and age when everyone everywhere has a cellphone, pager, blackberry, and any myriad number of other electronic leashes to the outside world.

In that sense, what if the whole film is one big in-joke? What if Damon, Affleck and Van Sant simply went to the desert, film absolutely random shit and called it a movie? They put it together professionally with technical prowess in editing, shooting and scoring to make it look legitimate. Then released the film so that people like myself could rhapsodize about it's minimalist genius and it's influences garnered from Bela Tarr and Fassbinder and other people only snobs have ever heard of.

Whether or not we have been made a fool of, we will never know. I for one don't care if I have been duped. I enjoyed the opportunity to so actively watch the film. To take my mind in odd directions in order to fill in the empty passages that are filled with shots of the two actors walking and the sound of rock under foot. Gerry is a form of film meditation and I dug that about it. 

Movie Review Gang Tapes

Gang Tapes (2001) 

Directed by Adam Ripp 

Written by Adam Ripp

Starring Darris Love, Trivell 

Release Date February 1st, 2001

Published October 20th, 2002 

It’s been called the movie “they” don’t want you to see. Some have compared it to the Blair Witch Project, for it’s shaky cam style and improvised dialogue. These are merely marketing concoctions that don’t do the film justice. What the film Gang Tapes really is, is the most truthful and shocking look at life in inner city Los Angeles.

As the film begins with vacation footage of some nameless white family, the audience wonders if they are watching the right movie. Then as quickly as the occurs the dread begins as the family on the tape begins to shed light on the situation, they are lost. Suddenly and violently the once happy family is gone, brutally car jacked, their fate unknown. The beginning of Gang Tapes is jarring enough but as the film develops, the shocks continue. The audience is given moments of calm, followed by horror that leads to more shocking realistic violence.

The film is the creation of Adam Ripp, a first time writer-director with more courage than talent. Ripp worked with actual gang members in the making of Gang Tapes, giving them a digital camera and a minimum of storyline to carry forward thru the film. The lone actor in the film is Darris Love whose minor television work is the experience amongst the amazing cast. A young man credited as Trivell is the film's focal point. Kris, a fourteen year old who has grown up worshipping the gang members in his neighborhood, is our eyes and ears behind the camera. 

As Kris gets deeper involved in gang life the audience is treated to more and more shocks and sadness. We witness Kris being beat into the gang, a ritual wherein the gang kicks and punches Kris until they feel he is tough enough to be a member. We see Kris and his idol Alonzo (Love) demonstrating how to make rock cocaine. And in the film's most shocking and hard to watch scene, Kris commits his first murder.

Gang Tapes is an amazing film, in style and subject. In style it is a likely unintentional homage to French cinema verite and the European Dogme 95 movement. Indeed Gang Tapes meets most of the requirements of a Dogme film, save for it’s use of weapons and director Adam Ripp being credited as the director. More than likely the style of the film has more to do with budget than obscure European film movements but the similarities are striking if you are a scholar.

In subject Gang Tapes makes every other film of the gang genre seem superficial in comparison.

Much like the best of early 90’s Gangsta Rap, Gang Tapes shines a light on inner city gang activities that many would like to ignore. People such as Los Angeles Congressional Representative Maxine Waters who would rather staple her eyes shut than acknowlege the gang activity that takes place in the very district from which she was elected.

The film could stand for a little more editing and a tighter pace but it is nevertheless challenging, shocking and sad. This is a brilliant and valuable work of art.

Movie Review Gacy

Gacy (2003) 

Directed by Clive Saunders

Written by David Birke, Clive Saunders

Starring Mark Holton, Charlie Webber Glenn Morshower, John Laughlin 

Release Date May 13th, 2003 

Published May 13th, 2003 

You have seen them all over your video stores New Release shelves over the last year, serial killer movies. Movies about real life killers that take the killer’s name as the film’s title. Films such as Dahmer, Bundy and Ed Gein amongst others. The latest addition to this growing genre is Gacy, about the legendary Chicago serial killer who stashed the bodies of 27 teenage boys in the crawl space beneath his home.

The film begins with Gacy as a young man on a fishing trip with his father played by Adam Baldwin. As this opening sequence goes on, the tension between father and son grows, with Gacy's Dad challenging his son’s manhood to provoke a physical attack. Finally young Gacy does fight back but can't bring himself to actually hit his father. This encounter haunts him the rest of his life.

Cut to 1976 in the suburbs of Chicago where the neighbors of John Wayne Gacy are complaining about the awful smell coming from underneath the Gacy home. John Wayne Gacy (Mark Holton) seems to be a gregarious, apologetic family man. On the surface he's a loving father of twin daughters who let's his doting mother live with his family. So just what is that awful stench coming from underneath his house?

Late at night after his wife and children are asleep, Gacy sneaks away from his home and into the city of Chicago. Once there he pretends to be a police officer and busts teenage runaways who turn tricks to survive. Part of his gimmick is to offer the kids a chance to not be arrested, if they do favors for him. Then he knocks them cold and either strangles or stabs them to death. Although occasionally, for some reason unexplained by the film, Gacy let's some of his potential victims go. One potential victim he merely has sex with then drops him off in the park, an act he would come to regret when the kid goes to the cops.

The film doesn't get much into the police investigation of Gacy's activities, only that detectives were following Gacy and at one point, even camped out on Gacy's lawn as they waited for cause to search the house. The film focuses mostly on Gacy's real or imagined relationship with a kid he hires to work in his house painting business. When the kid confesses to Gacy that he is having problems with his father, Gacy offers him a room in his home, taking the room of his daughters who by this time have left with Gacy's suspicious wife.

Mark Holton, best known as the fat guy from Teen Wolf, or Pee Wee Herman's nemesis Francis in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, plays Gacy as a troubled, closeted homosexual. The film posits the theory that Gacy killed teenage boys as some kind of psychic revenge on his father. The psychology of the film is somewhat muddled to the point where armchair psychiatrists will have a hard time coming to any conclusions about Gacy's mental health except for the obvious, he's a nutball.

Clive Saunders wrote and directed Gacy and doesn't bring much to it other than a couple stylish camera setups and narrative inertia. As a movie, Gacy fails to interest audiences because it plays as a mystery with no mystery. We know going in that Gacy murdered 31 people, we know going in that most of the victims were buried beneath his home, the only mystery is why Gacy did it and the film brings no new insight to that mystery. 

Movie Review Mischief

Mischief (1985) 

Directed by Mel Damski 

Written by Noel Black 

Starring Kelly Preston, Doug McKeon, Catherine Mary Stewart 

Release Date February 8th, 1985

Published February 8th, 2015 

There is a reason that the pleasant and quite entertaining movie “Mischief” is mostly lost to time. The film simply lacks any ambition. While it has entertaining performances, a terrific soundtrack, and an easy to relate to coming of age story, the film is stubbornly small in its ambition. There is no wont in the film to be anything more than a very slight teenage romance.

Doug McKeon is the ostensible lead of “Mischief” as Jonathan, a teenage horndog with a longstanding crush on Marilyn (Kelly Preston) that is seemingly doomed to be nothing more than a crush. Then, Jonathan meets Gene (Chris Nash) a classic other side of the tracks, James Dean loving, fellow outcast who becomes his guru with the ladies. It is Gene’s mission to help Jonathan get laid, a classically 80’s notion of teen comedy.

Together, Jonathan and Gene endure the pitfalls of smalltown life with rich kid bullies and indifferent adult figureheads aiming to keep them on the straight and narrow path to squaresville. Their friendship, while unlikely, is nevertheless well rendered and we can’t help but feel for both guys, even as we’ve witnessed this story more than a few times. McKeon and Nash work well together and with the aid of Preston’s smoking hot Marilyn and Catherine Mary Stewart’s more thoughtful Bunny, we find a group of characters that are easy to like and root for.

It’s just a shame that “Mischief” doesn’t have a little more ambition. Unlike the characters of another 1985 teens coming of age comedy, “The Breakfast Club,” the characters of “Mischief” are simply too narrow and singular. They have no ambition to be characters who define a generation. That comes in part from the film’s 1950’s setting which removes it from the modern experiences of teens of the time, but also from the narrow notions the film has about love and small town life. There is no grand statement to “Mischief” only minor, humorous incident.

If “Mischief” has a legacy now it’s only due to Kelly Preston. Her young, nubile, nudity was long a staple of the porn site “Mr. Skin,” home of celebrity nude stills from movies. Does “Mischief” deserve a better legacy than that? It might if the film had more ambition. As it is, I guess, it’s rather fitting.

Movie Review Fulltime Killer

Fulltime Killer (2001) 

Directed by Johnny To, Wai Ka-Fai 

Written by Wai Ka-Fai, Joey O'Brien 

Starring Andy Lau, Takashi Sorimachi, Simon Yam, Kelly Lin 

Release Date August 3rd, 2001 

Published June 9th, 2003 

In this country, we make a big deal about violence in films and television. In other countries, however, the reaction to violence in films is quite different. Especially a place like Hong Kong where violence has become it's own artform.

With the films of Chow Yun Fat and especially those of John Woo, violence in Hong Kong films was accorded the respect and artistry that we in America attribute to a Meryl Streep performance. The tradition of highly stylized violence in Hong Kong movies continues today even as many of it's most well known stars and directors have moved onto American films.

Fulltime Killer is one of the latest in a long line of artfully violent Hong Kong movies. While it may not be the equal of a Hard Boiled, it's as slickly blood-soaked and entertaining as the number of films it references. There is a long in the tooth cliche in Hong Kong action films about top assassins killing other assassins to become the best killer in the world. Fulltime Killer plays this same theme, shamelessly aping the number of films that have played this same plot.

O (Takashi Sorimachi) is the top assassin in all of Asia, a cold blooded killer who murders a former high school friend, after completing a contract, simply because that friend could identify him to the police. O lives in almost complete isolation as to avoid unsatisfied clients or fellow killers who hope to unseat him. Maintaining two apartments, O's only connection to the outside world is a woman he hires to clean his apartment. As he watches from his real apartment across the street, the beautiful young Chin (Kelly Lin) cleans his apartment. Chin suspects he is watching and even toys with him by undressing in front of open windows before cleaning. She also suspects that her boss is an assassin.

Chin's suspicions are confirmed by the emergence of another assassin, the movie-obsessed Tok (Andy Lau). The two meet when the ultra charismatic Tok seeks out his rival’s new cleaning lady at her other job as a video store clerk. Wearing, of all things, a Bill Clinton mask, Tok seduces Chin into a date, which he leaves halfway through to do a job. He then returns all the while still wearing the mask. Once the mask comes off, the truth comes out. Rather than be put off by the killer, Chin is even more intrigued and takes to being the girlfriend of an assassin.

There is far more to Tok's motivation to kill O, not only the pride of becoming the top killer but also vengeance for the death of his girlfriend, O's former cleaning lady. She was the victim of one of O's rivals.

None of this story is new, but the stylish self-referential Fulltime Killers never feels stale. Directors Johnny To and Kai Fai Wai revel in their homage to various films. Occasionally referring to the films by name such as Leon The Professional and El Mariachi. The stylishness of the floating camera's and over the top use crane's and dollies keeps the film moving at a breakneck pace. Slowing down for only moments for minor exposition, it's the exhibition of stylized violence that fascinates the directors. It has certainly been done before and it's been done better but the enjoyment that permeates the edge of every scene gives it all a freshness.

The film’s stars are two very charismatic young stars in Andy Lau and Tokashi Sorimachi. The confident attention grabbing performances provide the spark the film needs to separate itself from its various influences. It is the performances of the two leads as well as Kelly Lin and Hong Kong veteran Simon Yam as a cop on the trio's tail that makes Fulltime Killer an exciting, energetic thriller.

Movie Review Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th (1980) 

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham

Written by Victor Miller 

Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Kevin Bacon, Laurie Bartram

Release Date May 9th, 1980

Published August 17th, 2003 

It seems many horror fans have been operating under great delusion for a number of years. That delusion is that Jason Voorhees was the star of each of the Friday the 13th films. That is not the case. Nine sequels with Jason as the focal point have colored the minds of many fans of Jason's high body count. In fact the first Friday the 13th film could be considered a stand-alone picture. It operates as a revenge movie/psycho horror film. Jason is merely a plot point, a motivation.

What is far more interesting though is how much you miss the Jason of myth as you revisit the first Friday the 13th. Over time, that myth has become a charming little joke of over the top beheadings and implausible returns from the grave. The first Friday the 13th is quite tepid in comparison with it's quasi realistic violence and complete lack of the supernatural.

The story has been copied numerous times in numerous knock off's, and of course the film itself was in fact a knock off but I digress. A group of nubile camp counselors has assembled at Camp Crystal Lake at the behest of the new owner Steve Christy (Peter Brouwer). But not without having been warned by the nearby residents that the camp is cursed. It's seems that in 1957 a young boy drowned in the lake. The following year, two counselors were brutally murdered. Each time the camp was reopened a new tragedy befell the new counselors. Nevertheless, our intrepid counselors move ahead with renovations.

It's not long however before the bodies begin to pile up. First, it’s the camps new cook Annie (Robbie Morgan) who never actually makes it to the camp. Then a couple, Jack (Kevin Bacon) and Marcie (Jeanine Taylor), who make the classic horror film mistake of having sex. After a few more murders, including the offscreen slaying of the camp’s owner, it's down to young Alice (Adrienne King) to fight off our heretofore unseen assailant.

Director Sean S. Cunningham, a veteran horror producer, doesn't bring much style to the film, though his effects and makeup are quite good. Cunningham lacks mostly in his building of suspense. The decision to leave the killer offscreen seems similar to Steven Spielberg's trouble with the shark in Jaws. It's not that he wanted the shark off-screen, it just didn't work. The same could be said of Cunningham. That keeping the killer off-screen for most of the film was not a creative choice, but one of necessity, as if he wasn't sure until late in the game how he would play it. His choice of killers is a debate for the ages.

Some horror fans claim that the killer is a great shocker that plays off stereotypical archetypes in an ironic surprise twist. I say the producers couldn't think of anything better and what they came up with is lame and horribly contrived. I am of the school of horror fans who believe that the series didn't really begin until the second film when Jason arose from the grave, not wearing the hockey mask by the way. He began a legendary run that continues soon with the recently released Freddy Vs Jason. 

Movie Review Freak Out

Freak Out (2004) 

Directed by Christian James

Written by Christian James 

Starring James Heathcote, Dan Palmer 

Release Date October 15th, 2004

Published April 11th, 2004 

In the tradition of low budget horror trash from Troma films comes the British import Freak Out, a gory horror parody that spills as much blood as your average horror films with twice the laughs. Unlike most horror films, these laughs are intentional and delivered by a terrific cast of first time actors working on a budget that only Kevin Smith and the Blair Witch guys could appreciate.

The story, such as it is, is about Merv (James Heathcote), a bored Londoner with a passion for horror films. His bedroom is festooned with horror posters and he makes daily trips top the local video store to claim every new and old horror title he can get his hands on. Merv knows all of the old horror tropes and hopes to one day direct his own real horror film.

Fate smiles on him and Merv gets his chance when he captures a real life escaped mental patient hiding in his shower. With the help of his best friend Onkey (Dan Palmer), Merv trains the gentle mental patient, who only wishes to become a killer at Merv’s behest, to become a serial killer straight out of one of his favorite movies.

It’s slow going at first since the killer is a vegetarian who is terrified of the sight of blood. His idea of a scary killer outfit is a potato sack over his head, a tennis racket and a tutu. With the help of Merv and Onkey, the killer adopts the name ‘The Looney” because he escaped the looney bin and begins to take to killing Merv and Onkey’s friends and neighbors.

This movie is wildly all over the place with humor that flies between Scary Movie-esque quips and puns and Troma-style over the top gore. There is also scatology to spare, especially in a wacky subplot about the killer’s obsession with Dallas star Larry Hagman.

Writer-Director Christian James and his cast clearly enjoyed every minute of this low budget production and that joy flies off the screen in torrents of fake blood and over the top humor. James also shows a very professional flair considering the film’s low budget. Freak Out is surprisingly well shot and edited. Troma has been in this business for more than 20 years and their venerable director Lloyd Kaufman has yet to direct a film that looks as good as Freak Out.

It’s a tough film to find, independently produced out of Britain, but if you can get your hands on a copy, do it. Freak Out is the perfect “get your friends together, drink beer, and laugh your ass off movie.”