Saturday, December 13, 2014

Jason goes to Holehead--Day 5

Two more last Tuesday, including the first 35 mm presentation in the festival.

But first, SUBURBAN GOTHIC, the story of wise-cracking Raymond, who escaped his stupid town full of dumb jock bullies and got himself an MBA (at his parents' insistence.) Now he's back home because he can't find a job in upper management right out of school. My god, the way I just described that he seems like such an unlikable character, but the way Matthew Gray Gubler plays him he isn't. He's immensely likable, even admirable in a kind of wish-I-could-coast-through-life-because-sometimes-the-effort-I-put-into-my-job-seems-crazy way. Well, while he's dealing with his doting but overbearing mother, and asshole jock father, he starts having some supernatural visions that he hasn't experienced since he was a child. So his new friend, badass bartender Becca helps him kick some supernatural butt. And it's a lot of fun.

And then a wonderful oddity, the 35 mm presentation of THE ASTROLOGER. A recently unearthed oddity from 1975, the making and discovery of this film could be a crazy documentary in and of itself (short version, it was found in the vault of an old drive-in theater.) The only film ever made by Craig Denney (there's at least one conspiracy theory that he faked his own death,) he introduces his character as a small boy pickpocketing a woman at a carnival. Soon, all grown up, he's the fortune-telling sideshow of the carnival. And then he's a jewel thief, a movie and TV star, a government consultant, and a giant asshole. It's an understatement to say you never know what will happen next in the movie. At one moment all the women in a restaurant will remove their tops. At another a woman will yell a racial slur and kill someone. And it assumes you have a working knowledge of Astrology and not only know the difference between sidereal and tropical astrology, but have a strong opinion of which one is right (sidereal, of course!) This is not a movie you watch, process, and understand, this is a movie you witness in a mix of horror and confusion, experience, and marvel at (sometimes the marvel being "what they heck were they doing making this movie?") But what can you expect from a movie that considers Long Beach a mesmerizing location?

Total Running Time: 168 minutes
My Total Minutes: 376,316

No comments: