Jason previews upcoming events--Dead Channels

Those who read the last post carefully will notice that I said there were a couple of film festivals coming up that I'm excited about, and then I went on to only talk about the SF Jewish Film Festival. The other upcoming event, right after Jewfest, is Dead Channels, the San Francisco Festival of Fantastic Film. Their schedule just came out, here.

Dead Channels is the brain child of Bruce Fletcher, former programmer of Indiefest and Another Hole in the Head festivals. I've enjoyed his programming over the years, so I'm very excited to see what happens when he has full, unfettered control and is programming only horror/fantasy/sci-fi films. Plus, he's the guy who programmed Indiefest so it's possible--but not easy--to see everything. I assume he's done the same for Dead Channels. More info on that soon, including my planned schedule.

A couple of extra news bits. Dead Channels are teaming up with the Thrillpeddlers before, during, and after the festival. Although I don't see it on either website yet, starting next Wednesday, July 18th, and every Wednesday leading up to the festival they'll be showing "Live Acts and Dead Channels" at the Hypnodrome. Earlier I reviewed Hypnodrome Head Trips and bemoaned the fact that I saw it near the end of their run and therefore didn't have a lot of time to tell everyone to see it. Well, they're reprising the longest of the plays from that show, "The Revelations of Jean Vadim: The Oracle of the Cephalic Vivarium", and showing a different cult film every night, as follows:
July 18th: Terror of Tiny Town
July 25th: Witchcraft Through the Ages
August 1st: White Zombie
August 8th: Creation of the Humanoids

Plus during the festival they're hosting two nights:
August 13th will be "Spookshow Salute!" featuring Dick Newton, an original spookshow cast member of "Dr. Ogre Banshee's Chasm of Spasms" ('47) and "Den of Living Nightmares" ('48), followed by a screening of the Boris Karloff film, "The Sorcerers".

August 15th will be "Thrilpeddlers Flashback" featuring a reprise of another "Hypnodrome Head Trips" play, "The Empress of Colma" with some psychadelic shorts of some sort. This is a fundraiser for their trip to Burning Man. Awesome, I hope I see you guys there!

And finally, they're hosting a post-festival "Rock n Roll Wrap Party" on August 17th, with glam rock and a screening of the Brian De Palma classic re-working of the more classic "Phantom of the Opera", "Phantom of the Paradise".


And, of course, the festival features gobs and gobs of films. I know a bit about some of them, but for now I just want to mention one of them--the opening night gala presentation of "Postal" by Uwe Boll--the crapmeister behind "House of the Dead", "Alone in the Dark", and "Bloodrayne" has allegedly made a great pitch black politically incorrect comedy, and he'll be there for the screening. I've heard this from multiple sources now, so I'm holding out hope. We'll see. But more importantly, you have to understand the history behind this. You see, back in 2003, before anyone knew who he was, he came to Indiefest to present his high school shooting drama "Heart of America: Homeroom" and the World Premiere of the uncensored director's cut of "House of the Dead", and I was there to see it. Now I know this was a) cut down from the version I saw, and b) went on to be one of the most universally reviled films ever. Now I didn't know b) would happen when I saw it, but in that spirit I reach waaaay back into my archives to find out what I wrote back then. I'm afraid to look:

Then I went to the world premiere of "House of the Dead", based on the Sega video game of the same name. This was directed by Uwe Boll, who also did "Heart of America: Homeroom", and I think it's wonderful that he can do a thoughtful, political movie like "Heart of America" and follow it up with a brainless shoot-em-up zombie movie. "House of the Dead" is very close to a deal for distribution (if they haven't signed by now), and I'm sure when it's released, it'll be savaged by the critics. I don't think it's entirely unfair, it is a pretty brainless movie, with little plot and even less character development. But I believe video game movies should be held to a different standard (that is, if you accept the dubious prospect that they should be made at all). You don't make a video game movies for the plot or character development, you make video game movies to recreate the fun of playing the video game in live action. "House of the Dead", the video game was about zombies jumping out of everywhere and you shoot at them. "House of the Dead", the movie, had zombies jumping out everywhere, and the heroes had to shoot them. Perfect. One thing I'll note, like "Hell's Highway" [author's note: think the original "The Hills Have Eyes" with raver kids], the heroes were a bunch of raver kids (this time the zombies attack the rave, instead of them getting lost on the way home). The ravers in "Hell's Highway" were a lot more convincing. "House of the Dead" had raver "kids" who looked more like young adults on their way to a cocktail party. Oh, one other thing of note, Uwe Boll used a lot of the same actors in both movies, including Jurgen ("Das Boot") Prochnow and Clint (brother of Ron) Howard. Clint Howard (along with Uwe and a lot of the cast was at the Q&A session afterwards), and he was pretty funny.

So, that gives you an idea of my compulsion to find something nice to say about any movie, and hence I've now lost all credibility as a critic. So what, I've never claimed to be a real critic. But if you want to see me really lay into a crappy film, remind me to dig up my review of "Bettie Page: Dark Angel".

See you at Dead Channels!

Jason goes to Dead Channels--closing night

All right, three final films, and then a bonus after party the next night. Here we go:

First up was a 1972 nihilistic dystopian future drama "Z.P.G." aka "Zero Population Growth". In the future the world is so polluted that people can only go outside with gas masks. The world is also so overpopulated that the world governments agree to set a 30 year ban on childbirth. Women pregnant at the time are allowed to register and give birth, but no new pregnancies are allowed (at least, they aren't allowed to continue). People who want babies can buy robotic children and trade them in for more grown-up models as they age (problem is, everyone just wants to keep the infant versions). Anyone found with a baby is summarily executed, and the first person to rat them out gets extra ration cards. Russ and Carol accidentally conceive, and she keeps it secret as long as she can. Once Russ finds out, she convinces him to let her have the baby, and they'll raise it in secret, with the help of their sympathetic neighbors. That is, until their neighbors' jealousy causes them to turn on each other. Although some sets and props are somewhat dated (and some aren't, I love the idea of streets so thick with smog you can't see your hand in front of your face, they must have spent a fortune of fog machines), the ideas still work well today--the desperation of a babyless world, a dystopian future controlled by an oppressive government, a mad dash to freedom, etc. work so well today that they were made into one of my favorite films of this last year, "Children of Men".

Then there was a funny/scary horror master anthology "Trapped Ashes", a nod to anthology films such as "Creepshow" that celebrate the good ol' fun of making people scream, squirm, and laugh. Joe Dante ("Gremlins", "The Howling") directs the wrap-around segments, with the always excellent Henry Gibson as a tour guide on a movie set who traps his guests in an old haunted house set and forces them to all tell their most embarrassing stories. And these are some guests with some fucked up stories. Ken Russell ("Altered States") directs the demonic breast-implant story that everyone else was afraid to touch. Sean S. Cunningham ("Friday the 13th") presents a story of an American couple in Japan where the wife has an erotic encounter with a demon. Monte Hellman ("Two Lane Blacktop") directs the straightest dramatic story of the bunch, about a talented young filmmaker named Stanley and the succubus who shaped his life. And finally John Gaeta, the Oscar winning visual effects supervisor on the "Matrix" movies makes his directorial debut with the story of a woman who shares a psychic bond with her fraternal twin--a tapeworm. A sick, beautiful, cheesy, twisted, sexy movie that had me asking myself at one point, 'would it be rude to jump up on stage and start rubbing up against the screen?' (Answer: I was too chicken to find out).

And the final movie was a New Zealand comic stuntman gem, "The Devil Dared Me To". Created by Chris Stapp and Matt Heath, and based on a character they created for a UK Channel 4 show called "Balls of Steel" (it's apparently a mix of sketch comedy with real stunts a la "Jackass"). Randy Campbell (Stapp) is New Zealand's greatest stuntman, and this is the story of his origins. Coming from a long line of stuntmen, he grew up on New Zealand's South Island (aka, the shit island) dreaming of the greatest stunt--to jump the 15 miles of Cook Strait and land on the North Island. He becomes part of daredevil great Dick Johansonson's (Heath) Timaru Hellridres, but is never allowed to do any stunts. Instead he cleans the port-a-potties while washed up Johansonson bangs groupies between mediocre failed stunts. He finally gets his break filling in for an injured driver, and his career takes off. He also meets the love of his life, beautiful one-legged Tracy "Tragedy" Jones. Of course, wacky hijinx ensue all over the place, involving beer, stunts, and gross-out humor. I loved it, and I've already ordered the first season of "Balls of Steel" from amazon.co.uk.

And that was the end of the festival.

...

But wait, there's more! Friday night there was a kick-ass after party at the Hypnodrome, the last of the "Live Acts and Dead Channels". A rock and roll theme, they presents Jack Chick's out-of-print warning about rock music--even Christian rock, in "The Angels". There was one last sing-along to "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the player piano, as well as a sing-along of "Happy Birthday" to Everett. And the final touch, a Brian De Palma's glam-rock adaptation of "Phantom of the Opera" (and "Faust"), "Phantom of the Paradise", complete with drunken fans talking too loud at too many points (sorry about that, but I wasn't the only one).

Then off to the secret after hours club, where I had a bit more to drink, passed out (more from exhaustion than alcohol), napped a couple of hours, then caught a ride home with a friend.

And that was Dead Channels. I can never come up with just one favorite of a festival, but here are my tops:

"The Devil Dared Me To", "Disquiet", "The District", "End of the Line", "Gamera the Brave", "Happy Birthday Wanda June", "Jupiter Love", "The Living and the Dead", "Postal", "The Secret Life of Sarah Sheldon", "Spider Baby", "Trail of the Screaming Forehead", Trapped Ashes", "Z.P.G"

If I had to narrow that list down, first just on contemporary, new movies:
"The District", "Disquiet", "End of the Line", "The Living and the Dead". I could also give honorable mention to "The Secret Life of Sarah Sheldon", but the projection was so dark I don't think I saw it all. Once I have a chance to watch the DVD, I'll see if I like it even more.

And for the classic revivals, I'll end with a plea for someone to release "Happy Birthday Wanda June" and/or "Z.P.G." on DVD. Better yet, someone should revive "Wanda June" on stage where it originated.

Jason goes to the Castro for a Paul Williams double freature

And it's darn good fun.

First up, the family friendly (if you don't think too much about cross-species mating) THE MUPPET MOVIE (1979.) What can I say? I love the Muppets, and this is a beautiful, charming, funny movie with tons of cameos by now dead celebrities (and a few who are even still alive.) Paul Williams wrote the music and has a cameo as the piano player at El Sleezo saloon. Kermit travels from his swamp to Hollywood, uniting Muppets all along the way, evading an evil Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) who wants Kermit to be the spokesman for his chain of fried frog legs restaurants. There are plenty of corny jokes, running gags (I'm lost/ Have you tried Hare Krishna?) and breaking of the fourth wall (it's all framed by the Muppets watching the mostly-true movie of how they made it to Hollywood.) It's just too much fun, and honestly I would've sat through anything just for the giant Animal scene.

And then the less family friendly PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974.) Brian De Palma's glam-rock musical about the record industry, The Phantom of the Opera, and Faust (with a little Frankenstein, Cask of Amontillado, Psycho, and The Picture of Dorian Gray thrown in for good measure.) I've seen and reviewed this a couple of times before, and I still love it. But what occurred to me recently is that I don't know anyone who doesn't like this movie. And that seems odd. It's kind of silly, there are a lot of bits worth mocking, it was not a success on its initial release, but it has become a cult favorite and somehow immune to criticism. So how about it, do I have any readers out there who actually hate PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and want to make a case against it?

I also need to point out that previously I had only seen it on film (well, on DVD at home, but film only in the theater) but the print that has been around the SF Bay Area for a while is pretty faded and worn out, so the Castro actually played it on HD video. And purists be damned, it looked beautiful and I could notice things I'd never seen before (like "Swan Song" symbols not covered with "Death Records.") And that includes my new favorite scene in the movie. When Beef is attacked by the Phantom in the shower, he has a red squiggly temporary tattoo on his cheek. Minutes later, Philbin finds him trying to escape the theater, and now he has a green clover tattoo on his cheek. So his thinking after the attack was, 'I have to go. I'm going to dress, pack my bags, change the tattoo on my cheek, and get the heck out of here!'  And he claims to know the difference between drug real and real real.

Total Running Time: 187 minutes
My Total Minutes: 290,038

Jason watches a midnight screening of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

After Lebrowski (and after watching my buddy Ira bust his ass cleaning up. Good luck on your job interview, Ira!), we drove over to the Bridge for a midnight screening of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.

With Peaches Christ touring with her film ALL ABOUT EVIL, we needed new midnight happenings at the Bridge. And stepping in is Citizen Midnight with Rocksploitation. A little rock and roll to start it off--a few original homages to the movie, and a few from the soundtrack. And then it was time to start the flick

As always, Brian De Palma's glam-rock take on Faust, Phantom of the Opera, and a few other horror classics (a bit of Cask of Amontillado, a bit of Frankenstein) is awesome. So awesome, I loved it even though I was so exhausted I dozed off a bit near the end.

A bit of trivia: PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE was released on the most important day in the history of the human race--October 31, 1974 (my birthday).

Running Time: 92 minutes
My Total Minutes 190,694

Jason goes to Midnites for Maniacs--the Sadie Hawkin's tribute.

Last Friday night at the Castro, our cinema-church celebrated female empowerment with a trio of films. So let's jump right in.

ROMY AND MICHELLE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION (1997): This is actually the one film of the night I was looking forward to/dreading the most. Looking forward to it because it was the one I hadn't seen before. Dreading it because I remember why I avoided it 15 years ago. I had--and still have--little interest in watching the dumb adventures of dumb L.A. bleach blonds, and that's all it was marketed as. So I could blame the marketing for the fact that I had never seen it, but in truth if I want to call myself a true cinephile I should be willing to avoid the marketing and take a chance at an odd looking movie. Because the thing is, ROMY AND MICHELLE is secretly a modern pop fantasy surrealist masterpiece. Yes, they're ditzy blonds, and that's still the part of the movie I don't care much for. And it took a while for me to get into it, but the dream sequence (oh yeah, sorry, I'm going to get spoiler-y now--it's a 15 year old movie so if you haven't seen it yet it's your fault) was just awesome. They played with the convention, tipping off that it's a dream sequence (a dream sequence while driving in a car, no less) but then dragging it on to a ridiculous length (like 70 years later!) And then the dance sequence! Okay, my new goal in life is to convince two lovely ladies to recreate the dance scene from ROMY AND MICHELLE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION with me (level of difficulty, I have to dance Mira Sorvino's part.) Oh, not to mention how good Janeane Garofalo is at playing a bitter, angry bitch--but has a redemptive moment when she realizes there was someone whom she made miserable in high school! Dammit, this movie was actually good!

PRETTY IN PINK (1986): This was only my second time seeing PRETTY IN PINK. I can practically hear you all gasping! If you think that's shocking, brace yourself--I wasn't that impressed with it the first time I saw it, and I'm still not impressed. And I can't really identify why. The acting is great and the characters memorable--Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, young Jon Cryer going nuts as Duckie, Annie Potts, James Spader, Andrew McCarthy. They all do great work here. Even Andrew Dice Clay's cameo as a bouncer is pretty amusing. And the story--high school angst and romance wrapped around a form of class warfare...well, it should be more interesting. But that's just it, as far as I can tell every element works in this movie, I'm just not interested in it. That's just the way it is. I'm sorry, I know Midnites for Maniacs is a judgement-free zone, but this blog isn't.

CARRIE (1976): And finally, this classic. Brian De Palma being sleazy, funny, and scary, in this first ever adaptation of a Stephen King novel to film. I fuckin' love this movie, probably my second favorite De Palma film (behind PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.)  It was an awesome treat to see it on the big screen, in 35 mm. And, like PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, I always manage to notice something new in it. This time our host Jesse Hawthorne Ficks alerted us to keep an eye out for Hitchcock references. I had noticed previously that the school was Bates High School (a reference to the main character in PSYCHO), but I somehow had never made the connection that they were called the Stingers (their mascot being a bee.) I guess the last time I saw CARRIE was so long ago that I didn't realize that "stinger" is a term for the piercing notes in a film score, most easily exemplified by the theme to PSYCHO (which is referenced heavily in CARRIE's soundtrack.) Well played, De Palma, well played!

Total Running Time: 286 minutes
My Total Minutes: 324,086

Jason takes a Midnites for Maniacs theatre crawl and goes Back to Skool

Catching up on my blogging, almost a week late.

Anyway, Midnites 4 Maniacs has introduced a new wrinkle, the "Theatre Crawl"--seeing multiple movies in multiple theatres (like a bar crawl, but with movies instead of drinking...and with drinking if you stop in any of the many convenience stores and smuggle in some alcohol.)

Anyway, last Friday was Back to Skool night, and we started at the Castro.

CAN'T HARDLY WAIT (1998): A movie that looked uninteresting to me when it came out (and I had just graduated college.) But now from my vantage point 15 years later...I understand why it didn't interest me. I was not a social person in high school. Nor did I want to be. The idea of going to an end-of-school party (even with a ridiculous revenge plot) just wouldn't appeal to me. I came out of my shell somewhat in college, but I don't think I've really become "me" until the last few years, and I'm probably still a work in progress who likes to be alone quite a lot of the time.

But wait, this is supposed to be a review of the movie, not a review of me. Yeah, it's actually pretty funny, for what it is. And you get to see a young Seth Green being absolutely ridiculous. Mostly I liked the irony in the title: CAN'T HARDLY WAIT is about a bunch of young people who waited until the last possible minute to do what they've been dreaming about for years. The thing is, most everyone who likes this movie likes it because there's a character they relate to. They can all say, "I was (or am) just like that character who ______!" But me...the closest I can say is "I was just like the character who never appeared on screen because he didn't give a crap about the party (no one told him about it anyway) and he stayed home and read a book." Consider me Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film.

RULES OF ATTRACTION (2002): Now this was a revelation. Again, I didn't pay much attention when it came out. All I remember was it starred teen heartthrob James Van Der Beek at the height of his "Dawson's Creek" fame, and that one version of the poster stirred up some controversy (note: I want that poster now!)

Van Der Beek did not make this movie to capitalize on his pretty-boy fame, he made it to subvert it and not get typecast as Dawson. And he's an extremely unlikable character--drinking, doing drugs, dealing drugs, screwing, screwing over his friends, etc. Not that anyone else is that sympathetic, either. Nor are the filmmakers or anyone involved at all sympathetic. Perhaps the biggest trolling insult you could give director Roger Avary is to say, "I really, really enjoyed RULES OF ATTRACTION." This is not a movie to be enjoyed. It's a movie to appreciate, to marvel at, even to be blown away by; but if you enjoy it you're one sick freak. You open with a rape scene. You go back in time. You meet your gaggle of shallow, privileged college students. The fuck. They fuck around. They try to fall in love. They fail. They try to make money to pay off their drug dealer. They fail. There's a suicide so beautifully, obsessively, fetishistic-ally shot that you forget for a minute she's hardly a character in the movie. And now you're about halfway through. No more, too many spoilers already. And so much it's hard to keep it all in my head. I need to watch it again. I really, really enjoyed it.

Also, how about a double feature of RULES OF ATTRACTION and GLITTERATI (the feature-length version of the rapid-edit "European trip" sequence in the movie)...if it ever gets released? (Please, please, please!)


Then we walked down to the Roxie for the midnight screening of...

TERRORVISION (1986): What...the...fuck? A satellite dish (remember those, when people had gigantic satellite dishes to get all this TV without paying monthly bills for cable service?) accidentally pulls an alien creature into our world. Or...into whatever weird world of swingers this takes place in. Cheesy special effects, ridiculous plot, survivalist grandpa, the kid no one believes, and a late-night TV horror hostess with cleavage that doesn't end. Oh yeah, and  Beef from PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and Laslo from REAL GENIUS (or, if you prefer, Gerrit Graham and John Gries.) Then it gets weird.

Total Running Time: 293 minutes
My Total Minutes: 337,636