Night of the Comet (rewatch)

A guilty pleasure from my younger days.  This movie screams 80′s: pointless neon all over the place, legwarmers and other awful fashion choices, and a bunch of cheeseball pop songs.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great songs from the 80′s, but none of them are on this soundtrack.  The one decent tune — a soundalike cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” — is reserved for the most famous scene: the mall.  It’s one of those scenes that demonstrates the exuberant consumerist glee of having a shopping center to run amok in (see also: Dawn of the Dead, Career Opportunities, Mannequin, Blues Brothers).  There’s nothing terrible about this movie, but let’s be honest, there’s nothing great about it either.  It’s a silly, fun flick that’s easy to watch.  I think Kelli Maroney (Samantha) deserves special notice for her spunky, charming performance.  Of the three principal actors (including Robert “Chakotay” Beltran), she’s the only one with good comic delivery.  And she looks cute in a cheerleader outfit.  Rating: 7

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El Topo (rewatch)

I was going to tackle the Jodorowsky box in strict chronological order, but I wasn’t quite ready to deal with Fando again, so I skipped ahead.  I still have a problem with Jodorowsky’s extremely overt symbolism, but what El Topo lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in density.  It never belabors any point for too long, and thus manages to pack a ton of themes into two hours.  The film looks phenomenal on the new DVD, the colors really pop (although this sometimes works against it with all the cheap 70′s bright red blood).  I still don’t LOVE this film, but it’s fascinating enough to merit another point.  Rating: 8

Trivial note: the bandit with the shoe fetish immediately brought Bunuel to mind, and I was tickled to hear Jodorowsky on the commentary say that he was an influence on that scene.

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La Cravate

I had exceptionally low expectations for Jodorowsky’s long-lost debut film, but it’s actually a rather effective bit of pantomime.  The staginess of it is not a drawback at all, in fact it lends a certain charm.  A dash of light surrealism hints at things to come, and the colors are striking.  Not a major work, but a pleasant one.  Rating: 7

IMDb

The Animation Show, Vol. 2

Guard Dog - More Plympton silliness.  Some of the gags fall flat, but it’s okay.  Rating: 7

The F.E.D.S. - It’s hard to imagine a more boring subject: a mini-doc about the people who give out food samples in the supermarket.  But the psychedelic Waking Life style elevates it a bit.  Rating: 6

Pan With Us - The bad narration (a Robert Frost poem) and overall aimlessness is a drag, but the really unique animation techniques leave you wanting more.  Rating: 7

Ward 13 - You don’t see this every day: a claymation horror-comedy.  Elements from Lovecraft, Silent Hill and Halloween are done up with a Wallace & Gromit sensibility.  There are some great gags, but the chase at the end does overstay its welcome a bit.  Rating: 8

Hello - Not the greatest of animation, but the idea is cute and clever, and it’s a sweet little piece.  Rating: 7

Rockfish – Decent CGI and an okay sci-fi-ish premise, but it lacks spark and personality.  Feels plastic.  Rating: 6

Magda – The story kind of feels like a Ken Nordine fable, the narrator even sounds like Nordine.  The puppetry and mixed media give it a Svankmajer vibe, but more colorful.  Rating: 7

Sztuka Spadania (Fallen Art) - More CGI, but this time with a little pizzazz.  Very reminiscent of Jeunet in the color, lighting, environments and tone.  Rating: 7

When the Day Breaks - Gorgeous art and a terrific sense of style, too bad the whole thing is rather blah.  One of those works that’s impressive while at the same time not at all captivating.  Rating: 6

Fireworks - Very short, but cool use of mixed media objects.  Rating: 7

The Meaning of Life – Unbearably tedious work from Hertzfeldt.  There are a few bold techniques at work, but it doesn’t make up for the dreary pace.  He should stick to comedy.  Rating: 4

The Animation Show, Vol. 1

Brother – Claymation, but not very animated.  The cartoonish style is appealing, but otherwise it’s dull and dry.  Rating: 5

Parking – Classic Bill Plympton absurdity, a Looney Tunes battle of man vs. nature.  Rating: 8

The Adventures of Ricardo – Ugly claymation.  These were all stupid and obnoxious, but at least they were incredibly short.  Rating: 3

Moving Illustrations of Machines – Haunting and very very original.  There’s kind of a Gigeresque steampunk thing going on here.  Great ominous score, and a killer ending.  Rating: 10

La Course a L’Abime - Lovely “moving painting” art style, but the subject matter didn’t do much for me.  Rating: 6

Billy’s Balloon (rewatch) - I’d seen this one before, but I had to watch it again.  Hilarious and demented.  Rating: 9

Katedra (The Cathedral) – Looks like a cutscene from a videogame.  Kinda cool, but in like a 1998 way.  Rating: 7

50 Percent Grey – Nicely done, but the concept is only mildly amusing.  Rating: 6

Bathtime in Clerkenwell - Infectious and fun marriage of music and image.  The silhouette style was nice and old-school.  Rating: 8

Aria - Intriguing adaptation of “Madame Butterfly” that culminates in a stunning break of the 4th wall.  A bit slow, though.  Rating: 7

Hertzfeldt interstitials – The opening was sorta funny, sorta not.  But the intermission and ending were very funny and insane.  Rating: 7

I skipped two I’d seen before (Das Rad and Atama-yama) and two others by the guy who did Brother.

A River Called Titas

Ghatak’s penultimate film is not as difficult as his last one, but it is tricky.  The narrative flow is quite odd, with characters appearing, disappearing, and reappearing very suddenly, and lots of unexpected time jumps.   It can be tough to get your bearings.  Also, this movie has more sex and violence than any other Indian film I’ve seen, even though the sex is merely hinted at, and the violence is pretty tame by any American standard (I should add that I haven’t seen a whole lot of Indian films).  The acting isn’t that good and I never really “got into” the film’s story that much.  But on the plus side: Ghatak’s use of photography, sound and music is (as usual) exquisite, the river metaphor works well, and the unusual structure, although occasionally confounding, is intriguing.  Rating: 7

IMDb