Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Now that’s a freakin’ line-up:
Hey Drew,
here's a brief follow-up for you from Toronto.
HOLE IN THE HEART will disappoint those who're only out for visceral thrills even though it does deliver on that front. My initial hard sell of "beyond SALO" ie was perhaps taking the Kroger Babb school of milking the rubes a little too far, it is however one of the few films of recent memory to create a very claustrophobic intense sense of dread about how far the filmmaker is willing to go. And it's extremely repellant subject matter make it tough viewing for all except folks so desensitised to cinema, that they can wolf down a big plate of spaghetti while watching Harry Reems doing his thang in FORCED ENTRY.
A DIRTY SHAME: John Water's latest is not so much a massive disappointment, it's more a feeling of previously low expectations being fulfilled. Anything from his 'camp' over the past decade has been a sad reminder how this once provocative director has succumbed to creating absurd bigscreen sitcoms with dosings of not-so-shocking perversity. Tracey Ulman stars in an extended comedy sketch about a Baltimore housewife that bangs her noggin and becomes a nympho, under the watchful eye of the High Priest of sex addicts Johnny Knoxville. Cue various knee slapping scenes of regular townsfolk (neuters) being horrified by the PG-13 antics of the sex maniacs. The gags are weak. The cast shouts every line of dialogue. The pacing is all over the place. There are a few decent lines here and there but they're meager pickings in the talley. This scattershot misfire resembles some cutting room footage from Ulman's old Fox show, where good skits were ruined by overkill. Water's blunt take on conservative mores seems dated and its no wonder, he skewered all these targets already in the 70s. It's Water's first (self-proclaimed) sexploitation film, an ode to Meyer and kin and yet Waters forgets the one thing all those sexploitation flicks had in spades; hot women, nudity and some good ol grinding. A DIRTY SHAME has Selma Blair's pendulous fun bags out on display but they're just balloons, there are also some quick glimpses of full frontal male nudity that look to be late additions an in attempt to be risque. A DIRTY SHAME is simply a real shame but not a totally unexpected one.
CRASH: From TV pro Haggis comes this multi character drama that tackles many of the same issues that GRAND CANYON covered many moons ago. The major difference? This film is actually pretty damn good. Don Cheadle is a cop who when he's not sleeping with his partner is having problems with the dept as well as his mother and his missing bad boy brother. At the films start Cheadle uses an analogy of a car crash into describing how most of la-la lands inhabitants enter into each others existence via dangerous intersections, which is timely because he's just been rear ended by an irritable asian driver on the way to a crime scene. From here we're quickly introduced to many supporting characters, most of whom are well drawn and rather complex. The many minor story arcs begin to collide in small ways and finally culminating in an emotional climax that nicely ties up all the loose ends. Though overly sentimental in patches the performers (too many to mention) for the most part work well above their stations and some (Thandi Newton especially) will totally surprise you by delivering an unfettered dose of sheer screen honesty. Well worth catching as its pros far outweigh any cons.
CREEP: aka CRAWL LOLA CRAWL. Weak premise has Ms Franka Potente accidentally falling sleep in the subway and missing the last train. Bad news for her, good news for the Creep, a gangly, wiry pale teenager with a funky skin condition who makes noises like a magpie. The Creep himself has made a nifty home down in some long unseen tube tunnels. Having already suffered through mad doctors in ANATOMIE , you'd think she'd know the real reason behind this mutants existence, but no, she and we have to wait a painfully non-terrifying 90mins to find out. Believe me it ain't worth the wait. What could have been a starkly stripped back cut'n'chase flick with atmosphere to burn really wears out it's welcome after the first 45, offering nothing new apart from many cliched moments lifted from better films. There's some claret flowing for the diehard fans at the films climax but its small recompense for the previous thrill-free haunted tube ride. A little creativity would have gone a long way, I mean we know any time a character stands in front of some black space (a broken window, an open door) that the [fill in your villain here] is gonna reach out and get em good. It's not scary, its boring predictable and lazy. Please if you're going to riff on your favourite fright flicks then at least steal the good stuff. For the non discerning horror fan only (yes they exist, and yes, they are legion).
Tomorrow CASUITRY: THE ART OF KILLING A CAT screens. Get ready for protests and more..
Once again, you rule, Hairy Reems. I trust you quite a bit, and I can’t wait to hear what you think of CASUITRY.
"Moriarty" out.
