i have always been a fan of ed wood, especially after tim burton's amazing film about ed wood's filmmaking career (with johnny depp playing ed wood to the tee). For some reason, the leafblower reminded me a bit of something that ed wood would have done. A pseudo sci-fi piece , slow paced, with props and scenes that you're never quite sure if they are the way they are because of directorial genius or monetary restraints. but in either case, the film is pulled of rather well. quirky and goofy, like a grade b/midnight movie is made to be. it's a shame, but i could never see this film getting much in the way of distribution, unless it was picked up as a rocky horror-type midnight movie gem (in which it would play the role quite fine).
day 2…
taxi drivers are so different in austin. since my youth hostel was out in the boonies (at least for someone without a car, don't get me wrong it was a great deal, in a wonderful location, and a nice morning stroll into town in the mornings, but at night it was just a tad too far to walk after a tiring day at the movies), i spent a lot of time in taxis, and the one thing i noticed is that the drivers loved to talk (and i love to listen). the subjects varied, some wanted to give me ideas for films, others talked politics, some music, some about shit, but no matter what it was i always learned something new. friendly cab drivers is something i have never encountered (nothing against philly, dc, or nyc drivers), i have always gotten where i wanted to go, sometimes a little more quickly or recklessly than i planned, but never a conversation to go along with it (it could just be me though, since there was that seinfeld skit with elaine having problems with limo and cab drivers trying to strike up conversations with her in nyc, but if so, what did i do to them to get ignored).
that little tangent was supposed to segue into the next group of films (and no, actually i was quite disappointed that i did not get to see chicago cab, if you thought that was where i was going), but was quite unsuccessful (sorry about that, maybe my editor will take that out for you). the next group of films got me rolling on what seemed like an endless film marathon for the next week. the films were of such caliber that i just wanted to see how the next one would jump out and surprise me. which leads well into the highly visual, quirky, sexual, dutch film titled exit.
