Blindness

WOW. This is one heavy film. Being a fan of the disaster/post-apocalyptic genre, when I found out that Fernando Meirelles the director of the equally heavy 'City of God' and also recently 'The Constant Gardener', I had to check it out. This film is full of star power coming from the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Julianne Moore, Danny Glover, and Gael García Bernal, and for the most part they do what they can with what they are given. But this is not a character driven film, its storyline is one that is meant to probe the darkest parts of the human condition. There is a Lord of Flies quality to this film about a large group of people (eventually the world) who are suddenly struck with a mysterious case of, well, blindness. The government of course immediately quarantines them to a building with different wards and, other then regular food drops, leaves them to fend for themselves.
Julianne Moore is inexplicably the only person who is not struck with the illness, but pretends to be blind in order to go into quarantine with her husband, Mark Ruffalo. Her performance is the most starling, as she has to secretly bear the burden of those within her ward literally can't care for themselves. When they all eventually realize they are on their own, issues of order (democracy) and morality are relentlessly thrown at the viewer. At times it felt as if it might be more than I could handle. Especially when Gael García Bernal's character comes onto the seen proceeds to take charge of food rationing, in exchange for unreasonable demands. Although the film is well done, my recommendation is to only see this film if you have a strong stomach and a firm moral foundation. Otherwise you may find yourself severely depressed and your faith in mankind shaken. While I respect 'Blindness' for its unflinching look at the dark side of human nature, I cannot think of a time when I would ever want to watch it again. Even a hopeful ending just isn't enough.

***WARNING - SO YOUR NOT AS UNPREPARED AS I WAS - THIS FILM CONTAINS LOTS OF NUDITY/RAPE***

Fleeting Joys

I can't believe I missed this, but probably the best true shoegaze band out there today, Fleeting Joys, released a new album called 'Occult Radiance' on January 22nd. Let me put it to you this way: If you loved My Bloody Valentine then you will love Fleeting Joys. I was really into their last album 'Despondant Transponder', which came out almost 3 years ago, and this album is definitely a more than worthy follow up. Check out this new track entitled 'You are the darkness':

You Are The Darkness - Fleeting Joys

Salute to the Jugger (AKA The Blood of Heroes)

'Salute to the Jugger' is a little known Mad Max clone that came out in 1989. As far as Mad Max clones go, this one is one of the best. The whole dirty, gritty post-apocalyptic world is quite believable, reminding me at times of Terry Gilliam's glimpses of the future in '12 Monkeys'. This film is one part post-apocalyptic survival tale and one part sports underdog story. These two very different kinds of film come together as we follow star Rutger Hauer (Bladerunner) and his ragtag team of juggers, who play a new brutal sport that involves someone called a 'quick' trying to get a skull on a stick, while Gladiators fight all around to harm or protect him (or her). This sport provides the only means of income for this select group of people who travel from town to town to play the local best. The story unfolds as we find out that Rutger's character named Sallow used to be a part of the official jugger league. To become a part of the league you have to have gathered enough wins (skulls) and make an official challenge. Even if you do challenge your chances of getting the leagues attention are slim to none as most challengers are dispatched within minutes, and many loose their lives or the ability to walk in the process. Sallow seems content to travel and make what money he can until his 'quick' gets his legs broken and local asian women joins the team, and she has higher aspirations. The more I write about this film the more I appreciate its simplicity. Create an an awesome post-apocalyptic atmosphere: CHECK, Create an awesome new sport that combines the best of football and American Gladiators:CHECK, Make us root for the underdog:CHECK. Its a shame this film is so hard to find. I'd love to see a widescreen, directors-cut someday. If you can find it, check it out. (PS-I apparently found the version with the pretty great original ending which was not included in the American release of the film)

The Quiet Earth

Recently I had a movie night with some friends, which always turns out to be ridiculously good and bad in a good way. After much deliberation on the theme of the evening we went with one of my favorite genres in film (or books for that matter) post- apocalyptic or apocalyptic in general. I spend a great deal of time putting together a list of little known or seen mad-max clones and went to the local indie video store only to find out that they didn't have any of them. So in order to save the night I had to forgo the B-movie craziness and pick up a few more serious apocalyptic films...this did not turn out well. Among them was, what many consider on the net, a classic of post-apocalyptic media: 'The Quiet Earth'. While this film had great potential, with the last man on earth scenario, numerous New Zealand film awards, and 1985 special effects, my friend put it best when he said "it was just too ok."
If a post-apocalyptic film is going to take itself seriously it NEEDS to be amazingly executed or else it just becomes mediocre and incredibly boring. While I respect what the film was trying to do, and it does make you think about how long it would take you to crack when your left alone in a world that you helped destroy, its just lacked believability. Everything about it is barely passable from the acting to the story-line to the special effects and so on, and in this genre barely passable comes across as worse than laughably bad. Now there is enough potential there that if a talented director wanted to attempt a remake I would be the first one in line, but as-is like 'Waterworld' your just left with would could have been.

Outlander

Alien/Predator/13th Warrior---if any of those movies appeal to you, and you know who you are, then you should go to see the movie 'Outlander'. If those movies do not appeal to you, or you have no tolerance for B-movie fun, then you will hate this movie. I obviously have a soft place in my heart for this type of film, which is why I'm writing about it here.
This is the tale of Kainan (played by the always respectable Jim Caviezel) whose spaceship crash lands in Viking territory the year 709. (If you are already thinking to yourself 'how is that possible?' then you do not have the predisposition for this type of movie...again, stay away) It turns out that Kainan has brought with him a formidable creature that he knows all too well, and now has to team up with the locals, using his advanced intellect and their unadvanced weaponry, to defeat it before it takes over. You even get Ron Perlman (Hellboy) showing up for a cameo as one bad-ass viking. Needless to say I enjoyed it for what it was, and what it was, was B-movie awesomeness!!!

Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu has been sort of a group whose music takes me back. There's just something about it that is warm, comfortable and carefree like the summers of my youth. The strange thing is that I was never a My Bloody Valentine fan back in the day, as a matter of fact my musical taste was absolutely horrible. Probably the "coolest" bands I listened to were Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Bush and the like and I just listened to them because everyone else did. I was all too eager to escape the "Christian" music black hole of crappiness I was stuck in (for the record there are a few good "Christian" groups out there, they were just so good that I didn't like them if that makes any sense). So I guess there is something to be said about capturing the feeling of yesterday, during which that actual style of music was never physically present.
ANYWAYS, their new album 'Hush' is not entirely different from the band's second album (which was really the first album they had found their sound) called 'Citrus'. The shimmering fuzzy wall of sound is still present, although perhaps slightly more compressed this time around. The beautiful vocals that float over the layers upon layers of sugary dream pop are even sweeter than I remember. Sometimes it really can be a good thing to stay the same and here we have the perfect example.

Goemon

Ok, I apologize for not posting to the blog for quite a few weeks now as I have been transitioning back into the States, but now that I am settled, I hope to bring you more of the good stuff. I am proud to have my first official post of the new year be some very exciting news. First off, if you have never seen the Japanese movie 'Casshern' go rent it now. It is a visual feast of pure CGI live action anime...it is what movies like 'Sin City' could only hope to look like. Outside of the visuals the storyline falters and it becomes overly long and self-indulgent. So rent it once, soak it in in all its glory and let it leave you wanting more, because it will and I am here to tell you that the more is here now (did that sentence make any sense?) Director Kaz Kiriya is about to unleash his sumptuous next film entitled 'Goemon'. While not based on an existing anime, it is firmly within the same realm. This is a martial arts epic, and it looks to trump 'Casshern' in every way. Here's the trailer: