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i like movies

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Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (1952)

This is the story of a horrible piece of shit barber who will throw anyone that gets in the way of his dream to own a tiny barbershop in a tiny town under the bus, first and foremost his titular wife. Fate cruelly thwarts all of his attempts to control those around him, and he ends up trapped in the web of his own lies. It’s a portrait of a particular type of man, a passive aggressive nice guy who stops short of physical violence, but unrepentantly deceives and manipulates to get what he wants.

Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie deconstructs this american male persona, and pulls no punches doing so. Ben, the protagonist of WTSSN, is put through the ringer. His attempts to control his surroundings through deception inevitably backfire on him. *Spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen this or read Karina Longworth’s excellent “Seduction”* Nellie is so distraught when she finds out her husband has been lying  their entire relationship about an eventual move to Chicago (he had no plans to leave his small town, he was just waiting for his trapped wife to forget her big city dreams) she heads straight there and dies immediately for her trouble.

(I choose to believe that having escaped Ben’s orbit, she achieved her lifelong dream of moving to the big city, and at that moment the timelines diverged. Ben, who we follow through the rest of this epic fail of a tale, is the one who really died. He let life move on around him, frozen in time trying to capture some imagined perfect ideal of his barbershop in a small town with a wife and children. It is however, just a fantasy.  And as far as we know, Nellie’s “death” is just the story he tells the kids when they ask where their mom is.)

His children grow up to also feel the lure of progress: his son Ben Jr. makes a splash on the stage as a dancer, but Ben doesn’t approve, still bitter that his wife left him for the big city so long ago and so traditional that he’d rather be estranged from his son than accept him pursuing a career in entertainment. Ben Sr. is thus disturbingly but not surprisingly, pleased, when Ben Jr. is injured during service in WWI and as a result of can no longer dance for a living. This forces him to work in his father's barber shop. As so many fathers do, Ben Sr. is unable to see his children as anything other than extensions or reflections of himself. His ultimate dream has come true when his son’s failures and bad luck humble him and put him back in “his place”: side by side with his old man, cutting hair. Inviting disaster on his head, Ben Sr. reads about gangland massacres in the paper and loudly declares his approval “Let those animals kill each other off!” Alas for Ben Jr., it turns out after touring as a dancer and surviving the trenches of the great war, the barbershop life is not fulfilling. After swapping murder glory stories with an old war buddy-turned-gangster, he falls in with the same group responsible for the gangland massacres his father has been loudly encouraging.

Once Ben Sr. finds out who Ben Jr. is working for, he looks for an opportunity to extricate his son from the gangster life, and he finds it: when his son warns him to get his mobster boss out of the barber shop because some of his enemies are coming to whack him, Ben Sr. purposefully delays the boss. As a result, both the boss and his son are shot to death in a drive-by.  Ben Jr. survived the war, but he couldn’t survive his own father’s lying and scheming attempts to control.

His daughter Bessie seemingly gets off comparatively easy, (although having such death and carnage define your life because of your faildad is not “easy”) and actually seems to be heading off to Chicago on her honeymoon, something that Ben couldn’t have been very pleased about. It did however work out, and the Nellie cycle is completed with the birth of a granddaughter of the same name who grows up to look just like the original Nellie - and possibly this one will get to go to Chicago, because at least her mom seems more chill than Grandpa.

I forgot to mention this all happens in a flashback, being told by old man Ben to a newspaperman who came looking for stories about the olden days. This guy probably wanted some town history, not this sad boy bullshit about a guy ruining his family’s lives by lying to them, trying to make himself a living fossil, and refusing to change or grow in any way not prompted by extreme tragedies that were his own fault. Old man Ben then leads a parade through a claustrophobic mass of people, the final culmination of his nightmare made real: he wanted a small town, but his small town grew into a big city around him.  

WTSSN is a powerful reminder to be honest with yourself and others, to take risks, to never define yourself by a profession or a place or a moment in time, or to treat people as pawns to be controlled. If you do, you’ll soon realize that nothing is static, and what you thought was a way to shape your life was a fleeting illusion, and that illusion has become your cage. What is really important is the people around you, and if you don’t treat them as equals, you will destroy them and yourself. Conservatives everywhere will see themselves reflected in Ben’s toxic behaviour, unfortunately if they are like Ben, they won’t really understand what they are seeing until it’s too late.

(Also the skipper from Gilligan’s Island’s dad plays one of the guys in the barbershop quartet that hangs around the whole movie.)

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something is laibach on saturn 3.mp4

google drive link for my saturn 3 laibach video because youtube keeps blocking it.

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the brushing of the wings.mp4

google drive link, because youtube keeps blocking my exorcist 2 video.

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video edited from the exorcist 2: the heretic

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They Live and the Toxic Hubris of the Newly Woke

They Live is a movie I’ve watched habitually since childhood, and at 37 I still stumble over new ways that Carpenter and his co-creators were masterfully playing with genre and metaphor to sneakily (obvious to those with the glasses tho) tear at capitalism from the inside. I used to think it was hard to slip a message into a mainstream movie. Now I think every movie has a message, you just need the right glasses to see it.

I started this tumblr because I saw The Smiling Lieutenant and couldn’t reconcile the enjoyment i got from the film with the horrible feelings it was stirring up in me. I have a lot of regret and about how I’ve treated intimate partners in the past, and I saw myself in an ugly character who treated women as disposable objects. I felt the literal need to confront myself and my actions and really face them. They Live is an amazing allegory for a major political or spiritual awakening, something that most people have experienced. It’s a critique of capitalism, yes, but go a little deeper and it’s also a warning not to let the heady rush of enlightenment blind you to how you treat people and the consequences of your actions.

Nada is the newly woke guy on twitter who a few years ago may have been on the other side of an argument, but now hes raging at trump all day because things got so bad something finally really affected him, or a friend, etc. and he had a revelation. He’s probably angrier at himself for not seeing it before than he is at the current dupes, and it is an dangerous mix of hubris and empowerment. He instantly starts acting like a superhero because he thinks he’s the first one to ever figure it out, and he doesn’t understand the full gravity of what he faces, or that maybe blasting peons isn’t doing shit. Nada is not a “man with no name” type just because Carpenter loves western tropes, he’s also an everyman type with no past because carpenter knows this is a universal experience.

So when I’m on twitter and I see some ridiculous asshole who is either in on the con and using the system, or collaborator/dupe waving their privilege around, I feel the rage. “These people clearly are evil and they must be stopped! Why can’t anyone else but me see?!” but I try to remember, “wearing these glasses gets you high.” I try not to make important decisions or have serious arguments when my mind is altered, and now I stay off twitter because I’m too high on my own political awakening to see that it’s not productive (esp. for me) or helpful for others. Just because I now see things as black and white (get it? Carpenter is a genius) - they aren’t. In the real world the monsters are a lot better at passing, and in my moments of false clarity and hubris I’ve forgotten to treat my own friends and family like people deserving of respect. Real change comes from empathy and understanding, not reactionary anger. I’m not equivocating or excusing any of the nightmare shit world we inhabit - evil deserves to be destroyed, hated, ostracized, etc. and if making a politician or capitalists life a living hell is something that appeals to you it’s probably a good idea in my opinion.

But I no longer look up to Nada as an example of a healthy response to this world. I no longer assume that because a character is the protagonist, the film is endorsing their actions or that it is some kind of template to follow. Nada’s failings are mine as well, and ultimately he dies trying to change something that never will. As soon as the resistance meeting is stormed the movie goes full fantasy and the rest is some owl creek bridge shit (spoiler alert for the classic short story an occurrence at owl creek bridge) IMO, but that’s just how I choose to read it. My other interpretation is even more depressing (which means it’s definitely the more “realistic” ending: he did succeed in destroying the transmitter, everyone noticed the aliens, and nothing changed.

Save the Green Planet attacks the exact same concept, but this time head on.  We don’t know if the protagonist is “right” or not. In this case, asking if the aliens are “real” or not is like asking someone to explain the joke - I see it as a reminder to question myself whenever my hubris/anger at this shit planet makes me start questioning the humanity of another person. There are real monsters out there, but they are still human beings and their evil comes from the same place as mine. “Othering” anyone is not only hurting them, its self destruction. To quote another Carpenter character “Welcome to the human race.”

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The Neon Demon (2016)

The Neon Demon was largely ignored on initial release (i'm a huge fan of NWR and wanted to see it, but it was literally in my local theaters for only 1 week) but it is beyond relevant to today's wave of feminism. if a men's rights activist ever tries to pull the "female beauty is a privilege" card, clockwork orange them and put this on: a horror movie where the terror comes from the fetishization of female youth and beauty.  

Neon demon is an iceberg. The tiny part peeking above the surface is slick glamour that feels familiar and looks gorgeous. Underneath is the real movie, a lurking leviathan, a shadow under the surface that wrecks everything attracted to what was above. This movie could be seen as a bait-and-switch, but if this bait and switch upset you, it could be because it struck a chord.

This movie feels necessary in this moment. I have never felt such empathy for being victimized by the male gaze before. This is an uncomfortable watch because everyone will see themselves in something in screen, and none of it is flattering.  I was really hoping The Bechdel Cast had talked about it because as a man I have no concept how this must come across to someone who has lived it. I sat on this for too long but i saw it at just the right time, politically and personally, for it to utterly devastate me and force serious self-examination. 

Neon Demon received a negative critical response from a media environment dominated by men and i sincerely believe that happened because its a movie that holds a mirror up to the the toxic fetishization of beauty that the rest of the media glamorizes or trivializes in order to normalize.  

This movie is trying to tell you what it feels like to be Jesse. This movie knows she is human, and it wants you to know what it feels like to be a human treated like meat. If this movie seems like a nightmare dream fantasy to you, it’s because being a person who is fetishized, dehumanized, and at the disposal of a male world built around their exploitation is a fucking nightmare dream world. It’s one that millions live, and millions more hope to live, and its the only film I’ve seen to date that laid that bare so clearly. This movie is the farthest thing from a retread of any superficial critique of “fashion” or “beauty” or whatever that has come before. 

If you don’t empathize with Jesse, the only good-hearted character in the movie (watch it again, she does nothing wrong other than fib about her age to try and do what every adult authority figure and all of society is literally demanding of her) think about why. Is she too pretty to have feelings? Does she “manipulate” anyone with her looks? Is she an adult because she looks like one? The movie plays with this perfectly, because she doesn’t act like we want a person we are meant to empathize with to act. We are conditioned to dehumanize what we are attracted to. She can be aloof, cold, and even assertive - but at her weaker moments she is a “deer in headlights” about to be fucking run over by a world that thinks that scared little girl is sexy as fuck and they don’t really care what she thinks about that.

Every character in this film represents a different type of person attracted to the beauty and youth (16) of Jesse. Most of them want her for different reasons, none of them care about her as a person. As we watch her attempt to retain some amount of control, she is attacked, misled, violated sexually by both men and women, bullied, used as a weapon by men against other women, dismissed, and groomed/abandoned by a paternalistic “nice guy” older boyfriend (I almost didn’t catch what a piece of shit that guy was until my partner Dana pointed out he left her with a pedophile rapist the second she told him she didn’t want to follow his “good girl” script). File under: Films that accomplished exactly what the meant to, with authority and confidence, but are regarded as “failures” because their message was something that audiences/critics weren’t ready to hear. (is there a name for this? if you know of any other films you think fall into this category, please suggest them to me because i'm honestly curious to see them.)

And it’s not like Refn was coy or hid what they were doing... in an interview he called ND “a horror movie about beauty” which, I admit may sound like some kind of cryptic artsy BS, but he was being literal. In fact to me this entire film is incredibly literal, and its frustrating watching people stumble around the point, speaking as if its all some kind of arty metaphor that is over their heads, or worse, doesn’t have anything to say at all. 

At first i was hesitant to laud this movie so loudly. Its directed by a man, and I'd rather signal boost marginalized voices - but maybe it takes a man to really understand the male gaze and psyche, to put that out there in an honest way that someone else can grasp. To me it comes across less like mansplaining and more like... manconfessioning. If an artist wants to be an ally, this is a great fucking template: peel back some layers of toxic conditioning and dig out something that bothers you about yourself. Purge it, in a way that lets others know its okay to face those ugly parts of yourself - and sometimes putting them front and center is important to the process getting past them.

I don’t want to give too much credit to Refn here - this was co-written with two women, produced by a woman (co-credit with refn) and stars and focuses on female characters. It even passes the Bechdel test with flying colors in literally the first scene with dialogue! Refn has been heaped with praise for the stunning visuals, even by critics that missed the point, but the real hero is DP Natasha Braier (<-- cool interview with her) who was given carte blanche by Refn to create a glitterworld nightmare. Refn was surrounded by and supported by creative women, and it shows.

And speaking of credit, I laughed at the apparent pretension of NWR’s initials appearing during the opening credits. By the time the (gorgeous) end credits were over, I was like… dude put your fucking initials wherever you want you helmed the creation of something real and said something harsh that people weren’t ready to hear, there’s no shame in being proud of that. 

content warning: horror-movie style violence: nothing more extreme than a typical R- slasher sexual violence: largely more implied than graphically depicted, but front and center the entire film. as someone who has not personally experienced sexual violence i can only say that i was extremely uncomfortable and squirming out of my seat during multiple scenes. that being said nothing approaches the graphic or exploitative nature of the typical "rape scene" or the "artistic" but still toxic version (see: lars von trier), appears here.

If you have amazon prime, feel emotionally ready to face a side of modern society that most media either trivializes, glamourizes or normalizes (but rarely faces head-on) watch The Neon Demon: https://www.amazon.com/Neon-Demon-Elle-Fanning/dp/B01GU8CL5C For Dana <3 you opened my eyes

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Dazed and Confused (1993)

I liked this overall as a slice of life coming of age deal. I found the presentation of the hazing rituals pretty harrowing, and I'm thankful I grew up when most of that was (at least in my peer group) on its way out or gone. it also presents a particularly privileged and exclusive portrait of high school, but I dont mean to criticize it too harshly for not doing something it didnt set out to do. its still a great film, but like almost famous, it ends up glamourising and trivializing a lot of super problematic shit, especially with regards to its accurate, but pretty hands-off and not-as-judgemental-as-it-really-fuckin-should-be-in-1993 depictions of older people being sexually interested in children.  matthew mcconaughey's character is hilarious but also a true to life depiction of a very real, sad and scary type of man that we’ve all met, so its kind of fucking hard to laugh at, if you think too hard.

so as long as frat-style hazing rituals, kids being shitty to one another (not unrealistically, just hard to watch), toxic misogny and homophobia, skeezy 30 year olds who date high school girls, etc, are not too triggering for you, get high, try not to think too hard about the implications, and enjoy this problematic classic. or dont, its for white texas kids and if you're not that, YMMV.

sad aside: this movie, from what i can tell, had the worst fucking posters and video box art possible, embarrassing 90s graphic design for a movie thats supposed to be retro. the poster i used up top seems to have only been for a local screening and its far better than anything the studio slapped on this movie. i think one of the the reasons i avoided this for so long was because of that hideous photoshop stretch abomination of just SCREAMING FACES OF ANGRY TEENS with a blue filter of a movie poster that i can only assume was forced on linklater. (I CAN ONLY ASSUME THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE WHY THE FUCK...)

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True Stories (1986)

The first time i tried to watch this film was about 10 years ago after my sister told me it was her favorite movie of all time. The copy i had was a bad vhs rip and I was dealing with a lot of distractions, so after the first ten minutes (about how long i took to realized it was exactly the kind of movie i would fall in love with) i decided to wait until i could see it in a better environment.  

i finally did this past saturday, and i'm not exaggerating at all when i say i was weeping tears of joy through the entire end credits. true stories is a kind hearted and charming deconstruction of capitalism and the way people carve out their lives within it. it has remained incredibly, alarmingly, relevant, especially to me personally as a new arrival in a texas that is still in the throes of what Byrne was documenting here, and much of the future he predicted has come to pass. its easy (even easier at the time, as a quick survey of contemporary critical reception will show) to dismiss it as kitschy americana because of the tone and the seemingly lighthearted approach, but the satire here is real and powerful, without ever being preachy, making moral declarations or casting judgement. like They Live a year later, contemporary critics had no clue what the fuck it was doing. with 40 years of hindsight on my side, im not blowing any minds when i point out that both these films were prescient, informed pieces of art with clear points of view and important things to say.

aside: it is mind boggling to read critics of the time offer up multiple examples from the movie, that were exceedingly literal, true-to-life depictions of things that were literally happening in texas at the time, as being some kind of hilarious inventions that could have only come from the mixed up mind of david byrne and his wacky fantasy land of "virgil, tx." - which i should also add, they are always quick to point out is a "fictional" town. as if this meant something in the world of movies? the same way Fargo isnt about a “real” place called Fargo (also self-applies the label of being based on a "true story") but ends up offering a more realistic representation of a certain segment of america, and a lot more real-seeming people than most films ostensibly set in "real" cities ever have. 

did i mention true stories is gorgeously shot by a herzog vet DP? just another in a long list of areas in which it totally excels. the only thing true stories doesn't really provide (and this is an observation, not a criticism) is a strong traditional narrative through-line, but it doesn't suffer for the lack.

on top of all this, its not once, ever, mean-spirited, punching down, or mocking anyone for any aspect of their person. until i saw steven universe i had no idea how much i needed media, at least somewhere in my life, that provided that. its still so rare that its a breath of fresh air every time i encounter something this heart-on-its-sleeve sweet. so that unflinching and fearless heart is one of the reasons it was a powerfully touching experience for me. true stories is what movies can be at their absolute best. 

anyway check it out, instant top 5 best movie all time, true stories, david byrne. totally hilarious, beautifully inclusive, theres some cool voodoo shit, the songs are pretty good, and even if you dont like the talking heads that much, they got different people (including john goodman who i guess is the "lead" of the closest thing the movie has to a narrative arc) singing them here, so they are at least different and sometimes better than the talking heads versions. 

this movie will probably become even more of a litmus test than fury road in terms of gauging if i can hang with someone.

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The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

The Smiling Lieutenant is an incredibly problematic, utterly charming, totally hilarious, and surprisingly dirty, pre-code musical. It follows the adventures of a cloying manchild casanova, cloyingly nicknamed "Niki" (the cloying maurice chevalier) who somehow remains charming to audience and co-stars alike while also remaining a totally unrepentant piece of shit. spoilers follow, so go watch the movie now - you'll love it! but there are some things about it i want to talk about so come back once you're done.

OKAY now that you are back (and hi also to those who are still reading even thought they didn't watch it yet, i absolve and grant penance) in case you think I'm exaggerating, let me sum up the plot: Our boy is in the army, which means he gets paid to sing about fucking all day and fuck all night. The latest in an unbroken string of lovers is a talented musician named Franzi (claudette colbert, who has charisma for days and outshines chevalier at every turn) who puts out on the first night (important qualification to get in Niki's orbit). Soon he's promising her the world. He is lying of course; putting it bluntly, the protagonist of this film is a straight fuckboy.

The next day, he's making eyes at Franzi across a crowded street. An ill-timed wink makes eye contact with - get this - the snooty uptight princess of a made up country! So its a wacky misunderstanding as Niki is dragged in front of princess Anna (miram hopkins, who is a delight and also steals every scene with chevalier) to explain why he disrespected her. Inexplicably, instead of offering the truth or an alternate explanation, Niki starts shamelessly hitting on her. Being irresistible (which he is clearly fully cognizant of - a no-shit predator) the princess instantly falls madly in love with him. At which point he flips out and acts like he had nothing to do with blatantly leading her on!

This leads (predictably, to literally everyone in the universe EXCEPT FOR NIKI) to him being forced into an arranged marriage. It's difficult to have any pity for a guy who just dumpstered his relationship on whim, on the other hand, I feel bad for Franzi - she didn't sign up for any of this bullshit! Unfortunately for her, Niki cums gold or something, because in no time she's packing her bags and following him to his new country, and soon he's banging her on the side while totally ignoring Anna.

BUT Anna can't handle not getting any of that magic dick, so she tricks Franzi into a confrontation. What follows is one of the most horrifyingly uncomfortable scenes I've ever experienced in a theater: Two women, bawling their eyes out, because they both can't quit this toxic garbage man... and its played for laughs. Emotional wreckage wrought on women by a man was a huge laugh riot in paramount’s #1 box office draw of 1931. This film was also a best picture nominee. Make of that what you will.

It somehow gets worse from there, as Franzi takes pity on Anna and decides to give her a crash course in being the type of party girl slut that Niki can roll with. After this mini-mentorship, she ghosts out, clearly utterly destroyed by her decision to give up Niki. It’s heartbreaking.

So what does Niki think of this? Well what do you think? as soon as he finds out Anna fucks now, he's ALL IN and Franzi is instantly forgotten.

So there you have it. The thesis of The Smiling Lieutenant is as follows: Women are interchangeable fucktoys, and their feelings are a joke.

I swear I do love this movie - it never stops moving or entertaining, the entendre on display is masterful, its fun, funny, and well crafted - but It's also shocking to modern sensibilities, and should be held up as a warning to men everywhere

- never - - be - - this - - guy -