Meth Damon

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Filmic Murmurs and Toothpaste

My mind scrapes with great pain and difficulty for the next word to write. And when the scraping sounds of mashed up syllables leave through the eyes, ears, nose and very rarely the mouth, I am left with incomprehensible sentences, phrases that speak to me but are codified in the perspectives unique to my own snowflake-y life.

Worse is when I rake through memories to just recall the films I may or may not have seen just days, maybe weeks ago. These films, commonly mediocre and forgettable, hide in a purple haze of inspiration that rears its lopsided head only when external forces seek them out. 

“What did you last watch?”

And I will always respond, “that’s a good question,” because it is in fact a good question. Despite my love of the film medium, it is as full of thick, grey pudding as any other entertainment. Those movies that I would arrive at the theatre just for the satisfaction of the air conditioning and some comfortable seats. By the time I pass through the exit I wonder to myself “I’m certainly exaggerating right now, but I have nearly forgotten this film already.” By the time I hit the pavement, the process of evaporation is complete.

That’s a good question! It’s as good of a question as “what did your toothpaste taste like yesterday?” Each and every day I go through multiple events involving toothpaste, namely the brushing of teeth. Each day that toothpaste is placed on the brush and shoved into my mouth. Scraping against plaque and teeth, the toothpaste froths into a minty foam that I occasionally refer to as a “party in my mouth”.

Isn’t it surprising that there are a finite amount of toothpaste flavors, of which I probably have tried four (the latest is chocolate mint, which has only been found in dentist care packages much to my chagrin), and a question about what my toothpaste tasted like yesterday might be perplexing?

Each and everyday, with nearly the same toothpaste flavor. Was it green mint? Was it the blue mint? I don’t remember the act of toothbrushing most days. It’s part of the robotic skills that I have accrued over two decades of careful practice, right next to showering and masturbation. I do it as if I was possessed by a witch doctor that only wanted the best for my dental hygiene. 

What did I last watch? Gee, I just paid 12 bucks to stare at a big TV, why are you asking me such skewering questions! I could tell you the last movie that I really liked, but last watched? Save it for the court.

Just like the toothbrush, my passion isn’t “watching” the movie. It’s having experienced a great film. Otherwise there are black holes of time in my life that I wish I had gotten back. And when I remember those films that waste my time, the ones that lurk in the back of my mind, mocking me for my bad decisions, I will make hell for them. I want my memories, money, and time back. I have only so much of each one.

-dom

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We Watched: Kingsman: The Secret Service

A satisfying balance of low brow humor and fancy accents and outfits make Kingsman an unexpected film of 2014. Based on a comic book co-created by one of the creators of Watchmen, Dave Gibbons, Kingsman is violent and touches on class issues and overpopulation solutions that have become increasingly prevalent throughout the past century of philosophical debate.

Of course, it’s still a movie that wants people to have fun with their $12-15 tickets, so it doesn’t get too far into that. Instead it plays with classic spy and villain tropes by developing a bad guy residing in a moral grey area to employ his overall plan of saving the world. Samuel L. Jackson employs a lisp to his postmodern awareness of the world; he truly does have a unique voice to explain his way of thinking.

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We Watched: True Detective Season 1

Well shot, well acted, well done. This is a focused and polished mini-series that delves into what leftovers might remain after a trauma has occurred. It is an exploration into how individuals attempt to use those leftovers and transform themselves into something just a bit better. In all its hopelessness, True Detective is truly a hopeful meditation of breaking the cycle of woe.

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We Watched: Tokyo Godfathers

In a world enraptured by Miyazaki-mania, Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers is a breath of fresh air, focusing on a small drama about families instead of over-reaching fantasies. But fantasy still pervades in the forms of religion and occasional action scenes. In fact, the smallness of Tokyo Godfathers makes otherwise ordinary film plots extraordinary: a small clash of Tokyo gangs becomes a turning point for the primary characters as they are sent off to different locations to piece their plots together.

As with most of Satoshi Kon’s work, Tokyo Godfathers is obsessed with films and filmmaking. References are found in the dialogue; editing and cinematographic-based tricks sometimes remind the audience that they are watching a film, and in fact watching a fantasy, no matter how ordinary it seems. 

The film’s exploration of family trauma and drama became a near tear-jerker for me. The biblical inclusions of the baby and the three “wise” “men” (one is transsexual and the other is a teenage girl) create a relatable narrative for a Christian-derived secular world, and for myself recalled the emotions felt in Alfonso Cuaron’s “Children of Men”. For some reason I very much enjoy using a small child as a catalyst for character development.

-dom

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We Watched: As the Gods Will

If the Japanese manga series this movie is based on is of similar quality, then "As the Gods Will” directed by Takashi Miike is a franchise that stinks in two mediums. The film starts off to the point and promising, but right when a traditional toy head starts talking with its CGI lips, I am turned off. The pace of the film further slows to a crawl. The dialogue flails, attempting at rousing inspirational realizations about life and whatnot and some half-assed special effects and gorey violence that could have at least made up for this film.

If you never read the manga, why’d you watch the movie? I saw that Takashi Miike, a director I have much respect for since 13 Assassins, helped develop the film. The magazine-thing Variety also said “Hey if you like Battle Royale and gore stuff you’ll love this!” Where’s the gore? Sure it had “death game” stuff, but this is no Battle Royale.

This film looks as if it was made cheaply to get some easy money from the manga fans while giving them some pretty young Japanese actors to provide fan service. Also weird treatment of women. The vagina is the main source of the film’s PG-13 gore. It’s cheesy and maybe I’m too uncaring of the details of Japanese culture around the oversexualization of women. Why no penis violence? Why cut the women’s clothes in provocative ways? Is this 70s/80s action? I wish.

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We Watched: Howl’s Moving Castle

A weak Miyazaki film that feels uninspired and very standard. The overpowering themes of anti-war and WWI parallels could have been more powerful, but is instead waved around like an ostentatious flag. There’s no interpretation into what happened, no feeling of wondering about the world. Just a kids’ story that couldn’t get past the kids part.

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We Watched: The Wire Season 2

Michael K. Williams (Omar Little) was astonished when David Simon decided to go to the docks. Why the white people? Simon reassured the fan-favorite actor that The Wire is bigger than just the urban sprawl. It wants to tackle the issues that surround the city. World issues collide with family drama in a rougher but more human second season of The Wire.

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We Watched: The Wire Season 1

The Wire has a lot to say and says it near-perfectly. Season 1 is a beautiful product in itself, exploring urban, city, and police politics, but also taking into account the human side of what could have otherwise been a very clinical series. This is a challenging series, and a series that should be watched.

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We Watched: Insidious Chapter 3

I got spooked. However, I was also told there would be some thematical content to latch on to, but it’s a pretty poor film in general. Pacing was alright, but character actions were as standard as they come, and there really wasn’t much of a theme. Dad-daughter relations? Going back into a dangerous business? I dunno.

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We Watched: Jurassic World

Do you wish you could make out with Chris Pratt as well? Well too bad! You’re not Bryce Dallas Howard, and you may also have more than two dimensions, which is not what Jurassic World’s version of Chris Pratt wants. Oh there are dinosaurs as well.

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Look at how cheap gas is in Sideways (2005)!!!!

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Wordcloud: Pitchfork’s Best New Albums

Wanted to see what Pitchfork’s top 50 words for the last 6 Best New Albums were.

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The Lucky Ones by Charles Bukowski

Insights into writing celebrate its lack of choices. For a book, meaning is determined by everything: the themes it stole from others, and the ideas it produces within others. The author has no choice but to iterate old phrases until it becomes a recollection of cultural memories. Language evolves in the reiteration of phrases in tandem with new and fresh cultural events. As a result the meaning of a word moves beyond its dictionary entry. It becomes part of cultural codification.

The high school teacher finds that the “blue curtains” mean more than colored curtains, but an implication of melancholy. If the first textual phrase containing “blue curtains” were in regards to a positive event, these curtains could have a different meaning altogether. But the word “blue” evolved to sadness, not happiness. And so it goes.

The poem, in which a word is paramount to its existence, thrives on language evolution. When a piece of writing changes the meaning of a phrase, the words within that phrase also change context. Poetry, as a product cultural codification, uses these contextual changes for increased relevance. The line breaks, transitions, commas, and every syllable is a choice in expression and relevance. 

So a book critic would question why each phrase was used, and why they are used in that particular order. And a poetry critic would ask why each word was used and why they were used in that particular order, and why the line break was there, and why that comma was in front of that word, and 

Stuck in the rain on the freeway, 6:15 p.m., These are the lucky ones, these are the Dutifully employed, most with their radios on as loud As possible as they try not to think or remember

This is our new civilization: as men Once lived in trees and caves now they live In their automobiles and on freeways as

The local news is heard again and again while We shift from first gear to second and back to first

There's a poor fellow stalled in the fast lane ahead, hood Up, he's standing against the freeway fence A newspaper over his head in the rain

The other cars force their way around his car, pull out into The next lane in front of cars determined to shut them off

In the lane to my right a driver is being followed by a Police car with blinking red and blue lights - he surely Can't be speeding as

Suddenly the rain comes down in a giant wash and all the Cars stop and

Even with the windows up I can smell somebody's clutch Burning

I just hope it's not mine as

The wall of water diminishes and we go back into first Gear; we are all still A long way from home as I memorize The silhouette of the car in front of me and the shape of the

Driver's head or What I can see of it above the headrest while His bumper sticker asks me HAVE YOU HUGGED YOUR KID TODAY?

Suddenly I have an urge to scream As another wall of water comes down and the Man on the radio announces that there will be a 70 percent Chance of showers tomorrow night

Because of its bountiful choices poetry requires self-awareness of the individual, others, and society (culture). Such self-awareness is overwhelming, maddening, and often in vain. The multitude choice of poetic inclusion, exclusion, semantics, and symbology would drive most people crazy. Because of that, a poem as brief as Bukowski’s “The Lucky Ones” speak over 1000 pages of story. For a poem so hefty in size, there is no other choice but to scream.

And so it went.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron

Watching this in the Hualien Cinema City, Taiwan’s main east coast cinema, led to a different approach to the Hollywood Blockbuster. These American-made films are not made for “Americans”, but for the world, and as a result made for no one. They aim to please and translate over to most countries that contribute to the International Box Office.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is an exercise in “world” cinema. As action is a universal anyone can understand, Avengers contains much action of course. It’s a superhero movie, what else is there to expect? There are overplayed themes about American intervention and AI that turns on its creators, with a balance of subtle and obtuse that aims to please everyone and alienate no one. 

And so for 2-and-a-half hours, I am able to escape the Taiwan heat and humidity with a perfectly air conditioned room, drink a miniature vodka, and delight myself in Ultron’s undiscriminating comfort.

-dom

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Mad Max: Fury Road

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is a film aimed at subverting the female role in action films. Not only are there more females than males in detailed leading roles, but they are written to be maximally useful in the film’s many action scenes. At times female characters were placed into traditionally male roles (Theron and another woman, both with hair cut short, were the best gun players). Other times certain female characters took advantage of their sex to undermine antagonist goals.

More importantly, the film also implies that the “Max” part of “Mad Max” was simply to allow traditional, conservative audiences to have the “default” male protagonist as a gateway to the film’s female-centered cast. The character even refuses to say his name until the end. But he’s a male, this allows the Rated R blockbuster to have all of its demographics covered and secure great box office numbers despite its mature rating.

Max delivers a line: “If you can’t fix what’s broken, you’ll go insane.” He decides that fighting his oppressors is better than just running away. Maybe director George Miller wants to fight against Hollywood’s globalized masculinity. But just like certain female characters, he’s playing within the system to undermine it, making “Mad Max: Fury Road” a compromised feat of feminist filmmaking.

-dom

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It Follows

After the protagonist is thrown out of a car onto the street by her previously friendly and trustworthy date, Jay (Maika Monroe) is questioned by the police. There is only one question that the film focuses on: Was the sex consensual? She says yes. But Jay didn’t consent to the psychological pain brought upon her by the intercourse and the curse of having to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life.

The film explores the effects of rape through horror genre tropes, each cliché becoming an allegory to allow the audience just a little bit of understanding about the pain that a victim goes through. Denial. Paranoia. Attempts to reconcile sex as “good”; but the damage creeps back to her. Throughout this, her friends doubt whether her “curse” exists at all. The loss of childhood is a strong theme throughout “It Follows” but being a rape victim is much more than a lost childhood. It’s a loss of humanity, which is taken advantage of by others throughout the film.

-dom

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Paprika

Paprika is almost exactly 90 minutes, and it doesn’t waste a second. Nearly all Japanese animated films (and Pixar) are tuned for pacing perfection, and Paprika flies. Paprika has many parallels with the Miyazaki classic Spirited Away, which came out just five years before. This time, it’s not just human overconsumption, but technology-encouraged consumption that is the main culprit. One character, a detective, has his own substory that is not unlike the second plot of Hugo: an ex-filmmaker with existential regret about his film ambitions. The other, the dichotomy between our dream selves and real selves serves the main character’s personal development. Paprika is able to combine multiple Hollywood films into one, more substantive product that is exceedingly timeless in this day of globalization and technology.