Is anyone out there?

I know it's a bit annoying when people whine about comments and all...but I've written about 9 reviews in a row and not sure anyone has posted a thing...is this thing broken? Agree with me, debate me, tell me I'm crazy, I'll take anything in the comment box!

The Ballad of Cable Hogue

When you think Sam Peckinpah western, you might think of gritty characters, slow motion shoot-outs and lots of people dying. His most infamous western, The Wild Bunch, featured all of these elements in spades and is probably his most notorious and famous film. The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) is a western but it’s one with a great deal of levity and is one of Peckinpah’s most pleasurable films to watch because it’s such a curveball.

Jason Robards plays Cable, a man left without water in the desert and left to die. He stumbles around in the heat and sun but luckily finds a freak water hole when he was about to give up. Cable stakes a claim to the land with the sole desire to wait for the two fellows who left him to die make their way to him, then he plans to kill them.

Cable goes to town some and meets the busty prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens). I wouldn’t mention her bust line but when the pair meet Peckinpah does some really funny quick cuts over and over regarding her chest as Cable can’t get his mind on anything else (he has been out in the desert about to die after all!). Cable is in town to entice the local stagecoach line into funding his new town, Cable Springs, while he waits to exact revenge.

As I said, this was more a western-comedy from a director not known for lighter moments and I really enjoyed those elements in the movie. Robards gives a great, lively performance as Cable, he’s a ranting, randy character. Slim Pickens shows up to deliver a few one-liners and any western with Pickens is usually something worth watching.

The film even has some statements on the changing nature of the western frontier in it toward the end, which was a nice surprise, and it throws in a little romance before the final showdown too for a different kind of western from one of the genre’s most unique directors. The Ballad of Cable Hogue is not Peckinpah’s best film, but it is right up there with his most fun to watch. Great.

The Bicycle Thief

Sheer perfection. This is a perfect movie—perfectly conceived and executed—and is one of my favorite movies of all-time. I’ve seen it at least six times now and it never loses its ability to wring out the emotion as I watch it. The Bicycle Thief hurts so good.

Director Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 film is among the canon of the neo-realist movement in post-WWII Italian cinema. Neo-realism was a movement that attempted to toss away excess and to tell real stories with real human beings. These films attempt to address everyday moments of a normal person in a heartbreaking, moving and dramatic manner. “My purpose is to find the element of drama in daily situations” De Sica said regarding the storyline of The Bicycle Thief.

The film's story is set around the poverty and unemployment of a single family. Antonio is out of work. He gets a job to put up posters but needs his bicycle to do the job. To get the bike out of the pawn shop the family hocks their linens. On the first day of his job, the bike is stolen. Antonio and his son Bruno go on a search trying to find the bike that will put food on their table.

That’s the simple version of the story. The film has so many layers to it that each time I watch it another is peeled back for me to discover. Only the great movies can do that for you as a viewer. Sometimes I notice the father-son elements, sometimes I pay attention to the way poverty/ unemployment have a significant role in the film’s story. This time I really noticed the use of God/religion/psychics in the story and how it relates to Antonio’s plight.

Most of the time I just get swept up in the desperation of the father who knows the consequences for his job and his family if he doesn’t locate the bicycle. With the bicycle, they aren’t well off, but he won’t bury himself in the shame of unemployment and the struggle to survive that losing the bicycle will cause.

The Bicycle Thief, like other neo-realist films from this period, relies heavily on non-professional actors and extensive location shooting. This adds to the feeling of “realness” in what you see on screen. You see real alleys, churches, building stairwells, streets and apartments.

The Bicycle Thief has one of the most devastating endings in the history of cinema. I don’t care how many times I watch the film, I’m blown away and crushed for the rest of the day. That’s a good thing in my book. Any movie that takes you into another emotional state because you love the characters and the story so much is a complete success to me. In the case of The Bicycle Thief, it’s simply one of the best movies in the history of cinema.

Inland Empire

When I was writing the post a few weeks ago regarding films I'm itching to see--I somehow forgot the one I want to see most of all--Inland Empire!

I keep reading about how this is THE David Lynch movie he's been waiting to make his entire career that has all the quirky and strange elements + some more. Years in the making, shot entirely on consumer DV (Lynch has sworn off film which kind of bums me out), scenes with talking rabbits and who knows what else will be in store for us brave enough to enter the world of Lynch.

I really want to see the movie!

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

It's about time someone exposed the MPAA for the fraud and sham that they are. I’ve been ranting and raving about the ratings system for a long, long time now so watching this documentary was right up my alley.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated tells a story long needed in regards to film history. You see, the ratings board, also known as the MPAA, has long held an agenda in how they come up with their ratings and filmmaker Kirby Dick attempts to expose that agenda. He does it in a funny way too--by attempting to expose every person on the super secret ratings board and show just how faulty the whole process is.

The MPAA looks at films in uneven ways--violence is better than sex, studio pictures get away with more than indies and woe is the film to put any kind of homosexuality in it. The MPAA claims to be made up of "normal" parents who sit in judgement of every movie released in the USA to guide other parents but Dick finds out a lot of these people have children in their 20s and aren't advising a rating at all--but actually censuring films.

I'm amazed that some brave filmmaker w/ deep pockets hasn't sued the MPAA on some kind of 1st amendment issue as they have such overwhelming power and control regarding a films ability to play in theatres by the threat of an NC-17 rating that they force artists into altering their picture to get a lesser rating. As the film shows at the start, hundreds of filmmakers, many of them legends, have had to deal with overzealous ratings board decisions regarding films that forced them into cutting their movies into something they don’t want.

If you like seeing behind the scenes docs set in Hollywood, this is for you. Lots of directors show up and talk about their own battles with the MPAA. I wish this would be the first step in getting rid of the current system or altering it into a more workable system with public raters and a more clearly defined set of parameters—but that's probably a pipedream as Dick shows in his film—the MPAA is controlled by the studios and theatres and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Movies I'm eager to see

The holiday season is pretty insufferable for a scrooge like me. I want the Christmas music, the shopping masses and anything else related to the “spirit” of the season to just go away. The only good thing about this time of the year is some high quality films are released that try to garner awards. Here’s a few films that have yet to make it to Tulsa or are about to be released that I’m anxious to see.

The Last King of Scotland: A few months ago I wrote about how I love Forrest Whitaker. Word is he is tearing up the screen with so much manic energy in this film where he plays the mad as a hatter dictator Idi Amin. I read the book a few years ago, which also piques my interest, as the book was pretty enjoyable. I don’t understand what the hold up is for this coming to Tulsa, all I know is I need to see it!

Sherrybaby: Another one that’s already been out for awhile on the coasts and in larger cities that hasn’t made it to T-Town yet. Just like The Last King of Scotland, my main interest in watching it is there is supposedly a blazing performance by Maggie Gyllenhall, who is a favorite of mine. Gyllenhaal gives a fearless and raw performance—at least from what I’ve read as who knows how long I’ll have to wait before it comes to town.

The Fountain: I’m not a huge fan of director Darren Aronofsky but I’ve been reading about this epic sci-fi romance of his for years now so I’m eager to finally see it. The Fountain has almost been made and then not made and now it’s finally been actually filmed. The story concerns characters over a thousand year arc in very different settings and is trippy as all get out. Another reason I want to see it—Rachel Weisz.

The Good German: Director Steven Soderbergh is completely hit and miss with me now. He’ll make an interesting film and then go off to make crap like the super mainstream Ocean series or some quasi-pretentious endeavor few people even want to see (Bubble). With The Good German he has tried to recreate the flavor of ‘40s filmmaking by using sets, lenses, filmstock and technique used in films from the studio system era. I’m very intrigued. Plus, there’s an interesting mystery set in post WWII Berlin.

Children of Men: I’m into near future dystopian science fiction (1984 is the benchmark) in a big way and this film is set in a dark future where people can’t reproduce. A man and his ex-wife (unfortunately Clive Owen, he annoys me most of the time) are drawn into dark paths trying to protect a woman who is somehow pregnant. I hope everything looks grey, the world is a police state and people have to fight to survive day to day against the forces that try to control them. Sounds like fun, huh?

Slither

This was a fun movie! I’m not sure how I missed this when it came out earlier in the year but I did. Slither is an alien/zombie hybrid that wears its b-film roots cheekily on its sleeve and that sense of fun lets writer/director James Gunn’s debut rise out of the mire of the genre.

Slither isn’t full of dread and darkness—it’s full of one-liners, blasts of violence and a quirky sense of fun from start to finish. I love it when I see a movie and have no expectations and it sneaks up and gives me a surprisingly good time as it unfolds (I shouldn’t have been totally surprised as Gunn wrote the recent Dawn of the Dead remake—one of the few remakes I’ve seen in years that I liked). Slither is such a movie. It doesn’t aim super high because it doesn’t want to be anything other than the gory, funny b-film it is, but it succeeds on nearly every level.

Slither concerns aliens who land in a small town and begins to slowly take over the locals one by one. The aliens turn you into zombies after they take over you but these are zombies a little different than the normal walking dead, as they exist to support the alien they are connected to. I liked that little twist in the story as I’m always looking for different takes on the zombie film.

Gunn gives most of the actors lots of funny things to say in the film. Firefly’s Nathan Fillion plays the local sheriff, Elizabeth Banks (who might be in my next Top5 list) plays another local and a character actor named Greg Henry plays the foulmouthed mayor in a lively role. Jenna Fischer from The Office has a small role and gets to use the word “skeeter” in a sentence.

I haven’t looked at the films that might make my top 10 for 2006 but based on sheer fun level—Slither is going to be up for inclusion. It’s got everything you want in a mainstream b-film: aliens, zombies, giant worms, graphic cartoon like violence, funny one-liners left and right and a fast pace that knows not to stay around too long and wear out the welcome. Isn’t that more than enough?

Desk Set

I don’t review many old movies, so for a change of pace I’ll write a little bit about a 1957 Walter Lang film I saw over the weekend on Turner Classic (the best channel on tv?). Desk Set is an enjoyable Katherine Hepburn/ Spencer Tracy vehicle that is a great piece of romantic comedy to watch on a sleepy, autumn Sunday afternoon.

Hepburn plays Bunny, a whip-smart reference librarian for a large company that is considering installing a new, high powered “electric brain.” That’s computer to you and me, but in 1957 the correct title was electric brain. I kind of like the ring of that… electric brain.

Tracy plays Richard Sumner, the man installing the EB into the company. Sumner is drawn to the quirky librarian (of course!) even though she’s attached to a man who has put off proposing to her for over seven years. Romantic complications ensue.

Desk Set is an easygoing little film that has all the effortless charms that so many films from the 1940s and ‘50s had. It’s just a fun, solid movie filled with lots of good dialogue and marvelous professional actors—Tracy gets to show off a gifted “doubletake” quite often in Desk Set. I’m quite fond of the doubletake.

There were so many studio styled films from this era that are beguiling and have an appeal that is timeless and Desk Set is certainly one of the ones worth watching. I mentioned it earlier, but films like Desk Set, and others from this period, just seem so effortless as you watch them. They entertain and charm without trying at all and that’s why we’ll watch them for fifty more years.

Half Nelson

A few years ago I swore of the “drug” movie as a genre I was just sick to death of. The last thing I wanted to do was to watch some self-destructive nitwit stick a needle in a vein in his neck and inject heroin. Or watch an equally self-destructive yahoo waste his education, throw away his family or all the other negative after effects that would come to those characters in the myriad of drug movies that were coming out at the time.

Recently I decided to watch Requiem for a Dream for the first time years after it came out. The film was about the most bleak, overrated movie I’d seen in a long time and I swore again—no more drug movies! Dang, I wish I’d kept that promise as Half Nelson is just another in a long line of films that show addicts destroy their lives for 2 hours.

This movie is getting a lot of hype (why I watched it) and Ryan Gosling is indeed very charismatic in the lead while delivering a great performance. Gosling is without a doubt, one of the finest young American actors working in film—yet Half Nelson is a story that I’ve witnessed before and rings in all the drug movie clichés.

The story, set partially in a school setting, as Gosling attempts to teach inner city kids, while balancing a secret life ingesting lots of chemicals in the night hours. The teaching methods he employs are pretty ridiculous and highly unbelievable in such a school as he tends to lecture middle school kids in a drug hangover, strung out on some substance, stream of conscience rambling and spinning out philosophy masquerading as history. No teacher would get away for this long, yet he appears to have done it for years. Come on.

The setting of the film in inner city schools never quite feels right and is a little off. HBO’s stellar show The Wire has similar backdrops for a few of its many storylines (kids in school, ravages of drugs) and it is so chockfull of gritty reality it makes Half Nelson seem like the phony-at-its-core film it is.

My relationship with these drug films is kind of like someone swearing off this or that—I seem to fall off the wagon and watch one of them every so often—but this time I’m serious. I’m quitting these drug movies for good. If Half Nelson is an over-hyped film, it at least got me back on the wagon.

Borat...

Since I posted a few times about Borat, I might as well write very briefly about it. Hilarious! The funniest film all year, no contest. I knew what to expect going in and it still didn't disappoint. Now I'm counting the months until Cohen lets loose his next character on unsuspecting marks: Bruno! Is nice!

Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead

Sorry for the lack of film stuff—super, super busy for next couple of weeks. Grad school + work = less movies and even less time to write about the ones I do see.

A couple of weeks ago we showed George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the original Dawn of the Dead at the Circle. Yes, it was a Halloween weekend zombie double feature and it was great. I hadn’t seen either film in years so it was both fun and interesting to watch them back-to-back to see how different they are as films.

I’d never seen Night of the Living Dead in a theatre before and the experience greatly enhances its overall impact and tension. I was kind of surprised just how claustrophobic Romero made the interior action in NOTLD. If you don’t know the story of the 1968 film—a group of people retreat to a remote farmhouse and attempt to stave off the walking dead who are outside.

Romero’s film is chock full of atmospheric (black and white photography never hurts upping the atmosphere) tension as he utilizes tight, composed frames that adds to the enclosed, impossible to escape feeling the film has. NOTLD is pretty gore free—the horror is mostly an internal level of fear as the terror comes from the confusion in the situation and the fact these people might not ever make it out of this house. The level of dread is palpable throughout the film. Classic.

Dawn of the Dead, released 10 years after Night, is a completely different film. Rather than enclose a group of people in a tiny space, Romero sticks them in a much bigger location: a shopping mall. He then unleashes a tremendous amount of zombie killing and hammers home an anti-consumerist message (too much of this at 2 in the morning) at the same time the bright red/orange fake blood is flowing from the wounds of dead zombies.

Dawn of the Dead has so many zombies shot in the head moments it reaches a point when it’s very cartoon like, with the violence being not realistic, frightening or jarring. You have to kill these damn zombies or they will kill you and that’s exactly what the people in the shopping mall do—kill some zombies!

I like both the films for different reasons—one is full of inner psychology and drama and the other is just a torrent of fake blood and killing zombies. But how can you go wrong with either of these films if you like zombies as these are two that I’ll keep coming back to and I’ll love them every time.

Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan

Since I wrote about Logan's Run earlier this month I might as well write about another favorite sci-fi film I love. I'm really into '70s/'80s sci-fi--the period right before CGI took over--and I'm an admitted lifelong Star Trek fan (there's no shame in it!). Like a lot of people, my two favorite films in the Star Trek series are parts 2 and 3 (The Search for Spock). It's been awhile since I've seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and it still warms the cockles of my Federation lovin' heart.

There are a lot of reasons to love this film. There’s a great villain in Ricardo Mantalbon as the genetic superhuman Khan. What makes this villain resonate is he’s a character from the TV show that wants revenge on Kirk, who sent him into exile on a barren planet years earlier. Mantalbon, the one time Fantasy Island actor, is wonderful as the bad guy. He hams it up in his beefed up rubber muscle suit in very entertaining ways.

Wrath of Khan is so great because it has a suspenseful revenge element that blends in bits of humor and great action as Admiral Kirk returns to the spot he loves: the helm of the Enterprise. Khan wants to get his hands on the Genesis Project (a technology that creates livable planets on ones that were not livable in the span of a few days) to start again on a newly invigorated planet but he wants to kill Kirk even more. Revenge is a disease in Khan's mind and he can't control it until he either kills Kirk or dies trying, it's good stuff people.

I'm a Spock man myself and would have liked to see more of the genius Vulcan and much less of the always annoying Kirstie Alley (who was seriously miscast as a Vulcan--she doesn't deserve to step on board the Enterprise!). No way did I believe for a second that she's a Vulcan. Come on!

I need to re-watch all the Star Trek films now after watching this. Except maybe Star Trek V, the crap one Shatner directed, I’ll pass on that mess. The word is, JJ Abrams is directing the new Star Trek film and it’s going to be about Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy. I’m excited at the thought of such a movie. Don't even try to tell me Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan isn't good and remember, live long and prosper.

Bio-Zombie

I like my zombie movies to be chock full of gore and tension. If it doesn't have those two things it better be funny. The best zombie movies can have all three of those elements that work together. The Hong Kong film Bio-Zombie (1998) is kind of low on the tension and the gore but it’s still fun because of the humor on display.

Bio-Zombie is definitely a tribute to American zombie films as we get a couple of video store slacker clerks who work in a mall who accidentally unleash a biological weapon that turns people into zombies if they drink it. Naturally, the mall is soon running over with the undead and the pair plus their fellow mall workers have to fight for their lives.

Bio-Zombie’s gore is pretty lackluster. So is the tension level as this is more of a horror-comedy than something that is either going to scare you or gross you out. Bio-Zombie uses some of the usual Hong Kong comedy stylings—lots of physical comedy, broad, over the top acting, and general silliness by all the characters. I like that kind of stuff, so I found myself chuckling quite a bit as these people fought off these zombies.

Bio-Zombie is a fun little film from Hong Kong (with terrible subtitles by the way, which kind of adds to its charms) that takes the simple premise of “zombies” and runs it through the Hong Kong comedy blender. Expect to laugh a little but not be scared or disgusted by the low-gore levels.

Poseidon

I know, I know, I’d trashed remakes and sworn them off when writing about Logan’s Run and I go out and watch a remake. I was at a friend’s and choices were few. And what a mistake it was as Poseidon (2006) has to be the worst piece of garbage I’ve watched all year. I can’t imagine how a film could be worse—that’s how bad this embarrassingly overdone, empty and lifeless film is.

At least I had the satisfaction of knowing that Poseidon was a complete bomb at the box-office when it came out over the summer. Not that that will change the mentality to make another one as it’s failure will be blamed on poor marketing tie ins rather than the fact it’s an awful bit of moviemaking across the board.

Coming next to the multiplex near you: Inferno, which is of course the remake or Towering Inferno. Or, better yet, Airport ’07, which will be an extension of the other ‘70s “Airport” films. You have to love the current state of Hollywood for putting this kind of junk out time after time after time.

The only redeeming element of Poseidon is that SD and I just sat there and ragged on the silly dialogue, the over the top dramatics and the lack of tension. That was kind of fun. The Poseidon Adventure, which came out in 1972 looks like one of the great films of all time compared to this shite and it’s not really even a good movie!

Avoid Poseidon with all your strength and courage. I’m going to swear off remakes (again) and this time I’m going to up my resolve and make my pledge stick. Why wouldn’t I, when they (film studios) try to make me suffer through films such as Poseidon and their ilk. No thank you.

Borat will soon be here

Less than a month until Borat arrives in theatres! Borat! Borat! Borat!

Logan's Run

Since I reviewed Planet of the Apes yesterday to combat any perceived film snobbery, I might as well talk some about another sci-fi tale from my youth that I really enjoyed. Sure, Logan’s Run (1976) is a bit dated but the ultra-futuristic setting in the 23rd century completely blew me away as a kid and I still love this movie. One reason the Logan’s Run is dear to me as it was an early foray for me into the fantastical world of science fiction films.

The sad thing about Logan’s Run is they are in the midst of a remake (how many times do I have to write it--Hollywood is so out of ideas now they’ll redo anything, from cheesy TV show--C.H.I.P.S. anyone?--to cult films from the '70s like Race With the Devil, or yes, Logan's Run). It makes me sick to think about how they are going to CGI it up like there’s no tomorrow and ruin it of the b-movie fun that this 1976 version has. In a way, it was remade in The Island, a crap Michael Bay film from 2005 that stole all kinds of ideas from Logan’s Run.

I love the first hour or so of Logan’s Run as we see a futuristic utopian pleasure world that is inhabited by those 30 and under. Every person who lives in this society is beautiful. When a person turns 30, time is up and a crystal installed in their palms begins to blink. When the blinking starts, you have two choices: you turn yourself in or become a runner. Runners are chased down by men known as Sandman who look at it as if sport, to hunt a runner down and kill them. I love it!

Michael York plays Logan 5, a sandman who begins to see his world in new light after he meets Jessica 6 (played by the sexy as hell Jenny Agutter--American Werewolf in London, Walkabout). Faced with this choice, the pair go on a “run” that leads them outside this sealed world and an eye-opening discovery.

I admit, the last part of Logan's Run becomes kind of silly and drags itself down, but as I said, the first of it does a good job of trying to create a future, utopian city. And the fact it is done without all the computers that are used nowadays, with lots of miniature work and other tricks, make it way more visually interesting to me despite its age. Logan’s Run may not look as “real,” but I prefer the futuristic design efforts in this instead of a generic, computer drenched film released now.

I love not only Logan’s Run, the movie but check out that poster! Now that is some great ‘70s science fiction design right there. Fits the film its promoting perfectly. In fact, I need to find me a Logan’s Run t-shirt or something to really let my nerd out.

Planet of the Apes

To combat the fact that I’ve reviewed a lot of foreign films and docs recently, I want to do a couple of genre pictures that I love so y’all won’t think I’m a “film snob”. Actually, calling me a film snob is one of the worst insults you could deliver. I like it all, as long as it’s good.

I love genre pictures and The Planet of the Apes (1968) has one of my favorite premises in movie history: a world run by apes, where humans are the animals who reside in zoos, cages or live in the wild, trying to avoid being captured. That’s genius, folks, pure genius.

The idea of 'apes as humans' is so engrossing to me that I can ignore the couple of dated moments or the overacting by Charlton Heston ("Get your stinkin' paws off me you damn dirty ape!"). Those elements actually add to the film’s overall charm.

Set late in the 38th century, Heston plays Taylor, one of three astronauts who crash onto an unknown planet. The men begin to look for other forms of life and when they find it, aren't they surprised when a bunch of apes ride up on horses carrying and shooting off rifles in their direction? Taylor gets a confused, stunned, what the hell is goin' on look on his face when the apes start to speak to one another. Friggin’ genius!

Planet of the Apes is a real classic of the period, when science fiction meant ideas, unlike today, where effects are at the forefront of any sci-fi movie. Planet of the Apes can mean a lot of things and makes statements on evolution, race relations, science and the role of man/ape, oppression and class. Or, it can just be an entertaining yarn about apes controlling man in the future.

Co-scripted by Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, the film has his earmarks all over it, as it is full of his paranoid vision from the get-go. The DVD has all the trailers from future ape films and boy do they get cheesy, so unworthy of following this first film. So ignore the films that followed and just think how great the first one is.

I have a very fond memory from my youth connected to the Ape films. I was 11 or 12 and sick, home from school. At around 10 in the morning the TV began an all day ape festival with all the films from the series. I lost myself for the next dozen or so hours in a haze combining my illness and the ape universe. I so loved these films that day I was happy to be ill. Decades later, I still love Planet of the Apes.

Rebels of the Neon God

I love Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang. He’s one of my favorite directors and he has such a unique and beautiful vision of the world. His films are a running collection of the same themes—urban isolation, loneliness, love, and the power of the mundane daily existence. Tsai’s style is deceptively simple as he often barely moves the camera or delivers unbelievably long takes on his non-action. His films are always beautifully shot and at times resemble paintings or vibrant photographs.

Unfortunately, living in Oklahoma means I’ve missed his most recent films—I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone and The Wayward Cloud—but I recommend these two I saw in 2001 while living in New York and Goodbye, Dragon Inn and What Time Is It There? as must see Tsai.

First up, Rebels of the Neon God from 1992. Tsai’s first feature is a brooding rumination on the lonely wanderings of lost youth during the night in Taipei.

Rebels of the Neon God uses little dialogue (a Tsai trait) and has damaged, lonely teens that drench Taipei with neon lights, seedy wet streets, back alleys, kids on motorcycles, love hotels and video game parlors.

Ah Tze lives with his brother in squalor in an apartment that has serious problems with drainage as water seeps up and covers the floor with an inch or two of water. Ah Tze and his pal Ah Ping sleep days and at night commit petty robberies, such as stealing from phone boxes so they can play video games all night.

Hsiao Kang (Lee Kang-Sheng, who is in all of Tsai's films and is kind of his screen alter ego) is silently drifting through life. Not into school, at odds with his taxi driving father and his mother thinks he's the reincarnated, mischievous god Nezha (which produces a very funny scene with Hsiao Kang pretending to be possessed). Hsiao Kang begins to follow Ah Tze around during the night and trouble may ensue.

I like Tsai's style, as he will linger on a shot or scene much longer than usual in films today. Sometimes there are these long takes where hardly anything at all is even going on, just a person sitting smoking or wandering around Taipei streets minute after minute. Tsai’s willingness to hold the camera on these mundane aspects so fearlessly allows him to really carve into the void of these empty young people's lives.

Rebels of the Neon God is not only good and unique, it is a great beginning place to discover the world of Tsai Ming-Liang.

The Hole

Next up, The Hole from 1998. This movie was a part of the series from France that had various filmmakers doing stories on what year 2000 might be like. Tsai's 21st century Taipei has a monsoon of a rainstorm (he has a thing about severe rain and water in apartments as leaks are a common theme).

The rain is so relentless most of the city has been evacuated except for a man (the ever present Tsai regular Lee Kang-Sheng) who lives above a woman (Yang Kuei-Mei) in a dingy, faceless, leaking apartment building. Due to the incessant rainstorm leaks create a hole in the middle of their floor/ceiling and the pair become acquainted whether they wanted to or not because of the hole.

This is a strange and interesting little film that mostly takes place without dialogue and in these two crappy apartments. Most surprisingly, and kind of bizarrely, the woman breaks into these musical song and dance numbers all over the apartment building! She sings and dances in the elevator, the halls, stairwells and all in colorful dresses to the music of Grace Chang from the '50s.

These fantasy musical numbers have color that is bright and eye catching when the rest of the film is shot kind of drab and grey. Toss in the epidemic of "Taipei Fever", an illness that makes people think they are cockroaches and causes them burrow into closets or other lightless areas and you see what I mean when I say there are some interesting story elements in The Hole.

The Hole is all at once an odd, end of the world drama, a romance, a musical that equates to another wonderful movie from one of the world’s most unique cinematic voices—Tsai Ming-Liang.

Head-On

With the German film Head-On (2004), writer/director Fatih Akin has fashioned a film that is powerful, intense, gloomy, romantic and drowning in the kind of despair that you only get to witness in movies from another country. Head-On is just so unrelenting in its bleak outlook on life that there is no way in the world it would have been made by Hollywood.

Head-On is a great movie and all, but I wonder sometimes why I subject myself to such heavy, unrelenting stories when I could just be watching The Guardian like all the other multiplex loving drones. The answer: deep down (well not that deep as this is a surface love) I love film and the experience of cinema and I don’t care if it’s fun and laughs or tears and anguish that is on display. If a movie is good—I want to see it.

Sometimes film is a raw, painful and harsh experience that doesn’t uplift you in the end. Real life doesn’t always have happy endings. Films like Head-On make me realize just how sugarcoated the entire Hollywood mentality is. I don't need happy endings or sugary romances all the time, I do need good movies.

Head-On is a romance as two people come together in Hamburg and go on a swirling, out of control relationship that is doomed from the moment the pair meet in a mental hospital after both attempt to kill themselves. You’d think that a couple meeting after committing suicide would have nothing left but good times ahead of them, right? Yeah, sure.

Sibel is a beautiful young Turkish woman who is so desperate to get out of her stifling, conservative family she begs Cahit to marry her despite the fact he’s twice her age and basically a step above bumland. Cahit is Turkish and that will please her family. Sibel wants to go out and have sex with lots of guys, do drugs and live it up while pretending to be married. Cahit is drunkenly buried in the grief of his wife dying. It’s a match made in heaven afterall as Sabil convinces Cahit of marriage after she sticks a shard of broken glass into her veins. Didn’t I say this was a romance?

Head-On does not flinch. Not once. It swims in so much despair from beginning to end that I felt a wave of gloom weighing me down when it ended. There are moments when you feel hope in your heart for these two lost people but Akin doesn’t want to make that kind of film. Head-On will stick to you for days after you have seen it—can a film like The Guardian say the same?

Head-On is one of the saddest, most depressing films I’ve seen all year, but it’s also one of the best, as I admire a film that is brave enough to look despair in the face and not look away.