A FEW WORDS ON JANET PLANET

For those that don’t know - I’m not only from western Massachusetts but I’m a former classmate of Janet Planet director Annie Baker (not trying to name-drop. I just think it would be odd to not mention that). I don’t think my opinion on this movie holds more weight than anyone else who’s seen it, but I think I know the basic material more than the average person. Not the deeper coming of age story of an 11 year old girl and the close relationship with her quietly eccentric mother. But all the ancillary elements are very near & dear to my heart. It’s impossible for me to not feel nostalgic watching this. The first time I saw it I spent half the time pointing out to all the very real places I grew up in & around. Amherst is a very unique place. I know everyone with some kind of hometown pride always says that about wherever they’re from but people that aren’t even from Amherst that have spent time there have confirmed that it’s unlike anywhere else. It’s incredibly liberal (sometimes laughably liberal when compared to the rest of the world) and sometimes pretentious but well-meaning at the end of the day. I couldn’t imagine growing up anywhere else. Amherst is where I learned about weird movies and music which is a huge part of who I am today. I can confirm that this movie captures the vibe of early 90’s Western, Mass. The wooded areas, the architecture, the clothes, the aging hippies — all of it. 

It’s just nice to see specific landmarks that you grew up with in a movie directed by someone that’s actually from where the story takes place. If you’re from places like Toronto, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago or New York City - it’s fairly common to see familiar landmarks show up in movies. That’s not the case when you’re from Western Massachusetts. We’re usually an afterthought or incorrectly attached to the other side of the state. So much of our personality is based on telling non-new England folks that we aren’t from Boston or that we’re different from Boston people. …At least that’s how it was for me post-high school (to be clear - we are very different from the people on the eastern side of the state in that we’re less aggressive and aren’t as angry).

Mount Pollox Conservation Area, Amherst Massachusetts

The parking lot of the Hampshire Mall, Hadley Massachusetts

Tobacco barn in Hadley

Masonic Street Mural, Northampton Massachusetts 

A huge chunk of this movie's personality is the result of watching & appreciating a wide range of cinema and paying homage to it. I mean that in a good way. There’s lots of visual references in this. It wouldn’t be out of line to program Janet Planet on a double bill with something like Fanny and Alexander or Welcome To The Dollhouse (a film that co-stars Amherst alumni; Eric Mabius). Annie Baker subconsciously borrowed from movies in that lane. That’s actually what I liked most about her film. If you’re familiar with this blog then this shouldn't come as a surprise. That's all I seem to care about with movies these days. This is very much her own unique vision but she’s been very open about her cinematic inspirations. I caught some immediately without having to do any research. Others I learned about through reading interviews and listening to Q&As.
Some of the comparisons below might seem a little forced or vague, but I think I captured the ones that are most key/important:

Watching it gets you in touch with all the times you've felt horribly depressed and also overwhelmed by the beauty and color of everything around you - Janet Planet, Criterion

Documenteur / Janet Planet

I’ve seen this movie [Fanny and Alexander] more times than I can count. I think it’s the best movie about being a kid ever made. It’s a fairy tale and a nightmare and a totally believable portrayal of a Swedish family in Uppsala at the turn of the twentieth century, all at the same time. It has always reminded me of one of my favorite novels, Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks. It’s also a movie about the weird magic of theater . . . Both the opening sequence and the reading from Strindberg at the end kill me. And the way Bergman shoots inanimate objects . . . The statues and the toy angels and the clocks and the puppets and the lamps . . . They’re all watching Alexander, the whole movie - Annie Baker, Criterion

Fanny and Alexander / Janet IPlanet

Fanny and Alexander / Janet IPlanet

Fanny and Alexander / Janet Planet

I saw this when I was twenty-five or twenty-six and really confused about my work. I was so discouraged and had stopped writing, and this movie made me excited to start working again. Akerman was doing something with pace and composition and time that I'd always wanted to do but had been too chicken to acknowledge or go toward. Watching this made me realize that you should make the kind of art you want to see, which sounds kind of obvious but was a big revelation to me at the time - Annie Baker, criterion

Jeanne Dielman... / Janet Planet

Jeanne Dielman... / Janet Planet

growing up in Amherst, Mass., in the '80s and '90s, you see a lot of political puppet theater - Annie Baker, The New York Times

The Meadows Green / Janet Planet

The Meadows Green / Janet Planet

The filmmaker I would say my D.P. and my editor and I discussed the most was Maurice Pialat, especially his film "L'Enfance Nue." Another movie that is very important to me is [Victor] Erice's "Spirit of the Beehive." We also talked about [Abbas Kiarostami's films about children, and my sound designer Paul and I talked a lot about [Apichatpong] Weerasethakul, and went to see "Tropical Malady" together - Annie Baker, The New Yorker

The Spirit Of The Beehive / Janet Planet

The Spirit Of The Beehive / Janet Planet

Uncle Boonmee / Janet Planet

Uncle Boonmee / Janet Planet

Uncle Boonmee / Janet Planet

L'enfance Nue / Janet Planet

Ten / Janet Planet

Tropical Malady / Janet Planet

Uncle Boonmee / Janet Planet

DARK HABITS: ALMODOVAR PODCAST - EPISODE 19

I made an appearance on the DarK Habits podcast to chat about some topics I'm well versed in...

 

EUREKA @ NYFF *UPDATED*

Do not enter Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka with any expectations. If you’ve watched a trailer or read a review – forget anything you think you’re about to see. Don’t even watch the trailer or the handful of clips that are available online. It’s best to go in to Eureka with a clean slate. As a matter of fact – don’t even read this review any further until you’ve seen it. This is an intentionally deceptive movie that starts out as a playful mockery of Alonso’s last feature (Jauja) then quickly morphs in to a story about a modern-day Native American community in South Dakota.

Eureka isn’t exactly a movie you can spoil (outside of the first 15-20 minutes), but it’s best to compare it to other films within the same lane rather than “review” it. Imagine a spiritual sequel to Jauja (right down to Viggo Mortensen playing another father character looking for his missing daughter) that quickly switches over to an Uncle Boonmee/Tropical Malady/Blissfully Yours-like spiritual tale with pinches of Jarmusch’s Dead Man. I’m sure folks might even be reminded of Carlos Reygadas and/or Amat Escalante.

Eureka was shot by Aki Kaurismaki cinematographer Timo Salminen (the second collaboration between Alonso & Salminen) who's visual style can be seen all over the film...

Timo is one of the best, and he had championed my work, so I asked to collaborate with him. His visual style is another form of narration, if you want to call it that - Lisando Alonso, Film Comment

Ariel / Eureka

Lisandro Alonso has been an unofficial student/admirer of James Benning for quite some time and his latest effort is just proof of this on a visual level...

Used Innocence/ Eureka

Eureka also has some strong visual similarities to filmmakers that Alonso has name-dropped over the years as influences or sources of inspiration...

Similar opening scenes: 
Dead Man /
Eureka

 

Blissfully Yours / Eureka

Blissfully Yours / 
Eureka

Eureka is best enjoyed if you’ve seen Alonso’s previous feature; Jauja. I’m not usually a fan of director’s using their art to take shots at critics or to look directly in to the camera to wink at their fans, but this is an exception because it’s done so masterfully (I’m not sure when this will be released so you have time to check out Jauja before Eureka comes out if you haven’t yet in order to get the full experience).

Now…this movie is almost 2-1/2 hours long. Lisandro Alonso doesn’t use the entire feature to troll critics and wink at his fans. After getting all the naughty prankster stuff out of his system in the first section, the remainder of the film is as genuine as possible thanks to the dry comedic delivery of the wonderful non-professional cast (using non-professional actors can feel exploitive sometimes but that isn't the case here).

If it isn’t clear – I love this movie very much but I wouldn’t blindly recommend it to anyone unless you’re a fan of the director’s previous work and all the other cinematic reference points I namedropped earlier. I’m sure Lisandro Alonso wants as many people as possible to watch Eureka (this would be a hell of a movie to go in to blindly), but there is a core audience this was intended for. As an unofficial spokesperson for said audience – I can say this delivers and then some.

THE SCHOOL OF CHANTAL AKERMAN PART 8: APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL

I know - there are lots of movies that have unedited long takes of hallways and trees and people looking out of a window aimlessly. I know. But there's something about the (unintentional/coincidental) symmetry between the films of Chantal Akerman & Apichatpong Weerasethakul that just sticks out to me more than anyone else (perhaps this has to do with how much I've watched their movies and the subconscious impression they may have left on my brain). 

The agoraphobia, the lack of dialogue, minimal to no music, and just overall ambiance in their respective works are very similar to me (see below).

Below are some examples that I feel best represent the visual similarities between the two filmmakers. I realize using moving imagery instead of stills is almost redundant in this case as there isn't a lot of "action" or movement in the films of either director, but I used videos & gifs to show how long each scene goes without an edit (it's easy to capture moments between two films within one to two second clips but it's another case when the scenes are 5 to 6 times longer).

Let me know what you think...

Hotel Monterey /
Syndromes And A Century

Les Rendezvous D'Anna /
Syndromes And A Century

Les Rendezvous D'Anna /
Cemetery Of Splendour

Jeanne Dielman.../
Syndromes And A Century

Jeanne Dielman... /
Syndromes And A Century

Je Tu Il Elle
Syndromes And A Century

Les Rendezvous D'Anna /
Syndromes And A Century

Les Rendezvous D'Anna / Uncle Boonmee

La Bas /
Syndromes And A Century

La Bas /
Blissfully Yours

ZEBRAS IN AMERICA EPISODE 75!

EPISODE 75! Listen as we talk about the latest from Apichatpong Weerasethakul & Yorgos Lanthimos and lots more.

Enjoy...

KEVIN GEEKS OUT ABOUT MONKEYS: UNCLE BOONMEE...

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is a Thai film set in the jungle which makes it a monkey movie by default (Monkeys & Thai jungles kind of go hand-in-hand). There are monkey's all over this film...

Monkeys even serve as the default soundtrack to this movie. Uncle Boonmee doesn’t have a traditional score or a soundtrack using standard instrumentation. The ambient jungle noises (which feature lots of monkey sounds) serve as the default background music.

Uncle Boonmee also has a coincidental connection to quite a few other monkey-based movies and monkey-based urban legends.

Take the most iconic/memorable shot from the movie. Right away, what are we reminded of when we look at this side/profile shot of a humanoid/monkey looking directly in to the camera?

Bigfoot…

Uncle Boonmee/Big Foot

Now…things don’t have to be identical in order to be a reference. I know Bigfoot doesn’t have red eyes and he was walking through a forest rather than a jungle, but unless you’re a very nitpicky person I think you can see the similarities.


But it doesn’t stop there. Take some more notable images from Uncle Boonmee like this one…

Uncle Boonmee/Princess Mononoke

To me, this is an obvious subconscious nod to Princess Mononoke. I mean – from the way the monkeys are gathered around each other to the obvious red eyes, there’s no way in my mind that director Apichatpong Weerasethakul wasn’t aware of this cartoon. The similarities are too strong.

Uncle Boonmee also has some strong connections to another monkey-heavy film in the form of Jumanji. Here we see characters from both films transitioning to monkeys...

Uncle Boonmee/Jumanji

And this isn’t the first time Apichatpong referenced Jumanji (in reality I’m pretty sure he didn’t really reference Juamnji but in my mind I like to think he did). In his 2005 film Tropical Malady (another Thai film set mostly in a jungle) we witness one of the main characters transition in to an animal...

Tropical Malady/Jumani

And still – it doesn’t stop there. Uncle Boonmee has some visual similarities to Harry & The Hendersons…

Uncle Boonmee/Harry & The Hendersons

As well as the art of Max Ernst…

Uncle Boonmee/Max Ernst 

So even though Uncle Boonmee is the epitome of what a modern art house film is (slow, minimal dialogue, weird, surreal, strange, mildly pretentious, etc), it still branches off and connects to more popular/accessible movies.

It is my personal opinion that Uncle Boonmee is one of the five best movies of the decade so far, but that doesn’t mean I blindly recommend it to any & everyone. Those key words I just used do very much describe this movie (slow, minimal dialogue, surreal, strange, mildly pretentious, etc). But if you have an open mind I do recommend checking it out (after having a cup of coffee and a strong attention span). And perhaps if you think of the subconscious influences & references to more popular films like Juamnji, Max Ernst & Harry & Hendersons, perhaps it will help you enjoy Uncle Boonmee a little more.

King Kong

Now…I picked this movie because I have a strong personal connection to it. I admit that when Kevin first asked me to be on this show I just blindly accepted without having a movie in mind. I just love these shows so much I wanted to be a part of it. But after a day of thinking it over, I realized this was the movie to cover. I don’t really have much of an opinion or attachment to stuff like King Kong or Planet Of The Apes outside of the subconscious racial undertones that both movies have.
If I could just divert for a second and be the black guy to talk about racial stuff for a minute, it doesn’t take too much deep thought to perceive that both movies could be seen as alternative theories about white people’s fear of Black people. The N-word isn’t the only racial slur that people have used to describe Black people over time. Monkey has certainly been used as coded language to describe black people. And when you take a movie like Planet Of The Apes which deals with a group of monkeys taking over the world, or the way black people are depicted in King Kong – it really isn’t too far-fetched to see the possible racist undertones. But that’s a whole other conversation that we don’t need to get in to right now. Sorry if I ruined King Kong or Planet Of The Apes for everyone in the audience right now. I’m certainly not implying that if you like these movies you’re a racist or anything like that. I could totally be clutching at straws with my theories on these films.

Back to the movie at hand…

Uncle Boonmee is about more than just monkeys. A big subplot of this movie deals with the main character dying from Kidney disease which is something both my father & I struggled with (we both had kidney transplants). I mention my father because 5 days before I was supposed to present at the January show about rip-off cinema he passed away from an unexpected heart attack (sorry for bringing the mood down). After I called my family & close friends, Kevin was the next person I called. Obviously out of courtesy I had to call him to let him know that I wouldn’t be able to do the show but it hit me how powerful it is that Kevin was one of the first people I called regarding my father’s passing. So Kevin Geek’s Out will probably always make me think of my dad in some form.

On a lighter note, I will say that my father wanted to come to the January show and he was super excited to see me present (he liked movies quite a bit). So I’d like to dedicate this presentation to my dad. Without him I probably wouldn’t have the obsessive love for cinema that I have today.


I don’t want to leave things on a completely down note so I end this presentation with a hilarious monkey-themed scene that got cut from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back…

THE WHOLE HISTORY OF MY LIFE PART SIX: UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (THE PINK SMOKE)

Check out the latest (and most personal) installment of the Whole History Of My Life series over at The Pink Smoke where I talk about my father, kidney disease and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (click here or on the image above).