Screen Anarchy

Roberto Minervini’s new film, which premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, is the second feature in this festival round to be titled The Damned. Another movie with the same English-language title, directed by Thordur Palsson and featured at the Tribeca Film Festival, was also set in a period setting, and talked about moral compromises and emotional tolls extreme circumstances can take on human beings. (See review linked below.) Minervini’s feature ventures to explore similar ideas, setting the story in 1862 during the Civil War, somewhere along the borderlands of the Western territories. The Damned (orig. Il Dannati) starts off with a prolonged shot of some wolves ripping into an animal carcass, a grim image that doesn’t promise opistimistic things for the main characters,…

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In the romanticizing of 90s indie music, it’s oft said that no band better epitomized the rock & roll slacker ethos of rebelling against establishment/commercialism/‘whatever else ya got’/etc. than Pavement. If true enough, then how exactly do you make a movie about Pavement? The answer as put to Alex Ross Perry by Matador Records seems to be to make every movie about Pavement… and a museum exhibit… and a community theater-style musical. The result is Pavements, a hilariously kaleidoscopic telling of the band’s mythologized story and ostensible meaning, while simultaneously functioning as an appropriately wise-ass satire of the non-music mediums that typically seek to capture the essence of musicians. Paraphrasing Perry’s words, is there any high-brow film genre lower than the music biopic? If not,…

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Who needs credit blocks anymore? The new poster for Bong Joon Ho’s science fiction cloning comedy Mickey 17 sees Robert Pattinson framed in ochre and rust. The numbers 1 through 16 are cleverly hiding in plain sight, anchored by the 17 patch on the actual title character, here sporting a goofy, befuddled look that is far more eye catching than it ought to be. California based MOcean has been featured in this column more than a few times recently, with the design house’s work for Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane and Demián Rugna’s When Evil Lurks, as well as Jeff Nicols’ The Bikeriders.  I like the calcium-oxide coloured border, which offers the director card but also the rating, release date, and the IMAX logo in a quite discrete…

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Human memory is fallable, at least on an individual level; though as some cultures can tell you, a poor memory has also been of great service to larger groups of people who need to forget, or need others to forget, terrible histories and terrible deed enacted upon others. Such has been the case for many countries in the 20th and 21st centuries, to the point where we need indivisual memory, fallable as it is, to try and remember what happened. But how do we remember the past, especially the terrible events, and people, and how do we incorporate them into history? Chilean filmmakers Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León set themselves this task in looking at the life and writing of Miguel Serrano, a writer and…

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As a music producer, singer-songwriter/rapper, and serial entrepreneur, Pharrell Williams has been a part of pop music for the better part of three decades, offering his services as producer, singer, and occasional rapper. Along with his longtime friend and business partner, Chad Hugo, and their collaborative outfit, the Neptunes, Williams has produced or contributed music for musical artists ranging from megastar Britney Spears to onetime “Prince of Pop” Justin Timberlake, rap legends Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes, rock royalty Gwen Stefani and Latin crossover artist Shakira. And that’s just a taste of Williams’ unmistakably original contributions to and influence on the American music scene. As a solo artist rapping and singing to his own beat(s), Williams’s infectiously hummable song on the Despicable Me soundtrack,…

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ALTER has re-released Rachel Stavis’ short film Posies yesterday, Thursday, October 10th.   The date is significant because it is also the final date of Chappell Roan’s summer tour. I’ve heard they’re a bit of a thing these days. At least as far as the trades, and web browsers, and social platforms are concerned. Jeez Louise. If its not something about that other global superstar it’s something about Roan.    Outside of seemingly painting themselves as a bad girl popstar to their fanbase few may know that Posies is the only time that Roan had scored a film, so far. Well, now we all know and can check out their work in Stavis’ short film posted below. Have at it.    Writer-director Rachel Stavis, along with ALTER…

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For pre-cable or Internet audiences of a certain vintage and generation, the arrival of a late-night, weekly sketch comedy show, Saturday Night (Live), represented keenly subversive, self-aware, comically absurdist counter-cultural programming. It was the last, sustained gasp of one generation’s rebellion against societal norms, as a majority of the country’s voters supported a counter-counter-revolution that first brought Richard M. Nixon to the White House and – after a four-year reprieve provided by the post-Watergate election of Jimmy Carter – 12 years of Ronald Reagan and George Bush and their reactionary, right-wing policies.   Saturday Night Live long ago gave away whatever right it had to call itself subversive, functioning primarily as a training ground for successive waves of up-and-coming comedians (many of whom, in time,…

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Having played TIFF and Fantastic Fest, Dead Talents Society is the latest from director John Hsu, and I’ve just seen his rad Taiwanese ghost horror comedy at Hawaii International Film Festival. Hsu’s last feature was the great 2019 period horror film, Detention. Dead Talents Society is out from Sony, so you shouldn’t have an issue seeing it after its festival run, especially since the film is a lot of fun. You could look at the film, in part, as sort of a modern, All About Eve in the world of haunting. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In the afterlife, ghosts compete with each other on who can scare humans the most. However, the bigger prize is who can also be captured scaring people on…

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Can we just take a moment to give a shoutout to Captain George Vancouver? For it is because of the British explorer by which the city I grew up outside of is named. So when you have a festival called the Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival you can freely market yourself as VHS, making an extra special connection to local horror nerds. Well done, George.    Over two weekeends in Burnaby and Vancouver, BC, the local horror crowd can take part in VHS’ 7th annual program. Justin Harding’s HULU horror flick, Carved, will have its Canadian Premiere on the opening night, October 18th. Harding, a Canadian born filmmaker, will be in attendance. Two panel discussions, two shorts programs, three more features and a special presentation…

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Action cinema fans, we have your first look at cult icon Vernon Wells in Michael Matteo Rossi’s indie action flick, The Charisma Killers, with a trailer exclusive and acquistion announcement.    When the old mentor of 7 killers finds out he has terminal cancer, he gives them all an opportunity at his fortune to prove themselves for one night only to exact revenge.   The fine folks at DeskPop Entertainment have acquired the action pic and plan on releasing it on VOD on November 1st. You may recall that DeskPop first made a name for themselves when they distributed the holiday horror indie The Mean One, a slasher take on the beloved Dr. Seuss tale, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.    As mentioned at the…

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