Comming Attractions: The Imposter

 

Directed by Bart Layton, The Imposter documents a bizarre true story about a Texas child who went missing in 1994, and turned up in Spain three years later. His homecoming raised suspicions about his identity and intentions.

 There's nothing better than a good true-crime drama that has been described as "A full-blown American Gothic horror." After watching the trailer, it seems like this film has the most cinematic reenactments out of any documentary, EVER.

Definitely a must see! Coming to theaters August 24th 2012.

Can Dark Shadows be Adapted to Film? Answer Inside

As a child Johnny Depp wanted to be Barnabas Collins. I hope he feels accomplished.

This weekend I saw Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. Right before the previews first came out, and three months before it premiered, I wrote a blog post about remembering the 60's supernatural TV series, Dark Shadows. I found out about the most recent Burton/Depp project while researching for that post. At the time I was excited that someone was giving this cult TV show props, especially if Tim Burton was doing it. However, upon seeing the film, I was pretty disappointed. This blog post is not going to be about me complaining that the TV show was better than the movie. You have to forgive Burton for truncating the story to fit a film format, it never works out perfectly for any project like this. Though I greatly enjoyed it, I am no where near an expert on the TV series to go on and on about the possible discrepancies in the film. My grievances lie in the low-brow jokes and disproportionate focus on the time period the film was set in. 

not amused

At least 50% of the film was dedicated to cracks at the 1970s, and Barnabas's amusing struggles to acclimate. Dark Shadows the TV series was filmed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but they did not acknowledge popular culture of the time, certainly not Alice Cooper, as spooky as he may be. It was set in present day, which happens to now be 40 years in the past. If Donnie Darko can be set in 1985, and actually be about a supernatural phenomenon, Dark Shadows can be a movie that just happens to be set in the 70s, and therefore be authentic to the TV series in that aspect.

Burton also focused on 70's pop hits that contain relevant lyrical themes in relation to the film, instead of using the awesome original theme music of the TV show.

I hadn't seen Dark Shadows in years. Curious about how the TV show and movie plots compared, I looked up the episode synopsis on Wikipedia. With over one thousand episodes, and dizzying plot points that include a "Stairway into Time" built by a ghost, it became very clear that as eerie and grave as the show tried to be, it was quite absurd, even for a supernatural drama. Trying to translate this into a serious film today would either render the original plot unusable, or completely alienate audiences. It seems as though the slap-stick path Burton lead was a lesser evil. When you wipe away all the yucks about disco balls and being stoned, what's left of Dark Shadows is an extremely thin plot that resembles the TV series on the most basic levels.  
    

UPDATE:

Third Reich: The Rise & Fall

If you ever thought you had absorbed all there was to learn and see about Germany during Hitler's rule, think again. This ain't no Ken Burns documentary.  If you love film, photography, and history, you must watch Third Reich: The Rise & Fall.

 A 2010 two part miniseries directed by Nicole Rittenmeyer and Seth Skundrick, Third Reich uses propaganda films, historical documentation, and most importantly, home movies and smuggled footage that has never been viewed in America, or that is still banned in Germany. Rittenmeyer and Skundrick also directed my favorite 911 documentary, 102 Minutes That Changed America, a documentary entirely using the personal footage and rare news footage of the Twin Tower attacks, composed in real time, starting moments before the first plane hit, and ending as the last tower fell. Much in the style of revered nuclear bomb documentary, Atomic Cafe, there is no narrative, except the voices behind the cameras. If you are a fan of either Atomic Cafe or 102 Minutes, Third Reich has a similar use of found film, though unlike the other two, there is a narrator and voice-overs of diary entries and letters.

It is also exciting to see so much color footage in this WWII documentary. Color film did exist in the 1930s, though expensive and rare, seeing the people and destruction in living color brings it to a reality that I have yet to become jaded over. Black and white causes a separation; today it is a stylistic choice and an understood limitation of the past, so there is an undertone of stoicism in every image. Color images taken during time periods we most associate with black and white are the most compelling and relatable.

The home movie footage adds a soul to the German people, that is not often seen in WWII documentaries. It is easy to get used to documentaries that rely on interviews and re-use footage and images whenever possible. Third Reich breaks all the expectations. Aside from the expected images of death, scenes like the home movie footage of a soldier's autobiographical puppet show/pyro fantasy are particularly disturbing. Ranging from endearing family moments to shockingly grizzly scenes of death, Third Reich is so intimate and candid, you are constantly left amazed at what you behold. 

A List About Sex Can't Please Everyone

I'm going to show you a list, and I want you to guess what it represents. 

41. High Fidelity (2000)

36. Boogie Nights (1997)

32. Being John Malkovich (1999)

30. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)

28. Henry and June (1990)

27. Boys Don't Cry (1999)

23. Brokeback Mountain (2005)

14. Team America: World Police (2004)

13. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

3. Mulholland Dr. (2001)

2. A History of Violence (2005)         

These are the 11 movies I've seen out of the 50 listed in IFC.com's 50 Greatest Sex Scenes in Cinema. It's a fun list to read, but to my disappointment I had only seen eleven out of the fifty movies. Therefore, I knew this would make me less than qualified to argue over this list. I only have one legitimate issue about the compilation, so hear me out.  

Recently exposed to Alfonso Cuarón's 2001 film, Y Tu Mamá También, I was eager to find where it ranked on IFC's list. With five love scenes (six if you include a self-love scene) there was no way it couldn't have made it on the list. It did rank at lucky number 13, but this daring and poetic film should have at least made the top ten. It got the shaft. Pun intended!

I'm not normally the kind of girl to swoon over actors, or be a super-fan who makes godawful juvenile YouTube sildeshows that completely miss the mark, but I really do want to advocate Y Tu Mamá También as the sexiest movie I have ever seen.



If you want to know how qualified this film is for a higher spot on the list, just hit play on the video above. The first frames, let alone the first five minutes are filled with a love scene that sets the tone for the whole movie.

Y Tu Mamá También is a sensual film featuring the debut of Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, who you can see together once again this May in the comedy Casa De Mi Padre, and Maribel Verdú, who you may know from Pan's Labyrinth. Set on a road trip in Mexico, this fearless film tells of life's common tribulations of love, sex, friendship, and politics, with a heavy backdrop of mortality. It's basically about the transience of life. You are left questioning which issues are actually worth focusing on. I could go on and on about the deeper meanings of the film to prove to you that I'm not a total horn-ball, but let's just get to the point. 

The film creates a collision of teenage and adult concepts of love, presented in gut-wrenching realism. The love scenes are raw and unflinching, without cuts, and are shot in real time - so to speak. There's no pretending that these teen boys can handle such activity; they only last about a minute.

As for the specific scene IFC mentions as number 13 on their list, it was certainly a tremendous surprise ending and appropriate conclusion (don't read the description on their list if you want to watch the full film without spoilers). However, that particular scene is cut way too short. The best scene is when Luna and Verdú's character's finally get it on, mixing Verdú's almost motherly guidance with Luna's teenage eagerness, that begins with child-like shyness and crescendos to him impulsively and strategically kicking away a secondary motel bed in a surprising act of bravado.

It is not only the quantity, but the quality of the love scenes that should bring Y Tu Mamá También to the top of the list. Quality, not being defined by duration, but realism, which makes it relatable and therefore drawing you into the moment.
And that's just fundamentally what makes for an excellent film. 

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator

What is the worst thing that could happen to someone who has tons of money, never been told no, and has enough hubris leaking out of their butt to start a Greek tragedy fire?

As a follow up to my reflection of the 1990s in my last post, and continuing with this long trail of documentaries featuring tragic and bizarre events/people, I present to you, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator. 

Directed by Helen Stickler in 2002, this documentary delves into mid 1980s professional skate culture, explaining the conditions that could cause a horrific crime such as the rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten in 1991 by pro-skateboarder, Mark "Gator" Rogowski.

Stickler paints a picture of a young man thrown into fame in a niche culture, where his persona as an arrogant teen was praised and rewarded. After climbing to fame in the late 1980s as a vert skateboarder, Rogowski's behavior moved from typical teen antics to erratic manic behavior in addition to alcoholism. Street style skateboarding over took vert skating, and Rogowski had trouble catching up. After Rogowski and his girlfriend Brandi broke up, he lashed out on an old friend of hers, Jessica Bergsten; a woman he considered responsible for Brandi leaving him.  

Rogowski phones in his interview from prison as he serves a life sentence.  Since California law prohibits live interviews with inmates serving a life sentence, Rogowski's current appearance is left a mystery, save a couple candid shots near the end of the film, taken in prison at undisclosed dates. Stickler inundates the audience with images of Rogowski in his twenties: cocky, attractive, talented, funny, charismatic. Then every once in a while we are ripped back to reality, hearing Rogowski's voice crackling through the phone, haggard by regret. A major theme in this film is that nothing lasts forever, and it is particularly poignant to see the vestiges of Rogowski's fame, youth, and vitality remain only in old footage, while he currently has virtually no identity.  

This film is an excellent time capsule of the late 80s. It presents the neon punk attitude of the time, and injects it with a serious reality check.



Keep watching at the end of the credits, it shows the transcripts of police interviews with Gator, and a taped interview at a skating event.

Stand in the New Style

Remember when you could see something like this and not think anything of it? It was the 90s and it was all we knew. It may have even been considered cool. Looking to the future is what we always hope to do, but honestly, when you live in the present you think about it as the pinnacle of your time. This can be said of any decade and generation, but as someone born in the late 1980s, the 90s was the beginning of my reality.

It's no doubt Kids in the Hall were very aware of the ridiculous nature of the - then current - 90s style, and they made a cunning parody of it. However, when we lived the 1990s (or during anytime - even presently) you have to admit, it was difficult to imagine how life would ever be different in the future. We were at the top of our game as far as we were concerned. If the future would lead to differences in our culture it could only logically move from plaid shirts and scrunchies right to silver clothes and flying cars.   

circa 1997

Well... I guess we got some of that prediction right.

Of course we are 12 years deep into the 21st century, and it's pretty much just now-ish that I'm stepping back and looking at the 1990s, thinking, "Really? I can't believe I wore that." or "I can't believe we thought that was cool." In the early 2010s the 1990s have come back into fashion, in clothing at least. I have a feeling we're not going to see the 90s style in design and media come back en vogue for a little while longer.

It's really easy to ridicule the past. Hind sight is 20/20 right? Making fun of current cultural norms takes objectivity and an ability to step back and not take yourself too seriously. For instance, check out this music video Chris Rock made in 1997. He unabashedly pokes fun at rap and R&B from that era. He nails the excess, the money, the Lil' Kim inspired wigs, the trash bag outfit Missy Elliott wore in her video for The Rain (amazing song, and the video is also a perfect time capsule for the late 90s).




It was funny to me then, but it's even funnier now for two reasons. Rock has a valid point that the style from that era was over the top, and with hindsight being 20/20 it's not hard to laugh at it. Rock was also able to see it for what it was right then and there. I laugh at videos from the 90s but I laugh with Chris Rock's Champagne.

The best example of this in comedy today is Portlandia.  The sketch comedy show created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein is my new favorite thing to watch. They get the characters so spot-on. Armisen is a genius with mannerisms, he doesn't miss a beat. I would just put all their video clips in this post because most of them prove my point, but I don't want to give you all carpal tunnel from scrolling, so here is one clip from the most recent episode.



We live in a culture of instant nostalgia, which means we are extremely aware of what is in, what is out, what is totally last week, and what becomes more and more attractive as it's pulled farther away from us. I can't speak for any decade's views before the 1990s, as far as awareness of collective cultural quirks, but it is clear this is a recent development in our culture. Generally we are savvy in knowing what we are like.

Guided Tour as Documentary: Six Degrees of Helter Skelter

Helter Skelter: The True Story of The Mason Murders  has the best opening line in a book I've ever read:

"It was so quiet, one of the killers would later say, you could almost hear the sound of ice rattling in cocktail shakers in the homes way down the canyon."

This is the kind of opening line that lets you know you're not going to put the book down. Written by Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor during the Manson trials, the novel follows the Manson Family and their victims in exquisite detail, leading them into their final collisions.

Though, this isn't about the book, Helter Skelter. This is about the 2009 documentary Six Degrees of Helter Skelter, which explores the actual sites of the crimes committed by, and residences of the Manson Family.

The film starts unfortunately, with an opening line that let me know I was going to be disappointed. The dictionary definition of helter skelter is cited, and then juxtaposed this with what the narrator deemed would be Charles Manson's definition: "The end of the world brought on by the Beatles."

I could not believe that within the first 7 minutes of a documentary there would be such blatant misrepresentation of facts. In a nutshell, Manson did believe the Beatles knew about the end of the world, which he called "Helter Skeleter," but he did not believe that they were the ones "bringing it down." Helter Skelter was what Manson believed to be an inevitable race war.  For an unabridged explanation of Manson's interpretation of Helter Skelter, click here.
 



The whole documentary is lead like a Hollywood tour. That is because Six Degrees of Helter Skelter was directed by and stars a Hollywood tour guide, Dearly Departed Tours owner, Scott Michaels. This fact is made abundantly clear during the first 15 minutes of the film, which are devoted to Michaels' life story and proud show-and-tell of his morbid Hollywood memorabilia collection.

Michaels claims his legitimacy in the film by taking some time to besmirch other tour guides with his concept that a guide's own desire to be a famous actor is inversely proportional to how many facts they get right. Not a good argument to start with considering the evidence of Michaels' ego so far. The constant flow of hearsay, was irksome. Even facts that matched up to Bugliosi's novel were peppered with lines like, "I knew a guy who," and "I heard [insert famous actor] claims this."

Overall it was amateurish and masturbatory. Michaels didn't bother to re-record or cut out any of his stammering, or cute lines like, "I got my GPS bitch in the box thing." Most shots were of him walking to and fro the alleged crime scenes.  He was name-dropping like crazy, and only two people were interviewed. So much for all those guys he knows.

There are a few positive moments to note. Michaels used full color uncensored crime scene photos, and had video footage from Trent Reznor's stay at the Cielo Drive house. Recordings of Manson's songs were also played during the film, which were haunting, especially a song sung by the women of the Manson Family.

If you don't know much about the Manson Family murders, watch this film, but be forewarned that there is much more to know than what is presented. If you have ever read Helter Skelter, any other Manson related books, or seen any other Manson documentaries, watch Six Degrees of Helter Skelter for the crime photos, Reznor footage, and Manson music, but that's all that you will gain.

It is a neat concept to be taken to these crime scenes as a true to life alternative to a classic stuffy documentary. However, the novelty wears thin when you realize you aren't really there; you're watching a documentary. As tours go, it's pretty enthralling, but as documentaries go, it's a C+ at best.

Hunting for a Quailty Ghost Show

We all know that reality shows centered around ghosts have been very popular for the past few years. It started with the Ghost Hunters style shows; groups of rag-tag "ghost experts," psychics and mediums having sleep-overs with night-vision cameras. They jump at every sound, and the show's base soundtrack conveniently plays loudly over every sound bite of a ghost supposedly thumping or talking. They never find anything substantial, but how can you believe it at all with the way these shows are edited?

Currently the Unsolved Mysteries style ghost shows have been en vogue. These are allegedly true stories with interviews and reenactments similar to our favorite 1980's thriller, but without a stoic host like Robert Stack or a hotline. The most popular of these shows are My Ghost Story, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Paranormal Witness, and The Haunting. I prefer those shows, because even though there is always a risk of a person making-up the story, at least you have the gorey details straight from the horses mouth,  instead of watching a bunch of fools saying "did you hear that?" for a half hour.

In addition to all the ghost shows you can shake a stick at, there are the survival story shows, the hording shows, and animal rescue shows. I tweeted recently, "When are they going to make I Survived a Ghost Pet and what channel will it be on?" To my surprise, there is something on Animal Planet that loosely follows that description. Simply called The Haunted, this series follows the stories of pet owners who have experienced hauntings. This could be a good niche show if it actually spent a majority of the time focusing on the animal's experience, but it doesn't. It has been said that animals are known to be sensitive to ghosts and spirits, so why not milk that for all it's worth on a station aimed at people who already give a ton of credence to animals' actions?

When I first found this show, I was confused that it was on Animal Planet. There was nothing perceptively animal-centric about this show, until the haunted animal lover mentioned their pet pug was spooked. Here is an example of how generic this show is in an episode description:  

After having unusual experiences in their home, a family calls upon a paranormal team and demonologist to help. When they try to banish the entity from the home, it violently possesses one of the family members, and literally enters her body.

It would be very interesting and appropriate for the possessed "family member" to be a pet, but it is in fact a human woman. I turned on Animal Planet to watch a possessed dog, not a dog that ran under the couch while it's owner's soul was being eaten by a demon. I can watch that on any other channel.

From Paranormal Witness S01E03 The Poltergeist

The Haunted might be the worst, most contrived ghost show, but Paranormal Witness is the best of its kind. Not just focusing on ghosts, you can also hear about UFO's, strange beasts, and unexplainable coincidences. There are reenactments, but they don't hesitate to also use real videos or photos that are evidence of the paranormal experience. Having many witnesses, from different sides of the story, also helps with the credibility of the show.



If I could make my own ghost show I would feature people who actually have photos, videos, audio, etc. of the haunting. There would be no actor reenactments, no spooky music, especially not over recordings. There would be no embelishments; just the truth as the witnesses know it. The problem with the reenactments in these shows is that they are often padded with extra actions the witnesses never mention in the final cut of the interview. Obviously this causes a gullible viewer into thinking the haunting was more remarkable than it may have been, and alienates viewers that are genuinely interested in what actually happened. A stark portrayal with all the evidence layed out should be enough to make your hairs stand up.

I leave you with the question, can shows about "real life" ghost encounters legitimately fall under the documentary category? If there were any topic people could call bull s*#% on in a documentary format, it would be ghosts. Some people would call it a documentary about ghosts, and another group would call it a documentary about people who believe they saw a ghost. I can't say I wholeheartedly believe in spirits, but I want to be convinced with evidence. I will make it a mission of mine to find a convincing documentary about a haunting. If anyone has any recommendations, please leave a reply.

Dark Shadows: A Vampire TV Show Resurrected

I was listening to MF Doom's song, Hyssop on the way home from work, and it dawned on me that I used to LOVE the 1960's supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows. In the song MF Doom samples from the show's theme. I've always known this, but it was just one of those daily epiphanies that kicks you right in the head, and brought me back to 1996. Exactly 30 years after it first aired, I watched Dark Shadows in syndication on The Sci-Fi channel on summer afternoons. Other 70s sci-fi TV shows like Night Gallery got in the line up as well, but DS was my favorite. The show had hauntings, possessions, witches, mansions, creepy theme music, and it's main character was a 200 year-old vampire named Branabas Collins.




Dark Shadows was an introduction to my interest in the macabre. As a 9 year-old, it was the first time I watched something that was scary but enjoyed feeling unsettled. I became addicted to that feeling. Dark Shadows explains everything from my love of David Lynch to the lady boner I have for True Blood. Dark Shadows can be considered a rough pre-cursor to True Blood, in that the main character(s) are vampire, there are warewolves, witches, and ghosts. There's drama, supernatural perils, and love stories (though True Blood is hard-core porn compared to DS). I still prefer scary movies that are more psychological than gorey.



I was very excited to hear that Tim Burton is making a movie adaptation of Dark Shadows. Do I even have to tell you that Johnny Depp is in it? What's interesting is that the film is set in the 1970s, just like the original version of the show (DS was also remade for NBC in 1991). Burton could have just set it in present day, which obviously was the original intention of DS, but it's clear he wants to be true to the TV series. I'm hopeful for the quality of the movie, but I hope the obscurity of Dark Shadows as a cult TV show doesn't keep the project underground. How many puns can you get out of that sentence? 

Here's one last Dark Shadows video to send you off on. Though the show was not exactly meant for kids, DS clearly made an impact on that demographic. Even 30 years later a kid like me got into it. How very 60s to capitalize off a soap opera by making a children's board game out of it!

Care Package #2: My Guide to VICE.com Documentaries for You Hip People

Toxic: Garbage Island

VICE is a controversial magazine/website dedicated to (let's not mince words) hipsters. VICE covers fashion, music, pop culture, art, photography, sex, weirdos, gross-out journalism, travel, and bizarre cultural practices. While most of the content is written, there is a wealth of documentaries in the video section of their website. VICE is prolific in their documentary series which features a large cast of young journalists, and makes one wonder how profitable VICE actually is to be able to fund all of the travel expenses. Maybe it's all thanks to American Apparel.

The difference between VICE documentaries, and other documentaries I watch, is that VICE's are showcased in a blog.  Most of the films I watch, though I often view them online on Hulu or YouTube, have at least been in limited release in independent theaters at some point in time. The VICE documentaries debut in the 21st century version of direct to video: direct to the web and on a computer near you. Which is not to say that a VICE documentary is lesser than the average documentary. VICE screens the film off of their website so viewers' comments are visible, and there is related content and other fun stuff to look at that you might not have stumbled upon otherwise. The documentaries are presented in a relatable and vernacular style, which does not necessarily over-simplify the message; it makes you feel like you're taking in a genuine experience. Each documentary also belongs to a specific series. You can therefore see another documentary you liked with similar themes on a consistent basis. That's something the average documentary film maker can't promise you.
Here are three of my favorite VICE series to watch.

Hamilton's Pharmacopeia
Watching Hamilton go to exotic and dangerous places to alter his mind is such a joy. It sounds like going around the world just to try psychotropic drugs is a vapid activity, but the culture behind it is always intriguing, a prime example being the video below, Hamilton's Pharmacopeia: Nzambi. In this installment Hamilton goes to Haiti and explores what it means to be turned into a zombie using the traditional herbs, venom, and voodoo practices. It's always compelling seeing Hamilton try to cope with the new cultures and people he encounters, and well as the crazy things locals try to put in him. My two favorite episodes, Nzambi and The Sapo Diaries, both involve Hamilton taking drugs through the forearm, but not intravenously. You have to watch to find out how. 



Toxic
The series Toxic reveals the grittiest images of pollution in the modern world. The documentary, Toxic: Garbage Island, was my first taste of a VICE documentary. As seen in the video below, Garbage Island follows three VICE corespondents as they sail the North Pacific Gyre with a group of scientists collecting samples of plastic in the ocean. The Gyre contains a clump of plastic waste predicted to be the size of Texas. Aside from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Toxic has also been to the Amazon, West Virginia, and China, amongst others. Most installments of Toxic show how pollution deeply effects people and their environment as it is happening currently. I liked Garbage Island for turning pollution into a faceless, lurking, Jaws-esque villain. The crew is in the middle of the ocean, no land in sight, nothing seems amiss. Yet when they run their skimmer through the waves, out comes some terrifying stuff.



Vice Guide to North Korea
Shane Smith, founder of Vice Magazine and our guide through this documentary, put it best when he described North Korea is an insane country. Three points in this film that embody such insanity: the lonely tea-girl the crew met in the middle of nowhere who had not seen any customers for days, the massive banquet hall in the hotel filled with food for no one, and Arirang (a spectacular performance by thousands of children). Bizarrely, all of these activities were shared by Shane and the crew alone (because they won't let anyone else into North Korea). In this documentary, as well as North Korean Labor Camps and North Korean Film Madness, the delusions of this severely isolated country are revealed as sad and fascinating.