What is art? That is oe of the questions that I kept asking myself when I watched the film F for Fake. Honestly its crossed my mind before wondering how “fakes” were treated. Yes they weren’t Picasso’s but they were still beautiful and took a lot of care. The morality of authenticity and originality came into play here. But as they say:

“Life imitates art.”

Of Course this is not always the case, but imitation, and in a way thievery are also an art in itself. The act of taking yourself out for awhile and taking another man’s face as you take on the blank canvas is extraordinary in its own feat. But another perspective comes into mind, what it that person could better fake a fake than the original? As to say that they improve upon the previous works the famous artist has left behind being better “picassos” then Picasso himself?Wouldn’t he then be original in his own right? Making something inspired his? Also what claims an art style to one single person, by doing it first give someone birthright to that form or style?

All these questions look into the Philosophy of art or where does one come up with the boundaries and limitations in which to draw up these considerations and laws? Is it objective or subjective?

These questions all make up the crux of the film, even the fakery of magic, an the story and plot and character. In a way the film was fake, it never really was what it was yet it is. Its a film about faking and it faked its way into becoming.  Its almost impressive as making a real life documentary about the subject matter, instead uses itself as an example of the exact message it wanted to bring up. Is originality just an illusion?

To be honest, while watching the video, I kinda imagine the show Thomas the Train with a more mature and chiseled face on the front. It seemed like it would work with the whole schtick what with the tripping scenes like the toilet scene, or the dead baby, or the many numerous drug trips we see in the film. But to think the movie is solely about tripping drugs and addiction would be missing out on the key central theme that the movie tries to communicate and thats the system’s way of forcing others to assimilate and failure to do so leaves others isolated from everyone.

People struggling with addiction, robbers, or just being plain old retarded kinda makes it hard for people to fit in society and it was made apparent throughout the film. We’d see a clear distinction with how normal people would interact with one another compared to our main cast of hooligans who’d cause ruckus wherever they went. Even our main protagonist was  always torn with wanting to be part of society or a druggie wasting away in his own filth. It isn’t much of a “warning” this is what happens when you take drugs, kinda of film but its actually looking at how society treats people who have trouble fitting in with the rest of the “normal” people.

The whole lot of them throughout the movie are striving to gain some sort of stability, either with drugs, away from drugs, or just plain old cash. These people are just like us but because of the way they are ignored by society they are forced to hide deeper into the rabbit hole away from reality and everyone else. Which makes it all the more saddening when you see the actually strive to get out of the loop, the be a normal person, working a job, going home, and eating bland dinner. Its isnt as stimulating or exciting but its good honest work and thats the moral tightrope we see them walk. Between wanting a life and living a life they only know how to live.

Ha-na (Yooyoung) works part-time at a convenience store and shows her successor Gi-cheol (Gong Myeong) the ropes. As always she is a bit late and starts to have feelings for her lesbian co-worker Eun-yeong (Jeong Hye-in). Gi-cheol is gay, too, and soon needs to do his military service which is why he doesn’t want to deepen the relationship to his boyfriend. Another shift is taken over by Hyeon-soo (Sin Jae-ha), who wants to go to a casting, but simply can’t leave the store as he is constantly bothered by customers. Shop assistant Soo-hee (Kim Hee-yeon) has similar problems, having to deal with a customer ranting and raving against her. Min-hee (Kim Sae-byeok) even gets trouble with her boss, because she doesn’t put up with everything from a customer, and Seong-joon (Ahn Jae-min) has to watch over a box given to him by a strange woman.

All these seemingly random and misconstrewn story arcs might seem all over the place but in reality theres a central theme that binds each story together despites is randomness. A lot of the movie consists of numerous people trying to make a “future” for themselves, each one has goals and worries that they carry and the Convenience Store is an avenue for them to escape their current situation or at times can be the one in their way. Every character had a visible problem they had to overcome but the obstacle might not have been directly physical but a manifestation of something deeper like the weird box being left, or rude customers, or being late to an important meeting.

It was as if we were taken into the behind the scenes or bloopers that go behind the counter. We’re so used to being on the other side that we forget these people are humans that have lives that move forward and change and adapt and in a way, the movies explores these narratives no matter how ridiculous it might seem, each story dives deep into the stereotypes one might. Every age, gender, and sexuality was represented in the wide array of cast, its seemed almost like each character represented a single moment or even just a snippet of what each person in society experiences.

For me, Futureless things didnt just explore the system of franchising a business or, evil corporations, but of the different relations and ways humans interact in a communal space which in turn becomes private to them, as every store is identical to the next, it mimics how even we cannot recognize what is real or which is a reality and just accept the future that is given to us. After watching Futureless things, I felt both empty and filled. Sad for GoT but even pikachu was able to appear for you.

Since the beginning of time, we’ve had a fascination of the big; clearing mountains, sailing continents, battling beasts, and creating gods. This interest in the bigger than life has seeped into our mainstream media with the inclusion of King Kong, Megaladon, Big foot, and the most infamous, Godzilla. Director Hideaki Anno has gone and birthed another beast to add the cinema’s hall of monsters. Though this is another take on Godzilla, this doesn’t take away from it’s identity of a monster film through and through.

To be frank, the movie’s introduction took sometime and it was tedious. It didn’t feel like a “Godzilla” movie with how slow the pacing was and the threat was hardly ever evident in the beginning parts. To me Godzilla has a presence that shocked the screen, kept people reeling in their seats as they watched every frame. But here, even when Godzilla came on the screen, no one felt any sort of impending danger. Instead we saw the inner politics of Japan and international relations as they dealt with the unknown threat.

Don’t get me wrong, the movie wasn’t bad, though it was paced much slower than I was used to, it had a different charm. The movie had more depth then just a normal monster film. Usually, films slap on some fancy CGI, get some big name actors, and let the splendor of the monster captivate the audience and reel them into the half baked plot some writer pulled out their ass. Not so in this film. We saw real world implications of having a Godzilla pop up in our world, from the political, scientific, and societal effects brought about his existence. Throughout generations man has sought after capturing the essence of otherworldly figures into the stories and legends we’ve weaved onto paper and ink. Yet here, Godzilla’s story felt more real and tangible. Not to say I could expect our little own Godzilla in the near future, but I felt how realistic the government and society as a whole treated the whole predicament.

Not many films have the power nor the ingenuity to make a meaningful impression in its audience to keep it from fading into obscurity. We have a great number of stories even looking at the same ones through different angles; some genres and plots have become saturated with recurring cliches recycled time and time again its hard to tell one from the other. As its said in the bible:

Ecclesiastes 1:9 King James Version (KJV)
⁹ The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and 
that which is done is that which shall be done: and there 
is no new thing under the sun.

Though religious text and cultural analysis of media are two vastly opposite topics in the spectrum, they have one common factor and that is the critique of the human condition through any given medium. Maybe it be the movies or tv shows we watch or the trends in media and how we consume them. They all boil down to the inherent values our generation portrays.

Schizopolis is just that, a reflection of how we can view our culture and ourselves. Albeit, a reflection on a crude and dusty, old, broken mirror, smeared with in weird smelling stains bought off some swanky garage sale

But there is a reason to why it is the way it is. Contrary to popular belief, Schizopolis isn’t random and incoherent just for the hell of it but it makes a point, obscure as it maybe, an important point that it makes sure we understand even before the movie starts. 

“A movie for all generations and all its people to watch and understand.”

This beginning part seems like a joke, something to build up to a punchline of sorts as the film doesn’t seem to take itself seriously. Funnily enough it does.

The film is everything yet nothing at the sametime, it incorporates every cliche it can and all sorts of plots into one amalgamation. A freak show of every possible over done trope and story everyone gobbles and ingests without a moment’s notice. One might even call this film offensive with the way it presents itself all up in your face, critiquing plots and stories with religious conspiracies, or usual porno tropes, sophisticated love stories with a dash of european to make it seem intellectual, slice of life and action dramas. All these to arrive at a conclusion.

Its all garbage. 

Given though that mixing enough ingredients into a pot and you’ll achieve a vile concoction of God knows what. It doesn’t matter if you have the choicest of spices or grade A meats or the freshest of produce, the film breaks it all apart to the barest of minimum to show and present how all these tropes are absolute trash. It might seem contradictory to what I previously said about this film taking itself seriously, but a good chunk of the film makes fun of itself while trying to make its point. Almost like a circus act balancing on a tightrope of the film industry, and even more importantly the culture as a whole. Think holding a concert to raise funds to sue the top musical artists. 

Honestly, none of the characters or their stories matter as so much as to play their part in critiquing their given genre, trope, or plot. One aspect of the movie shine through out of everything and its the religious group and movement: “Eventualism”. 

It find it in the beginnings of the film as well as scattered parts of it randomly and eventually in the end. Though it is one of the tropes being picked apart and analyzed like the rest of the elements in the film, Eventualism as a religious movement looks at the philosophy of things happening by drawing out these events into being. Things that will happen will happen. 

This is the crux of how the film presents itself and shows off how it grows and matures into the mess it is. All these things are happening because they can and they will. All possible outcomes are the outcomes that will take place. It is because it can, not because it aimlessly does so but so that it can look at what happens when it does.

And this is where the film finds structure amongst all the chaos it spew out.
Steven Soderbergh went through some cases with his previous films with committees deciding the general direction. Sources have said that this came from Soderbergh’s own pocket and his personal project. And to me this comes shining through like a big F U to the industry that has seem to pollute and recycle the same shite over and over.

To Soderbergh, the film is merely just a reflection of the insanity that is ingrained in our culture and ourselves.