Sorry to enjoy my own capitalist success :(

Among all the films we watched, Sorry to Bother You was my favorite. Despite a setting in America and how there is still a divide between the white majority and the black minority, there are still many aspects that I found relatable despite being in the Philippines. Though before that, we must look into the movie as a simply a movie without any political agenda. The movie was highly interesting. Seeing a man who has been kicked to the lowest of his life finally get ahead and succeed was highly satisfying to see. Though this satisfying success story quickly turns into bitterness toward Cash, the main character. He turns away from his friends and girlfriend and instead embraces his newfound wealth and success despite it being against what his group of friends initially fought against. These friends of his were as interesting as him from a story perspective; the acting from the actors was superb and the motives behind the characters as well. Looking at Detroit’s, Cash’s girlfriend, life was something that was very interesting for me though. The whole film revolved around the working class that Cash was initially a part of trying to stop abuses and injustice from their bosses. This is further expanded upon by the introduction of the white voice. This shows how even for the working class, the black minority is not preferred by the consumers. Cash embraces this white voice and uses it to further his success. This is where it gets interesting for me though. While I understand the bitterness one might have towards Cash for turning against his friends, his context of being rock bottom before his success makes it also reasonably understandable how difficult it is for him to turn down the financial success. It’s easy to say money can’t buy happiness, but in Cash’s old situation, his money couldn’t even buy his shelter. Now that he has access to that money, and a lot of it, it’s difficult to say no.

Other than that financial success though, everyone turns against Cash and his anti-human work. Perhaps for him, his financial stability was still a good trade-off for everyone’s hate. Even Detroit has a difficult time saying no to Cash and his wealth, at least indirectly; Detroit enjoys the new apartment and even the car by simply using them. Though she does turn away from this at some point. Throughout the film though, Cash and Detroit have a fallout and Cash mentions a noteworthy statement regarding Detroit and her art. The white people are still the ones buying her art despite the art being “good.” Looking back, while this film really is about minorities, it’s a good thing that the black minority still has access to films such as these compared to how other minorities in the world do not even have access to media and other works that support their causes.

The film has been interesting since the start. Though the final parts of the movie still do not disappoint. The introduction of fantasy-like, sci-fi-ish horse creatures was something unexpected. The portrayal of Steve as a seemingly good CEO but apparently an evil one was superb; this in addition to how he handles the horse people was really great. Ultimately though, Cash does have a change of heart and seeing human beings turned into horses was the turning point. He does get tricked into becoming a horse person as well, and I was honestly expecting him to still be on the side of Steve as an “inside man” in the new horse people community; though a part of me was happy that he truly had a change of heart.

The movie addresses a lot of political and cultural issues and it does so while entertaining us with a generally solid movie that also involved a great cast of actors and characters.

That car was more than meets the eye (and it’s not a Transformer)

With zero knowledge on Repo Man, I started the film not knowing what to expect, then that opening scene happened and I even knew less of what to expect. Though I think that was something positive for the film given that it kept the audience hooked. Though when we’re introduced to Otto, the attention shifts and he gets the spotlight. While the alien aspects were undeniably interesting, Otto’s character was also someone interesting; he is not someone we see a lot in modern days. The way he treats people and his work seem inhuman or just plain rude and something that not a lot of us are used to. He also seems clueless in a lot of things, probably because of how he treats others and himself, but also still knows how to work his repo man job properly enough. The dynamic between Otto and Bud was also something that I would have hoped was touched on more, but only because the movie did a good job establishing that in the first place. Away from the usual father figure we see in films, Bud never even starts to become a positive figure to Otto’s life other than teaching him how to do his job. As a side note that is almost totally unrelated, seeing Otto and Bud reminded me of the mentor-mentee relationship in the first Return of the Living Dead; the films are highly different though but some aspects regarding 80s culture was there. Jumping from that point regarding the 80s, there were numerous elements in the film that I could relate to the 80s especially because of the plethora of iconic 80s films we have been exposed to.

Despite those similarities, Repo Man was still able to differentiate itself through non-ideal characters like Otto and Bud and weird elements such as the alien that we are not given full explanations about. The conclusion involving Otto and his “transcendence” was something that I did not expect at all; the alien car seemed unrelated to Otto but was something that gained the attention of the government, the scientists, the religious (in the form the televangelist), and even the audience. None seemed to understand the car though other than Miller, Otto’s and Bud’s weird mechanic co-worker; perhaps in seeing and taking Repo Man in, we have to be like Miller and have a different perspective to better appreciate what is in front of us. If we can’t appreciate such things, then perhaps they can be taken from us similar to how Otto and his repo man job does so.

These are somewhat stretches though in analyzing the film. Minor details also attracted the attention of the audience. For one, the consumer goods we encounter in the film are brand-less, generic items with text-only packaging designs; I still have no assumptions on why this is such. Minor characters too are interesting; Otto’s punk friends for example offer interesting perspectives as proprietors of disorder though late into the film, we see one of them longing for a decent life with his partner only to be rejected and hence left back to the life of chaos. These relatively minor details contributed to making Repo Man a memorable film that differentiates itself from other 80s movies. I will definitely look into more Alex Cox films after seeing this one!

The Endless, The Endless

The Endless started off relatively slow for me, though it might be biased for me to say that because of the busy week I had back when we watched it. Despite that slow start though, the movie was able to hook me through its really good-looking cinematography and more importantly the bizarre and unique plot.

Despite the open arms welcoming Justin and Aaron in their return to their old “cult,” Justin’s ambivalence toward the camp’s positive attributes was rubbing off on me as a viewer. Though the tug of war scene with the deity was the scene that seemingly became a turning point for the movie. At this point, I was only sure that the “cult” or camp was more than it seemed though I am not sure about whether the deity we saw was one that was “good” or “bad.” Knowing that the camp was happy, at least from an external perspective, I found myself contemplating that the deity might possibly be a fair and good-natured one; though late into the film we see Justin’s encounters with the deity being horrifying and generally provoking.
While the deity became apparent and undeniable to both the characters and the audience, its mysterious characteristic kept me hooked to the movie. Though while the deity was something highly interesting for me, the time loops and time domes were definitely the most interesting for me. At the time I was watching them, it was a bit confusing. I wondered why the stranded people in the time domes were not meeting up with each other only to realize that they truly are stranded in their own domes. Some of the domes had longer time spans while others had seconds as their loops. One of the time domes that had more significance was that of Mike’s and Chris’ loop. Apparently their whole one week loop was the plot of another of Benson’s and Moorhead’s film; Resolution never mentioned a time loop but it did explore the deity from a different perspective. My interest in The Endless pushed me to look into Resolution and I found myself enjoying The Endless more; the main takeaway I had with watching Resolution though was that my appreciation for The Endless and its “cinematic universe.”
The time loops that were touched on had me reflecting a lot about my life and the movies I watch. Re-watching 8 Mile countless times, I found myself comparing Eminem’s journey in the film as a time loop and I as a deity (no blasphemy or anything intended lol). The film was made well enough that it evoked a new perspective for me when watching movies and perhaps a larger appreciation for life itself. Life itself is not a cycle and allows us freedom to both suffer and enjoy; this is something explored in the movie with the stranded characters being desperate to die. Some of them were hopeful while some were hopeless. The conflict that the camp leader had with keeping Justin and Aaron in the loop was something that attracted my sympathy due to their desire to increase the group count, a change in their boring, repeating cycle versus letting them go and free of the suffering they have been experiencing. If I were a member of the camp, I also might have had a difficult time deciding because of my desire for something new but at the same time my good intentions for others.
After viewing and reflecting on The Endless, I think it’s safe for me to say that this film is one of those films that I don’t think I can forget about anytime soon. I have always been hooked to time loops in films like Edge of Tomorrow and Source Code, but this deity-inspired take on it was something fresher for my mind.
The Endless started off relatively slow for me, though it might be biased for me to say that because of the busy week I had back when we watched it… (jk)

A Hustler’s Heartbreak (My Own Private Idaho)

My Own Private Idaho introduced me to River Phoenix and a young Keanu Reeves. I’m almost certain that if I was there during the time River Phoenix was just starting to become known, he would’ve been a big hit in our generation. In addition to that, seeing Keanu Reeves outside of what I know him for, action movies such as Matrix and John Wick, was a great experience. His role as Scott was even very different from his Bill and Ted role, another younger Keanu Reeves that I’m more familiar with.
Another interesting thing I picked up from the movie is the new perspective I have about the world. The hustler life isn’t something I’m too familiar with and even more so for those part of the LGBT community. While the LGBT aspect of the film is one of its defining characteristics, at least according to other sources and critics, I think it didn’t add much to the plot other than Scott and Mike’s relationship. Their hustling targeted anyone regardless of gender anyway.
Though while we did see Mike and Scott as hustlers, we also saw their human sides. Specifically for Mike, despite his non-ideal characteristics and personality, we see the things he longs for and ultimately misses. His problems and anxieties are even hindrances to his hustler lifestyle. For example, his panic attacks and blackouts happen before certain sexual encounters which, of course, is detrimental to a sex worker’s career. When he passes out, he also gets images of his mother and a house that are also seen by the audience. These seemingly refer to Mike’s longing for a home and a family; he seeks to rid of his loneliness by finding someone who will love him and who he can love similar to how mothers are in real life. This shows the “human side” of Mike as a hustler, and even inspires empathy from the audience; this also makes what Scott does to him more heartbreaking for the audience because Mike seemingly finds a home and a love in him throughout the film.
As such, Mike and Scott’s relationship, supported by the actors’ excellent acting, was the main highlight of the film in my opinion. Though before that, seeing the two characters and their motives in their lives were also highly interesting. Mike was living the hustler life to BE alive while Scott was living to hustler life to FEEL alive; the difference here being that for Mike, it’s a matter of survival while for Scott it’s a matter of rebellion [to his father]. This huge difference in their motives ultimately lead to Scott’s rejection of Mike. Mike’s heartbreak is felt by the audience, with a bit of bitterness against Scott. This was the concluding feeling I had, and apparently my classmates’ too. We are first introduced to Scott with him being alone, physically and emotionally and throughout the film we saw Scott provide Mike feelings of happiness and a seemingly genuine companionship. Though at the end of it all, Mike is still left alone, back to where it all began and worse, Scott turned to the life similar to what his father had originally wanted, the same life he rebelled against througout the film.

Same shop, different everything.

While I normally prefer not to judge films by their titles, Futureless Things seemed to give my mind an image of something dark or dystopian. While the first few chapters of the film seemed to reject my initial impression based on the title, the final portion does add to this darkness that the theme was apparently [and seemingly] trying to portray throughout the film.
For the most part, despite the film being set in Korea and away from a culture that I’m more aware of [like the Philippines and even western, at least based on films and the cultures I’ve encountered through them], the setting of a convenience store seemed to give off a more global culture. Even the scene involving the North Korean woman seemed familiar given how people really discriminate those of different background.
Despite the ease of understanding the general context of the film due to the relatively global culture provided by a convenience store, the lack of background context per story/chapter was a bit frustrating. This was most apparent during the first shift from the beginning to the second chapter; the lack of a context of how and who those characters were and then being immediately forgotten upon the entry of the new character and scenario was bit difficult to overcome in the beginning. Though throughout the film, I found myself more prepared to transition from one story to the other, and open to the idea that these were truly independent stories and needed not one another.
This episodal treatment of the movie was definitely the most interesting aspect of it. While we were made aware that there have been movies made similarly to this, I have personally never encountered one. Additionally, the clock being seemingly a motif provided points of reflection for me; for me, this clock brings me back to thinking about the title being Futureless Things, a title that relates itself to time. Despite my obsession with “time” in the film, I didn’t really find anything to relate all scenes to “time” and instead just ended up concluding that the only things that all the scenes share are the setting and consequently, the owner of the convenience store.
Often, we read, hear, and see stories and are often only exposed to parts that are supplemental to the overall conclusion or climax. In this film though, we encounter a lot of, if not all, chapters that do not really add up to the conclusion. I initially thought that all the characters/employees were incompetent that then resulted into the poor financial performance the store was having, but looking back, some of the employees seemed decent and were only bothered by external forces as opposed to their own faults. These were scenes and moments that did not seem to add up to a central plot, and perhaps a number would argue that there really is no central plot. The closest to something central in the film would be the conclusion and how the owner of the store, and again these seemingly unrelated or barely related chapters being separated from the conclusion made the film a complicated but also interesting watch.
The director challenges the usual storytelling we encounter every day. We see chapters that do not give us background context and true conclusions that make it very different from stories that rely heavily on such background context or conclusions. The movie even strays farther away from conventional films like this by including realistic scenarios but also mixing in supernatural scenarios such as the one with the DJ store clerk and the mysterious woman. The film’s approach of being seemingly lighthearted at first while seemingly address the horrific capitalistic climax was not new, but how the film was shown through the various stories that did not contribute largely to the conclusion but still left the viewers engaged and anticipating for the conclusion was something new.

Trainspotting – Another Perspective

Trainspotting was an interesting film because it provided the viewers another perspective in the world of drugs. In our local context, drug users are often seen as violent people or people who will hurt you and while there are instances to support this, the film shows us a deeper perspective to look at it from. For example and in response to how the country sees drug users as violent, Renton, Sick Boy, and Spud were barely violent especially compared to Begbie who despite being “clean” was highly violent and aggressive. What made this perspective more interesting is that it was mostly, if not all, from Mark Renton’s own perspective. Despite the point of view being mainly Renton’s, we still see a glimpse of perspective of their own group of friends through the way the film was made, directed and shot.

The movie did not touch on what the word “trainspotting” meant, and my curiosity prompted me to search; according to collinsdictionary.com, “trainspotting is the hobby of going to railway stations and recording the number of the trains that you see.” Looking back at how perspective is given of much importance in the film, the title itself presents itself as way of looking at things. Linguistically, the term trainspotting isn’t even familiar to us here, and perhaps only to Europeans or the United Kingdom only. With this alone, we fall under the perspective of a European upon watching the film, and we are reminded of it a lot through the cultures encountered in the film and even simple slang words that we are not familiar with in the Philippines.

Other than the title and the drug users’ perspectives, the movie also relies on filmmaking techniques that use perspective to provide engaging visuals for the viewers. The film does make use of computer generated visual effects, most notably the baby in Renton’s withrawal scenes, but the more interesting visual effects were the ones that played with perspective. The first one that I am assuming to be a perspective-based visual effect is when Renton went inside the dirtiest toilet in Scotland. This visual effect was a better decision by the filmmaker to make Renton’s desparation for drugs more absorbable for the viewer compared to seeing the dirty toilet for what it was. Other than this metaphorical visual effect, the scenes that showed the group having their drug sessions had the camera moving from room to room while giving us a look at the doors and what or who were on the other side of these doors. Additionally, Renton’s overdose scene gives us a well-directed film of him falling through the ground, which I assume does not use computer generated effects but instead makes use of the set design and camera angles that give us that illusion of being high.

As I have written about above, I think that perspective played a lot in the movie. The limitations of seeing only or mostly only Renton provided us a more engaging viewing experience as opposed to stifling us and preventing us from getting clearer thoughts about the film. The film did not touch on perspective simply based on the characters but through the cinematography and the cultures encountered in it as well. Most importantly from a personal perspective, the film provided me a better view of groups of people such as the ones in the film and was given a glimpse of their motives and problems which made for an entertaining watch and social reflection.

“I had to keep the world satisfied”

Rando Yaguchi somewhat ends the movie with this line. While it might refer to his leadership and actions that lead to Japan’s salvation, I thought that the line also captured what the movie needed to do. The Godzilla franchise has been around for so long that new generations, including my own, have lost track of what or who Godzilla really is. I was introduced to Godzilla through the American remake/reimagining back in 1998 but I was also aware that various films or media have portrayed Godzilla as a protector rather than a destroyer, which is probably how the much newer generations see him after that recent 2014 Godzilla movie.

Before I delve deeper into what I think about the quote of Rando Yaguchi, I found myself interested in the original 1954 Godzilla movie since I saw articles that were written before the Shin Godzilla movie came out saying that this new Godzilla movie would be more accurate to the original. I thought to myself that maybe Shin Godzilla is the exact same as the old one in terms of the plot, but it appears there are many differences, especially with the context of the film. I watched “Godzilla 1954 Retrospective // DC Classics” from Dark Corners Reviews in YouTube to give me a brief account of what the original Godzilla movie was about. Indeed there were similarities with Shin Godzilla, but the context of the 1954 movie being closer to the atomic bombings in Japan versus the more current context of this 2016 movie became the most apparent. Because of the original film’s closeness to the bombings in terms of time and memory, the film came out more horrifying than it should have been. This horrifying aspect also makes the original much more different from the newer Godzilla films since the sequels, remakes, reboots, etc. were made to entertain more than to horrify as seen with the more action-filled or even comedic scenes. Shin Godzilla on the other hand does not fall under the same direction as these reboots, etc. but it still remains to be an entertaining film with a right amount of action and destruction that can leave viewers horrified.

From a personal perspective, many people and media in my life have always referred to the Japanese government as an organized group that was efficient and excellent; while I can’t be 100% sure of how efficient they really are because I don’t fall under their government, many viral posts about how they can fix destroyed roads or respond to natural disasters quickly and effectively have made that perception of them more believable. With this in mind, seeing this government in turmoil because of Godzilla made the film more horrifying. The focus on the government seemed to be a good option for storytelling as well, since the government would supposedly be the first to gain information regarding the mysterious Godzilla and the audience could also better see the widescale devastation caused by Godzilla. We also get a glimpse of how the government has a difficult time satisfying everyone, as seen with the less aggressive actions against the smaller Godzilla to protect civilians or the highly aggressive actions against the larger Godzilla despite the collateral damage. Through the government perspective of the film, we also feel more horrified of Godzilla given that this supposedly efficient and excellent government could not respond properly to the threat, again showing the difficulty of satisfying both the Japanese people and the world [in the context of the movie’s world].

“I had to keep the world satisfied.”

This line, for me, does not only show Rando Yaguchi’s political moves, but also the film’s stand in this day and age. More and more films are becoming [arguably] mindless action movies that focus on visuals and effects, and perhaps it is so because there really is demand for such movies. Though on the other hand, there is also demand for more “human” movies that touch on plot, characters, relationships, etc. more. The first Godzilla movie, based on what I saw from Dark Corners Reviews in YouTube, seems to have captured both aspects by being a visually stunning film [for its time] and showing how the Japanese people reacted to the destruction. In today’s time, achieving both of these aspects have been difficult for many blockbuster movies, but Shin Godzilla gets past this obstacle and proves it is more than just a big dinosaur-like creature destroying Japan. It does its best to indeed keep the world satisfied; it provides a visual experience for the more action-focused audience but it also shows human interaction and plot for the more human-focused audience, and as a bonus it also shows a more faithful-to-the-classic Godzilla for the original’s fans!

Schizopolis’ “problem” with communication

While I don’t claim myself to be a movie buff, I also know that I’ve watched numerous films from various genres and styles but I have never seen anything like Schizopolis. As much as it was confusing, it was also entertaining; my mind was never or rarely not processing what was going on in the film, even when the processing that was happening was leading to nowhere. As I found myself trying to solve this puzzle of a movie, I encountered many wrong or ridiculous personal interpretations. Though what I did conclude as my own interpretation and also found interesting was how the overall plot simply criticized the self help book that Mr. Azimuth authored. The book claims to communicate its message or teaching to its readers and yet the author himself cannot communicate properly with his followers [as seen by how he treats them and even his wife which supposedly leads to the wife’s infidelity]. From here, I saw that communication plays a large part in what the movie was trying to express. Though I also think that despite the different languages and the gibberish used within the movie, the characters could still communicate their thoughts toward each other. Though this is communication wherein the receiver can interpret the sender, and not in a sense wherein the characters can express their feelings properly toward one another because the infidelity shown throughout the film through several characters. Though again, these personal reflections only hit me after the film; without the usual structure movies and stories follow along with seemingly misfit scenes, it was difficult to process even my own thoughts about the film.

Looking back, when the introduction tells the audience that there are parts about the film we will not understand and that we’ll need to rewatch it, they weren’t lying. The film has difficulty communicating itself to the audience [on purpose] similar to how the characters also communicate poorly but that also gives way for a more unique viewing experience that provokes the thought of its audiences.

The confusion that accompanied the movie attracted me more than it should have repelled me from the movie. I remember quitting movies halfway because of confusing plot points or characters suddenly missing like my love-hate relationship with the Michael Bay Transformers movies, and yet my experience was Schizopolis was one that made me appreciate experimental films more. It was a good way to introduce myself to more experimental movies especially considering that we don’t see experimental movies as much in mainstream media. Perhaps that’s why I never heard about this too, despite always “researching” on what interesting movies to watch on my lazy days. The director and apparently also the main actor was also someone who caught my attention as someone creative and relatively flexible. That role of his must have been very demanding and while I would think that it seemed like a selfish or prideful thing to cast himself as the main actor, it now seems more reasonable that he did because of the demands he might have asked for from the actor. This was definitely a good movie outside of mainstream movies, even those that they claim to be confusing.. *ehem* Inception *ehem*