Of all the movies we watched in class, Futureless Things, sad to say, was the one I enjoyed the least. Not to say that I wasn’t amused by it or that I found it horrible, it’s just that I liked the other movies more. I think the main reason I didn’t enjoy it is because I had no idea what the hell was going on. Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention, or perhaps it’s because I didn’t get what certain scenes, that apparently depicted normal happenings in Korean culture, meant. Though I truly love Korea, and would most definitely go back there, I just wasn’t immersed enough in its culture to know what most of the scenarios were conveying.

The movie was set in this typical looking convenience store in Korea. In it were different customers and different employees, all with their interestingly nuanced personalities. There was a lesbian couple, a gay couple, a DJ, a North Korean woman, a woman that traps you in a box, a depressed owner, and a few more other noteworthy characters.

Throughout the movie, we see the different encounters that the different convenience store personnel experienced in their stay there. Some of them were funny, like the lottery man with 131 religions, the homeless genius using the convenience store fridge as his own ref, and the DJ freaking DJing on the counter. Some were irritating, like the man ‘harassing’ the woman in an attempt to woo her over with his playground level ‘pick up’ skills. Others were inspiring/disheartening, like the lady who was lying to her relative (son?) that she was eating well while all she was having was the Korean/American equivalent of what siomai rice is to the Philippine college student. There were also cute scenes like the one at the start of the movie with the cute stares and cutting of hairs and now they’re kissing, but they don’t care.

All in all, I didn’t get how the time flowed throughout the movie. I was having a hard time figuring out the events were in chronological order or if it was happening ages apart. On one hand, it was hard for me to believe that a convenience store can have so many employees on one given day. But on the other hand, not much was changing around them which is probably a sign that the events were happening close to each other. And besides that, I didn’t know the connection and point of everything that was happening.

Why it’s entitled Futureless Things may be due to the fact that convenience store personnel are often seen as part of the things inside the convenience store itself. Nothing more, nothing less. This can be seen in how most of them were treated relatively inferior by the customers that went in to buy things.

Overall, I think I’d have to give this one another watch to finalize what I truly think of it. There’s something in me that’s saying that I should give this one more chance. But, based on my first time viewing the movie, all I was able to take home was a few laughs, a bit of romantic excitement, some ‘I don’t get what just happened’ instances, and a whole lot of asking myself ‘wtf is happening here’.

Well maybe that’s all it was meant to be, maybe not. I’ll find out… in the future.

When it comes to fears, the fear of being stuck and unable to progress would be one of my worst ones. I believe we as humans are goal-seeking creatures and are made to go out into the world and have adventures. Our brain/bodies themselves reward us when we attain a goal, as the reason why we feel happy upon doing so.
Taking that away from me would be something that’d take the essence of life itself. Thus I won’t exchange it for anything, not for comfort nor for security.

The Endless explores the lives and the relationship of two brothers Justin and Aaron after living the consequences of staying and escaping in what Justin calls a UFO Death Cult. The brothers find it hard to cope up in the real world as their identities and mentality have been tainted by their experience and association with the cult. The brothers end up going back to the very thing they escaped, as Justin thought that it would be best for Aaron. Upon going back, weird things begin to happen and they eventually find out that there were entities in that place that trap them in time loops and kill them for their amusement, only to then revive them all again in the same era they left to live and experience death endlessly.

The movie evoked a sense of strong curiosity in me as to what the main characters were up against. When it was given that there was a cult involved, I thought, just as Justin did, that there would be kool aid drinks and irrationality would be the main opponent of the characters. But then the odd happenings like the two moons and the tug of war with the darkness and the creepy stalker dropping pictures of you from the sky took place and I realized that they were up against something more mysterious and powerful.

The horror aspect of the movie was already put into place at the very beginning with the quote from H.P. Lovecraft that states: “the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown”, and I didn’t realize (credits to my ignorance) that that was what was exactly taking place in the movie. The movie didn’t have what typical horror movies have with their ghosts and spirits and their unnecessarily numerous jump scares (they had something worse: Smiling Dave), but nonetheless, the way the story was told and how it was filmed to how gloomy the weather was and add the weird characters and the VHS videos and creepy polaroid pictures and with almost every element in it, they were able to build this chilling atmosphere all throughout and it was something that made me like this movie a lot.

The only thing that I found underwhelming was the ending of the movie. No way in hell that I’d risk myself doing something that stupid and put myself in a situation where I’d jeopardize my life by having the probability of being stuck in a time loop for all eternity, repeating my death every time 3 moons appear in the sky just to prove a point to my brother. But having said that, I don’t actually have a brother, so now I really don’t know.

Overall, I enjoyed The Endless but in a way wished that the ending was a bit different. It incorporated interesting ideas of science fiction with the aliens and the time loops and aspects of horror with its fear of the unknown theme and was ultimately able to create a new way to experience scary movies for me personally. One thing I learned though is that if I had a brother, I should see to it that we’re really close to each other and express our opinions freely so that he wouldn’t drag me in situations like the one in the movie.

As sir explained before watching the film that what we were about to watch had a punk rock theme to it, my tickles were pickled. Having just watched a glam rock themed movie last time, in the form of Velvet Goldmine which I relatively liked, a punk rock film seemed really fascinating to watch and compare the differences in style and execution.

One of the things that comes to mind when I hear punk rock is Blink 182 and coincidentally, the Circle Jerks. I’m not really a fan of the Circle Jerks but what I am a fan of is the Chili Peppers. Flea, the band’s bassist, is a big fan of the Circle Jerks and has talked about them from time to time, which is why I am familiar of the said band. It was then to my excitement to hear them be mentioned in the film and have them play some of their songs, as well as be in the film itself.

The opening scene of the movie was misleading for me, I thought that the movie was going to be about a typical story of a punk rock fan in his punk rock world and his punk rock idols then he’ll have a shot at fame/will meet his idols, and bla bla bla.
I didn’t expect the opening to be a ripoff of an infinity gauntlet in the shape of a car trunk, disintegrating people in a snap.

I was then curious as to what the hell was going on. The punk rock theme was also evident from the start. From Otto and his friends’ style and outfits, the spiked chokers, the mohawks, denim vests with nothing underneath, to how they were rowdy and were breaking and wasting stuff and pushing each other around to loud music, displaying anarchy, was all reminiscent of what I know the punk rock scene to be.

The movie then follows Otto Maddox’s journey as he gets fired/quits from his job and was then ‘tricked’ into repossessing a car for the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation. This encounter with Bud and his parents’ donation of his supposed school money to the televangelist is what urges him to join Bud and the Helping Hand to become a repo man, thus starting the sequence of events that leads to his ‘shooting stars’ moment at the end of the film.

Repo Man is an odd yet fun film that touches on an interesting story line that includes aliens, some form of the MIB led by a woman with a metal hand, a Latin American group of undercover _____ (whatever they were), and a smug yet dedicated main character. Few of my favorite scenes were when Otto and Leila were outside of the United Fruitcake Outlet and Otto absurdly asks for them to make love… and it worked. Another one is when Otto and Miller were talking about the possibility of aliens traveling through time and getting people to fill that certain era they are in. Miller made it sound so convincing that you almost forget how crazy his claim was. When Miller was explaining this, my reaction was “the hell is he talking about, is he serious?”. I attempted to rationalize what he said but proceeded to then arrogantly dismiss his claims and decided that he was just one of those crazy guys in movies brought in to bring a sense of humor.

But my God, when he entered the car in the end and flew the car all around the city, it made me laugh more than I was supposed to. That scene where a giant car that looked like it was filled with ‘stains’ and was lit with black light must have been a sight to see in the night sky of Los Angeles.

Overall, the movie didn’t start out to be as what I expected it to be, but ended out becoming more than what I expected it to be. It was a fun film that had humor and touched on different aspects of the world such as consumerism which is seen in the way their food items were all generically labeled in their generic terms. How a lot of people are fooled by false prophets, as seen with the televangelist and Otto’s parents. While also having its share of sci-fi with the aliens and the UFO and of course, the overarching punk rock theme that was present in the city and in Otto. I’d definitely watch this film on a chill night alone or with some friends. All in all, it was a good one and was something I truly liked.

Velvet Goldmine stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Brian Slade a.k.a Maxwell Demon a.k.a Tommy Stone and Ewan Mcgregor as Curt Wild a.k.a Mark Renton a.k.a Obi-Wan Kenobi, and follows Slade’s rise, fallout, and resurrection to stardom through the eyes and experiences of Arthur Stuart a.k.a Bruce Wayne a.k.a Alfred Borden.

Personally, the movie was very appealing to me at first. Having been a fan of bands like Warrant, Slaughter, Guns n Roses, Aerosmith, and the like, I was excited to watch the movie knowing that it revolved around the lives of the rockstars of the Glam Rock era. However, what I wasn’t a fan of, or rather, wasn’t aware and exposed to, was David Bowie in all his excellence (pls forgive me). The only songs I knew that included Bowie was Space Oddity and Under Pressure, the latter which he sang with Freddie Mercury. Having said so, I believe this affected my experience of the movie as I wasn’t able to relate and piece all of the ways it was parallel to Bowie as someone who was a big fan of him would be able to do so.

Nonetheless, the way Arthur Stuart was assigned the task of finding out what happened to Brian Slade and where he was currently then and how it was slowly shown that the task was more personal and was intertwined with his own life and experiences as he was an extremely huge fan of the rockstar was interesting to see.

There was a theme of homosexuality in the movie as seen in Brian Slade and Curt Wild’s relationship, and later on with Arthur Stuart and Wild’s wild encounter. This aspect of rockstars was surprisingly new to me as I was used to seeing the likes of Axl Rose and Anthony Kiedis with different beautiful women every now and then.
How this aspect then was given importance in how Slade made it okay for people, especially men, to wear make up, nail polish and color their hair, and how it empowered a lot of people, including Stuart, to embrace that side of them in a time where I believe such a thing wasn’t welcomed and accepted (1970s) as much as it is now, makes me see the importance of Bowie (as I believe Slade is a parallel of him), outside of his music, in the lives of multitudes of people.

The costumes used and the setting was also something that I liked. The colorful outfits and tight t-shirts with the pretentious furniture and props as well as the over the top Brian Slade stage costumes, the glitters, the feathers, the hair color, put the Glam in Glam Rock.

Though I found the story to be interesting, there was something lacking. I believe it’s in the execution itself as I think it could have been done better. I also wasn’t a fan of the songs that were made by the characters in the film. For me, a musical biography like this should at least have had a song or two that would stick to the majority of its viewers. If Mr. Schneebly a.k.a Dewey Finn was able to do so with a group of students, I believe rock god Brian Slade should have been able to do so as well.

Overall, the movie was alright, but as I’ve said, could have been done better. I like it though, and might watch it again sometime. Just not in the near future.

If I were to die the next day, one thing in my to do list would be to go to a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert to spend my last few moments watching the band I love the most once again. What I mean to say is, I absolutely love the Peppers. And as such, I know that they, mainly John Frusciante and Flea, were very close friends with River Phoenix.

Flea would always talk about how River was the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful person he’s ever met. And though I’ve never actually seen any of River’s movies or listened to any of his music, the same sentiment brushed off me.

Fast forward to the day we watched My Own Private Idaho (1991) in class, I was ecstatic to know that I was finally going to be able to see River Phoenix and witness the man I didn’t know but have admired nonetheless.

It’s funny how one of the first scenes I see River do is that of him receiving oral sex from an old guy. But nevertheless, I was hooked with his performance in the film. The first scene in the desert highway where he has his narcoleptic episode was weird yet very well done. I felt a sense of calmness in how you can feel the passion and sadness off of River’s acting, and I expected it to be present throughout the entirety of the movie.

So, the movie kicked off to a great start and I was zoned in into what was going to happen. Then Keanu Reeves (Scott Favor), whom I’m also a fan of because of The Matrix Trilogy, the John Wick movies, and his love for motorcycles, appeared on screen. This made me feel all kinds of giggity. I like how he’s always Keanu Reeves in all of his films, yet somehow he isn’t. Mike and Scott’s job as gigolos/hustlers was also weird for me to see because I’ve revered River Phoenix and have been so used to seeing Keanu Reeves in serious roles, so it was a new experience for me to watch them dabble in the dark arts.

The movie follows Mike and Scott’s journey from hustling to make a living and everything in between, to trying to find Mike’s mom whom he dreams of when he experiences his narcoleptic episodes.

The campfire scene where Mike ‘confesses’ his love for Scott was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I believe it sums up all the hurt and anguish Mike feels inside of him as seen in the part where he says that if he’d have had a normal family that he’d be a well adjusted person and the part where he confesses to Scott, who said that “I only have sex with a guy for money”, and that “two guys can’t love each other” essentially denying Mike’s love in a way, was also something that made me feel gloomy as I felt that when Mike has found something to be hopeful for and has found someone he can rely on, he feels this immense affection that he wants to put into words and tell and express to Scott, but ultimately doesn’t work out for him. His response of “I love you, and you don’t pay me” and “I really want to kiss you” while he huddles himself up and looks at the flames enforced the angst I believe Mike was feeling at that moment.
Paired with Phoenix’s excellent acting here, I truly felt the wretchedness of Mike as a character, which also made me think that River experienced the same sentiments in his personal life as well.

Also, how they were wearing those jackets in the outdoors and were cozied up around the campfire reminds me of a certain movie involving broken backs and mountains.

Another aspect of the film which I found interesting were the sex scenes which were like a weird variation of a trip to Jerusalem game/ stop dance game. Disco disco good good person a.k.a Hans was also something I found hilarious yet very weird especially imagining how long they had to watch him dance like that.

Personally, a noteworthy part of the film was when Bob and Budd showed up. Well, for the reason that Budd IS FLEA. Scott and Mike riding the Canary Yellow Norton Motorcycle also made me happy as I know that Keanu Reeves is a big fan of motorcycles (as am I) and partly owns his own motorcycle company called Arch.
(he also mentions riding this specific motorcycle in a more recent interview).

Though, I also felt conflicted when Scott and Carmela fell in love because one, I love Keanu Reeves and Chiara Caselli (Carmela) was a beautiful woman thus I was rooting for them (that’s my boy Keanu!), but at the same time, it was hard to see Mike get left out.

In the end, Mike doesn’t find his mom, Scott went all mean girls and wouldn’t let them sit with him anymore, and Bob dies. I guess it wasn’t a good ending for Mike but somehow, despite the rejections and failures, I felt dismal yet satisfied.

Overall, I could see, through River’s acting, how everyone loved him and described him as they did. It’s a great movie to watch and is a reminder of how beautiful and talented River Phoenix is.

Watching Trainspotting (1996) again in class evoked a specific memory I have of when I first watched it with my uncle on his portable DVD player as an 11-year-old grade 4 student This memory includes my Grandfather walking into our room right at the particular moment Diane and Renton’s sex scene was taking place. As expected from a conservative and old-fashioned Grandfather, my uncle quickly found himself at the receiving end of a sermon. This went on for a couple of minutes and all came to a halt when my Grandfather asked my uncle

“Why would you let him (me) watch such a thing, he’s only 11.”

To which I responded:

“Lolo… okay lang” with a big smirk on my face.

This was then followed by the sound of my uncle’s laughter as I also tried to stop myself from laughing.

My Grandfather’s argument with my uncle completely stopped at that point…
Because he then shifted his anger towards me by spewing some more verbal lessons as to why there was no good reason a child my age was supposed to be watching something like that. But then again,

“Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?”

Trainspotting takes us on the journey of Mark Renton’s hedonistic life and the shit-show (literally) he and his lovely group of friends go upon. The movie has a lot of highs and quite a bit of lows too. It starts off with a monologue about choosing life, or rather, choosing not to choose life, which is what Renton explicitly does throughout a good portion of the movie. A lot of forms of addiction is present in the movie which took on a multiplicity of shapes and forms. Some of them were drugs, sex, violence, television, and oddly enough, James Bond.

Mark Renton’s choice of addiction was that of heroin. He lived for the high life. And he proved it (not that he needed to) by diving deep into the depths of the worst toilet in Scotland. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Renton then decided to quit the high life and instead chose to choose life. He got a job, an apartment, and a whole new future ahead of him. But, as he said, there are final hits, and there are final hits. And when he took a final hit, this wasn’t that final hit. His spiraling journey back to the hole he was in begins yet again. But, as the movie ends, we see that he decides to choose life again, and tells us a calming reminder that he’ll become just like us.

This movie was the start of the not so weird movie category (in my opinion), and as it was more inclined to what I’m used to, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. I like how the story was being told to us by Renton himself, I realized that I find the Scottish accent oddly relaxing. This really immersed me into following his progression as the movie went on as I was hearing his thoughts throughout most of the events that happened. As a result, I liked his character the most.

I found Begbie hilarious yet annoying as f**k. I don’t like violence, but I like the absurdity of his character. Spud was okay, as was Sick Boy and Tommy. Though there were quite a few disturbing scenes in the movie, the only thing that bothered me were the close-ups of them injecting heroin into their bloodstream.

Swimming in shit, cool. Dead baby, flinched a bit. Head bashed by a bottle, meh. Needles, get that sh*t outta here!

I personally was excited about how Renton was trying to get himself together and was definitely pissed that his friends crept right back again to spoil his becoming a normie party. Come to think of it, I actually don’t know why I wanted him to become normal. His life as a junkie was lucrative but rather fun. In a way, I side with how he states “choose life. choose a job. choose a career. choose a family…” with irony- because it sounds extremely boring. But then again, that’s the life I’m living right now, and I seem to be enjoying it.

Because of this, the ending, and basically the entirety of the movie, was very satisfying for me. I internally cheered for Renton as he walked towards me while dictating that he’ll become just like us.

Go get that big television, Mark Renton!

I was never really a fan of the Godzilla movies or movies of the same genre altogether. But this one, this one I somehow-maybe-quite likely- enjoyed…
I don’t know, I just cant seem to outrightly take delight in watching something destroy everything in its path and get destroyed itself (sorry, I know it’s more than that 😦 ). Maybe I’ve only watched these kinds of movies when my mood doesn’t fit it’s theme, or maybe its really just not my thing.

But nonetheless, some of the funny dialogue and the creative storytelling paired with the fast-paced editing of the movie hooked me enough to the point that I was excited to know how they’ll resolve the threat of the all-powerful mutant bird-whale-dinosaur-monster/ insurance company mortal enemy that Godzilla is.

Prior to watching this, I’ve never watched a Godzilla movie completely. The only times I’ve seen parts of it was when it was on HBO or StarMovies back when I was in grade school. Saying so, I was familiar with what Godzilla is, because who isn’t, even though I’ve never fully watched one of it’s many movies.

First thing that comes to mind about the movie is that the first sight of Godzilla was quite underwhelming. It was like one of those frozen foods sold in the grocery wherein the displayed item in the packaging is significantly alien to whats actually inside. I was expecting Godzilla, the great, big, scary, monster who’s the bane of concrete and glass. Instead, I got a giant armless rubber chicken flopping through the city’s canals. Ooh. Scary.

Although come to think of it, I would probably be terrified to the bones if I see something like that in real life.

Of course we eventually all saw that Godzilla then evolved into the gruesomely beautiful big chunk of reptile-looking piece of meat that we all know him (?) to be. And he did this in such a weirdly comedic yet intimidating fashion, disappearing then coming back to the scene each time with a different feature at hand. May it be it’s skin, it’s size, it’s power, or even it’s eyes. It’s as if Godzilla merely went onto the land to farm some buildings so that it may then go back into the water to buy some upgraded gear, then return and farm some more buildings to upgrade once again.

It was also refreshing and interesting to see how the characters dealt with the situation that laid before them. The situation being the monster, the destruction, and the coming of up the solution to the problem. I liked how everyone had and knew their roles and they sticked with it. No one seemed to be above or below the assigned position they were in and it was in this dynamic that the movie also squeezed in a sequence of nice jokes that I may or may not have understood.

I believe it’s also a representation of how the Japanese people deal with similar things in their country, as the process was very orderly and respectful. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how they’ll handle a real Godzilla attack. (lol)

Although this definitely wasn’t my favorite movie, I found it good enough that I would probably tell my friends to watch it if ever they are craving for some destruction and Japanese wit.
Though I doubt that they’ll ever ask me for a movie with that description, at least now I’ll have an answer if it somehow happens.

“TF is happening?!” – Me (2019)

Schizopolis was definitely one of the more peculiar movies I’ve seen recently. Though, it’s even weirder to think that as odd as the movie is, it is seemingly still so familiar.

At first, I was trying to decide how to watch the movie. Is this the type wherein one needs to focus deeply on the minute details and nuances that appears, or is it the type where everything is passively watched and nothing is to be taken seriously (2 ways I usually watch movies). I did not know, therefore I chose to focus and try to capture everything that was happening.
This resulted in a headache. And a couple of laughs.

I did not know what the hell was going on. As soon as I start to see a little light and seem to understand the flow of the story, an eclipse of absurdity and odd happenings always manage to sweep my grasp away from understanding the movie.

To begin with, why were there two Fletchers? How did he become the other Fletcher? How and why did they suddenly speak Italian, Japanese, and French? WHAT THE HELL IS NOSE ARMY?! What did the man in the cubicle (socks guy…also seen at the end) have to do with everything? Why was there a need for a spy? I thought moles and spies were the same? Was everything happening at the same time? What is Eventualism? What was in the pictures? Elmo?

So many questions, not enough answers. I definitely need to watch it again, as the opening speaking man suggests.

Though my misunderstanding, or rather, lack of understanding, is most likely a result of my own ignorance towards the events and the dialogues of the movie, I surprisingly have a vague idea of why things happened the way they did, but can’t seem to fit them all together. It is as though the movie handed me different puzzle pieces from different origins, but is somehow all part of one picture.

I liked how the actors were pretty much the same people, yet they managed to evoke different characteristics very well. I was deeply invested in the fact that Fletcher and Korcheck were two different people and not the same actor acting two different persons. I didn’t even know that Attractive Woman Number 2 was the same actress as Fletcher’s Wife (lol). I found Elmo Oxygen weird and exciting. That guy has some serious mojo. Korcheck’s letter to Attractive Woman Number 2 was hilarious. I really hoped that she replied to him in the same messed up manner. Though I believe the filing of the (sexual assault?) case was equally funny. Selling Rhode Island to get rid of the national debt wasn’t a good idea, but at least they didn’t sell it to the f*ing Japanese!

Amidst the confusion, I liked the movie (kinda). I think it’s something that grows on you. It’s also reassuring to know that no fish were harmed during the making of the film. I feel like it caters to a certain kind of humor and intelligence, one that’s sophisticated enough (or shallow enough) to notice all the satirical implications that was scattered throughout (not me).
Surely, it is not for everyone’s mayonnaise.

(Though I also think stoners would dig this movie.)

Overall, I give it 7 nose armies out of 10. Beef Diaper. Nomenclature.

Smell Sign.