wandercreature

n this ongoing series, we will be sharing brief micro-reviews of all the films i’ve been watching/re-watching since the country went full clusterfuck. Because aside from staving away weight increase, and cabin fever, what else is a die hard film geek to do?

ON WITH THE SHOW!

Embrace of The Serpent (dir, Ciro Guerra 2015) Every once in a while, a work grabs you the second it begins to unspool. This international co-production by Colombian director, Guerra explores the endless tension between ancient tradition, and inevitable progress based upon the very real travel diaries of Richard Evans Schultes and Theodor Koch-Grunberg. Seen through the eyes of a man who would grow to become a shaman, his encounters with a European ethnographer and a botanist within a span of three decades etch deep what it means to see your world grow smaller as colonization begins to make its mark down the Colombian Amazon. Stark in its intense black and white cinematography courtesy of David Gallego. Plays almost like a more melancholy and humane inversion of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, we are given ample evidence of the effects encroaching civilization leaves upon the land, the river, the people. We are made privy to the mystical and psychological challenges brought upon by white men, and their preconceptions of an ordered universe upon the indigenous peoples of early America. It is also a brilliantly weaved hybrid of old and new school filmmaking that takes hold deep, refusing to let go long after the credits end.

Crawl (dir, Alexandre Aja 2019) Sometimes, you just know. Having been out of the Aja loop for some time, imagine my inner surprise upon catching the trailer for this in theaters, and being genuinely excited. Another creature feature by possibly the best post French Horror Wave to have crossed over into the H-wood ballgame? Having just recently traveled to Miami last year, I now deeply regret having seen this during its initial release. Definitely a thinly veiled analogy for the self destructive rot of the American South by way of killer gators invading your home during a Category 5 hurricane, we get a super simple premise where a would-be swim champion(Kaya Scodelario), heads straight for her estranged dad (Barry Pepper), as his home is on a lake in direct path of the storm. And while flooding is definitely a major concern, that’s only the first of their concerns; not only do they wind up trapped in the old house’s crawlspace, they do so SURROUNDED by hungry gators. And since this is an Aja joint, you’d better believe you’re getting some prime gore with your tension. And what remains is a pretty solid, well- executed little monster/disaster pic with some really effective physical effects work. This must’ve been rough to make even with all the necessary CG for the storm and the gators, because seriously, those things do whatever the hell they want.

Cold War (2018) Brilliantly composed and acted tribute to the director’s parents, this quietly intense and lean tale of embattled love set amidst the backdrop of post-WWII Poland achieves in ample doses what cinema so often forgets to do; move with imagery. The duo of Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig, shake the soul with merely their body language and sheer expressiveness as two hearts caught in a seemingly endless emotional and political storm. Not every path is a straight line, and yet both know within their deepest marrow, something is indeed there. Perhaps the kind of existential romantic epic that might have gone headlong into more than three hour territory in the past, goes for a shorter run time and an emphasis on maximum iconographic impact. Director Pawel Pawilkowski and cinematographer, Lukasz Zal aim for highs that are unmistakably personal and complex, and land a majority of their most potent punches by way of their incredible stars, particularly Kulig, who’s a genuine force of nature.

Blue Thunder (dir, John Badham 1983) Well enough with the heavy duty stuff, how about some retro popcorn chompin’ with Roy Scheider? That’s right, I hadn’t seen John Badham’s ultra busy police chopper saga since cable around 1985, and let’s be real here; I miss a cinema landscape where such concepts were the fodder for potential blockbusters. Especially with such a perfectly tuned everyman in Scheider leading a fun cast. So when the LAPD’s veteran helicopter team is introduced to the possible future of airborne law enforcement, all while politicians are murdered under mysterious circumstances, it’s a race against time before clandestine forces unleash a dark era of high tech survei- (looks around in 2020) Oh boy..We are in trouble, aren’t we? Malcolm Macdowell, Warren Oates, Candy Clark, and Daniel Stern turn this cool little “dad thriller” into something that continues to charm despite its very dated concerns. Oh, and about that bit where they “silently” (in a helicopter) oggle a naked woman through her window? 1983, WTF.

Elysium (2013) It seems that every decade presents to me the occasionally ambitious yet flawed piece of filmed science fiction that hits me in all the sweet spots despite their large problems. Blomkamp's major studio lunge and miss from 2013 remains the kind of blunt force effort that speaks to my personal dreams and nightmares of daily living, and carries with it the kind of roaring fire in the belly that speaks directly to my lizard brain in ways years of literacy and education cannot shake.I see the problems, and yet they connect. ELYSIUM, remains a bit of an imbalanced mess. But it serves as a cold, righteously enraged warning of where we are headed should we fail our collective test come the end of this year. I love a great deal of ELYSIUM, simply because I do not want to live in a world where there is a fucking ELYSIUM.