From its opening train hijacking sequence to its creative opening credits, The Good, The Bad, The Weird seemed like a film that would be right up my alley. The first few minutes were so enjoyable that I was quite sure that the goofy, highly stylized film would be one of my new favorites.

Well, that was shooting a little too high. While it was in fact very close to being a perfect over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek masterpiece, it fell slightly short — an unfortunate situation, considering the film is very obviously the collaboration of people who know what they’re doing.

First and foremost, the film succeeds in a fundamental way with fantastic character development. Familiar Korean actors fill in the roles impressively, with Song Kang-ho (Thirst, Memories Of Murder, JSA) playing “The Weird”, bad ass Lee Byung-hun as “The Bad” (Three Extremes, Hero, JSA), and lesser-known Jung Woo-sung (A Moment To Remember, The Warrior) as “The Good”. Ultimately, they are caricatures, but it works. Song plays the role of the familiar bumbling comedic relief, Lee owns the role of the egomaniac killer, and Jung is almost too perfect as the renegade long arm of the law. The three, as suggested by the title, are vastly different, and Lee and Jung in particular stand strong; the whole film seems to be a teaser leading up to their ultimate showdown.

The film is a visual treat in a cluttered, hypercolored way. With impressive neon lighting that’s notable in nearly every frame, The Good, The Bad, The Weird is home to brightly colored, ornate marketplaces, warriors donning unmatching, richly patterned textiles, and strange leftover war relics. At some points, it literally seems like the costume and set designers just scoured junk stores and pulled home everything with some kitschy collectable appeal, from motorcycles with sidecars to Manchurian-inspired furs and rusty wind instruments. This kind of worldly hodge-podge works with The Good, The Bad, The Weird, because if films could be copy-and-paste collages, this would be one. It is stylistically all over the map, but somehow it pulls together.

With so much going for it, then, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly only falls significantly short in one way. Apparently, the director and editors decided after shooting that they really, really love explosions — from every angle and in every speed. And while the explosions are initially entertaining, they become boring towards the end of the film. There is what seems to be a ridiculous ten-minute clip that switches between shots of running horses and shots of explosions. The over-saturation is completely underwhelming.

Asides from this misstep, though, the film concludes in a satisfying way. As mentioned, The Good… seems to be teasing the viewer throughout its duration, hinting at the ultimate showdown between the film’s three main characters. And despite this built-up anticipation, the conclusion satisfies.

SCREENINGS AT THE 2010 PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL:
February 13 - 9:00pm at Regal Broadway Cinemas (B1)
February 15 - 4:00pm at Whitsell Auditorium (Portland Art Museum)
February 17 - 9:15pm at Regal Broadway Cinemas (B2)

Terribly Happy opens with an outrageous narrative the film claims is based off of true events. In a small town, farmers discover that their cows are sinking into the grass fields, because the fields are really part bog. One cow gets stuck in the boggy field and is eventually dug out. Once it is, though, it gives birth to a calf that is half-human and half-bovine, and all of the women in the town become greatly distressed. The cow has to once again be sunk into the bog for the mental sanity of the people in town. Ridiculous!

Through the years, I’ve taken quite a liking to the black comedies exported by Scandinavian countries. Not quite in line with typical American humor, Scandinavian black comedies are funny in a dry, cynical, and wholly fantastical way; they often revolve around scenarios that are so absurd they become surreal. Terribly Happy begins in just such a fashion, with just such an influence. It perfectly sets the tone for a film that will sink deeper and deeper into crazy comedic scenarios, only… that’s not what happens.

Terribly Happy soon starts to hum to a vastly different tune. Comedy goes out the window, and it becomes a mixed and mashed amalgam of psychological thriller, action, noir, and western. In fact, asides from the beginning and end of the film — which are steeply entrenched in “black comedy” territory — Terribly Happy is quite serious, with slight moments of amusement in the, “this-is-funny-but-not-in-a-laugh-out-loud” variety.

The film follows around city detective Robert Hansen (Jakob Cedergren), who is transplanted temporarily into a small town. He is quite obviously out of place, and one learns early on that he has no one but a wife and kid who do not wish to speak to him. He is, for all intents and purposes, alone. And while we do know his on-screen character to a degree,we soon learn that we don’t really know anything about him other than the fact that he is a man who yearns to do his job as police chief.

As the bizarre inconsistencies of a small town replete with strange rituals emerges, one begins to question who is correctly pointing the fingers and who is behind the mysterious murders and disappearances that take place in the town. Is it the entire town? Is it the film’s ultimate wife-beating villain, Jørgen? Is it Robert? It’s hard to decide, because Terribly Happy is terribly hard to predict. Somehow, the film manages to bend genres and expectations without becoming overly complicated or feeling cluttered in any way.

Skhizein (Jérémy Clapin,2008) from Bertie on Vimeo.

Just wanted to share with you this really amazing animated short about a man who is struck by a meteorite and then forced to live “91 centimeters away from himself.” Before I watched it, I had no idea what that tagline could possibly mean, but now it makes sense, and it’s one of the best animated pieces of work I’ve seen in a while… because of both the animation and the concept.

The DVD also just came out in October 2009, so head on over to http://www.muiye.com/skhizein/SKHIZEIN.html to see how you can attain a copy!

The result of of ten film students from Ontario, Canada, Life Of Charlie is a strangely charming low-budget flick. Perhaps what is most appealing about the film is how much it captures the spirit of young adults in this day and age, when it seems like many 20-somethings are discontent, wondering where they are headed in life and how they are getting there.

Life Of Charlie starts off detailing moments in small town life where everyone seems to know everyone else. From horse races to ramshackle house parties, the filmmakers truly give the audience a taste of a lifestyle where no one seems to have any real aspirations beyond surviving the day-to-day and having fun. The main character, Charlie, is in a dead-end band that “has talent” but is still going nowhere, and it becomes quite obvious early on that he has nothing in common with his bandmates, who ridicule him for his indie folk songwriting and “gay” musings on being in love. Charlie’s eyes are only opened to his true feelings on life when a city girl transplant shows him what he’s missing in life, and even then, the movie is surprisingly careful not to delve into overly cheesy territory.

The acting is not exactly top-notch, but because of the entertaining dialogue and convincing screenwriting, Life Of Charlie is a student film that is actually very enjoyable. There are some really captivating moments in this film, and an introspective folk rock soundtrack to boot.

In Your Absence, or En Tu Ausencia, is a surprising first-time effort by director Iván Noel that emanates beauty in more ways than one. Set in a pristine stretch of Spanish countryside, In Your Absence is filmed amidst a breath-taking setting full of enveloping blue skies, abundant sunflowers, flowering fields, and rolling hills. The film’s backdrop defines “summer” in its absolute perfection, and the pairing of fine-tuned imagery and diverse, mood-setting music makes the film both an aural and visual delight.

Young actor Gonzalo Sánchez Salas fills a heavy role with ease. He plays an emotionally-enclosed 13-year-old named Pablo whose father has recently passed away. Naive and vulnerable, Pablo has become a bit of an outsider in his own town since the tragedy, and he has only his mother and one friend. So, when a foreigner’s car unexpectedly breaks down, Pablo befriends him, despite the numerous warnings from the villagers telling him to do otherwise.

In Your Absence is a film that is powered by unpredictable human interactions. Noel manages to keep viewers captivated by dropping hints about, rather than flatly stating, definitive characteristics of the film’s three main characters, and this slow reveal keeps a rather slow-paced film brimming with tension. One constantly wonders what each character will do next, and often wonders wrong. A million possibilities are hinted at for every subtle action, making In Your Absence suspenseful in an unpredictable way.

With so many possibilities looming on the horizon, the most crucial point of In Your Absence lies in its conclusion, and it doesn’t disappoint. Everything makes perfect sense at the end — a comfortable resting place for a film with a plethora of acceptable endings.

My first, and probably only, cruise experience was two months ago. It sailed through the Northern European Baltic Sea countries, like Norway, Sweden, Poland, and Russia, and it epitomized all that I hate about traveling: gluttony, closemindedness, and lack of desire to really get to know other countries. To make it worse, I was one of less than a dozen people under 40 on the entire cruise (workers not included, of course). It was a harrowing experience in where I thought I was the only one like me on the entire ship. No one seemed to share my interest. I wanted off.

Apparently, Angel Sil, Goth Cruise founder, felt just like I did. She and other goths wanted the luxuries of going on cruises but didn’t want to feel singled out. They didn’t want to be the only ones with piercings, black clothes, or dyed hair, in a setting crammed with strangers they could not escape from.

2007 was the 4th annual Goth Cruise, in which 150 goths boarded a cruise from New Jersey to Bermuda and shared the cruising experience with 2,500 “norm” individuals. Goth Cruise documents this experience, following separate individuals on the cruise, such as “The Veteran Goth,” a 50 year old dad of two and “The Secret Vamp,” a six and a half foot tall crossdressing man.

Goth Cruise covers interesting subject matter, but it seems shortsighted at times. It essentially breaks “goth” down into two very simplistic factors: fashion and music. Although possibly true to a degree, the idea stands in stark contrast with the numerous testimonials about how goths form one of the most diverse and accepting subcultures. Pigeonholing what it is to be goth into just fashion and music places is limiting and stifling.

The film takes jaunts all over the Gothic world, from the famous store Trash and Vaudeville in New York to the Whitney Goth Weekend in the United Kingdom. It seems to cover all things loosely related to goth for an overarching view, but to my dismay, the view of what it means goth is largely aesthetic in this film. It is only 3/4 into the film that the film really delves into something deeper than aesthetics, and, for instance, gets into how being goth affects the life of a goth in the workplace.

But any goth documentary can talk about these things. For a documentary about Goth Gruise, what I wanted to see was what life on the actual cruise was like. I really wanted to see how other cruise patrons interacted with the gothic cruise patrons. I wanted to see the opinions of elderly individuals who probably had never met a goth person in their life. Gothic Cruise was nearly completely lacking in this regard. They focused on the Gothic cruisegoers alone, with no more but a couple short snippets of misjudgments cruisegoers had about goths.

Goth Cruise is for those who are in fact interested in all things about the goth subculture. It won’t necessarily teach you anything new, but you will get an intimate look on a small subsection of the goth population.

Two months ago, I received a black journal. It was the project of a fifth grade class, and my task was to add my contributions and then pass it on in a week’s time. Although it was not a new idea to me, it was a lot of fun, despite the fact that this particular journal only made its rotation in the Seattle area.The film 1,000 Journals follows the project by Someguy, a San Francisco artist who one day decided to release 1,000 blank journals out into the world to see what happened to them. His journals, by contrast, ended up traversing the world.

I’m a huge fan of social experimentation and doing things to invoke the human reaction. This particular movie follows the route of the books as they make their way around the world and into the homes of random individuals. When I contributed to the journal I had in my hands, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of people contributed which pieces. This film puts a bit of an explanation to the anonymity behind the project, and answers questions on a very basic level. It shows that people of all walks of life, of all ethnicities and social classes (although not all countries), found this project to be interesting and life-changing. But the most interesting part about the project were the reactions from people that no one could have ever anticipated.

For example, the book was in rotation when September 11th happened, and it documented the state of the United States at that point. It showed how initially people were sad and shocked — with many of them having personal ties to the event — and used the journal to vent their thoughts. It progressed as political issues, paranoia, and distrust of the government came into play, and all of this was shown in one cohesive mass.

Even more surprising, though, were how human beings played off of one another’s entries. A pair of artistically-inclined women in Australia decided that the thoughts of others weren’t worth keeping because they looked artistically deficient, and they pasted over those handwritten thoughts with more visually appealing images. Another artist, based in England, created his own pieces as “dedications” to individuals who had previously posted in the book. Many of his dedications were serious and heart-warming, but some of his other dedications were downright mean.

Despite these few cases of maliciousness, though, the project is an amazing one that has touched the lives of many individuals, and films like these are important, because they humanize an idea that, to those who didn’t contribute, is kind of just a cool thought. 1,000 Journals is an enjoyable film for any individual who is a fan of social experimentation and human interactions; I suggest you watch this film and then go out and engage in your own projects.

I watched Donkey Punch on a whim (it was between that film and the French sci-fi flick, Chrysalis). Both films were up for midnight screenings, but I chose Donkey Punch. Given its lude title and classification as an erotic thriller, it seemed more appropriate and entertaining for the evening. I haven’t seen Chrysalis yet, but I think Donkey Punch was the right choice. It was surely a shocker; most movies chock full of boobies and promiscuous sex turn out to be B-rated throwaways, but Donkey Punch showed a level of creativity that showed a lot of thought beneath the nude exterior.

The movie started off a bit hoaky, with believable but cheesy dialogue and a bright, beachy color palette. It looked like an Abercrombie ad turned film, and it was slightly off-putting. But it was obviously on purpose. As the movie’s storyline progressed and became increasingly sinister, tragedy befalls one of the women, causing character after character to turn on one another due to conflicts of interest. They spiral downwards, and as they do, the color palette of the film changes.

It is obvious the staff of Donkey Punch knew what they were doing in terms of lighting; despite the fact that the latter half of the movie involved the characters stumbling around in the near dark, none of the plot was lost and the darkness was not crippling. It was in fact beneficial and helped contribute to the feeling that the seven characters — many of whom were strangers — were indeed alone on a yacht on an open sea, unable to trust or believe in one another.

Donkey Punch is a film that stuck in my mind for a long time after the movie. Its plot obviously required a lot of thought because of all its little nuances, and the film as a whole was very creative with its death scenes and its character manipulations. Don’t let the name turn you off. If you can find it, watch it (I wouldn’t try searching for it illegally, however, as you’re bound to find a lot of porn).

Ever seen a human skateboard before? Spaghetti made out of Pick Up Stix? Just wanted to share an assortment of amazing videos by PES. Pes’ videos have been around for ages, but they’re always entertaining.

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Human Skateboard