I wanted to take a somewhat self-indulgent moment to clarify a rather glib and unsupported remark I made on Twitter about a colleague. Two days ago, I tweeted the following entry: “Michael Lerman wonders how Mike D’Angelo can afford to be so lazy in a recession where so many talented, hard working writers are unemployed.” While my remarks were in response to Mike’s piece about Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers (and I’ll get to that in a second), I left no evidence to support that in the least.
Many of you who know me well know that I’ve been complaining for quite sometime about a growing trend of critics writing attacks at each other, often not at their opinions in fruitful debate, but just simply of their writing styles or habits, often making petty personal snipes. Today, I’ve accidentally and embarrassingly fallen victim to that and, what’s worse, I did it with the only excuse being that I was writing in a medium that forces you to fit all your thoughts into 140 characters - not a valid reason in the least. Some are very good at debating in such small, pithy phrases. I, clearly, have not mastered this art as I couldn’t even manage to get the subject of the argument into the tweet, leaving my adversary, among others, to ponder what the hell I could be referring to. So, Mike, I just wanted to say publicly that I am sorry. As it stands, my remark comes across as hostile and insulting and you didn’t deserve that at all.
However, as for the main point I was trying to make, I find this review a little bit of an easy way out. I don’t presume to have some higher understanding of the film that you don’t possess. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was skeptical going into it, so, I guess on a pure experiential level, I am a perfect example of the antithesis of what you are talking about in your piece. I feel there were a million ways to screw this film up, to make it feel more tedious or less structured. But, while it does play as a bizarre series of jokes and sequences, I see each of these building off of the previous ones and the choices of editing, ordering scenes and visual medium all served the higher purpose of making it simply hilarious and less unwatchable than it could’ve gone.
But what frustrates me the most is not that I think there’s something here you don’t understand, but more that I feel like you just had a negative reaction and, therefore, simply didn’t try. You wrote circles around a philosophical term, avoiding any attempt to dissect the film for its intended purpose because you were so appalled that it would be considered a work of art, as supported in your sarcastic comment “Major fall festivals, here I come.” I get frustrated or scared sometimes when I feel like we don’t, as journalists, measure the value of work on its own merits, but instead on the context that others put it in for us. If we accept to write about a film, the piece should give the film some good thought, whether it be about White Material or Trash Humpers or Nights & Weekends or Space Chimps. Too often I read pieces that are simply dismissive because of the directorial style or the generic genre the film falls under or the status it holds in the festival realm and if you do that, then you aren’t talking about the film anymore at all, but instead griping about the fact that anything you personally don’t consider art gets made in the world or shown at events we consider sacred and prestigious, which is a dead horse we’ve all been beating for far too long.
I’m am 100% positive I am guilty of this myself from time to time, but I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Mike, I like your writing. A lot. Even the piece that I am taking issue with shows how intelligent you are. So I found it incredibly dismaying when you dealt with your negative reaction to Trash Hampers by writing what seemed like a masturbatory 605 words about, well, basically, why the film doesn’t deserve 605 words written about it instead of trying to figure out Korine’s intent and then intelligently ripping it apart on its own terms, discussing how he fails to carry out that intent or, at the very least, why that intent was misguided to begin with. I know you can do it so well. I just wish you had and, for that, I call you temporarily lazy.
I know all the industry minds are on Telluride and Toronto, but I wanted to give a shout out to three amazing DVD releases coming this fall for all the people that can’t be in Canada with us.
The first is, of course, the home viewing release of Mark Region’s hotly debated After Last Season. Once believed to be an internet prank, this too stilted to be true trailer turned out to be all the movie its promos promised. But if you’re not like me and don’t want to do crazy things like drive thirteen hours just to check if this is a joke, simply visit here to order to a copy to be shipped directly to the comfort of your own home. They’ve cut a new trailer for the DVD release, which I believe is narrated by Region himself.
The second is the long-awaited American DVD issue of the 1987 underground, samurai splatterfest, Ambush at Blood Trail Gate. The guys at Shinobi Splat were good enough to present the US with a brand new, digitally remastered version of the film, complete with an English Language track that features none other than Bruce Campbell. Check out this awesome trailer:
And last, but definitely not least, is the latest from action superstar, Dolph Lundgren. Holy shit! This promises to be hilarious. The trailer and teaser say it all. (Watch them in that order.)
Two great trailers went up on the Apple site today promoting two strong releases for later this summer.
First up, there’s our first theatrical release for Tiger Industry Films - White on Rice. Directed by David Boyle and starring Hiroshi Watanabe, Nae, Mio Takada, Lynn Chen and James Kyson Lee, the movie is set to hit select US theaters in late summer, early fall. But, if you live in NYC, you can come check it out next weekend at the New York Asian American International Film Festival. We’re showing at the SVA Theater on Saturday, July 25th, at 4:45 PM. Tickets can be purchased here. Don’t miss it!
Secondly, after a long and sordid history involving a Cannes Premiere and a series of distributors, György Pálfi’s ingenious Taxidermia is finally going hit US screens on August 14th courtesy of Regent Releasing. The film is still easily one the most unique and beautiful pieces of work that I’ve seen in the last five years and, though it requires quite a strong stomach, it should be witnessed by all. Congrats to Regent for making such an astute pickup.
Jason Eisner, for those of you who don’t know, is one of the hottest young shorts directors working today. His pitch perfect 70s horror homages are at all turns terrifying and hilarious. Eisner first appeared to US audiences at SXSW in 2007. After sweeping the Grindhouse trailer competition with his now infamous “Hobo with a Shotgun,” Eisner returned to his home in Canada, preparing new thrills for audiences around the world.
So, ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I bring to you today, in its entirety, the second short from Jason Eisner (courtesy of Twitch): Treevenge
It seems the production team behind Dead Snow, the Sundance 2009 genre pic soon to be released in the states by IFC, has put together a promotional video to plug the Norwegian DVD release . . . and opted for a video sans nazis or zombies. Instead they got Norwegian FHM model/FHM columnist/Survivor contestant/Popstar Linni Meister to turn the music video for her new hit single, My Ass, into promotional material for the film. I’m just gonna throw it out there that I think IFC should ride this absolutely hilarious advertising wave. Anyone with me?:
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