The Taqwacores (2010) | Punk Rock Meets Islam in the U.S.A.

A smart indie effort, The Taqwacores showcases the rarely heard muslim punk rock underground scene dubbed 'taqwacore,' a term first-penned by co-screenwriter Michael Muhammad Knight.  With Knight's (acclaimed/ controversial/ underground) novel of the same name as source material, director Eyad Zahra constructs a compelling narrative, which centers around a muslim-punk house in Buffalo, NY,  to which straight-laced Pakistani college student Yusef  (Bobby Naderi) arrives.  An ingénue with an open mind, his exposure to all things taqwacore drives the plot. 

The housemates are strikingly diverse, best embodied by Indonesian skater Fasiq (Ian Tran).  They also include conflicted straight-edger Umar (Nav Mann), shirtless skinhead Amazing Ayyub (Volkan Eryaman), patched-up-burka-sporting spitfire Rabeya (Noureen Dewulf), west-coast queer punk Muzzamil (Tony Yalda), and most simpatico of all, the mohawk-ed soul of the film, Jehangir (Dominic Rains).  Each wrestles with reconciling their assimilationist, punk values with the constricting, religiously-based cultural edicts imposed from within.  Further complicating is the rejection coming from both sides, for which reason the film is a valuable exposé of diversity  that counters the widely-held view of muslims as as a monolithic, homogeneous group.  And while a plethora of issues, predominantly of identity, are tackled, Taqwacores is rightfully content in not providing any answers, opting to touch upon fire-button issues as a point of embarking on necessary and hopefully wanted dialogue.  


dir Eyad Zahra
The Taqwacores official site

Enter the Void (2009) | Indies Now Playing Porn

enter the neon void

The previews for Enter the Void distilled the film's candy-coated visual essence into quite the tempting package; coupled with critic quotes from Manohla Dargis referring to the movie as 'pure cinema,' (check her New York Times article) and the expectative can become, well, high.

A drug-drenched circular narrative with spectacular visual elements, Void is actually unusual for its 1st person perspective, a POV belonging to Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young man lost in the murky depths of Tokyo's dark underbelly.

After the visual assault that are the opening credits -it's awesome!- the film segues to Oscar smoking DMT.  It's not long after, as part of a set-up/ police sting, that he finds himself unexpectedly shot and dying.  From there, suspended between life and death in a DMT haze, Oscar's newly omniscient state becomes a whirlwind of time, where memories meld with the future, revealing elements of story by proxy.

With the Tibetan Book of the Dead given as a point of reference, Void is heavily preoccupied with questions of post-death consciousness as much as it is with drugs, making it feel like The Holy Mountain (1973) had sex with Requiem For A Dream (2000) and had a baby. The sex reference is not off base either. With Oscar's sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta) working as an exotic dancer in a place of ill repute right next to a love ho (love hotel), graphic scenes of the sexually-related are included by design. Neither for nor against it, an abortion is depicted quite realistically and vividly, to the extent of a closeup on the bloody remains. We see love-ho blow jobs and tons of fucking. And while moans of pleasure abound, they're equated with the screams of newborns. We even see a penis head from inside Linda as it shoots. None of this is gratuitous, but is in fact intrinsic to Noé's filmic treatise on reality and life where Oscar's spirit is depicted hovering around fornicating bodies at that peak moment of conception with the intent to incarnate.

What is questionable is the effectiveness of what can only be described as glorified screen savers, meant to signify moments beyond words, be they DMT-induced or something meta-natural, like memory, like fucking, or life, meaning consciousness. The technique is used right at the start, as the DMT begins to dissolve Oscar's perceptions. It becomes a recurrent motif, and it's significance isn't lost, and while a different manner in which to convey the meanings evoked is impossible to imagine, these scenes sometimes go from orchestral to seemingly meandering.

In the end, Enter the Void is a piece that sticks with you, lending much fodder to the mental mulch. Though the visual trappings, phenomenal as they are, may suggest an exciting action-packed drama, it's readily apparent they are merely scratches on the surface. It's what lies beneath that Noé is reaching for.

dir Gaspar Noé

uk official site
ifc official site

Rec 2 (2009) | Spanish Horror Enjoys Reality Treatment

Rec 2's opening action -and I do mean Action!- takes off immediately following the events of Rec (2007).  Despite the near 2 years time elapsed between both releases, loss of continuity is never an issue.  So seamless is the transition to the second part as to beg the question:  Could this sequel stand if taken on its own?  Regardless, for fans preferring the conclusory along with heart-pounding suspense, Rec 2 has much to offer.    

As for proffered explanations, these may in fact disappoint, particularly zombie flick fanatics.  With releases like 28 Weeks Later (2007) and Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007) poisoning the well of expectation, any preconceptions encouraged in Rec 1 are torn to shreds in the sequel.  In the interest of avoiding spoilers, of the reveal let it be noted: How utterly Spanish;  how Catholic.  Yet somehow, it works.

Also successful is the ontological necessity of the reality-style cameras' existence.   A large factor in part one's popularity, this use of the camera -simultaneously a part of and creator of the movie- is a formula repeated here.  The chilling effect causes the audience to believe, like with The Blair Witch Project (1999), they are witnessing a found (yet highly spliced) document of 'real' events.  Unfortunately, the illusion breaks each time Dr. Owen (Jonathan Mellor) punctuates the air with commands in Anglicized, broken Spanish to "keep recording; we have to document everything!" 

Rec 2  goes to great lengths to provide answers to every quandary, including how the footage survives the ordeal.  The only open-ended element -the very end itself- seems designed as a lead up to a part three, which, along with a Rec prequel, is rumored to already be in the works.  

dir Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza

*Rec 2 official site* 

My Dog Tulip (2009) | Man's Best Friend As Bitch

author and bitch pal

From the minds of co-directors and co-screenwriters, husband-and-wife team Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, springs forth an animated adaptation of J. R. Ackerley's novel of the same name, an ode to the timeless relationship between man and canine.  

Having adopted Tulip, an energetic german shepherd bitch, while well into his middle age, Ackerley's emotional attachment to his pet serves not only, to paraphrase Ackerley, to subsume his unquenched yearnings for a life companion, but also grows into something that gives rise to the beautiful, thoughtful, and lucidly composed prose that is essentially the screenplay of this film.

In this way, My Dog Tulip plays like an animated spoken word performance, but it is one that occurs with such mastery of the language and with such observationally derived insight that somehow you feel transported, mentally elevated by some higher level of (symbolic) communication.  

With Ackerley's text as their base, the Fierlinger's visual interpretation of the spoken word is so clever as to add great depth to the inner dialogue provoked as Tulip unfolds.  Collars, for instance, are shown leashed to humans as a symbol of our tendency to want to control loved ones not too dissimilarly from the expected manner we do with our four-legged friends. 

Stylistically speaking, great visual innovations were not obtained, though the Fierlinger's use of the paperless production process known as TVPaint Animation to produce this level quality a feature length film does bear mentioning. 

Notably, Isabella Rosellini lends her voice to the work, as does the late Lynn Redgrave, who died in May of this year and for whom the picture is dedicated, all quite befitting what is a consummately tender, compelling, and erudite poem of love. 

dir. Paul and Sandra Fierlinger

My Dog Tulip official site.

Ice Spiders (2007) | Just Another Good Bad Movie

From the get-go it's clear that Ice Spiders has the hallmarks of being an entertainingly bad movie.  In this made-for-tv production, oversized, computer-generated, mutant spiders --freshly escaped from the secret government lab that created them-- begin attacking the folks enjoying the wintery wonderland that are the snow covered peaks of some mountains somewhere.  

Par for the course, much suspension of disbelief is demanded.  Even so, as the opening pair of hunters (who in turn become the hunted -a ha!) are chased down by one of the arachnids, it begs the question: How the hell is it scientifically possible for this freak spider to operate so well in those cold temperatures?   Explanations for everything eventually arrive, not a surprise for a film that strikes every conceivable conventionalism, and concludes with a slam-bam, guy-gets-girl, happily-ever-after, all's-well-that-ends-well close.  

Perhaps 80s tv screenwriter/ producer (most notably of The A-Team) Stephen J. Cannell lent psychic influence on the screenplay with his presence in his supporting cast role of resort director.  Patrick Muldoon and (the other) Vanessa Williams are the principles.  Muldoon as Dash --the resort's ski instructor-- is a former olympic qualifier whose career became sideswiped by injury.  Williams, meanwhile, plays good scientist Dr. April Sommers, an employee at the secret mountaintop lab that the spiders escaped from.  Joining them are the US olympic ski team, originally there for pre-games training.  It's with all the charm of the Scooby-Doo gang that this unlikely ensemble endure calamity, while tossing around surfer-dude, snow-bunny slang.

Going out of the way to find this dud may be unwarranted, yet in the vast slew pool of irredeemably bad Sci Fi Channel original movies, Ice Spiders is pretty fun(ny). 

dir. Tibor Takács

Madonna: Innocence Lost (1994)

Much akin in terms of unintentional comedic content to Showgirls (1995), the made-for-tv docudrama Innocence Lost never gleaned the cult following Elizabeth Berkley's vehicle did, though it's as rich a source of hilarious quotables ("One day you'll be opening doors for me.").

Also entertaining is its 90s slant on 80s fashion.  Though leather jackets, mini-skirt-over-leggings, and enormous hair bows keep popping up, it's all done up quite 90210.

Of additional value are the songs, all of them presumably pre-Like a Virgin --that single's release being the movie's culminating moment.  None of these songs are recognizable and strangely feel like slightly altered versions of other hits, just adding to the film's weird fun.

Madonna look-alike Terumi Matthews' performance is just ok, not nearly as laughable as Showgirls' Berkley precisely because Matthews (unlike Berkley) is expected as Madonna to play it over the top.   In terms of delivery and conviction, she really owns it.  Nevertheless, much as Matthews gyrates, mimicking trade mark moves by rote, she can't shake the performance free of an underlying current of sadness, the sort that Hollywood Boulevard Michael Jackson impersonators sometimes evoke.

Wendie Malik as Camille Barbone, Madonna's first manager, is a refreshing presence, somewhat legitimizing the film's acting calibre, even as she finds herself awash in bizarre trappings of cloying dykiness --the short, spiky, jet-black hair, the jealous treatment of Madonna, the dogs!-- though that's part of the movie's good fun and charm, of course. 

All in all, Innocence Lost delivers light, silly fun, and would make top choice for perfectly mindless entertainment.

3 Días (aka Before the Fall) 2008 | is this the best way to spend one's last hours on earth?

Remember when Spanish horror was all the rage in the 2000's ?  From the vanguard days of [Rec] (2007) and El Orfanato (aka The Orphanage) (2007), comes the very-well-made 3 Días (aka Before the Fall) (2008), a story sandwiched neatly twixt the announcement of a last-minute, life-ending meteor impact ("there is no hope for survival," as per the Orwellian newscasters),  and the actual time of impact, a mere 72 hours later.

The film handles the greater psychological parameters surrounding the breakdown of society quite well, the whole thing playing like a character in and of itself, lending a tone of exasperation, nihilism, cosmic futility to the action.

The story, in turn, is a revenge plot involving escaped child predator Lucio (Eduard Fernández) who returns to cause havoc with the family of Alejandro (Víctor Clavijo), a reluctant hero spurred to action upon suffering personal tragedy, who finds himself rising to the occasion to defend his nephews and nieces. 

The killer, played at first frighteningly disturbed becomes strangely comical, his final act of violence given the candy treatment in the style of La Cité des Enfants Perdus (aka City of Lost Children) (1995), the character evoking slightly the Joker of Batman fame --none of it making the violence any less perverse or horrific.

A tightly woven flick --not a stitch out of place, no sound left to chance-- this is certainly a satisfyingly classic Hollywood piece through and through.

dir F. Javier Gutiérrez