This year the studio that bought Roger Corman's Death Race 2000 decided to lease it back to him (or at least, let him produce an independent film for them to distribute). In effect, is the biggest and best technically independent film of 2017. Corman still knows how to round up amazing talent and resources for a low budget product that its more than just product. Corman is such a genius because he's always stuck to the interests of the youth & working class who consume his films and includes an inspiring, transgressive message of independence and rebellion. Death Race 2050 is loaded with biting, smart satire and a late tonal shift that lifts it from dumb action romp to valid dramatic exercise.
DR2050 is somewhere between Idiocracy ripoff, Hunger Games spoof and Mad Max Fury Road tribute. Its still exploitation filmmaking, but its the Hollywood machine being exploited and not the viewers. Its also the most creative and socially conscious comedy I could find all year. Very highly recommended.
I couldn't get past the first 40 minutes of Baby Driver. It reeks of that desperate commercial pandering and pedestrian philosophy that I had to sit through from 90s TV and Hollywood. The protagonist is meant to endear himself by constantly lip-syncing to black music, twitching and pouting silently. Its supposed to be this heavy dick suck to Gen Z hipsterism like "Wow, they are so much more cultured and cool than us Gen Xer's". I'm Gen Y, so this phony, creepy, exploitative lovefest isn't impressive in the least. Its driven home by the casting of Kevin Spacey as Baby Driver's cheerleader and obvious audience surrogate.
Worst of all is that this film is an open ripoff of Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive. Those first 40 minutes are a big budget, whitewashed, suburbanite version of that film's magical concoction: A sexy getaway driver with a personality disorder, a hip jacket and gloves is in dept to gangsters. The film is built on its (dated in BD's case) hipster soundtrack and awkward "bad boy" romance. And its all done with annoying, zippy, one-liner dialogue and musical dancing. Its sooooo concentrated to appeal to teenage girls, soccer mom's and Rex Reed-type critics, which isn't a crime but its decidedly unintelligent, easy, fetishistic and insulting.
Whereas Drive was a deconstruction and total left turn from The Driver, Baby Driver is the sugarcoated, mass-produced version of the deconstruction that is likely unaware of the original.
Brian Yuzna & Stuart Gordon are the producer-director team behind Re-Animator and they wrote the classic Disney film "Honey We Shrunk The Kids" (not allowed to make it!) who have had an honorable career in the independent horror genre. Dagon is one of their weaker fare but its still very competent and risky for its time & place. Its a Spanish production that makes use of an awesome decaying Gothic locale and some fantastic actors, but the script is pretty ABC besides the creepy Lovecraft mythos. Its extremely violent & spooky but not suspenseful and the characters are flat. You have to be forgiving with a film this small and I think a ton of talent keeps it from the majority of it ever falling flat. I especially enjoyed Macarena Gomez as the main antagonist. She's a pint-sized, adorable but very threatening female villain.
I fall out of love with big budget Hollywood commercial filmmaking more and more. I don't even really enjoy low budget exploitation much anymore, but its always remarkable when some real artists get work in these fields. I'm inclined to support the smaller films because they mean more to the artists and have more creative freedom. DR2050 is a good example of a film that overloaded on universal themes, artistry and fun to make you forget how small its scope is. BD relies on tired big budget tricks and knicks recent low budget ideas to fool the masses, but is essentially a non-story. Dagon isn't a classic but its way more brutal, clever and well-made than films twice its size and half its age.
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