This film is still fresh in my mind. I'm a big fan of mid-career Arnold Swarzenegger but I'm just now delving into its deeper ideology. This film warns of a class-divided capitalist state that has wiped out all libertarianism, right or left.
Quite obviously, Arnold represents the white male rightwing anarchist hero, a total Ayn Rand ubermensch created in a lab somewhere, but he finds great allies in his leftwing anarchist buddies. Ok, they are useless, ineffective minorities who get brutalized masochistically, but then Arnold delivers swift, violent and witty justice to these state puppet capitalists. Its meathead entertainment but true to American conservative democracy. It even questions notions like capital punishment, collateral damage and media propaganda.
Its not as leftist as I would make it, but its a firm bit of ideological fluff from a less enlightened time. It also foreshadows Arnold's becoming a fairly likable republican ally to moderate leftists. Shit, I'd say films like this are extremely helpful to the far left in keeping the rightwing away from Nazism and aware of un-Marxist Communism. While the audience is meathead, Arnold was definitely a thinking, passionate actor with integrity, morally and artistically. If only he valued peace over the freedom to make money.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Rampage 2018
Every film casting Dwayne Johnson has been a fairly unoriginal conservative family-friendly popcorn piece to keep audiences dully entertained while corporations rob them. "Rampage" is no exception. This film casts The Rock as the BFF of a lightskin gorilla that grows too big for its britches til the government decides to kill it. There's an intentionally hokey ending where King Kong isn't killed but joyously accepted as a Nazi "comrade" but the film doesn't trick us. Its pro-Trump anarcho-capitalism that serves to only send America into amoral servitude to enterprising pro-state corporate masters in Hollywood. Fucking terrible film. And thankfully the internet shit on it. Probably because the hypnosis of loving Obama has worn off and the cynical truthism is reactionary at this point in our deep dark night within the confusingly deceptive implosion of Western world bipartisan monopoly.
The film has its mild Romantic moments and it criticizes the government and corporate abuses with baby taps. Its your expected pandering to Leftism from insincere capitalists. But in subverting the crassness you get in other rightwing media, its stupidity hits even harder as bland false advertisement. This is truly a post-Obama, post-Trump American work but for all the wrong reasons. An unintentional documentary of Late Capitalism slave work.
For the record, there are films starring The Rock that I have enjoyed but they were random flukes handled by reasonably responsible directors: the Donnie Darko companion piece "Southland Tales", "Pain & Gain" and, I dunno, maybe a few parts of "GI Joe 2". He seems like a well-meaning meathead jock with a minor artistic sensitivity simply from being an oppressed minority. He's thoroughly indoctrinated Deep South dixiecrat neoliberal who has good ideas but only seems to work in the most regressive circles of media. I guess he's a Libertarian who hasn't embraced socialism yet. Johnson might win a popular election with that status but he won't make a good leader because he seems insulated by manipulative and greedy sycophants... in his own family it seems.
If The Rock made films that were more open-minded, less child-proofed and a lot more subtle, he would have work that equals his immense popularity and natural charisma. He does seem to be getting better and this way more watchable than Hercules or The Tooth Fairy. But, I'm always left disappointed by his starring vehicles. Maybe he is best as a supporting actor, co-billed or even as an antagonist. Something without his too broad "working class" hero cliches. But he is popular among all demographics because there is a democratic way in which he lowers himself.
This film casts man and ape as close relatives. It turns queasy following the heroic quest of 3 ethnic characters VS greedy white people, drawing what kind of a parallel? The races as a hierarchy of apes instead of subspecies of human. Its very racist but in the most covert and smiling way. There's no chance the actors know they are doing it unless the pay was greater than their integrity. But you have to know your history of racism in film, media and recorded history. A film made by white people with a black man telling whites that an ape is his family more than other people is offensive. Ok, maybe I can half-buy it as a tale of African descents protecting the animal kingdom from the disastrous effects of white colonialism. But that insincere reading is so obscured in CGI, bad dialogue, clumsy & timid racial commentary and a lot of pointlessness.
If there's anything redeeming in this movie it was too subtle for me. I doubt that in a video game turned film called "Rampage" that is a combination of like 10 equally bad films.
The film has its mild Romantic moments and it criticizes the government and corporate abuses with baby taps. Its your expected pandering to Leftism from insincere capitalists. But in subverting the crassness you get in other rightwing media, its stupidity hits even harder as bland false advertisement. This is truly a post-Obama, post-Trump American work but for all the wrong reasons. An unintentional documentary of Late Capitalism slave work.
For the record, there are films starring The Rock that I have enjoyed but they were random flukes handled by reasonably responsible directors: the Donnie Darko companion piece "Southland Tales", "Pain & Gain" and, I dunno, maybe a few parts of "GI Joe 2". He seems like a well-meaning meathead jock with a minor artistic sensitivity simply from being an oppressed minority. He's thoroughly indoctrinated Deep South dixiecrat neoliberal who has good ideas but only seems to work in the most regressive circles of media. I guess he's a Libertarian who hasn't embraced socialism yet. Johnson might win a popular election with that status but he won't make a good leader because he seems insulated by manipulative and greedy sycophants... in his own family it seems.
If The Rock made films that were more open-minded, less child-proofed and a lot more subtle, he would have work that equals his immense popularity and natural charisma. He does seem to be getting better and this way more watchable than Hercules or The Tooth Fairy. But, I'm always left disappointed by his starring vehicles. Maybe he is best as a supporting actor, co-billed or even as an antagonist. Something without his too broad "working class" hero cliches. But he is popular among all demographics because there is a democratic way in which he lowers himself.
This film casts man and ape as close relatives. It turns queasy following the heroic quest of 3 ethnic characters VS greedy white people, drawing what kind of a parallel? The races as a hierarchy of apes instead of subspecies of human. Its very racist but in the most covert and smiling way. There's no chance the actors know they are doing it unless the pay was greater than their integrity. But you have to know your history of racism in film, media and recorded history. A film made by white people with a black man telling whites that an ape is his family more than other people is offensive. Ok, maybe I can half-buy it as a tale of African descents protecting the animal kingdom from the disastrous effects of white colonialism. But that insincere reading is so obscured in CGI, bad dialogue, clumsy & timid racial commentary and a lot of pointlessness.
If there's anything redeeming in this movie it was too subtle for me. I doubt that in a video game turned film called "Rampage" that is a combination of like 10 equally bad films.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
While "They Live" is a brilliant not-so-conservative rightwing call for anarchist revolution, John Carpenter's Escape from New York strikes me as pure idiotic ideology-driven "gun propaganda" drivel. Beware a black mayor of New York! Save British colonial idealism! It also promotes white male working class vigilantism and fear-based consumption to prevent urban decay. So nothing changes. It just keeps getting a new lacquered skin to sell the illusion of a democratic state working against classism and classicism.
But I believe Carpenter is a leftwing democrat. He's just being loyal to the pure roots of Western democracy, especially in America's not so young history. The rightwing has gone racist a lot in the last century. But only to match the violent racism that built the democratic parties in America, namely that of the British E.U..
So I'm not even picky for leftwing films or against rightwing films. But the left has always been too moderate and the right has always been too militant, clan-based, competitive, sexist & racist, dependent to capital and material possessions. Hollywood is steeped in a film language and cultural history that is so limited and censored in scope. Modernity and only the most compromised and consumerist (commercial) versions of postmodernist thought are allowed to be discussed socially by the design of a ruling class.
And there's no need to fear the competition of any corporation of private investors and legal or illegal funds to express monopoly on all industry. They may rule certain sectors at certain times, but unless they build their own private army or gain a permanent hold of government, these "deep state" conspirators can pull the wool over our eyes but can never out-gun the government or the people. Because SOME of the writers and signers of the Constitution were great and brilliant people. They devised parchment to prevent the destruction of the people, the state, their business and their privacy.
Now we're always under siege of a disastrous destruction of that safety, but that document provided enough laws to serve justice and protect peace. The world is facing an insurrection of powerful criminals who exist in shadows but they will always fall to America and the world because America puts God first, even if it was once based on a racist, sexist, mythological revisionist historian-perverted version of "God".
Should a small group of elitists run everything? Should democracy be kept a lie, a capitalist video game that only serves the leaders of state? Can they be trusted to be fair and right the wrongs of history's leaders? Who should run the next government? And how do we make sure they are not puppets of more powerful republicans who seek to destroy democracy?
But I believe Carpenter is a leftwing democrat. He's just being loyal to the pure roots of Western democracy, especially in America's not so young history. The rightwing has gone racist a lot in the last century. But only to match the violent racism that built the democratic parties in America, namely that of the British E.U..
So I'm not even picky for leftwing films or against rightwing films. But the left has always been too moderate and the right has always been too militant, clan-based, competitive, sexist & racist, dependent to capital and material possessions. Hollywood is steeped in a film language and cultural history that is so limited and censored in scope. Modernity and only the most compromised and consumerist (commercial) versions of postmodernist thought are allowed to be discussed socially by the design of a ruling class.
And there's no need to fear the competition of any corporation of private investors and legal or illegal funds to express monopoly on all industry. They may rule certain sectors at certain times, but unless they build their own private army or gain a permanent hold of government, these "deep state" conspirators can pull the wool over our eyes but can never out-gun the government or the people. Because SOME of the writers and signers of the Constitution were great and brilliant people. They devised parchment to prevent the destruction of the people, the state, their business and their privacy.
Now we're always under siege of a disastrous destruction of that safety, but that document provided enough laws to serve justice and protect peace. The world is facing an insurrection of powerful criminals who exist in shadows but they will always fall to America and the world because America puts God first, even if it was once based on a racist, sexist, mythological revisionist historian-perverted version of "God".
Should a small group of elitists run everything? Should democracy be kept a lie, a capitalist video game that only serves the leaders of state? Can they be trusted to be fair and right the wrongs of history's leaders? Who should run the next government? And how do we make sure they are not puppets of more powerful republicans who seek to destroy democracy?
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
WHAT ARE YOU CONSUMING?
I haven't watched much cinema lately. I'm tuned out of reviewing 2018 releases after the stream of trash in 2017 and I've burnt out on watching older films. I'm not even entertained by revisiting films, although I had a great time watching Batman, The Running Man, Commando and a few others.
I'm a bit jaded with film period after delving pretty deep into the cult of Jess Franco films. My opinion of him is more confusing than ever. Clearly, many of his films are glorified and over-analyzed. Many have little merit after a one or two time watch. But they all serve the impact of his great works, which are some of the most powerful films to come out of their genre, era or budget range.
Venus in Furs is a near masterpiece its so ahead of its time. A Virgin Among The Living Dead is better than 9/10 films you'll ever see. But many films (especially after the death of Soledad Miranda and the death of XXX theaters) are simply entertaining and well-crafted schlock and some are just tedious. No doubt they are smarter and more beautiful than other exploitation films and have more art than "serious" films, but there's an intense sadness in the fact that he made so many films but so few great ones. But again few directors make great films and this guy made a lot of good ones out of nada. Its almost its own genre of pure cinema. I understand his mournful disposition later in life and his own ambivalence to his own career, but I still cherish and honor his actual talent and resilience standing up to the degradation of auteurist filmmaking.
I'm at a weird crossroads where many films I once loved don't work for me now. Mainly because most films are either beholden to bland commercial or critic-serving scriptwriting or indulgent, distracting and stooge-fooling visual spectacle. They have no singular voices and certainly won't challenge the viewers out of fear of not reimbursing investors.
The Millennial reboot of Blade Runner is not a favorite film of 2017 for me but it unsurprisingly has a diehard cult of defenders who are calling it superior to the original and attributing meanings and accolades that aren't there. I'm not even too bothered because the cult is made up of 20 year old's who haven't seen anything outside of modern Western film or anime. I haven't seen any serious lovers or critics of film buying BR2.
We're in an era of Gen X filmmakers and Gen Y audiences who have inherited so much powerful technology, secondhand knowledge and inflated sense of Self, that EVERYTHING is deemed "art" so long as its of the moment and rejects the past and offers a predictably dark but hopeful view of the future. Its so... phony. This is a perfect reflection of the post-Obama, post-Trump mindset. "The majority is evil but WE select few will save the world by destroying it and remaking it in our image". This Us Vs Them shit. Everyone is so distracted, distrusting and maddened by the 1% that they don't see THAT is the game. Media wants us all to hate each other and pay to see simulated violence against each other and hand over control to politicians and corporations and keep being zombified consumers. Oh, technology will save us!
Its time for a real radical voice of social revolution and individual responsibility. Films for the people and by the people. A return of INDEPENDENCE! They've taken every platform we have for getting the message out: the press, TV, film, internet. Whats left? The real fucking world. Let them have Virtual Reality. We live in the here and now of physical space where they can never rule. Ok, they can monitor us, brainwash us, embarrass us, harass us and leave us disenfranchised. But there's still more of us than them. We can't all sell out.
BTW, John Carpenter's "They Live" is one of the real classics of the 1980s and should be a manual going forward not only for independent filmmakers and artists but all of humanity. We are waking up and our enemies are scared.
I'm a bit jaded with film period after delving pretty deep into the cult of Jess Franco films. My opinion of him is more confusing than ever. Clearly, many of his films are glorified and over-analyzed. Many have little merit after a one or two time watch. But they all serve the impact of his great works, which are some of the most powerful films to come out of their genre, era or budget range.
Venus in Furs is a near masterpiece its so ahead of its time. A Virgin Among The Living Dead is better than 9/10 films you'll ever see. But many films (especially after the death of Soledad Miranda and the death of XXX theaters) are simply entertaining and well-crafted schlock and some are just tedious. No doubt they are smarter and more beautiful than other exploitation films and have more art than "serious" films, but there's an intense sadness in the fact that he made so many films but so few great ones. But again few directors make great films and this guy made a lot of good ones out of nada. Its almost its own genre of pure cinema. I understand his mournful disposition later in life and his own ambivalence to his own career, but I still cherish and honor his actual talent and resilience standing up to the degradation of auteurist filmmaking.
I'm at a weird crossroads where many films I once loved don't work for me now. Mainly because most films are either beholden to bland commercial or critic-serving scriptwriting or indulgent, distracting and stooge-fooling visual spectacle. They have no singular voices and certainly won't challenge the viewers out of fear of not reimbursing investors.
The Millennial reboot of Blade Runner is not a favorite film of 2017 for me but it unsurprisingly has a diehard cult of defenders who are calling it superior to the original and attributing meanings and accolades that aren't there. I'm not even too bothered because the cult is made up of 20 year old's who haven't seen anything outside of modern Western film or anime. I haven't seen any serious lovers or critics of film buying BR2.
We're in an era of Gen X filmmakers and Gen Y audiences who have inherited so much powerful technology, secondhand knowledge and inflated sense of Self, that EVERYTHING is deemed "art" so long as its of the moment and rejects the past and offers a predictably dark but hopeful view of the future. Its so... phony. This is a perfect reflection of the post-Obama, post-Trump mindset. "The majority is evil but WE select few will save the world by destroying it and remaking it in our image". This Us Vs Them shit. Everyone is so distracted, distrusting and maddened by the 1% that they don't see THAT is the game. Media wants us all to hate each other and pay to see simulated violence against each other and hand over control to politicians and corporations and keep being zombified consumers. Oh, technology will save us!
Its time for a real radical voice of social revolution and individual responsibility. Films for the people and by the people. A return of INDEPENDENCE! They've taken every platform we have for getting the message out: the press, TV, film, internet. Whats left? The real fucking world. Let them have Virtual Reality. We live in the here and now of physical space where they can never rule. Ok, they can monitor us, brainwash us, embarrass us, harass us and leave us disenfranchised. But there's still more of us than them. We can't all sell out.
BTW, John Carpenter's "They Live" is one of the real classics of the 1980s and should be a manual going forward not only for independent filmmakers and artists but all of humanity. We are waking up and our enemies are scared.
Saw a review calling the new Avengers film a "virtuoso" film because it brings together a couple "hit franchises". Ok. If it actually tied together a couple pre-existing independent and iconic franchises (ex. Freddy vs Jason), I would be impressed. But these franchises were created solely to be merged. Shit, half of them didn't even exist until recently (Black Panther, Dr Strange, Guardians). And I have to ask, what adult can care about this shit with the shape the Western world is in and the insidious role corporate media plays in it, Disney being one of the worst.
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