Vancouver Queer Film Festival Review: Pornography: A Thriller

Well, that was a mindfuck and a half! Hot porn stars, a mythical snuff tape and urban legends collide in this creepy nightmarish thriller. From the synopsis I expected weird horror, and at first that’s what it looked like I was getting. The first act, dealing with the life and disappearance of porn star Mark Anton, was really disturbing but had no overtly supernatural elements.

Well, that was a mindfuck and a half! Hot porn stars, a mythical snuff tape and urban legends collide in this creepy nightmarish thriller directed by David Kittredge. From the synopsis I expected weird horror, and at first that’s what it looked like I was getting. The first act, dealing with the life and disappearance of porn star Mark Anton, was really disturbing but had no overtly supernatural elements. The second act, following Mike’s research into porn stars of yesteryear, ramps up the horror with possession, mysterious photographs, disappearances, desperate phone calls, and our first glimpse at Anton’s snuff film.

The third act takes it up to 11 and twists off the knob, as past and present and reality and fiction collide, porn-star-turned-director Matt plans to recreate Mark Anton’s most famous video (though it came to him in a dream), but keeps getting glimpses of the past and various shadowy presents.

I expected Porn: A Thriller to be closer to The Ring, with the mysterious deaths, curses and deep dark secrets. But in fact it’s closer to House of Leaves in that it plays fast and loose with the fourth wall, and multiple layers of stories. That’s just fine by me, though not everybody thought so. From what I understand, this was an extremely polarising movie, with half the audience either confused or bored, and the other half enjoying the feel of their minds getting a good fucking. Me, I was in the second camp. I’ve read House of Leaves and love it, so I was ready to just sit back and go with the flow. I give this movie two (scared, shaky) thumbs up.

Celebration of Light 2010: Tribute to China

Now that’s what I’m talking about! The 2010 Celebration of Light ended on a high note with our tribute to last year’s winner, China. Stunning and inventive visuals, great music, what’s not to love?

Now that’s what I’m talking about! The 2010 Celebration of Light ended on a high note with our tribute to last year’s winner, China. Stunning and inventive visuals, great music, what’s not to love?

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Celebration of Light 2010: Team Spain

It’s fireworks time in Vancouver, with the Celebration of Light, taking place on July 21, 24, 28 and 31. I have already gone to the first two shows—Team USA and Team Spain, and will definitely see the rest. Hey, it’s great entertainment, and I live right by Sunset Beach, so why not?

It’s fireworks time in Vancouver, with the Celebration of Light, taking place on July 21, 24, 28 and 31. I have already gone to the first two shows—Team USA and Team Spain, and will definitely see the rest. Hey, it’s great entertainment, and I live right by Sunset Beach, so why not?

The Team USA show on the 21st was good but not great. Honestly, I’d half-expected them to do a long rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner and a red-white-blue theme, but they stuck to red and green, with Big Band and old-school rock music, which was all kinds of fun. Yet, it didn’t rise much above fun. Catchy? Entertaining? Definitely. But, it didn’t feel creative or inventive; it didn’t feel special.

I didn’t have my tripod with me on Wednesday because I’d come straight from volleyball to the beach. Saturday, though, I came prepared. That included getting there extra early, and staking out a spot by the Inukshuk. The crowds were already fierce, even a couple hours before sunset, but at least I had a good unobstructed view.

And my god, was it worth it! The Spanish fireworks were moving and captivating, telling half-understood stories in sound and light and overheard snatches of music. Beginning with sharp, shocking thunderclaps—guns, war, death—rousing music (I think I heard Flight of the Valkyries) interspersed with calm, soothing, Celtic-ish-sounding notes, gold light falling like rain—heavenly grace, peace, or death—all leading up to a deliriously over-the-top explosive finale, it drew me in as non-verbal art rarely does.

Later I found out the theme was “Hell and Heaven”, so I was kind of right. Great job, Pirotecna Igual!

Crowd at Second Beach

Planetarium and Reflected Sunset

Five Minute Warning

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Game Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I’d heard the hype about this game, and eventually got to play the first few chapters at a friend’s place. I was so hooked that I decided to rent a disc and console so I could play it for myself. Everything about it is excellent, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. Everything.

That was absolutely awesome.

I’d heard the hype about this game, and eventually got to play the first few chapters at a friend’s place. I was so hooked that I decided to rent a disc and console so I could play it for myself. Everything about it is excellent, from the graphics to the gameplay to the story. Everything.

For one, the voice acting is first-rate: Batman, Joker and Harley Quinn are played by the same excellent actors as in the 90’s Batman animated series (oh, how I missed Mark Hamill’s demented giggles, and Arleen Sorkin cooing “Pudd’n”!). The other voices—Bane, Scarecrow, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Commissioner Gordon, Oracle—are also all great. Hell, even the generic batarang-fodder henchmen sell their lines pretty well.

The visuals are beautifully done, from the brooding asylum grounds, to the oppressive Victorian architecture, to the crumbling sewers, and every environment is full of little details that add to the gloomy Gothic atmosphere. Batman’s hi-tech armor and toys looked very nice too.

The game controls are quite complex, and there’s no tutorial as such. That’s okay, though: the game introduces elements gradually enough—moving, looking around, fighting, etc…—that before you know it you’ll be tossing out Twin Batarangs with the best of them. All you have to do is remember which button does what. As for the upgrade system, it’s pretty cool, but I didn’t find that it gave you a lot of room to customise: in the end you’ll have pretty much all available skills, it’s just a question of which to get first. (hint: “Inverted Takedown” is the shiznit.)

Replay value? I’ve only gone through the game one and a half times so I can’t say for sure, but I could probably play it a couple more times, if only to see what the “Hard” difficulty level is all about. Also, I could try out some of the more advanced fighting techniques, and see how much of the bonus material I could get my hands on. On my one complete playthrough I only discovered about half the trophies and unlockable extras, including just under half of Arkham’s Chronicles.

Which brings me to the story. On the surface, it’s pretty simple: Joker and Harley Quinn have taken control of the asylum, and Batman must save staff and other innocents, all the while figuring out the Clown Prince of Crime’s true intentions. It’s an engaging story, bringing together many characters from the Batman universe. The writers’ love for the mythos is evident in the little details, like the iconic clatter of pearls when Batman, hallucinating on Scarecrow’s fear gas, is forced to relive his parents’ murder. And Harley Quinn telling a captive Jim Gordon, “Mama spank!”. Plus, nods to sillier villains like Scarface and Calendar Man.

But there’s more. A lot of the extra world building was clearly inspired by the graphic novel Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Dave McKean in 1989. It’s the kind of deliciously trippy mind-fuck only Morrison can deliver, delving deep into Lewis Carroll, Jung, Crowleyian magic and other esoteric themes, yet (at least to me) never crossing the line into random pseudo-profound mystical babble. In this story, Batman is presented as hardly more sane than the Joker and other inmates, and Arkham as a cursed house, fed and made strong by the constant flow of violently insane souls.

The “chronicles” hidden throughout the game are each short chapters in the journal of Amadeus Arkham, founder of the Asylum. From what I’ve seen (ie: the first half) it’s not too different from the original Morrison story—toned down, because this is an action-adventure game, and players don’t want to spend too much time hearing about Crowley and the Tarot and whatnot—but still pretty darn creepy and disturbing. And though they only show up in Scarecrow-induced hallucinations, the game does drop a few nice hints that Batman has, shall we say, issues.

I wish I’d found all of Arkham’s chronicles, though, because I want to see how this version of the story ends. Forget defeating the Joker, I want to know about the Asylum’s history!

So, to recap: fantastic game. It’s fun, challenging, full of atmosphere and details that show deep love for the Batman mythos. Definitely a keeper. And hey, they’re making a sequel!

Movie Review: Star Trek

That was awesome. And not quite what I expected, which was even more awesome.

That was awesome. And not quite what I expected, which was even more awesome.

See, I expected a straight-up prequel: the story of how all the old familiar characters met, their first adventure together, that sort of thing. But without going into spoilery details, the story we got is not the one that will lead to the events of the original series. I kept waiting for the reset button to be pressed, for the writers to pull a time-travel eraser whatsit out of their asses and make everyone live logically every after, but they never did.

And that was a brilliant move. The problem with prequels is that you know how the story’s going to end. But here? This story is something totally new. If there are any sequels to this, writers will be free to go wherever the hell they want. Will there be any? I have no idea. The word “reboot” has been bandied about on the intenetz, though I’m not sure how I feel about that. Part of me still feels the franchise has exhausted itself. But damned if this movie didn’t make me fall in love with Trek again, if only for one night.

Judged as a standalone movie, Star Trek delivered on all counts: stunning visuals and FX (thank gawd they didn’t try to duplicate 1960’s future tech!), great action, and very nice character development. The focus was on Kirk and Spock, but everybody else got a chance to shine: Sulu the swordsman and rookie pilot, Chekov the enthusiastic math geek, Uhura the laser-sharp linguist, Scotty the genius tinkerer, McCoy the no-nonsense doctor—in an eerily dead-on performance by Karl Urban, last seen by me riding on the plains of Rohan with flowing blond locks. DeForest Kelley should have lived to see this.

It wasn’t perfect—there were a few silly plot holes, and some of the interpersonal drama came out of nowhere—but it came pretty damn close. This is Trek for the 21st century, fresh and fun, both shinier and grittier, mindful of its heritage but not bound by it, boldly going where no Trek has gone before.

Movie Review: Watchmen

Oh, man, that was great.

No, seriously. This is the first time I was very, very pleased with an Alan Moore movie. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a massive clusterfuck from the word go, V for Vendetta was pretty good, but not great. This, though? Yes.

Oh, man, that was great.

No, seriously. This is the first time I was very, very pleased with an Alan Moore movie. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a massive clusterfuck from the word go, V for Vendetta was pretty good, but not great. This, though? Yes. I was so afraid it would suck—either it would try to stay true to the comic and fail, or it wouldn’t even try, and thus suck as an adaptation. But the movie managed to be both true to the source material and be very watchable. A lot of the backstory and exposition was nicely filled in with various flashbacks and montages, most of which were merged into the storyline pretty smoothly. The only exception I can think of is Ozymandias’ origin. The movie has him expositioning to a bunch of financial bigwigs just before his attempted “assassination,” which felt forced and didn’t reveal all that much anyway. Oh well.

Some stuff was trimmed or tweaked, like Dr. Manhattan’s solitary meditation on Mars, but that’s fine. A couple of scenes were actually improved, like when Nite Owl and Rorschach broke into Veidt’s computer network. In the comic, Nite Owl when entered “RAMESES”, the system helpfully told him the password was incomplete. The movie bypassed this silliness, showing Dreiberg attempting a few passwords before hitting on “RAMESES II”. I also liked the new costumes. It’s a well-known fact that while many superhero costumes look good on paper, they don’t look so good on the big screen (or the little screen). Case in point: the very, very dorky 1940’s Minutemen costumes in the opening montage. Seriously, Mothman, with the wings? Hooded Justice, with that noose around his neck, what’s up with that?

As for Ozymandias’ master plan? Well, I’ve got no complaints. Teleporting a giant psychic squid to kill half of New York might have worked in the comic, but it’d be harder to pull off on the big screen. Ozymandias duplicating Manhattan’s powers? That worked better, and was just as good a testament to his ingenuity.

In short: very impressed, and I’d definitely recommend this movie whether or not you’ve read the original graphic novel.

Crescent Moon and Venus

I admit, it was a pure stroke of luck. I was walking home, looking forward to an evening of volleyball, when I happened to look up and saw a lovely new crescent moon. The light was still good so I took its picture, not paying much attention to the nearby bright spot. But it turns out, it’s Venus.

I admit, it was a pure stroke of luck. I was walking home, looking forward to an evening of volleyball, when I happened to look up and saw a lovely new crescent moon. The light was still good so I took its picture, not paying much attention to the nearby bright spot. Turns out, that bright spot is Venus.

Crescent Moon and Venus

Absolutely gorgeous. I had no idea where Venus was supposed to be located that night. And hey: the first photo on this here blog published exclusively on Flickr!

Graphic Novel Review: Fun Home

I love Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For, and have from the day I came out and picked up my first GO-Info (strip # 140, “The Last Tango”, where Mo and Harriet have sex one last time before breaking up for good). Until it ended earlier this year, it was the first thing I read when picking up Xtra! West, and I could always count on it to make me laugh make me think, or both. I own all the collected books, including The Indelible Alison Bechdel.

But, there was one book of hers missing from my collection: a non-DTWOF book I didn’t even know existed until this summer, when I saw it as part of an exhibition on animation and comics at the Art Gallery. I read it all the way through in one sitting, absolutely captivated.

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Well you should see my story-reading baby
You should hear the things that she says
She says “Hon, drop dead, I’d rather go to bed
With Gabriel García Márquez
Cuddle up with William S. Burroughs
Leave on the light for bell hooks
I’ve been flirtin’ with Pierre Burton
‘Cause he’s so smart in his books”

—Moxy Früvous, “My Baby Loves A Bunch Of Authors”

I love Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For, and have from the day I came out and picked up my first GO-Info (strip # 140, “The Last Tango”, where Mo and Harriet have sex one last time before breaking up for good). Until it ended earlier this year, it was the first thing I read when picking up Xtra! West, and I could always count on it to make me laugh, make me think, or both. I own all the collected books, including The Indelible Alison Bechdel.

But, there was one book of hers missing from my collection: a non-DTWOF book I didn’t even know existed until this summer, when I saw it as part of an exhibition on animation and comics at the Art Gallery. I read it all the way through in one sitting, absolutely captivated. It’s poignant, disturbing in parts, brutally honest, yet at the same time masterfully intellectual and literate. A couple of weeks ago I bought it as a Christmas present to myself, and I’ve been compulsively rereading it over and over again. I guess this post is a way to get it out of my head.

In brief, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is the story of Bechdel’s growing up, and her complicated relationship with her father. A few weeks after coming out to her parents at age 19, she learned he was gay. A few months later he was dead, possibly having committed suicide. Fun Home is Bechdel’s attempt to work out the threads of his life, her own life, and how the two intersected.

But Fun Home is more than a memoir. It’s a story about stories: specifically, the books that Alison and her father both loved—and for the last couple of years of his life, the only way they related to each other. Fun Home is peppered with allusions and quotes from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Albert Camus, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Colette and Greek mythology, among many others, but they never (well, hardly ever) feel forced. Without bogging things down in tedious literary analysis, they provide just enough insight to not only enrich the story but get me excited about reading the originals as well.

Alison (I feel a bit awkward referring to her by her first name, but what can you do?) found her taste for The Classics in grade 12, but before that, her relationship with her father was mostly distant, even hostile at times. Bruce Bechdel, it seems, was not an easy man to live with. A remote, authoritarian father and husband, prone to bouts of rage, he spent much of his spare time reading or restoring his family’s 19th century home. He was obsessed with beauty, but it was a narrow, oppressive kind of beauty, shallow and fragile, with no room for other people’s needs or tastes. The home he recreated was an artfully arranged, jumbo-sized closet, as much a museum as a place to live.

Everything in Bruce Bechdel’s world had to be just so, and that included his only daughter Alison. They were polar opposites in many ways, butch girl and sissy man; him trying to dress her up into a perfect model of femininity, her resisting his efforts as best she could. His intent is ambiguous: it’s not clear if she was just another canvas on which to work his art, or if he was actually trying to quash her budding queerness.

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“Is that what you want to look like?” There are so many things wrong with that question. Is looking butch a worse sin than queerness? Would it have been better for her to look pretty, marry and have affairs with high school students on the sly?

Closeted father aside, there’s a lot I can relate to in Alison’s story. Both my parents are teachers as well (retired now) and have never been very demonstrative either. Like Alison, I realised I was gay before I had sex. And again like her, I bought a truckload of books upon coming out—biographies, histories, politics, humour, psychology, anything really, I wasn’t too choosy back then.

What A Little Bookworm!

And actually, that part was familiar. The Indelible Alison Bechdel reprinted her coming-out story; originally published in 1993, it focused on the immediate circumstances surrounding her revelation, making contact with the local gay community, and ending with her first time with another woman. But in the meantime bookish, intellectual Alison had plowed through many, many books in an attempt to find, and understand, her new community. The masturbation scene above was played for giggles in 1993 but turned into something more serious in 2006, almost transcendent, a necessary step in her journey. Only the “good for a wank” brought it down to earth a bit.

Bewitched

Okay, I promised myself I wouldn’t be doing any high-falutin’ literary analysis (“Marlow’s steamer? penis. The Congo? vagina” Hee) but there are a few details that jumped out at me. Consider the picture on her professor’s office wall. It so happens (thank you Wikipedia!) that “The Descent of Minerva to Ithaca” is one of a series of engravings John Flaxman did to illustrate the Odyssey. Guess which book was studied in this English class? That’s right: Joyce’s Ulysses.

There’s more, though. This meeting took place the exact same day Alison realised she was a lesbian. And in the 1993 version of her coming-out story, she compares her revelation to the birth of Athena. “You know the story. She springs, fully grown and in complete armor, from Zeus’s head.”

Was that picture really there in her professor’s office? I don’t think it matters much. In a few instances, Alison points out a stray detail and insists it was in fact real. This still leaves many unaccounted for, but that’s fine. In a memoir, factual accuracy may sometimes take a back seat. I’ll trust that the story is true enough, and move on.

So there you have it. Honestly, going through Fun Home again and again has left me exhausted, but in a good way. I grieve for a man who died before he ever had the chance to truly live, but celebrate the life of a woman who escaped his labyrinth and created something truly beautiful. And maybe, one of these days, I’ll feel brave enough to tackle Proust.

Laugh At Me

The Queer Film Festival is in full swing. Last night I they showed The Coast is Queer, a showcase of shorts by local filmmakers that’s become an annual tradition. There was so much excellent material this year that it’s hard to pick a favourite, but I’d have to go with David C. Jones’ Laugh At Me. Which, good news, has been on YouTube for a while

The Queer Film Festival is in full swing. Last night I they showed The Coast is Queer, a showcase of shorts by local filmmakers that’s become an annual tradition. There was so much excellent material this year that it’s hard to pick a favourite, but I’d have to go with David C. Jones’ Laugh At Me.

Honourable mentions go to Hirsute (I’m a sucker for a good time-travel mind-screw), the sexily, dykily hilarious Jane Blonde, and the deliciously creepy Bathroom Mirror.

Movie Review: WALL•E

The trailers never really grabbed me, so I skipped Cars and Ratatouille. Still haven’t seen them on DVD. This movie, though? This movie had promise.

And boy, did it deliver.

The trailers never really grabbed me, so I skipped Cars and Ratatouille. Still haven’t seen them on DVD. This movie, though? This movie had promise.

And boy, did it deliver. First, it’s visually breathtaking, even more so than Finding Nemo. From the dingy, polluted Earth to the ultra-shiny Axiom full of bright primary colours and neon holograms, with marvelous starscapes in between, those incredible Pixar animators have surpassed themselves yet again. It bears repeating: this movie looks absolutely fracking awesome.

The story leans towards the kids’ end of the spectrum, I found: no bad guys with guns like The Incredibles has, or the nasty predators of Finding Nemo. Just some cute robots (and a couple of humans). There is a plot besides the (so cute) love story between WALL•E and EVE, and it’s an interesting one, but it doesn’t distract from the cuteness. There’s a Big Message, too, just like in other Pixar movies, which goes beyond “We have to take care of our planet.” I like it, and the delivery is a lot more subtle than Finding Nemo‘s borderline-sledgehammer approach.

In short: two thumbs way up. WALL•E has it all: it’s sweet, funny, engaging, exciting, occasionally tear-jerking. I’ve seen it once, I’ll see it again at least a couple more times, and you can bet I’ll buy the DVD so I can watch it over and over.