STILL VOICES #003

"The Raid" (UPDATED with all-regions trailer!)

Has Indonesia become the latest country to prove it can make better action movies than America at 1/10th the cost? Sure looks that way... (hat-tip to Devin)



Well, shit... that looks so good I don't even care that they're using "Music By That Linkin Park Guy" as their major Western market selling point. When does this come stateside?

อยากรักก็รักเลย Yak Rak Kor Rak Loei (Yes or No)

Not often I have the opportunity to watch a Thai movie, much less a movie that could easily have the mainstream label as this film by Saratswadee Wongsomphet looks/feels very much for general audiences; as a matter of fact film style recalls many Japanese contemporary/entertainment cinema films that I have seen. You have to recall that the last Thai movie I saw was the Cannes Palm d’Or and gee these two Thai films are absolutely opposites in the cinema range. Sigh.

But this film is not mainstream cinema, is not art cinema and is not your regular entertainment movie because it has a lovely story about how confusing first-time love can be especially if you’re unsure about your sexuality no matter how you look in the outside. Yes, the story is about Kim and Pie, two girls that eventually –against society plus their own fears- will fall in love and even when some English reviews label film as the “so-called Thai lesbian film” well, I can assure you that film and story are with 100% lesbian interest (there is nothing “so-called”) and yes, is a very nice-to-watch film that will leave you with an uplifting feeling as has a happy ending –for a change.

Performances are not the best but somehow fit the characters they’re playing, so made me wonder if is not done on purpose but have no reference to really know; yet I know that movie first half made me laugh (which is not easy) and second half made me feel whatever the characters were feeling. So surely is not a bad movie as can absorb you into living/feeling whatever is happening.

As the West tends now to produce sophisticated lesbian themed films, the East can surprise us with very simple and refreshing lesbian themed movies; Yes or No absolutely was a surprise as everything about it is so simple that became very, very refreshing. If you enjoy lesbian interest films plus the dvd comes to your rental store do not hesitate to rent and watch it as I know that you’ll not be disappointed.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

Worst. Blaspheming. EVER. (UPDATED!)

Source: CBM

It's been a pet theory of mine for awhile now that religious-outrage and fanboy-outrage are basically the same thing, psychologically, with societal-acceptance being the main difference. Taking the text of "Spider-Man" as the basis of one's life and raging at those who don't share your commitment? "Silly." Taking the text of an English translation of a Latin translations of a Greek translation of a Hebrew/Aramaic translation of ancient Middle-Eastern campfire stories as the basis of one's life and raging at those who don't share your commitment? "Republican Presidential Candidate."

With that in mind, I'd like to thank the proprietor of North Carolina's "Comics Conspiracy" for making that point amusingly clear: He's banned "Action Comics #1" - the "Superman's first year in action" retcon-series of the "New 52" - from his store because The Man of Steel took the Lord's Name in vain. Really.
To clear this up: The relaunched "Action" is set 5 years prior to the rest of the "new" DC Universe, and shows Superman's early days on the job; so early he's doing his crimefighting in blue jeans an a t-shirt, and has not fully developed his powers. Thematically, it's writer Grant Morrison attempting to take the character back to his pre-WWII stature as a street-level social-justice crusader - a walking embodiment of the (then) new protections of The New Deal.

In the sequence that so offended this particular shopkeep, Superman is fired on by a tank and exclaims "GD!," which he has taken as an abbreviation for "God damn!" Yeah, that's really it.

Two things about this strike me as especially amusing:

1.) I haven't read "Action #1" yet, but knowing Morrison's eye for obscure character detail it actually wouldn't surprise me if "GD!" is actually supposed to be Superman SAYING "GeeDee!" out loud as an intentional non-blasphemous curse word (see also "Gosh Darn," "Geez!," "Eff!," etc) befitting the "Tom Joad with super-strength" morally-upright hayseed farmboy 'social justice' Superman initially was. In other words, Morrison could actually have intended the line to be IN FAVOR of this dude's view on language.

2.) The fellow in question says he's been in the business for 35 years - which means he's been reading for longer than that, most likely - and that this is his "last straw" in liberal comic writers (he calls Morrison a "liberal scottish schmuck") taking liberties with characters: "Superman would NEVER take God's name in vain!" Uh... dude? Even putting aside that Superman isn't real... he used to take god's name in vain all the time: HIS god's! People tend to forget this (it doesn't come up much lately) but Kryptonians are actually supposed to have had their own religion based on worship of their red sun, "Rao," and "Great Rao" was Superman's go-to "holy shit!" proxy in the 70s. In the 80s, he flat-out confirmed that "Rao" is more-specifically the name of his God. Was this guy totally cool with Superman as a sun-worshipping pagan for the last three 40 years?

UPDATE: Grant Morrison has now publically stated that "GD" is actually just supposed to be Superman making a "grunt" sound because he just got hurt; which just makes this whole thing all the more hillarious. Morrison has a "thing" for stuff like this - when he was on "Justice League" the first time he popularized Batman constantly making a "Hh!" sound.

Escape to the Movies: "Red State"

I reviewed it. Stop asking.

ALSO! Does Warner Bros. WANT you to think "The Dark Knight Rises" looks shitty?

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Red State

Day 10 – 68th Venice International film Festival

The last festival day as tomorrow is the closing ceremony where the main awards will be given and yes, I hope can watch it live as is more exciting to learn winners as it happens.

Today the most important event is the Golden Lion to Marco Bellocchio for his career/lifetime achievement; the award will be presented by Bernardo Bertolucci. The ceremony will be followed by the screening of the new version of Nel Nome del padre (In the Name of the Father) by Marco Bellochio, who re-edited and remixed to create a new original work.

The last day of competition has the screening of Texas Killing Fields by Ami Canaan Mann, and Duo Migjin (Life Without Principle) by Johnnie To.

This morning the Bianchi Award was presented to one actress that I have seen almost all her movies, I’m talking about beautiful Virna Lisi that today looks as good as when she was young; the award will join many other honors like her seven Nasti d’Argento, four David di Donatello, one Cannes Palm d’Or and one Cesar.



Later today we will start to learn winners in the collateral sections but wish to remind you all that last year the winner of the 25th International Film Critics Week was none other than Svinalängorna (Beyond) by Pernilla August that now we know is Sweden’s submission to 2012 Oscar. So I’ll be checking to create the winners post.

THE B-LIST: SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE A SIGN

For obvious reasons, we love one-sheets around these parts, particularly when it comes to exploitation movies. In fact, if you’ve seen the posters for some of the films we discuss on this blog, then you know the advertising artwork can often be better than the movies themselves. I mean, look at this! What’s not to love?

But as campy and outlandish as some of our homegrown one-sheets can be here in the states (especially the ones produced before Photoshop practically killed the art), they pale in comparison to what the folks in Ghana started cranking out in the 1980s. If you don’t believe me, then just take a gander at this list of 20 of the most awesome movie posters you may never have seen before.

If these remind you of fairground art, you’re not that far off. During the early 80s, the advent of the video cassette allowed entrepreneurial Ghanaians to create mobile cinemas (basically a TV, a VCR, and a generator) which moved from town to town exhibiting films the populace couldn’t otherwise see. And in order to advertise these travelling roadshows, the distributors hired artists to hand paint posters. Unfortunately, about all the artists had to work with were some oil paints, a bunch of old flour sacks for canvas, and a few film stills from a movie they’d never even heard of. Oh, and they also had a ton of imagination. So that Cujo poster may not be exactly accurate as far as the movie (or real life for that matter) is concerned, but man is it ever undeniably cool.

You know, back in my teens when I was hanging out at the local multiplex, I assure you I gave little thought to the idea that half way across the world people were crowding into a small tent somewhere in Ghana to watch Raiders Of The Lost Ark on a fuzzy TV screen. They may as well have been on another planet. Fortunately, age often takes care of that kind of ignorance. But with such vastly different life experiences, it does make a person wonder sometimes how the peoples of the world will ever be able to come together in mutual understanding. And then you remember…

Of the approximately 16 million Christians in Ghana, only around five million of them are still Catholic. But as the video above demonstrates, one of the special things about the Catholic Church is the uniformity of the mass. Yeah, yeah, I know, uniformity, how boring right? But it serves a particular purpose. As the Catechism reminds us, “As early as the second century we have the witness of St. Justin Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families… The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity: - the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings, homily and general intercessions; - the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and communion.”

So what that means is that if someone like me were to travel to Ghana, I might have no clue as to why these guys are carrying a dead person around in a large fish…

… but thanks to the maintaining of a centuries old structure, I could walk into a Ghanaian mass on Sunday morning and instantly be able to participate despite the cultural and language barrier. In essence, the sameness of the mass around the world links us together as children of God and becomes to the rest of the world an outward visible sign of the universal Church. Not a bad idea to keep in mind the next time you’re feeling a little bored with that same old mass.