As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.
Thirst follows the story of a priest who undergoes an experimental treatment, during the course of which a blood transfusion transforms him into a vampire. Soon he discovers that if he doesn’t feed, that his disease will return, thus he must soon abandon his morality in order to survive. But that is scarcely his furthest fall.
You see, our priest has a secret, he’s in love with his friend’s wife. And his hunger isn’t simply for blood, but for other things just as carnal. Thus, our intrepid hero must slowly abandon his faith in order to satiate his growing desires. And that’s when Thirst truly blossoms into a modern masterpiece of film making.
While Thirst is a morality play to be sure, and it is full of horror elements, at its heart it is a romance, though a very twisted and dysfunctional one to be sure. As our priest falls deeper in love with the woman of his desires, he makes a rather foolish step that propels the two of them into an unending struggle for dominance of their lives, their relationship and of their hunger.
Following in the footsteps of last year’s outstanding vampire film Let the Right One In, Thirst creates complex and realistic characters that are thrust into worlds they can scarcely imagine let alone control, try as they might. These are people with faults and flaws, and simply craving the taste of blood won’t change that, but it just might amplify their flaws. Thirst simply isn’t just the best vampire movie of the year, its one of the year’s best movies, period.
Since their seems to be a lack of reviews of the various issues of Wholphin, though the internet sure seems to enjoy talking about them, and as I am a subscriber, I thought it would be a good idea to offer up my feelings on the discs. And since they are comprised of multiple short films, I figured I would simply offer up short synopsis and reviews of each film contained within the issues. This will hopefully prove helpful to those considering purchasing/watching them, as so little is explained on the packaging.
I’m going to start off with Issue 8 since it is both the latest issue and because the Internet seems abuzz about James Franco destroying a room during one of the films. Being that Wholphin is released quarterly I’ll hopefully have plenty of time to go back and review previous installments that I own. And while I don’t own every issue of Wholphin, I do own all but the inaugural issue, and it is out of print, making a review less then helpful for those wanting to purchase it. Even so, it is my hope that I can provide some additional insight to those of you who haven’t been exposed to this “magazine”, and hopefully help you decide which issues are worth your time and money.
This winner of “Best Short” at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Short Term 12 focuses on a single day at a residential facility for at risk teens. While the length of the film might initially be viewed as a short coming, the film delicately creates believable characters and interactions in its relatively short time span, making it easy for audiences to quickly identify and empathize with them. It also helps that the story is surprisingly strong, being both direct and full of emotional surprises. While not the best film on the disc, it certainly is enjoyable with a high rewatch potential.
The first of two truly standout films on this disc, Kids + Money is a documentary on teenagers living in Los Angeles and their copious spending habits. The kids are all of differing economic backgrounds, but the one thing they have in common is an obsession with status and they use their money, and sometimes their parent’s, to acquire it. And while this concept is fascinating in and of itself, there are three key moments in the film that utterly encaptivating. One involves a girl with her own personal nanny discovering on camera that her best friend couldn’t afford to go to prom and had been lying about this to maintain her status. The second involves a sixteen year old child actor who has his own show on Nickelodeon and has been acting since he was a baby. In the last few years he has earned so much money that his mother quite her job and started managing his career. But when he states he’s been supporting his family financially for three years, his off-camera mother steps in and puts him in his place. While they try to give the appearance of a normal, healthy familial relationship, it is clear the relationship is far more complicated and tenuous then they want to admit. The last involves two pre-teen sisters who are growing up in a family that has more money than God. And while their mother seems relatively comfortable and open about trying to maintain balance and sensibility, the two girls present a see-saw dynamic unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The older of the two is relatively empathetic and caring, while the younger sister is an unholy Capitalist monster, basing everything on looks, makeup and clothes, and making sure everyone knows about it. And wait until you hear them talk, completing each others sentences in a way that the other never intended. As fascinating as the rest of the film is, these two clearly could have a feature made about them and your jaw would be on the floor for every minute of it.
The one film in this issue I truly didn’t like, so much so I didn’t finish the film. It’s smart, well written and has some fantastic dialogue, but it is also so pretentious I wanted to vomit. Though the degree of turgid self-aggrandizing this film reaches is almost impressive in its own right.
A truly odd film, as Bisignano relates to the world his past struggles with OCD when seemingly every interaction caused him to think he had become infected with AIDS. If that isn’t enough, there is a Greek styled chorus following along, only it is played by a tape recording of Bisignano’s mother, who just might be crazier then he was.
Based on the short story “Peter Shelley” by Patrick Marber, Love You More is the second standout film on this disc, as it chronicles a boy and a girl who just might fall in love because of a shared interest in the Buzzcocks. Simply a magnificently made film that easily navigates the awkward “Will we or won’t we?” tension of newly blossoming adolescent love.
Damn my HDTV. Once again a foreign film proves impossible to watch as the subtitles were cut off due to it being presented in letterboxed full frame. But what I did see was animation that was impressive to no end. Animated like it was being filmed by a non-professional cameraman, complete with sloppy zooms and awkward focusing, the animation clearly stands out as something special. Make no doubt about it; I’ll be checking this one out on my computer the first chance I get.
Great Man and Cinema
Directed by Jim Finn
4 min Documentary
Just a half step behind the two best films on this disc, this “documentary” is actually a semi-straight faced propaganda film about the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, using archival stock footage of the man. All backed by the outstanding track “Fucking U.S.A.” by the Bay Area band Neung Phak, making it just as much a bizarre music video as a propaganda film.
The Room Before and After
Original Wholphin Short
Directed by Dave Eggers
Part 1: James Franco 40 min
Part 2: Creed Bratton 10 min
Part 3: Maria Bamford 10 min
Finally the one the entire Internet seems to be talking about, James Franco destroying a room. Oddly enough, Franco’s version was the one I found least compelling, as it essentially was him mumbling and breaking stuff for a half hour. Sure, running through a door Looney Tunes style is impressive in its own right, but the sheer length of the ordeal really ends up detracting from the impact of the film. And since Franco’s segment is clearly all about seeing how many things he can trash, it simply pales in comparison to the other two pieces. Creed Bratton’s clearly has the strongest narrative of the three, and in the course of the four minutes you watch him crumble from rage to despair before your eyes. It is easily the most disturbing of the three, yet oddly enough garners the most sympathy as well. But my favorite was Bamford’s, already a bonafide loose screw in her stage act, brings inspired lunacy to these proceedings as a woman with all sorts of relationship issues. And I dare you to not laugh when she pulls the scale out to weight herself. The only drawback to her scene is the post-performance interview in which she stays in her on-stage caricature of herself. I was far more interested in hearing about her goal and motivations for the scene then simply cracking a few jokes.
Overall I can happily recommend this disc as nearly every single film on it is worth watching multiple times, which is rare in compilations. And while this is not the best issue of Wholphin to date, it certainly ranks very high and is a worthy benchmark for newer releases to aim for.
This year marks the 75th anniversary for the Edina Cinema and to commemorate it Landmark Theaters will have a special double feature presentation of It Happened One Night and Bride of Frankenstein on Sunday, August 30th, one day before the theater officially turns 75 years old. Over the years the theater has gone through many changes, originally starting out as a one screen before twice being split into multiple theaters but it has become a staple of the community and one of the best places to watch Independent and foreign films in the Twin Cities.
While there are no more specific details as of yet on the event, I’ll be sure to post updates as I find out about them. But there is strong backing from both Landmark and the community, so it should be a fantastic event once all is said and done.
One of the real treats of this site is trying to find obscure and weird foreign films to watch. I’ve been watching movies long enough that finding obscure American and English language films is a relatively easy proposition, and on the Internet it has become a bit of a cottage industry unto itself. But finding obscure foreign films? Therein lies a challenge.
Now there is a catch to that as well. If someone wants to know about foreign films soon to be sent over the pond, all one needs to do is read Twitch on a daily basis to find the most up to date films and your work is done. Sure they lean a little heavy to genre films, but nobody covers new foreign releases better then Twitch, and it really isn’t even close.
But I didn’t start Where the Long Tail Ends to compete with Twitch. Myself or anyone else would be a fool to try. Rather, I wanted to find films that were bizarre enough that they never much registered with the majority of film goers when they were initially released. There is a wealth of great films out there just waiting to be found, and while I may not have enjoyedTierische Liebe or Lunacy all that much, I’m quite glad that I watched them. Of course, then there is Schramm.
I have known about Schramm for about two years. As far as German horror goes it is rather infamous for how disturbing it is which, considering the notoriety of German underground cinema, is rather impressive. Schramm was one of a handful of films that were the initial inspiration for me to start this site. Films that caught my eye but I was reluctant to take a chance on. Schramm is not particularly hard to track down, but until recently wasn’t easy to find without buying a brand new copy either. It would take effort, and considering the pay off meant that one would most likely be revolted and disturbed out of their skull, meant that I wouldn’t be putting much effort into finding Schramm any time soon.
While mainstream theaters are being deluged with mediocre films, here in Minneapolis we have a few Independent films being released that look very interesting. First off is Frederico Fellini’sAmarcord, which is getting an exclusive re-release at the Lagoon. And while I’ve heard it is fantastic, the film I am even more interested in viewing is Everlasting Moments, the Swedish film perhaps best known for being submitted for Oscar consideration over Let the Right One In.
DVD releases are a bit drier as the mainstream films are almost universally awful, so the weight of the week falls upon the foreign film releases. Of course the big name release is Slumdog Millionaire, but make sure to keep an eye out for the French thriller Tell No One and the Spanish time travelling genre film TimeCrimes.
As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.
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