GUMMO by jaiskizzy

kids was a great movie, ken park wasnt. and both had realistic sex. both were written by a fella named harmony korine, and gummo is his directorial debut. honestly, i still cant figure out if i liked or didnt like the movie. hmmm...

it's about a small town named xenia, ohio where people do abnormal activities as if they were normal. kids kill stray cats and sell them for glue to sniff on. a boy goes around wearing rabbit ears. girls put tape on their nipples and peel them off again. a mother shampoos her son while he eats spaghetti and milk in the tub. these and a bunch of other stuff you wouldnt normally see in town movies are told in a non-linear fashion, using different cameras, but with noticeably fine editing. the scenes (which are kinda like short films that could stand alone by themselves) are cut and spliced together almost perfectly, putting into mind that each scene is totally different from the others in many factors.

however, the praises end there. overall, the movie doesnt have a coherent storyline and i didnt know what everything meant collectively. when i finished watching the movie, i was like, "so what?". korine should have focused on the character of solomon. he's one of the cat killers, he's the boy in the tub, and in one nice scene, he tapes together spoons and forks and uses them as weights and pumps iron in front of a mirror to madonna's "like a prayer". but many scenes werent as good as this and kept me wondering why they were there.

i believe that a film should be good as a whole. so i guess gummo is a bad movie. harmony korine oughta stick to writing and let the good directors do their job.

ERASERHEAD by jaiskizzy

this is david lynch's first feature film and is about the nightmare of a life of a man named henry which takes an even more crooked turn when a freak-ass ugly baby is thrown into the picture, care of his girlfriend mary.

mulholland drive was the first (and only other) david lynch movie ive ever watched and, because of it was weird and messed-up, it instantly became one of my favorites. eraserhead is the latest addition to that list. this movie is sheer madness. mr. lynch took a simple little plot, ate it and puked out a dark disturbing dream-like flick with chunks of strange symbolism. each scene bears the director's surreal style, almost as if he is unable to depict an event the way it would happen in real life. there's the man in the planet, the sperm-like mini-monsters, the lady in the radiator, and other illogical things that are left for the audience to theorize the meanings. the imagery is obscure and detaching, but the message is quite clear.

a memorable scene in the movie is the first time the lady in the radiator appears. she dances (?) on a stage while sperm creatures fall from above. with a smile she smashes a few of them. there could be many explanations for this but i think that she (she has wrinkly bloated cheeks) represents a woman's egg and the sperm creatures are actually sperm. in another scene, she sings "in heaven, everything is fine", maybe telling henry to do something to take control of his life, which is suicide? i honestly am not sure if i am correct but whether i am or not doesnt matter. the movie speaks for itself.

in a way, i believe, the mutant baby symbolizes the whole movie. it was meant to be like that and it's up to you to love it or hate it. i, of course, loved it.

CASSHERN by jaiskizzy

long years of war has laid waste a nation and a geneticist has discovered a way to counteract the suffering: "neo-cells" that regenerate human body parts. the experiments take time until an unexpected force intervenes, creating "neo-sapiens" out to destroy mankind. the geneticist's son, tetsuya, who died in the war, is revived and uses his powers to stop the neo-sapien menace.

eversince i saw its supercool mind-imploding trailer (despite having no sound) last year, i have been itching to watch this movie. japanese films always have a unique grandiose quality in them, and casshern is more than enough proof of that. this fantastic film is heavy in cgi put to good use. i felt like i was watching a 2-hour long video game fmv, waiting to take control of the main hero. it starts off slow, setting the stage, introducing the characters, yet never gets boring (however, this part could put off anyone who is not used to or totally unfamiliar of this style of storytelling). the visuals are stunning, and im not just talking about the cgi. the way the scenes were shot and presented, the flow, the editing, truly exceptional. there are quite a few sequences where characters are talking but we only hear their voices over a different scene, not showing any of them. it's nothing new but how it was utilized here was perfection of that method. the scenes with luna are enchanting, she had that anime-type of face and on two separate instances, my two companions commented that she looked like she was computer-generated (she resembles final fantasy x's yuna).

this isnt an all-out action flick, but when the action arrives, it hits and leaves a bruise. in anime, when a character performs a special move, streaks appear in the background. here, anime is made real, as tetsuya runs, fights, strikes and streaks appear behind him. he single-handedly obliterates an army of robots and duels with the neo-sapiens, wearing his cool white armor with a faceguard that comes out and retracts at will. each scene shows the cool things you can do with cgi with the right vision. pinoy movies that boast of "internationally-competent" special effects dont even come close to one seamless frame of casshern's.

i love war movies but i hate wars. nobody really wins. and that's what the core of this movie teaches us: that we are all here not just to exist, but to co-exist. living is not enough, life should be shared. the movie ends with tetsuya, luna, and the others transported to another planet to start anew. damn i wish i could do that.

LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS by jaiskizzy

here, jim carrey is count olaf, the eccentric scheming uncle of the three baudelaire children (the inventor violet, the bookworm klaus, and the biter sunny) who lost their parents in a house fire, leaving them a huge sum of moolah. count olaf wants the moolah for himself and does everything he could to ruin the orphans' lives, in a dark peculiar movie that, had i not seen the credits, id swear was directed by tim burton.

whenever i am in makati and have time to kill, i always pay a visit to powerbooks to do some skimming. i first stumbled upon the lemony snicket books there sometime last year and i was only able to read the synopses on the back covers, which were more like warnings that they werent happy books. the movie started off in the same vein, that it wasnt about a giggly little elf in the forest and that you can choose to leave the theater if you want to see that one. of course, i chose to stay and watch lemony snicket's with my lovely companion.

anyways, the movie is darn good. i liked it primarily because the sets, the shots, the costumes, the overall tone of the movie had a goth feel to it. it doesnt make itself cute (well, except for the baby), the jokes arent over-the-top funny, and people really die and stay dead. totally not your average sugarcoated kiddie movie. jim carrey, eventhough not that all-out, did great as count olaf, and like id always say about him, once you watch him portray a character, you'd find it hard to think of another actor who can fit that role. he practically steals every scene he's in (which is a joke in itself because he's playing the role of a bad actor who thinks he's the best there is). the kids, although virtually uknown to me, did pretty well. violet pulled off a believable young macgyver tying her hair whenever she had an idea. klaus i think was a bit underused but the close-up shots of books sliding out of the shelves was neat. but i enjoyed watching sunny the biting baby most of all. her "acting" was splendid. the quick scene where she was helping pull the strap back into the car was a brilliant moment.

the "putanesca." "what did you call me?" scene made me laugh real hard. im not sure if it had the same effect on other people, but simple, subtle, almost nonsense gags like that never fail tickle me.

my maiden said the movie made you wish it would never end and she was right. it never bores you. i found myself anxiously anticipating what would happen next, conflict after conflict, putting the kids in trouble, with no magic powers to use or superheroes to save them, relying merely on their wits and a little bit of luck. and when the film ends, you still carry that anticipation of knowing what the future holds for the baudelaire kids. a sequel perhaps?