Victims of Circus Pants

Wisconsin Film Festival - Day 1 - Marwencol

2011-03-31T21:56:00.000-07:00

When Mark Hogancamp sustained a brutal beating at the hands of five strangers, he lost almost the whole of his memory, and was forced to literally rebuild himself from scratch. After the money ran out for his rehabilitation, as well as the therapy needed to deal with the trauma, he began constructing a fictional town, called Marwencol, in his backyard.

Marwencol, the movie, directed with great affection by Jeff Malmberg, is a winning portrait of Mr. Hogancamp, and a fascinating meditation on why people create art. Marwencol (the town) is a strange fantasy world that appears to be primarily inspired by war comics from the 1970's. Mr. Hogancamp populates the town with dolls that often represent people in his life, creating story arcs through photography that mirror his attempts to reintegrate with the outside world and deal with the anger left by his beating.

All this would be fascinating on its own, but what really makes this movie special is Mr. Hogancamp's engaging personality. Sad, funny, candid, and with some interesting rough edges, he is a joy to watch on the screen, and wisely, Mr. Malmberg has employed a light touch in telling his story, touching on lofty ideas without belaboring them, and providing ample room for Mr. Hogancamp's work to speak for itself.

As a magazine editor comments on Mr Hogancamp's work, what really makes it succeed is that although he is basically taking photographs of dolls, there's no irony in it, which makes it compelling. The same can be said of Marwencol.

Made in Dagenham - Equal Rights = Meh.

2011-03-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

Based on the true story of a worker's strike of the all-female sewing division of the Ford plant in Dagenham, England, which led to (more) equitable pay for female workers in the UK and US, Made in Dagenham does have its share of stirring moments, and an appealing cast.

What it lacks, however, is any sense of context, or sense of place. Dagenham, in this film, is a sanitized, cheery, world where a few villains are dispatched quickly by a well-made speech and about 45-minutes-worth of plucky determination, and the working class is uniformly noble.

Because of this, the stakes involved in the strike don't seem particularly high, the transformation of the workers from housewives to firebrands comes off as forced, and the inevitable victory doesn't really register as significant.

The closing credits, featuring brief interviews with some of the women involved in the strike, really underscored my biggest problem with the film. This is not ancient history, and an excellent documentary could (and should) be made about this remarkable group of women, and their unlikely success.

The Adjustment Bureau - no complaints, really

2011-03-10T21:52:00.000-08:00

The metaphysical romance is an interesting genre, with very few successes to speak of (maybe The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?), and loads of beloved failures (Somewhere in Time, The Time Traveler's Wife, that one with John Cusack, &c). There is something in Love Stories & Science Fiction that is probably irreconcilable, but I'm definitely not against people trying.

For me, after getting so wrapped up in movies that aim to be loved or hated (e.g. Black Swan), it's nice to indulge in a movie that's modest, not without flaws, but in the end sweet & sincere. The Adjustment Bureau, a lovely piece of gimcrackery with a soft heart, falls squarely into this category.

There's really no point in going into the story, which involves a potential presidential candidate who meets, by chance, the woman of his dreams, which greatly upsets a cadre of men in hats who control the fabric of reality, yadda yadda yadda. It's all very Twilight Zone-ish, with an enormous amount of setup, and for the first hour or so, it really plods.

The performances, however, are lovely, and a game cast wedges a great deal of tenderness between the glacial chunks of exposition. It's almost physically impossible not to like Matt Damon & Emily Blunt on screen, and they know it.

As a sidebar, there still hasn't been a movie yet that captures Philip K. Dick's tone, but it's nice to see film that emphasizes the romantic pathos in his work, rather than the low-level psychosis.

The most premanent of poses

2009-08-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Stolen directly from my dreams

Scrolling pages of aesthetic discovery

2009-08-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

Listen to this

WHILE YOU BROWSE THROUGH THIS

Seven Curses

2009-07-13T11:00:00.001-07:00

1) May all your children have small penises - including the girls

2) http://www.mob.net/~ted/insult.php3

3) Thou reeky crook-pated flap-dragon!
Thou errant weak-hinged clack-dish!
Thou vacant shard-borne miscreant!
Thou pribbling crook-pated waterfly!
Thou tottering half-faced ratsbane!
Thou greasy hasty-witted pignut!
Thou haughty paper-faced hempseed!
Thou infectious hedge-born rabbit-sucker!
Thou roynish rump-fed hugger-mugger!
Thou puny flap-mouthed manikin!

4) You should own a thousand houses, with a thousand rooms in each house, and a thousand beds in every room. And you should sleep each night in a different bed, in a different room, in a different house, and get up every morning, and go down a different staircase, and get into a different car, driven by a different chauffeur, who should drive you to a different doctor --and he shouldn't know what's wrong with you, either.

5) May the cats eat the women

6) Colbert vs. David

7) "The work, condition or spirit has now officially opened a can of Whoop ass on you."

(with apologies to Heavy D)

As I Went Out One Morning

2009-03-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I find the greatest amount of solitude when driving to work in the morning. It makes me feel like a kid in a carboard box fort - on wheels yet! I'll bet people in the old days were floored when they could buy a car with a radio in it. I think we should all try not to take some of the nifty things about cars for granted - glove compartments, push-in lighters, and reclining seats, comfy enough to sleep on.

What Can I Do?

2009-03-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

I'll just bet you could do all sorts of cool things, if you just put your mind to it. Maybe you could brush up on your art history, or learn to play the fiddle. I spent two summers learning how to juggle and finally nailed it - which can come in handy sometimes. I'd recommended taking it up, even though you'll never be as good as W. C. Fields. He was a bitter old alcoholic anyway.

Glen Campbell says Hello for me

2009-03-24T15:08:00.001-07:00