Film: And now I need to bleach my eyes...

The third movie I saw today was 2:37, which I've already reviewed. Although, now I think I'll give it an eight, not a nine. Eight's still good, mind you, it's just a bit too flawed to be a nine. Before that, Taxidermia, from Hungary, and before that, Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love: Juvenile A.

Then the night ended with either Borat, or The Host. WHICH DID I CHOOSE?

Anyway, when the Miike film is the least disturbing one, you know there's trouble.

Big Bang Love: Juvenile A

I thought I was familiar with director Takashi Miike, but then I realised that I've only seen a few of his seventy eight thousand (...ish) movies.

The ones I have seen have largely been his typical super-violent ones, although One Missed Call was more his take on J-Horror and his Three... Extremes segment Box was a very low key emotional horror.

Big Bang Love isn't horror at all, though: it's full-on arthouse territory here. Seriously, he even goes all Dogville for one shot.



It's about these two teenage boys in juvenile prison, and at the start, one of them is strangling the other with his hands. As detectives investigate, we flash back through style and striking visuals to see what led up to this (depressing pasts and homosexuality) and if the boy found strangling really is the killer.

This was just too arty for my taste, so I appreciate it a lot more than I actually like it. Like I said, visuals are pretty stunning, the ideas here are really interesting, about the past, and the future: next the prison is a pyramid and a rocket. Like I said, it's arty. Also, it's the future.

So, it's well done, and intruiging, but I couldn't get into it. I can't call the movie flawed, nor can I give it a high mark. Sorry, Miike, but it's not you, it's me.

5/10

Taxidermia

Believe me when I tell you what I'm about to say shouldn't be taken as a throwaway line. I've seen a lot of movies. I dig on horror, and black comedy, so I've seen some pretty gross stuff. I haven't yet seen those low budget late seventies zombie/cannibal ones that are banned in a bunch of places, nor that Miike one Ichi the Killer where in the trailer someone gets their nipples sliced off, so maybe you should keep that in mind. But...

Taxidermia is the grossest movie I've ever seen.

Move over, Eli Roth and your torture-porn pals. Step aside, early-era Peter Jackson. You, the chick from Audition, put those needles away. Taxidermia is here.



And, okay, this maybe wasn't more psychologically troubling than, say, Mysterious Skin or the works of Todd Solondz, but on a visual (and aural) level it was something else, to such a degree that it was almost on those films' level, if not right there with them.

I talk so much of the gross not only because that's all I remember, but because that's pretty much all there is here. It's just grossness. That's the point. There is regular blood and guts here (although it's not a horror film), but there's also vomit, blubber, erections, a money shot, extreme close-up nudity, AND necrophelic-bestiality!

The film can be divided into three parts, one for each man in three successive generations of one family. One, a chronic masturbator, the next, a speed eater, and then, the taxidermist who gives the film its title. We are given glimpses into their lives, through covered eyes a lot of the time, and I think we're supposed to laugh, and like them in their own weird ways.

I'm pretty sure that there's a point to the movie. I can't figure it out, but it was making a comment on something. It had to be, otherwise it's not offering much. It had some genius camera-work, like the revolving shot of the bath, and a sort of sense of whimsy to it that made me think it was like the really, really, really, really, very, extremely disturbing version of Amelie. And it is occasionally funny, and often very inventive. Which makes me think it must have been more than just shock for the sake of shock.

Although I can't figure out how. And I mostly didn't enjoy it. I wouldn't be surprised if it gets banned in Australia, and that would suck, although I can't think of anyone I would recommend this to, because it is unpleasant. Even if I am conflicted because it's not without merit. So, while I never plan of seeing it again, I'm sort of kind of glad I have, because it's an experience, and at least that's something.

4/10

Then there was 2:37, with another Q&A, and Thalluri briefly mentioned those little accusations being made against him, although his reception here was really positive. Then hours passed, until the decision had to me made: which midnight movie to see? Both starting at midnight, of course they clash. Neither screening was either film's last at the festival, although all other screenings of both films clash with other choices, so the one not chosen won't be seen until my return to Australia.

Fortunately, one cinema in Sydney has The Host right now, and should still be showing it when I return.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Believe me when I tell you what I'm about to say shouldn't be taken as a throwaway line. I've seen a lot of movies. I dig on comedies of most kinds, as long as they don't feature Adam Sandler or Martin Lawrence. We're talking from both sides of the Atlantic, foreign language, Australian stuff when we get it right (which is more not than often). From not and from the past, although I haven't seen as many screwball comedies as I could have. But...

Borat is the funniest movie I've ever seen.

(Maybe.)

Comedies often take the approach of throwing so many jokes in that even thought they hit and they miss, they are so numerous that you forget about the misses. Borat is like that, only with very, very few misses, and some that hit so hard they hurt.



Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's creation (coming after Ali G, who I don't mind but am not a huge fan of) travels from Kazakhstan to America with his producer Azamat in order to learn cutural lessons in order to improve his homeland. He begins his quest, but is soon sidetracked when he decides to travel cross-country to meet and wed Pamela Anderson.

If you've seen Borat's shows, you know what's happening here. He sets up interviews with people unaware of what's coming to them, and either frustrates the hell out of them or reveals how horrible they are. There's also a lot of Borat in public, terrifying innocent civilians, to hilarious effect, and scenes of Borat planning and discussing with Azamat.

To tell of all the funny would be time consuming and largely redundant. If you like Borat, you'll love this, and if you don't, there's a good chance you'll love it anyway. A lot of it is pretty cruel, but some of it's angry, exposing some people for the bigots they are, and leaving them completely unaware of what they've just done, right there on camera. Although the funniest scene is one that is planned; a fight, halfway through the film, which is absolutely and completely insane and brilliant.

Although a lot of it may have been the atmosphere. Being surrounded by fifteen hundred people all there because they know they're going to have a good time can lead to bias. It's also pure comedy, and while it is comic genius, it's light on story, which seems like a stupid complaint, but in my previous funniest-of-the-year, Little Miss Sunshine, had a huge emotional core which lacks here. Finally, the biggest test will be if it stands up to repeat viewings. It'll remain great, I'm sure, but how much of the humour relies on that shock of first time viewing?

For now, though, I love it, and I want it to go down as a classic, and I want everyone to see it. Cinematically, perhaps it's imperfect, but comedically, it just might be.

9/10

Today, I've seen Ten Canoes, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, and skipped Deliver Us From Evil to catch Fido. Later on tonight, I'll find out why All the Boys Love Mandy Lane.