"What would you say if I told you, 'I haven't seen INLAND EMPIRE yet'?"

Last night, I went to The Hollywood Theater here in Portland to finally see David Lynch's latest film Inland Empire. As I took my seat in the historic theater, my legs began to hurt and i thought to myself, "this is going to be a long and uncomfortable 3 hours." Little did I know that even the most plush Lay-Z-Boy recliner could not save me from the uncomfortable feeling that I was about to endure.

Now I will try to avoid both talking about how confusing this film was and also attempting to explain 'what it was about', because I think that is what most people do after seeing a Lynch film and there were and are no exceptions for Inland Empire. But just for posterity, let's just say that the most apparent narrative of the film involves Laura Dern as the wife of a wealthy man who is cast in a film and has exceeding difficulty discerning her real life from her character's.

Confusion or just, well quite frankly, I'm not even gonna try to describe it but, right from the beginning a beam of light from a projector shines on the title card and if I hadn't known the title of the film there's no way I could have read it. What is clear to me is that Lynch produces perhaps the finest work ever created on digital video. Everything on the screen works brilliantly in the context of the film. If I were to shoot similar scenes and show them to you, you may deem them not even suitable for public access. Lynch often uses these extremely obtrusive close-ups that made me want to dive behind my seat and hide from the screen. Adding to this, was the fact that I was in a small theater and the screen was essentially right on top of me.

Again too, Lynch triumphs in the neighborhood of sound, both in the music and the ambient noise. Prominent where the sort of hum that seems to be present in many of his films, but there was also a shrilling score that was heavily featured in the final third of the movie.

All of the different performances deserve to be mentioned as well. Of course Dern in the starring role, but also notably Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie, Julia Ormond, and Nae Yuuki. To point out all of the amazing scenes seems pointless to me and would only serve to recount the entire film, but I would love to talk about them with you so feel free to comment if you like.

Inland Empire marks a new beginning for David Lynch. To take a medium that has come under such scrutiny from film purists and create a truly beautiful movie says a whole lot. And for aspiring filmmakers, he shows them what can be accomplished if you dedicate yourself to your choice of equipment. After eagerly awaiting just how he was going to follow Mulholland Dr. , I am already dying to see what David Lynch has in store for us next.

Getting caught up on what Adam has watched.....

It's been a slow last 3 or 4 days, so I am gonna give some brief thoughts about what I've watched.

Julien Donkey-Boy: You all probably at least have heard of this one by the writer of 'Kids' and director of 'Gummo' Harmony Korine. Directed in a similar sort of style and bizarre subject matter as 'Gummo', in this film Korine adhered to the conventions of the Dogme 95 movement. He shot the movie on a Canon XL-1, which together with the hand-held shooting and sparse lighting create a great look. Korine also got really awesome performances by Werner Herzog and Ewen Bremner. One of the main themes of the film seems to be religion, but Korine's usual style and imagery prevents a coherent 'message' from developing. Overall though, the richness of the filming techniques, the short run-time, and the memorable acting make it worth seeing.

thirteen: Catherine Hardwicke's tale of 13 year old out-of-control sluts pretty much got it's due a few years ago at Sundance. I think Holly Hunter might have even got an Oscar nomination. Again with this one, the hand-held camera gives a sort of realness that makes some of the more outrageous situations seem a little more believable, but I really don't think I need to sat any more about this picture.

Proxy War: Bunta Sugawara resumes his rise to top of Japan's organized crime world in the 3rd installment of Kinji Fukasaku's post-war gangster saga 'Battles without Honor and Humanity'. I really recommend these films! If you are a lover of action movies, Yakuza films, American gangster movies, or whatever these are awesome. Sugawara's character, Shozo Hirono embodies a true badass, while still remaining vulnerable to slip-ups along his way to the top of Hiroshima's most powerful crime family. The hand-held camera (I am starting to see a theme in these 3 films) during fighting sequences places you right in the middle for a frantic look inside the bloody battles. Fukasaku excellently uses a lot of montages to progress the narrative without making the viewers feel like they wished they could have seen more. The bottom line for these films (later titled 'The Yakuza Papers' for the DVD release) is that there is tons of sake and beer, planning and scheming, and of course violence and blood all used to tasteful affect to create a must-watch collection of movies.

Up next for Camacho: I just saw Inland Empire so stay tuned for that......Also the DVDs of Sherrybaby, La Moustache, and The Illusionist.

The Shins and Woody Allen?

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,1982985,00.html#article_continue

For those of you who enjoy the films of Woody Allen and the music of The Shins, this article may be of interest.

In case you missed it, Aaron Eckhart was also in "Conversations with Other Women" in 2006.

I never really understood why filmmakers felt the need to display films in multiple frames, such as the 4 stories unfolding at once in the movie Time Code. Having used the split screen to high hell, Brian De Palma may be responsible for influencing contemporary filmmakers to use this type of technique. I really don't know, but it's besides my point. I get it you know, the separate frame places a barrier between the characters in the film, making them seem as though they are close, but thy actually aren't, or vice versa. For me, it serves more as a distraction. A simple gimmick. Certainly the 4 way frame goes too far.

Director Hans Canosa does a pretty good job in rarely mentioned, "Conversations with Other Women" shot entirely in split screen. In the film, Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter star as wedding attendees whose playful flirtation by the seemingly unacquainted strangers develops to reveal the couple's checkered past. The two actors must have been the bulk of this film's budget shot with an HD cam to a pretty good effect and edited using Final Cut Pro and After Effects.

The thing that probably saved the film for me after hearing it was done in split screen was that the two frames are constantly trying to erase the border that separates. In most scenes, it's as if the actors are being seen without this large physical barrier between them that creates their literal and figurative distance.

Another thing I was worried about was having to basically listen to a 90 minute conversation. As much I like the two actors, I didn't feel confident that the movie would be good at all. I was pleasantly surprised by a really good script that slowly reveals bits about the characters throughout the film and ultimately leaves the viewers hoping for whatever outcome it is that they have envisioned for the pair.

It was nice to go into this movie blind and come out of it with no scars. The actors were excellent, as expected and all in all it restored a teensy bit of my faith when it comes to watching films that involve more than one frame.

The defining moment

Today or this week or this month or until next time, my question to the movie going world is: Is there such a thing as a defining moment in every film? A shot, a line, an image, a sound, a quick take, a moment like a seed from which the entire rest of the film can grow and blossom; a moment during which all themes converge into one or can all be witnessed; a moment that tells you where you've been, where you are, and where you're going? Or can there not be one defining moment? Must there be several?

For example, would the Jim Carrey telling Kate Winslet that he loves her as the beach house falls apart around them in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind be the film's defining moment?

Would Sarah exploding out of the pool of blood and water and liquid in The Descent be the films defining moment? Or would it be the moment that she drives the pick ax into Juno's leg?

Could any one movie have a defining moment? And if so, couldn't all movies? If that moment defines the entire film, then what is that film really about and why that singular moment?

Anyway, food for thought. Talk amongst yourselves.

A Special Effect in a Labyrinth of Saturation

If I could describe Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth with any single word, that word would be Saturated. I saw it with my brother, Mike, who is 13 years old, and who typically talks a lot after we see a movie, going over all of the cool scenes or elements, picking out everything he liked about each individual film. It happens immediately, before we even leave the picture house, he starts on his evaluation or observations. With Pan's Labyrinth, it took a while. He's a smart guy, and I feel that I've helped in his development of film appreciation. He's thinking about it this time, what he saw, what the movie meant. I ask him if he liked it, and he says yes. I ask him how he would rate it out of five stars, and he says, "I'd give it four and....three quarters. I want to say four and a half, but I think it was a little better than that." I ask him if he thinks it would have been as good, better, or worse if it was American made, to which he replies that it probably wouldn't have been as good. This makes me proud.

Then we start to get into it. I'm the one who picks out the cool moments, the little things you don't typically get to see in a film, or at least I'm not used to seeing. The image of blood slowly spilling up a person's nose in reverse time. The suturing of a gash that appears so real that you question how, within the composition of the shot, it even it taking place before your eyes. Mike points out the way one character's right eye rolled up after he was shot in the cheek, while the other eye stared forward. These little details that seem so real solidify the connection that this film makes between the fantastic and the real. The viewer has to assume that computers were used, simply for the reason that the images seen could not exist and could not be manufactured by hand. However, unlike Spiderman swinging through the skies of the city or Neo fighting off 100+ Smith's, there is so much detail to Pan's images that my mind has to make the connection to CGI that my eye has been able to make in the past. The images are so saturated with detail that the brain has to convince the senses that they are not real, that their movements are not actually motorized by muscles or joints, but by animation.

Mike and I go home to tell our family how cool all of the effects were, but the idea of the story, the characters lingers. This is one of those films that I find myself thinking about the next day, and at moments the day after, the again the next. Each character's significance is developed without excessive pressure or speed. The pace of the story reflects the films respect of its viewers' intelligence and attention to detail without de-signifying important details to move the film from one minute to the next. Each character seems to be connected to several others, creating a labyrinth of subplots with only one entrance and one exit to the maze. However, in this labyrinth of plot there are no dead ends, each character finds resolution to their purpose to the film. My mind is telling me to find the holes, that there must have been some break in continuity, that there must be a question left unanswered. I cannot find either. I asked Mike if he thought that the young girl was imagining the things she was seeing, and he was not sure. I am convinced now that I know the answer, and that it is right there for anyone to see.

I have deliberately left out detail in this elusively vague review of Pan's Labyrinth, partly because it is an experience that cannot be described on paper, and partly because it should be seen without anything being given away. There are no mind blowing twists to this picture. It is a complete telling of an adult fairy tale. Be prepared for subtitles, those of you who would rather sacrifice your first born than see a film in another language with subtitles. If you are this type of person, I feel sorry for you because you are missing out on a lot of great stuff. And you do not need to sacrifice your first born. Enjoy the film.

My Tapeworm says: "We should watch avant garde movies tonight!"

This Friday I decided take a look at a couple of 'experimental' films that have been burning a hole in my coffee table, Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" and David Lynch's "Eraserhead".

TSMITW, shot amazingly in super 8, 16 mm and 35mm, takes place in Canada during the early 1900s were a bar owner played by Isabella Rossellini puts together a tournament-style contest in search of what else, the saddest music in the world. The winners will enjoy a soak in the beer bath and a grand prize of $25000.

Mark McKinney plays a ruthless hustler who once had a thing for the bar maiden and has now entered the contest as an American. The father of the hustler (David Fox) is a Canadian through and through, out to win back the love of the bar maiden which he lost to his son. The hustler's brother (Ross McMillan) plays 'the good son' who has returned from his adopted home of Serbia with his own dead son's heart preserved in tears, hoping this grief will win him the contest.

Eraserhead follows Henry Spencer (Jack Nance), a print factory worker who impregnates his slightly-off girlfriend Mary. When Mary delivers a mutant baby and cannot stand it's constant crying, she leaves the child with Henry to care for while she retreats to her parents house. Henry escapes the growing insanity that is his life through serenades from the woman in his radiator and sexual fantasies about his whore of a neighbor.

Both films are full of bizarre imagery and themes; TSMITW with the woman who develops a subordinate relationship with her tapeworm (Maria De Medeiros) and the bar maiden's prosthetic glass legs full of beer. In Eraserhead you have the child itself, worm like things that resemble brains attached to spinal columns falling on to the radiator women's stage, and so much more.

The visual styles of both were exceptionally good. Where the different types of films used by Maddin create a nostalgic atmosphere that brought to mind classic German silent films, the DVD copy of Eraserhead I rented presented a sharp and rich contrast of the black and white images. Production and costume design in both films were also beautifully used to help emphasize both the setting and thematic elements.

While I was watching Eraserhead I thought to myself, "Why haven't I watched this sooner!" On top of the visual style, Lynch and Alan Splet worked together to create some of the most amazing sounds I have ever heard in a film. The sound effects are prominent but not too deliberate and there is a sort of industrial hum that can be heard from beginning to end. Rather than irritating me, this sound served to almost hypnotize me as I became transfixed on the screen.

I can say the same for TSMITW, in which Maddin is the true star with his brilliantly created setting and completely original use of camera and lighting (Numerous shots in the film have such stark lighting from above that a sort of halo effect is created around the edge of the frame.). Everything in the film shocks you whether its the outrageous narrative elements or the startling scenes in technicolor.

David Lynch is a genius and that is all you can say about him. His films speak for themselves. This being my first Guy Maddin movie, i would say that he is a filmmaker that must be watched, having created one of the most visually unique films I've seen in a long time. In a world where I am constantly building movies up in my head and time after time they fail to deliver, it was soooo refreshing to see 2 films that offered such a wonderful alternative to mainstream Hollywood and even independent cinema.