I definitely enjoyed it, especially some parts, but I couldn't help but feel that if it came out now it wouldn't be treated differently from a lot of the other stuff on Part Time Punks or something. Much bouncier than I was expecting without sacrificing the earthier elements.
Choice cuts: Ain't It Strange, Pissing in a River, Distant Fingers
Probably the most fully realized abstract conspiracy kind of story I've seen, and I can't imagine a better script for Ruiz's directorial skills. Totally gripping and increasingly unnerving. My only caveat is the collector extrapolating the idea of the ceremony to broader society towards the end, which for whatever reason I feel like took some of the sinister clandestine edge off it. But I haven't had this much fun with a movie in a very long time.
Like a synthesis of philosophical/theological dialogue and paranoid political thriller a la Ice, with the arcane nature of the subject matter lending itself to the pervasive sense of mystery. Pretty absurd at times too. The parallel movies aspect could really rub me the wrong way but Ruiz pulls it off without it ever feeling kitsch, I think largely because it's explicitly tied to the central theme (although I couldn't find a cohesive ideological thread in either approach). Much of it remains obscure to me (and apparently everyone, the few things I've found written about it have been profoundly unhelpful and in many cases blatantly wrong; I hope someone's intrigued enough by it at some point to do some kind of in-depth analysis), but it's certainly a monumental experience and in a lot of ways a pretty ideal movie for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment