Skip to main content

But, doctor . . . I am Pagliacci

For whatever reason, I seem to be on a streak of watching a critically-acclaimed film from either the 70s, 80s, or 90s for the first time, and finding my opinion completely at odds with its present-day reputation. I thought I should point to my love of Watchmen, but my first viewing of it coincided with my first viewing of Ikiru, a film that I loved, even though it dragged in some places for me.

If I were to boil down my interests on certain DVDs to watch, I have to say a lot of them come from this site, this site (with some caution), and this man, along with friends that know my interests. Three films I've recently seen all came from these primary sources, and knowing I'm slaughtering some sacred cows in the process, strongly disliked them.

The first film that started this current streak was Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jackson's first non-splatter flick. I had heard great things about this film, and I've always been curious about the films Jackson made before the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Reading Scott's excellent Cult Canon series of articles on the A.V. Club, I figured I should finally watch it after reading his write-up, and the timing seemed right.

Staying in one Saturday night, I decided to have a girl school double feature: The Woods and Heavenly Creatures. I wanted to see The Woods since a) it's the film that had the rights to the name before M. Night Shyamalan did, so that's why his The Woods project became The Village (a much more apt title for each film, in my opinion), and b) because Bruce Campbell is in it. I found The Woods to be embarrassingly bad and hoped that Heavenly Creatures would pull me out of the witches, leaves, and trees. Shortly into Creatures, I sensed trouble.

I understand this is a film based on youth and fantasy, but I found Heavenly Creatures to be almost a musical sans the songs or any charm. It was way too over-the-top for me, and this is coming from somebody who's straight that loved Mamma Mia!. While I liked Jackson's Raimi-like camera moves, I just found the movie really empty and silly. Reading back over Scott's review, I wondered if we watched the same movie.

The same applies to Near Dark. Once again, heard great things about the film, especially around the time that Twilight and Let the Right One In came out. I watch it, and aside from some great performances by the likes of Lance Henriksen and Adrian Pasdar, I found the film to be a dated, cheesy film (no thanks to the Tangerine Dream score) that somehow has a happy ending. Blood transfusions may save lives in real life, but they seem like studio meddling to make a dark tale tie up in a nice bow.

And most recently, Hal Ashby's acclaimed Being There, with Peter Sellers. While I liked Sellers in Dr. Strangelove and Casino Royale, and Ashby's Harold and Maude, I thought Being There was like going to a museum and watching people look at paintings. While there are some great performances, I thought I was on a flight that slowly took off, got slightly off the ground, and then landed quietly.

I'm very well aware of the kind of flak I can receive by saying these things. To me, the attitude of, "you have to watch it again" doesn't work if I strongly didn't like it the first time. What's really going to compel me to watch it again? Once again, I now have a better understanding of those who watched Southland Tales, didn't get it and/or didn't like it, and passed it off, even though it's a film meant to be seen multiple times to really click. Plus, I've heard enough people slag the Matrix sequels, so I guess we're even now.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J