Category: Narrative

By Joe Bendel. In the 1990s, there were no suburbs per se, where upper middle class residents of Metro Manila could retreat from crime. Instead, affluent gated enclaves sprung within the urban sprawl. In most cases, the gates kept the criminal element out, but in the case of Eden Homes, the insanity is fenced in. Words fail to describe the madness that is Timmy Harn’s Reptilia in Suburbia, which screens as part of the 2015 edition of New Filipino Cinema at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Dr. Dimalanta is a Satanic mad scientist who keeps Jake, a serial killer “gimp” chained up in his living room. Jake is mostly likely responsible for a rash of canine murders that have recently terrorized Eden Homes, but what really has some of the Borromeos distressed is Alan the underachiever’s decision to move back in with his mother. Her favored grown son Greg is openly contemptuous of his brother, but at least the Borromeo cousins get along reasonably well. Greg’s son and daughter even introduce the eczema suffering Jasper to weed, but he is more interested in helping Brook Lyn, the girl next door, find her missing lap dog. At least, that is an attempt to impose some narrative structure on Reptilia’s unruly tripppiness.

Frankly, Reptilia just might be a work of demented genius. The demented part is certainly beyond question. Harn deliberately gives it the look of a hacked-up grade-Z DIY flick, as if seen on an old school UHF channel, received through a coat-hanger wrapped in tin foil. You can tell extraordinary effort was expanded to craft such a consistently dingy look, because any other ultra-grubby indie would try to find some way to look more polished than its budget constraints would allow. In fact, the unity of Harn’s vision is strangely impressive.

Despite the lack of continuity and structural logic, Harn’s game cast takes their roles quite seriously, including trailblazing Filipino animator and independent filmmaker Roxlee unleashing his inner Angus Scrimm as “Waldo” Dimalanta. There are a lot of whacked out things happening throughout the film, but the chemistry shared by the young cast members is actually rather winning.

Cinematographer Danilo Salas III, editor Sandra Santiago, and Harn’s post team make Reptilia look like it is on scratchy, crackly film stock that barely survives the decay of age and neglect. It feels more like an artifact of a mad outsider artist than a proper film. Yet, it is much more watchable than it sounds, once viewers acclimate themselves to Harn’s idiosyncratic aesthetic.

In all honesty, anyone whose tastes are remotely conventional should skip Reptilia, or risk having their heads explode. On the other hand, anyone who seriously follows cult cinema should see it, just so they can say they have seen it. Defying all sense of reason and good taste, Reptilia in Suburbia is required viewing for those who are still reading when it screens this Sunday (6/21) as part of New Filipino Cinema 2015 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 13th, 2015 at 11:54am.

By Joe Bendel. Could Brian De Palma still make a film like Dressed to Kill today? Maybe in Germany. You will find more than wolves terrorizing this quaint little German village. There is also a cross-dressing, samurai sword-wielding psychopath running amok in the woods. Have no fear, plenty of homophobes will get their bloody comeuppance during his violent spree, so that ought to make it okay to enjoy Till Kleinert’s Der Samurai, which releases today on DVD and Blu-ray.

Jakob Wolski represents the Barney Fife tradition of nebbish provincial lawmen. None of his contemporaries respect his authority and his commander is not exactly encouraging. The crusty copper is particularly skeptical of Wolski’s plan for dealing with the wolf that has been preying on the town’s animals. Rather than killing it, Wolski wants to lead it away with butcher-fresh meat. However, he will have to back-burner the wolf when a mysterious squatter calls him out to an abandoned farm house. Somehow, the violent man bearing the vintage sword seems to know quite a bit about Wolski. He may or may not have some sort of connection to the wolf as well. Regardless, when the Samurai unleashes his fury on the town, Wolski will be hard pressed to stop him.

Frankly, it is hard to say in today’s hyper-sensitive world whether Der Samurai is politically incorrect or a sly consciousness-raiser—and why should we even care? What’s important here is the generous helpings of gore and the eerie moodiness Kleinert offers up. While it is not as deliberate an homage as It Follows, the unsettling electronic score and stifling small town setting feel like a postmodern synthesis of old school John Carpenter.

Although Der Samurai is an indie production bordering on outright DIY, it is surprisingly polished looking. Kleinert builds a strong atmosphere of mystery (albeit through devices that are never fully explained), while steadily cranking up the tension. Michel Diercks also sells the madness quite credibly, while looking so obviously repressed, his head might explode. Likewise, Pit Bukowski pretty much goes unrestrainedly nuts as the feral Samurai.

Despite getting a tad heavy handed with the sexual identity games down the stretch, Kleinert has crafted a distinctive genre picture with a strong sense of place. Even with its excesses, it is tightly paced and generally grabby. Recommended for cult cinema connoisseurs, Der Samurai is now available for home viewing on DVD and Blu-ray.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 13th, 2015 at 11:53am.

By Joe Bendel. Imelda Nunez is the nicest sweatshop owner ever. Her Marikina garment factory is small enough for her to know all the employees, but industrious enough to have international customers and supply chain issues. In some ways, she learned from her father, Romeo Guevarra, who was a master shoemaker, but not such a hot businessman. His unexpected suicide will come at a precarious time for her factory, but it will lead to considerable soul searching in Milo Sogueco’s Mariquina, which screens as part of the 2015 edition of New Filipino Cinema at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Yes, Imelda is the daughter of a shoemaker and the namesake of the former First Lady, Imelda Marcos (who is still a political force to be reckoned with). This irony will become a running gag in the film, with a lookalike even professing her respect for Guevarra’s shoes. However, when she looks back on her early childhood, Nunez realizes neither she, nor her mother fully appreciated how much soul Guevarra put into his soles.

Frankly, for Nunez, this is a terrible time for reflection. She has a quality control inspection coming up and a machine on the fritz. Yet, as she searches for a traditional Marikina shoemaker to make Guevarra’s final wingtips, she cannot help revisiting her formative years. They were dramatic, especially when her mother left home, ultimately settling in Hawaii. Through her omniscient flashbacks, we can see how the young Nunez misinterpreted incidents to blame her devastated father and Tess, his business partner turned live-in lover, rather than the mother who simply grew tired of Guevarra and a life of shoes.

The list of potential shoe clichés is as long as your arm (walk a mile in someone’s shoes, etc.), but Sogueco never gets fatally caught up in any of them. Granted, Nunez is on a shoe quest, but it is presented in rather practical terms. After all, they need shoes for his funeral, since for some reason those that he was wearing that fateful night have gone missing. While going through the process, Domeng, Guevarra’s last real protégé, helps her get some perspective on her father.

Mylene Dizon is pretty much perfect as Nunez. She can be both tough and vulnerable. We see in no uncertain terms how tightly she has controlled her life, up until it is time to release the floodgates. She also develops some appealing platonic chemistry with Dennis Padilla as the older, more accepting Domeng. As Guevarra, Ricky Davao leaves no heartstring unpulled, but it is indeed difficult to withstand the power of his sad-eyed pathos. However, it is Bing Pimentel who will deliver the real emotional body blow as the achingly dignified Tess.

Granted, there is no shortage of melodrama in Mariquina, but Sogueco earns the unabashedly sentimental climax, fair and square. The down-to-earth ensemble led by Dizon looks at home in the Marikina workshops and showrooms, while being attractive enough to have private lives worth getting worked up over. There are dozens of points where it all could have gone off the rails, but the discipline of Sogueco and Dizon keeps it all on the straight and narrow. Recommended for those who appreciate tearful family dramas and popular Filipino cinema, Mariquina screens this Friday (6/12) and Sunday (6/21), as part of New Filipino Cinema 2015 at the YBCA.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 13th, 2015 at 11:52am.

By Joe Bendel. It will confirm the suspicions of parents who survived the Cabbage Patch riots of the early 1980s to learn those dolls were part of an evil scheme. Technically, these moppets are not called “Cabbage Patch Kids,” but the resemblance is striking. In all fairness, said dolls are all sweetness and innocence, but they come from a sinister factory. They are also flesh-and-blood, most of the time. One such doll will try to escape his evil overlord in Craig Goodwill’s self-consciously strange Patch Town, which opens today in New York.

Once upon a time, so to speak, Gregor, a well-meaning but short-sighted Russian inventor discovered there were real babies growing in his cabbage patch. He tried to adopt each and every one of them, causing considerable resentment with his biological son Yuri, but the volume was too great for him. Logically, he invented a machine that temporarily transformed the babies into dolls that were subsequently sent out into the world until they can be safely reclaimed. Tragically, Gregor soon dies, leaving the leaf babies entrusted to the cruel Yuri (a.k.a. Child Catcher). Yuri does indeed retrieve the dolls as the little girls they were entrusted to grow and forget about childish things, forcing the re-animated cherubs to toil in his Orwellian doll factory.

Jon and Mary are two such doll prols. They are timid by nature, yet they still managed to adopt a little baby girl, in clear violation of Patch Town law, because they are so full of love. When Yuri ominously sniffs them out, the terrified new parents have to make a break for our world. During the escape coordinated by Sly, the dodgy people trafficker and part-time department store Santa’s elf, Jon’s repressed memories come flooding back. He becomes convinced Bethany, the little girl he knew as his “mother,” can help if he can find her.

So yeah, Patch Town sounds like a cult film to beat the band, which is why it is so annoying that it never takes flight. Did we mention it is also a musical? It sort of is, but you will be hard-pressed to remember any of the tunes. The film apparently assumes the very fact that they are there is enough. Goodwill’s screenplay, co-written with Christopher Bond and Trevor Martin is even more problematic. Despite the strange universe they create, the narrative follows a disappointingly predictable pattern, with learning moments inserted in exactly the spots screenwriting handbooks say they should go.

With their rosy cheeks, Rob Ramsey and Stephanie Pltiladis look perfect as Jon and Mary, but they are wilting roses on the screen. As Yuri (and Gregor), Julian Richlings looks like he is trying to bulge his eyes so far out, he might have a stroke at any time. At least Zoie Palmer stays grounded and shows a respectable range as Jon’s grown mother, Bethany. Still, Suresh John’s Sly is the real saving grace, cutting through the film’s self-seriousness and heavy-handed messaging with tartly delivered sarcasm.

Patch Town is definitely a kitchen sink movie, but somehow Goodwill forgot to cram in the fun. The design team created an impressive looking dystopian urban fantasy world, but the confused anti-corporate soapboxing and blatant manipulation grow tiresome. It is the sort of film that looks so promising cult cinema connoisseurs will still want to judge it for themselves when it opens today (6/5) in New York, at the Cinema Village (but We Are Still Here should be a much higher priority).

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on June 5th, 2015 at 2:51pm.

By Joe Bendel. Whether you believe or not, demonic possession is simply no business to trifle with, but kids will be kids. These kids in question are especially inept in social situations. The three high school chums hope to raise their place in the pecking order by taking the grand prize at their local horror film festival with real life exorcism footage. Unfortunately, it all gets more real than they bargained for in Kyle Steinbach’s Bad Exorcists, which screens during the eighteenth Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

The nebbish Charlie is being led-on by a chick who really isn’t his girlfriend, but she lets him think she is when she wants to exploit his good nature. He also happens to have a crush on the popular and reasonably together Lisa, who has just returned from her junior exchange year abroad. Matt is the Jewish kid at their Catholic school, who often serves as the devil on his friends’ shoulders. As for Dana, he is just a mess.

They have DIY horror movie aspirations, but not a lot of talent. However, Matt is convinced if they steal Sister Helen’s ancient exorcism manual and chant some of the incantations within, the authenticity will take them to the next level. Much to Charlie’s surprise and nervous excitement, Matt even recruits Lisa to star in their film as the victim of possession. Of course, as we can all see coming, by incompletely reciting the powerful texts over Lisa, they actually help facilitate her demonic possession.

There have been no shortage of horror comedies in recent years, but many have been rather darned amusing, by cranking up the energy level and avoiding Friedberg & Seltzer’s painfully stupid level of humor. Happily, Exorcists is one that makes the grade. There is nothing truly jaw-dropping or gut-busting about it, but the film is clearly in touch with both the horror and teen movie traditions, knowingly observing and tweaking their respective conventions. Steinbach keeps it all moving along at a healthy gallop and stages scenes of demonic horror that should satisfy genre diehards (that kid in the barn is pretty darn creepy).

Some cast members look a tad old for high school, but they all exhibit a natural facility for the American Pie-style humor. As Lisa, Claire Berger shows a particularly impressive range, earning laughs with deadpan sarcasm and totally going Regan MacNeil in the third act.

Yes, Bad Exorcists is definitely a bit of a meathead movie and the sexually voracious depiction of Sister Helen is highly problematic and may ultimately lead to a few days in Purgatory for the filmmakers (if demons are real, there is no reason to think it no longer exists). However, for horror fans it is just a fun film to watch, which is more than enough for a Saturday night in June. Recommended for midnight movie regulars, Bad Exorcists screens tomorrow, as part of DWF18.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 5th, 2015 at 2:50pm.