'Dahmer'

Probably due to the fact that Jeremy Renner is getting alot of attention these days (and an Oscar nom) for the disappointing 'The Hurt Locker,' I was craving rewatching one of my favorite films, 'Dahmer' (2002). Of course the Academy would never recognize a film like 'Dahmer' but I think Renner's nuanced performance as the disturbed yet alluring serial killer was much more deserving of an Oscar nomination. At least he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
Late last night I satiated my craving and rewatched the film.

Serious, somber and sensitive, 'Dahmer' is not a stereotypical sensationalist bio pic. The opening credit montage of a chocolate factory assembly line eerily set to Patsy Cline's "just out of reach" immediately signals that this is not going to be the Jeffrey Dahmer movie viewers are anticipating even though the action then meticulously moves to Dahmer luring a victim from a department store back to his apartment where he proceeds to perform a partial lobotomy on the boy with a power drill.
Despite atrocious acts like the aforementioned lobotomy, director and writer David Jacobson refuses to demonize the tortured Dahmer. I think it makes people feel better to distance themselves from others who commit abhorrent acts by referring to them as "monsters." By doing so, people draw a clear line separating themselves from a murderer. It is true that Jeffrey Dahmer did monstrous things but it is ignorant to think that he was somehow less human or all that different from you and me. Dahmer was someone's son and someone's neighbour, not a "monster."
A moralistic perspective on Dahmer's actions is refused by director Jacobson. Instead, a coolly detached, restrained perspective aided by precise, sometimes stark camerawork by Chris Manley and editing by Bipasha Shom, show without telling. Events, including the murder and dismemberment of Dahmer's first victim, are presented in a manner that is startlingly matter-of-fact, stripped naked of a damning or condemning voice. This moral ambiguity is something I appreciate as it lets the viewer determine things on their own, reach their own conclusions and feel their own emotions without heavy handed guidance.
Jacobson also refuses to play the silly textbook game of connect the ( behavioral/psychological) dots from childhood to adulthood to somehow explain why Dahmer became one of America's grisliest mass murderers. Many horror films about killers, Rob Zombie's reworking of 'Halloween' (2007) and even the excellent 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' (1986) for examples, paint simple pictures of a troubled, abused boy becoming a troubled, abusing (and killing) man. But realistically, things are not always so simple. The timeline of 'Dahmer' slides back and forth between the present and snippets of Jeffrey's adolescence. Sure his father is revealed to have been slightly oppressive and humiliating and his parents divorced, but Dahmer was not forced to dress in women's clothing and watch his mother fuck strange men who later molested him (as in 'Henry'). 'Dahmer' demonstrates that sometimes there are no clear, formulaic reasons for why we do the things we do, making the film all the more chilling.
Jacobson's direction and Jeremy Renner's portrayal allow viewers to not only sympathize but empathize with the dissolute Dahmer and I fully agree with the opening sentence of Ed Halter's insightful 2002 review of the film in The Village Voice; "The only gay movie protagonist in recent years whom I've identified with is [this] titular antihero..." Renner's nerdy yet attractive Dahmer is awkwardly shy and his graceless attempts at human connection feel squeamishly close to home for me, especially in a houseparty scene. When Jeffrey's parents go on vacation, he throws a houseparty where he is ignored and sits drinking alone as his peers dance and interact around him. After getting up and wandering out of the room like a ghost, Jeffrey hears a heterosexual couple fucking in a bedroom. With sad yearning, he pushes open the door and briefly watches the couple going at it, connecting in a way he ferociously desires but can't seem to manage. Later, in a gay bar, the houseparty scene is echoed when Dahmer is depicted as an alienated outcast, nervously navigating the fringes as men wearing tight t-shirts dance around him- another all too familiar scene. Gay life is unflatteringly rendered in 'Dahmer' as one that "exploits deep wells of loneliness" (Halter) and this is something else I connect and agree with.
Aside from a heartbreakingly beautiful scene at the end where a metaphor for Damher's desperate desire to connect, to get at another person's heart, is literalized by him slicing open a victim's chest and reaching his arm inside; the violence in the film is kept off screen and the gore kept to a minimum. Strangely, and to the film's detriment, Dahmer's real life cannibalism is left out. The large vat Dahmer used to store the corpses of his victims near his bed in real life is also omitted from the film. However, I think this was a good choice because in the film, Dahmer instead keeps the corpses in his bed, providing for some suspenseful and uncomfortable scenes.
'Dahmer' does not show the capture and imprisonment of Jeffrey, or his eventual murder at the hands of another inmate. In line with the film's austerity, seriousness and intelligence, 'Dahmer' concludes with a series of stark, mostly static shots depicting Dahmer's isolation and disconnection as he appears solitary in the frame. Instead of seeking help at a local AA meeting, he turns his back to the camera and the audience, walking off into a forest, symbolizing how Dahmer turned his back on society, unable to reach out or resist the urges within.

'Dahmer' suffered from poor marketing as it was pushed as a regular, mainstream horror movie (demonstrated in the stupid official trailer that I refuse to post) when it should have played the festival circuit.
Sidenote- the minimal score to the film is creepy and perfect. As are the soundtrack choices. Below are some of the tracks used in the film:

Patsy Cline- just out of reach (used in the opening credits)


Freddy Cannon- Tallahassee Lassie (used in a scene where one of Dahmer's victims dances drunk in Dahmer's apartment before he is attacked)


Gladys Knight and the Pips- with every beat of my heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwLL6ksCuuA

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'Videodrome'

Back when David Cronenberg was known as ‘the Baron of blood’ or Dave ‘Deprave’ Cronenberg and before he was awarded France’s Legion of Honour or lunched with Tom Cruise, he infected the imagination of cinema audiences with Videodrome (1982). Provocative, prophetic and even philosophical, Videodrome blends Cronenberg’s predilection for the perverse with Marshall Mcluhan’s musings on media to create a cautionary Sci-Fi / Horror film that brings new meaning to the expression, “television will rot your brain.”

Videodrome follows Max Renn (James Woods), a sleazy underground cable TV programmer in Toronto, as he stumbles onto the transmission of “Videodrome,” a show consisting of “just torture and murder. No plot, no characters.” Max thinks he has found “what’s next,” something his desensitized audience has been craving and something that will “break through.” After hooking up with the kinky Nicki Brand (Blondie’s Deborah Harry), Max begins to experience violent and sexual hallucinations resulting in mind-bending (and blowing) special effects by Academy Award winner Rick Baker. Television screens pulsate like organs while videotapes bulge and breathe as if alive. In an attempt to locate the source of “Videodrome,” Max discovers its transmissions are encoded with a signal that induces a brain tumor, eventually transforming the viewer’s reality into video hallucination. The signal was originally intended to be the next stage in human evolution as a technological being by its inventor, media prophet Brian O’Blivion (Jeck Creley), a parody of Mcluhan. Instead, Barry Convex (Les Carlson) has hijacked the signal and plans to launch it through Max’s cable channel as a mind-controlling device.

Exploding bodies, exploding television sets, a vaginal torso slit and a transmogrified pistol-hand all contribute to the ensuing imagery as Max descends into extreme hallucinations of mutation and murder, drawing the film to a viscera drenched conclusion.

Though at times convoluted and uneven, Videodrome is a prescient parable about the intrusive and identity-threatening force of the media, specifically television, and the dangerously desensitizing effects of overexposure to sex and violence. Forecasting society’s sadistic bloodlust for violence as electronic entertainment, predicting the reality TV craze, and inspiring/influencing countless films including The Matrix (1999) and The Ring (2002), Videodrome remains as relevant today as it was in 1982. It is unfortunate Cronenberg does not return to this kind of thoughtful, edgy filmmaking and instead pursues a proposed blockbuster starring Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington.

The original trailer- one of the most random and also one of the best trailers ever:


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Aldo Spring 2010 video / The Cramps- "human fly"

I'm o.k with Aldo ripping off Terry Richardson and Juergen Teller for Marc Jacobs in a recent Spring 2010 campaign. Hell, everyone is ripping off those two and at least Jessica Stam looks hot in the shots. But "I got 96 tears in 96 eyes" from seeing the short video/TV spot that uses an awful cover of "human fly" by The Cramps. Is nothing sacred?

Check out the video here:
http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng

Or skip it and just listen to the original track:


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Blondie for Converse

Like many bands before them, Blondie has teamed up with Converse and designed a collection of limited edition Chuck Taylors featuring animal prints, graffiti-style text and graphics from the band's iconic album covers. The shoes seem pretty cool and in line with the band's aesthetic:



I might get a pair to go with my limited edition Misfits Chuck Taylor style shoes by Vision Streetwear (pictured below):



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Levi's Cords by Opening Ceremony - short video

A short video was made to accompany Ryan Mcginley's shots for the launch of Levi's Cords by Opening Ceremony. It features an unknown version or remix of the awesome track "gothstar" by Pictureplane. The video itself is a little too pretty or cutesy for me but it has a few cool moments. See below:


Pictureplane's low-fi video for "gothstar":


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'Street Trash'

Frank Schnizer- "I don't need this. I already got trouble with my kids, my wife, my business, my secretary, the bums...the runaways, the roaches, prickly heat, and a homo dog. This just ain't my day."

The above snippet of dialogue is from the outrageous and offensive 'Street Trash' (1987), an opus of gore and bad taste. Catching this exploitation epic at February's Cinemacabre Movie Night put on by Rue Morgue at the Bloor cinema was the most fun I've had at the movies in a long time. The following laundry list of lewd acts and scenes only begins to describe the vile hilarity and sleazy insanity of 'Street Trash': melting and/or exploding hobos, a penis castration and subsequent game of 'monkey in the middle' played with the severed dick, the gang rape and murder of a drunken rich woman, a "homo dog" licking his obese owner's crotch and a cop finishing the job of violently beating up a hit man by jabbing his fingers down his own throat and vomiting on the man's unconscious body. My favourite scene aside from the classic toilet melt consists of a homeless black man attempting to shoplift mass amounts of food (melons and packages of chicken thighs!) in his pants from a supermarket. An old white woman snicthes on him, leading to a side splitting confrontation including these lines:
Burt- "Well, what you starin' at, bitch?"
Old Woman Shopper- "You're robbing the store, young man! And I'm telling the Manager."
Burt- "Yeah, you do that. Old wrinkled, honky motherfucker. Telling on me... Well, what she think this is, Junior High?"

The central story line of 'Street Trash' is pretty straight forward. An unscrupulous yet opportunistic liquor store owner discovers a box of bottles containing mysterious, 60 year-old booze called 'Viper' in his basement and begins selling the stuff to homeless veterans and vagabonds. Unfortunately for them, 'Viper' brings new meaning to the term "gut rot" as it causes everyone that drinks it to melt and/or explode, allowing for some exceptionally vibrant, neon tinged gore. The rapidly depleting hobo population and discoveries of electric coloured, acidic goo puddles sets the ridiculously inept police department on an investigation. From here the plot branches out all over the place, depicting various inane issues plaguing the demented denizens of the inner city.
Apart from all the splattering viscera, racism and sexism oozing from the script, 'Street Trash' also contains a somewhat confused but heartfelt social commentary on the treatment of veterans and the misconceptions surrounding 'combat-shock.' Surprisingly, what the film lacks in good performances, it more than makes up for with inspired cinematography, especially the Steadicam work.



Check out the trailer:


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'Frozen'

'Frozen,' directed by Adam Green and starring Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore and newcomer Emma Bell, is one the most intensely gut wrenching, well crafted and well acted horror/thrillers I have seen in a long time. After hearing reports of audience members fainting and throwing up at Sundance, I patiently waited for the film's theatrical run to begin. Unfortunately it only opened in a few random cinemas here but no bother, I was happy to be one of only 5 other people in the audience when I saw it this week.
Zegers and Ashmore play long time friends and Bell plays Zegers' girlfriend. The three of them go on a skiing trip and find themselves stranded on a chairlift, forced to make harrowing life-or-death choices to avoid freezing to death as the resort won't reopen for a week and no one knows they are stuck.
The first thing the film has going for it is that the characters are instantly likable and relatable. They are not the typical, cliched 2 dimensional horror/thriller cut outs that prove themselves so annoying or stupid that they deserve to die. You start caring about them from the beginning (it doesn't hurt that Zegers is hot). On top of that, the actors deliver excellent, realistic performances.
Director Adam Green exhibits true talent, slowly turning the screws of tension and suspense until you are at the edge of your seat. It is rare that I want to hide behind my hands during a film but this one had me ducking into my seat, trying to put distance between me and the horror on screen. Green also impresses by flipping between moments of restraint/subtlety (keeping violence offscreen, letting characters talk things through) and moments of terror (gore).
'Frozen' is brutal and unrelenting but rare for a horror/thriller, it is also smart and emotionally involving. Highly recommended- unlike Green's prevous slasher 'Hatchet' (2007) which should be avoided at all costs.



I'm throwing in some completely unrelated shots of Kevin Zegers just for the sake of it:







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