Shifting Gears after Oscar

The beginning of the year I always get myself wrapped up in catching as many of the Oscar nominated films as is feasible so I can feel like I'm making educated predictions. My 13 of 24 showing on said predictions shows that I'm not exactly on the pulse of the Academy, but I don't mind that at all. My tastes are my own and I make no apology for that. I caught a lot of other stuff in the last month, too, I've had a lot of stuff recommended to me, and I've been working on some recent "cult" lists that I've taken a shining to. Moving forward I'm hoping to make a point to try to do a little bit of a lot of things and try to get at leasts a few posts up per week in the hopes of figuring out what kind of voice I can find for this space. I intend to continue the "Drunk Movie Time" series, since I've gotten a good response from that, but I'm also hoping that by writing more regularly I can hone the edge of some skills that have grown a bit rusty in their misuse, namely some serious critical analysis that digs deeper than a simple review. I have a couple of things in mind, just need to find the time.


A couple of quick, informal reviews:


The Perfect Host (2010 - Directed by Nick Tomnay)


Noticed shades of Funny Games and Sleuth running through this dark little number, but ultimately not nearly as disturbing as the former, nor as smart as the latter (though that would indeed be a tall order in both cases). David Hyde Pierce is deviously smart and the story is weird with the potential to twist and surprise, but I felt like the best of the twists comes a bit too early and leaves us riding out to the end on a a gentle wave instead of being corked against the rocks.
-- 72/100 --




It Came from Kuchar (2009 - Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot)

It's too bad that some people are often not appreciated until after they're already gone, and for me such is the case with George Kuchar who passed away 5 months ago. He and his twin brother Mike were at the forefront of underground cinema staring in the late 1950s-early 1960s and their quick, dirty, low-budget films have been an inspiration for directors from John Waters to Guy Maddin to Atom Egoyan. I would say that they're "hard to find," but the truth is until lately I just haven't been looking in the right place for them. These days you can find clips of "Hold Me While I'm Naked" and "Sins of the Fleshapoids" and even "Thundercrack!" on Youtube, and while the films the Kuchars birthed are still as crazy as ever, streaming them on demand from your laptop takes a bit of the DIY, underground fun out of it. This doc does a mind-blowing job of putting these two iconoclasts and their work in context. Not for the faint of heart or even the slightly conservative, but lots of great interviews, tons of outlandish clips, a real treat for any B-movie mavens out there.
-- 85/100 --