Movie Review - Home Movie

Home Movie


Found footage horror movies are becoming ever more popular, with underground hits like 'The Blair Witch Project' kicking off their popularity in the 90s to the recent big budget 'Cloverfield.' Its tough not to compare Denham's 'Home Movie' to [Rec] not only because they both screened at Fantasia but also because they operate in very similar ways. Both come from a 'hand cam' perspective, and both slowly bubble and brew with tension leading up to a gruesome climax at the end of the film. Despite these similarities however, I'll refrain from comparing the two as it would detract from all of the nuanced details that 'Home Movie' had to offer. That, and if this was a contest, [Rec] would simply ruin it.


'Home Movie' begins with a very interesting concept, the Poe family, which consists of David (a pastor), his wife Claire (a psychologist), and their twins Jack and Emily move to a cottage where David proudly films his children during their holiday moments. The problem is, his children are by-the-book psychopaths and the movie is filled with haunting scenes of frogs crushed in vice clamps, and crucified household pets. To keep the movie realistic these shocking scenes last for less than a second on screen as David quickly turns the camera away and begins to scold his children. While this works well to ensure that the movie seems authentic (who would actually film a crucified cat?), it works very poorly in terms of a scary movie experience. The horror scenes of the film are so short that if you blink for a second, you'll have missed all the juicy bits.

Ironically, while the filmmakers try to maintain a degree of realism in the film in terms of the character's reaction to the children, they relax on other elements. For example, the twins move so perfectly silently that they can be in one room in one shot and appear right behind their father the next second. While this works well for the horror element of the movie, it leaves the audience saying 'how the hell did that just happened?' and while movie tries to balance 'realism' and shock horror together, it falls apart as it laxly meanders between the two.


The film isn't terrible though, and the premise is still pretty clever as the parents who slowly come to realize their kids are actually devil children (and not just snottly little brats) each go about curing them in their own way. David turns to religion as he attempts to exorcise the two while his wife turns to science and prescribes them heavy duty drugs. Near the end of the movie Jack and Emily actually even seem cured are we are asked to wonder which of the two 'saved' the children.


But in the end, neither worked and the kids prove to be not only more devious than their parents realized, but much much more malicious. While the overall idea of the film is good, the inattention to detail and lack of any real 'scare' make it a mediocre watching. Chatting with people at Fantasia over the next few weeks, it seems I'm not the only person who came out of the theatre with a lackluster sense of satisfaction or entertainment.

Concert Review - Teenage Bottlerocket

I really should be working on my thesis or marking final exams but I decided to put those on standby and pump out my first post-vacation blog.

The vacation started with Al and I leaving Montreal on August 16th to help my friend Kash move to Toronto. Moreover, I had a more underhanded reason in driving for 7 hours to the black hole of Canada as Teenage Bottlerocket were performing that evening. After settling down at my uncle's house after the big move, Al decided to go for dinner with our friend Brian instead of coming to the concert. I was all prepped to go by myself but my uncle offered to come with me and I was pretty stoked; bringing my 50 year old uncle to a punk rock venue is definitely my idea of a good time. Moreover I pitched the band to him by saying "they sound like the Ramones."

Unfortunately, I missed all the openers because the bouncer at the front didn't believe I was 25 years old and I didn't think to bring my passport to a punk rock show. So after a few back and forth trips from West Bloor to Queen Street I was able to make it back just in time to catch the headliners.

Now since my CD review of 'Warning Device' was pretty glowing I had high expectations for the band...and boy did they deliver. Each song was pumped out with such tight and succinct pop-punk goodness that even the most snooty music elitist couldn't help but bob their head to their catchy riffs. Even better, they played an even number of recognizable favorites from earlier CDs (such as 'Radio') and plenty of new songs from 'Warning Device' (such as 'In the Basement' and 'Pacemaker'). In all fairness any pop-punk band gets pretty annoyingly common after a few songs (there's only so many things you can do with 3 chords) but the shared vocals between the guitarists made it just interesting enough so that the set didn't get boring. However, the band played into pop-punk musical stereotypes as the drummer chanted "1, 2, 3, 4" before every single song. Really funny at first, but annoying as the set progressed.

On a plus side though, Teenage Bottlerocket played a single from their upcoming split with The Ergs and to my amused surprise they cover 'Having a Blast' by Green Day which more or less had me re-living grade 8 over and over again (in a good way). I definitely wasn't the only one singing along.

Sadly, like the Kap Bambino show, such a great band was welcomed to Canada by a lukewarm audience. Toronto I'm ashamed of you. Moreover, while I can somewhat forgive Montreal for not having a lot of people of color represented in its audience (reasonable accommodation is racism) I see no reason why a punk audience in a multicultural city like TO had only a 25 year old kid from Montreal and his 50 year old uncle as the only non-white people in the crowd. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but considering how many Asian people populate the GTA I really expected more. I guess most of the hipsters where out watching Radiohead (who also played that night). Psh. I'll take 'Bloodbath at Burger King' over 'Creep' any day of the week.

Back Home

I'm finally back in Montreal (I got off the bus 30 minutes ago). While I love to travel, being on my feet for 15 days is a bit exhausting and getting back on a schedule (and more importantly, regular internet access) is a welcome change. Tons of stuff to talk about. New York was great. FanExpo was a ton of fun. And visiting with cousins (things like walking Jenna to Math Camp in the morning) tops the list of 'reasons to move to Toronto.'


Moreover, I bought tons of indie comics from local artists in Toronto. Reviews coming soon.

(Oh yeah, and I've got this thing called a 'thesis' I need to finish)

New York City!

I'm in New York today and I totally forgot I had no place booked for the 16th (today) as I thought we would be coming in on the 17th up until last week and then lost track of time and didn't book a hostel.

So I ended up tagging along with some random Filipino man I met on the bus and sleeping on his couch on the Upper East Side. If I don't update in a few days I'm probably raped and dead in a ditch in New York City. Oh well, it could be worse...I could be raped and dead in a ditch in Toronto.

On the plus side, we went to a Chinese-Mexican restaurant on 62nd street which was delicious. CHINESE-MEXICAN. Insane! Even for a guy who does research on hybridity and restaurants.

Eatery Evaluation - Senzala

Senzala

Perhaps one of the most well known brunch locations in Montreal, 'Senzala' offers amazing Brazillian cuisine in a warm, homely atmosphere. Located in Mile End, the restuarant offers much in terms of unique and interesting cuisine. As a vegetarian its generally difficult to find a good brunch that isn't simply eggs and toast so to be offered something as delicious as poached eggs in mango (or avocado) topped with tomato sauce is simply a treat. While the portions weren't enough to fill me up, the simple fact that you can't find these dishes anywhere else in Montreal is reason enough to try it out. Moreover, the food is fantastic and the price is somewhat reasonable. Oh yeah, and a really pretty waitress too, that never hurts.

Hats off to Jujie

Yesterday as I was hanging out with my buddy Martin before he disappeared to Amsterdam to finish his M.Sc. we happened across a TV screen showing the Olympics, and lo and behold, I saw one of my old coaches Jujie Luan fencing in Women's Foil. Amazing considering the fact that she's 50 years old with three kids. As a matter of fact, Jujie is kind of a legend in China. The first time that the PRC were part of the Olympics in 1984 in L.A. Jujie was one of the first Chinese athletes to ever win a gold medal for China. She later retired and moved to Edmonton where she was good friends with my Vancouver fencing coach Roy Suzuki, and we would often go to her house to visit her whenever she ran fencing workshops. She even took us to the bank where she pulled her gold medal out of the safety deposit box to show us. Man, those things are heavy, it practically broke my neck.

As I'm pretty good with kids I remember playing with her two daughters and son a lot back when they were kids since Paul, Mike and Jeremy were pretty much content hanging out in her basement listening to music and chatting. I remember her six year old Jerrica was really outgoing had a crush on me which was kind of cute and her other daughter Jessica had Down's syndrome. Her son was kind of quiet, but I won him over by giving him most of my Halloween candy which made him open up to me a bit.

Anyway, Jujie won the first bout she was fighting pretty easy which made me really happy, but then we had to leave so I didn't know what happened next. Turns out she lost her next bout to Aida Mohamed the 7th ranked fencer in the world who's nearly half her age. Moreover, she practically showed all of Mohamed's technical weaknesses to the other competitors so I'm guessing future fencers will play a much more aggressive game against her as Jujie lost playing a bit too much defense.

Moreover in China Jujie is like freaking Paris Hilton, hounded by the press everywhere she goes. Indeed, I read that they study her in school as a Chinese hero, they made a movie about her life, and the last time I was in China I saw a statue of her in Beijing. Yao Ming might be big (literally) but this woman is legend and the fact that she lost at the 2008 Olympics does not dampen her aura. Rather, a 50 year old mother of three coming out of retirement to fight one more time in her home country simply adds a finishing touch to an already grand storyline.

The Legend of Neil

Well, after watching the sensation of 'Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog' I decided to really delve into the world of Internet TV shows. While there are a ton of well known staples like 'The Guild' and 'Street Fighter: The Later Years', there are also a bunch of mediocre shows like 'Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.' While 'Street Fighter' took a nosedive in its final episodes (the show ended up being a total letdown) 'Gorgeous Tiny' rehashes the same jokes over and over again. Moreover, while I wanted to like it (as I generally try to support any Asian American project), it just rehashes the same 'poke fun at our accent' jokes that get tired and for me (as a researcher who does work on race) raises questions as to what exactly are we supposed to be laughing at? Is it its corny humor or the fact that she can't speak English clearly? Anyway, its not like Asian Canadian initiatives are any better. Just about every VACT project that I've gone to see does the exact same thing (granted I've been gone for two year) and I've been a loyal supporter since its inception. Oh what I would do for some intelligent race comedy.

Which takes me to 'The Legend of Neil' created, written and directed by Sandeep Parikh. Like 'Street Fighter:TLY' its a video game spoof, this time of 'The Legend of Zelda' where a drunk Neil is teleported into the game in search of the princess. While uncertain at first about this project (having been burned before by video game spoofs) it easily wins the (generally male) gaming crowd over with entertaining banter.

Neil: A princess? is she hot?
Old man: She's fuckable. A seven...seven and a half. Although you're probably a six, closer to a five.

While it isn't anywhere near critical race comedy I talked about earlier, it briefly touches on some of these issues in a light-hearted way as Neil is dumbfounded when he finds out that Zelda is black. While just starting (its currently only on episode 3) the writing so far seems tight, and its pretty well cast (its kinda funny seeing Felicia Day as an insane horny pixie). While I don't want to hype it up for myself the way I did for 'Street Fighter' and then get let down, already its better than a lot of its contemporaries. Moreover, as Colin pointed out to me when I introduced him to the show, we see the phrase 'bag of dicks' used as much as it should.

Concert Review - Kap Banbino

Dear Montreal,

I don't really know what you were doing the evening of August 8th. Perhaps you were re-watching the Olympic Opening ceremonies for the third time. Or perhaps you were watching 'Pineapple Express.' It doesn't matter. Where you should have been was at Zoobizzare where a small electro/punk outfit named Kap Bambino for a measly $5. Moreover, the room had about 50 people in it. Really Montreal, what were you thinking?

Unlike other bands in this genre ('Duchess Says' and 'Crystal Castles' come to mind) these two are far from being arrogant jerks (I've heard on several accounts that Crystal Castles are dicks, not to mention the fact that they bite chiptune artists without giving cred...just like Timbaland!). Anyway, they arrived early to the venue and hung out with the crowd, drinking, chatting, etc. Amanda got really excited because she actually got to talk to the guy in the band and tell him how great she thought they were and he just smiled and said 'merci'. Moreover, when the opening band took the stage, Quebec based Pedo Pedro et ses Enfant, the lead singer of 'Kap Bambino' was the first up to the front of the stage and was the only one dancing. Wait, a touring band taking the time to check out and dance to the local opener? Unheard of! Wow, we've already established that these two are really nice people, but what about their show?

While it took a long ass time for 'Kap Bambino' to take the stage after 'Pedo Pedro' left, it was totally worth the wait. Lead singer Caroline Martial took the stage dressed as Alex deLarge from 'A Clockwork Orange' and quickly began shaking erratically as the music got louder and louder. As the show began the energy the two brought to the venue was amazing as Martial screamed into the mic and pitched it at a wall, crawled on the ground, dived headfirst into the crowd, and forced the people around her to lift her high enough so she could walk on the roof. Really, I can't even make this stuff up. The crowd was ready and willing to bend to her whim and even though it was a small venue with a small crowd, everyone was dancing (well me and Amanda stood on chairs and watched in awe). At points the whole room felt like a mosh pit.

Stage antics aside, the music was solid. The DJ, Orion Bouvier was consistently on the ball and responded to Martial's antics by speeding up, slowing down or simply filling time as she jumped around and even danced on tables. In all fairness though the show did have a lot of technical difficulties as sound quality dipped and wavered throughout. At one point the sound just stopped entirely leaving the band onstage mouthing the words 'what the fuck' to the sound tech in the back as he scrambled to fix the issue, leaving us with a good 5 minutes of nothingness. All in all though, the show was beyond amazing and I was expecting a ton more people to show up. Moreover, I was kinda expecting the crowd to be filled with hipsters but instead was pleasantly surprised that instead we were rocking it out with fat dudes and balding men. Hipster free dancing means good times. It was so good infact that I'll probably go check them out in New York on the 16th. There'll probably be a ton more people at that show, filled with snooty fashionistas, but really, these guys totally deserve a jam-packed crowd and unquestioningly put on a great party.

Robby on the Radio 2

So I'm back on the CBC again! This time I'll be part of a live roundtable discussing the Olympics. After my visit in China I wrote a paper on the upcoming Beijing Olympics and its relationship with tourism, linking it to the social construction of 'authenticity.' I even presented my research at the Canadian Sociological Association annual meeting in Vancouver this year so I'm very excited about talking about my research again.

I think I'll be on at 12:30 (EST) on Radio Canada International.

Movie Reivews - What We Do is Secret

What we do is Secret

August 8th, 2008 (08/08/08) is a pretty significant day, not only does it mark the beginning of the Beijing Olympics but also because its the New York opening day for 'What we do is Secret.' While true, its already screened quite a few times (myself having seen it at Fantasia) the whole coordinating the imagery of the date and the symbolic circle is pretty cool. The circle, not only represents the Olympic rings, but is also the logo for a little known punk band know as 'The Germs.'

'What we do is Secret' is a biography pic of the generally overlooked late-seventies punk band 'The Germs' focusing specifically on the lead singer Darby Crash. To be fair, I'm not a particular fan of The Germs, not because I don't like their music, but primarily because I don't listen to a lot of 'old school' punk that often (Minor Threat and The Ramones excluded). In all fairness, it wasn't my scene (I wasn't even born yet) and the fact that I can't see a band perform live is really a downer for me. Anyway, enough about me, this is a movie review.

Off the bat, Shane West did a great job representing the late Darby Crash. While his acting is kinda wavering at the beginning of the film and during his interviews, this is made up by the fact that his on-stage representation of Crash is spot on. More than that, West is perhaps a bit too perfect and after watching the movie I took the time to watch some YouTube videos of old Germs performances. Not only were the two similar, the film practically took the old footage and make the movie shot for shot and Crash is copied in both costume and hairstyle, and moreover, is re-created move for move and snarl for snarl. Literally.

The story presented to us though, transcends the standard punk film filled with sex drugs and rock and roll. Certainly there is plenty of that, but the movie is more centered around Crash as a charismatic leader as he takes his newly found band of friends on a joyride across the L.A. cityscape. Their concerts soon become something of legend because of their insane stage performance which normally left any venue smashed to pieces. As a result, bars begin to refuse them and a mythos created.

This isn't to say though that the aura old school punks speak of that surrounded The Germs is unfounded. The film does a fantastic job in really recreating the sound and performance of late70s punk and we even get a bit of Black Flag on the side. That was nice, and even better as I could see Joan lipsyncing the words sitting next to me. At the Q & A someone even mentioned to the director (Rodger Grossman) how great the music was done and he went into detail about the painstaking work he and his team put into making it sound 'authentic.' That being said, I loved the music scenes because of my background in the genre, and my sense was that most of the people in the audience were punkers too. Often though, the music scenes went on for minutes, and while I enjoyed it, for a non-Germs/non-punk fan these scenes would be draggingly long. However, you don't go to a movie about a punk band and not expect to see some stage shows.

Moreover, the music was amazing not only in how well it was recorded for the film, and its accuracy to the source material, but also because the original Germs members, including Foo Fighter's Pat Smear, worked very closely with the actors to ensure their stage performance was spot on, and they also produced much of the music tracks. You can't get any more 'authentic' than that! In fact, West did such a good job as frontman of the band that he was signed on to tour with The Germs on their revival tour. While I did take a few steps back when I saw The Germs playing on a Warped Tour stage on YouTube, the ironly that a film depicting the lives of The Germs led to a 'real life' revival of them makes someone who does his M.A. research on 'authenticity' just plain giddy.

While I've written at length about the music (and lets face it, for a movie about punk the music should be first and foremost) the story and script is just as well put together. While certainly sacrifices had to be made in terms of who was and wasn't represented (while the Germs had several managers, the manager in the movie was a mix of them) a tightly knit story ultimately unfolds as we see the rise and ultimate fall of Darby Crash. Moreover, Grossman does not make The Germs into out-and-out heroes, but instead shows the tensions that developed in the band, and Crash's willingness to take advantage of those who idolized him. At the forefront of this is his relationship between Crash, his boyfriend, and Germs' drummer Rob Henley (Ashton Holmes) and through this we see the jockeying for power ever present in the band and the emergence of Crash's God complex (although everyone he surrounds himself with is always more than willing to follow).

Amazingly, Grossman reminded the crowd how this was a 15 year old labor of love, not only from himself but also his crew and even the Germs themselves. The project was done on such a shoestring budget that every shot had to be used and continuity errors doe to the filming schedule just had to go into the movie. In the end, as a punk bio-pic there is very little one can say against the film, and after listening to the director it is even harder to criticize once we heard about the amount of work he put into it. Ultimately though, it remains just a punk rock film, which isn't necessarily bad thing (as its what you expect to see) but a tighter script and storyline could have easily made this into both a movie about a little known band and an exploration of megalomania. Finally, even among punks, The Germs are not a band you rattle off when you think of early punk, and my fear is that this film may in the end fall into the category of niche market viewing even though it has much more to offer to a wider audience.

Ricepaper Magazine

Cedric let me know that the interview that I did with his friend Chris deWolf about New Voices: Montreal is in this month's issue of Ricepaper. For those who don't know 'Ricepaper' is a fantastic Asian Canadian literary magazine put out by the Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop in Vancouver. My mom used to subscribe to it back when it was just a photocopied sheet of 11 x 17 paper and I remember reading as a kid and thinking its way too intelligent for me. Heh, some things never change. I think they recently redesigned it and it looks even more sleek and sexy than before. Awesome stuff!

In Vancouver its pretty easy to find but in Montreal I was told there are only a few copies at Drawn and Quarterly and that Cedric got the second to last one. My sense is though, that even if I go two weeks from now the last copy will still be there. Montreal isn't really the bastion of Asian Canadian identity politics that Vancouver or Toronto are. Lets see if I can stir things up a bit over here a bit.