Film Freak Central

Me Myself I (1999) + Passion of Mind (2000) - DVDs

ME MYSELF I
**/**** Image B Sound A Extras C
starring Rachel Griffiths, David Roberts, Sandy Winton, Yael Stone
written and directed by Pip Karmel

PASSION OF MIND
**/**** Image A Sound B+
starring Demi Moore, Stellan Skarsgård, William Fichtner, Peter Riegert
screenplay by Ron Bass and David Field
directed by Alain Berliner

by Bill Chambers SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. With a bumper crop of "what if?" movies hitting screens over the past couple of years--enough of them, perhaps, to signify a genre--the time is nigh to examine, in the hope of capping, this Cinema of Regret, a marriage propagandist's dream. Both Me Myself I and Passion of Mind arrive (coincidentally?) on DVD this week, and each in its roundabout way encourages its existentially lost central character to attach sentimentalism to family values. Dan Quayle must be happy as a clam.

The Fly/The Fly 2 [Fox Double Feature] - DVD

THE FLY (1986)
***½/**** Image A Sound B
starring Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue and David Cronenberg
directed by David Cronenberg

The Fly II (1989)
*/**** Image B- Sound B
starring Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, Harley Cross
screenplay by Mick Garris and Jim & Ken Wheat and Frank Darabont
directed by Chris Walas

by Vincent Suarez

"Long live the new flesh." -- Max Renn, David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983)

"I must not know enough about the flesh. I've got to learn more." -- Seth Brundle, David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986)

"I want it out of my body ... now!" -- Veronica Quaife, David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986)

SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. David Cronenberg's most memorable and profound films are a unique blend of fascination, celebration, inquisitiveness, and horror with regard to the possibilities of the flesh. Hollywood's most memorable and profound monster movies (Bride of Frankenstein, King Kong (1933), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)) are a similarly mystical mingling of romance, repulsion, and overwhelming sympathy with regard to the creature. It's no wonder, then, that Cronenberg's The Fly is essentially the genetic splicing of his trademark obsessions with these hallowed genre conventions. In making the material his own, the pathos generated by Cronenberg's fusion of elements raises the film's status from mere remake of the campy 1958 original to masterpiece.

The Omen (1976) [Special Edition] - DVD

***½/**** Image A- Sound A- Extras A-
starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw
screenplay by David Seltzer
directed by Richard Donner

by Bill Chambers I kind of enjoyed having nightmares as a child because they produced the most intense sensations then within my ken; the threat of death, as was so often the crux of these bad dreams, made me feel gloriously alive. Thus, when The Omen came into my life at the tender age of nine, it became an instant favourite, for it closely approximated the terrifying experiences I'd had with my eyes wide shut. In other words: it scared the pants off me.

TIFF '00: Low Self Esteem Girl

Low Self-Esteem Girl
***/****
starring Corrina Hammond, Ted Dave, James Dawes, Rob McBeth
written and directed by Blaine Thurier

Guys want her body.
Zealots want her soul.
-Low Self Esteem Girl's honest tagline

by Bill Chambers A few minutes into Low Self Esteem Girl, I got the distinct feeling I was watching an episode of "Candid Camera" in which the recording device itself, and not the camera's subjects, was the one being had. First-time director Blaine Thurier, a former cartoonist for Vancouver's TERMINAL CITY, zigzags his digital video camera about the house of Lois (Corrina Hammond) like a spy who has unwittingly stumbled upon a stage exercise: Lois and Gregg (Ted Dave), her one-night stand, conduct a pillow-fight with overtones of rape, and then she offers him a beer--at which point I half-expected a drama teacher to call time-out, step into the frame, and critique their performances.

Not One Less (1999) - DVD

一個都不能少
Yi ge dou bu neng shao
***/**** Image A Sound B-
starring Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda, Enman Gao
screenplay by Shi Xiangsheng
directed by Zhang Yimou

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover SPOILER WARNING IN EFFECT. Zhang Yimou's Not One Less, while suffering from a disease of nonspecificity, nevertheless manages to make its points with style and grace. It's not an especially deep film, railing as it does against a poverty that has no known source and, thus, no possible remedy. But even as nonspecific as it tries to keep itself, the film does sink you deep into the problem of poverty in China. The film is at least a cri de cœur for the lost futures of China's rural children, trapped as many are between education and supporting their families. And the cry is voiced beautifully by Hou Yong's cinematography, giving even an impoverished village and dirty city the visual élan that is the hallmark of Zhang's craft. If some subtler analysis gets lost in the interim, you can't have everything.