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Vadezy
Reviews
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
How can we sing king alpha's song in a strange land?
This film is about being haunted; personally and emotionally plagued by the residue of what has passed. For those of who have been haunted before, this movie speaks volumes, and itself is haunting. For those who haven't ever appreciated what it is to be haunted, this movie will probably be lost on them. How do we get past the grief, guilt, and dissonance of honest intentions that lead to disaster? What do we have to go through and what do we put ourselves through unnecessarily? Frank's suffering in the film is the struggle to even work his way up to these questions. His pain is manic, the pain of the seeker, not depressed like the pain of those who have surrendered. It is the moving, searching, pain that makes the movie so haunting because it is our existential model - to deal with our troubled lives as we continue to live them. I find the film the complete opposite of depressing. Instead it offers great encouragement. As a piece of film, it is almost reproachless. It baffles me that the musical content could be questioned. The lyrics of the songs chosen, as well as their musical atmosphere, are in wonderful accord with the movie. TB Sheets is the recurring claustrophobic theme of the film. You can't put your arms around a memory highlight's the draining consequence of Frank's fixation. The slavery-themed reggae (including Rivers of Babylon playing enticingly in the background) of Cy's Oasis is obviously connected to a message of what leads one to drug abuse and keeps one there. And most beautifully, we're left with a sparse lush instrumental that fades us NOT TO BLACK BUT LIGHT. It is a beautiful, wonderful film that serves as an affirmation of so many things.
Fresh Kill (1988)
Robert Zdar
I wouldn't want to be blasphemous or anything. I do love the Lord, but I also very much love Robert Zdar. Now my friend Robby and I got this movie for two dollars at a Grandpas and we watched it and wow that guy has big old jaw! Suggest not being of sound mind when watching the film. That way the soothing musical score of John Rodriguez can melt your resolve and help you discover what it is to have fun when watching a movie. Plus, this girl gets shot in her boobies and they heal by the next scene. You must see this movie! Go rent him!
Very Bad Things (1998)
Soul-destroying and more reprehensible than snuff films
This is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life and that comes very matter-of-factly and concisely. I hate this movie with a burning hatred. It is wrong on just about every level, reprehensible, worthless. Watching this movie I felt anger, and something else...
I felt fear. If this is the direction in which movies are headed, I am afraid. I don't want to have anything to do with it. If this is the direction movies are headed in, I will cease going to the theater.
The accidental hooker-homicide is the only appropriate thing in the film because Very Bad Things is on par with snuff films, only it doesn't have the honesty of a snuff film. Its characters are soulless and meaningless. Its plot is exceedingly juvenile and quite offensive on every account. The racial and sexual humor isn't even what offends me, its the disrespectful way Very Bad Things treats the viewer. So much in this movie is not genuine. Fancy camerawork but no depth to the scenes being shot. Loud yelling from the actors but no real emotion coming across. The whole while we are being lied to. There is no substance here, no worth, no value. It is full of sound and fury, a tale truly told by and idiot.
Whoever you are, you are above this movie, better than it. You should not allow yourself to be fooled into believing it is charming. You should not be fooled into thinking it is clever, because it is not. This film does infinite damage to the black comedy genre. It does infinite damage to film as a whole. It does infinite damage to you. Do not allow this film to make you less of a human being, because that is its great danger.
Henry Fool (1997)
Maybe Brilliant
I saw this movie a while back and have thought of it often since. I have this notion about what its all about and what it all means.
A creative person is inspired by both the good and the bad. The good influences tend to get a disproportionate amount of attention, but they can oftentimes be less important than the bad. When I say bad, I don't mean destructive, but rather I mean those influences which are greatly flawed or of low artistic merit. Great works often come out of protest, whether consciously or subconsciously concieved. Maybe that is the case here.
Henry is the force that pushes Simon to the task of writing what becomes a crushingly important epic poem. Of course, we later learn, perhaps to little surprise, that Henry is a terrible writer himself. Yet, despite his utter lack of ability, he is the essential force at work in the narrative.
I think Henry relates to the viewer in the same way he does to Simon. I apologize to Thomas Jay Ryan if I am wrong here, but his performance is not good in the conventional sense. He is melodramatic and sometimes just plain ridiculous. But I think that is part of the idea. Perhaps the viewer can be inspired, artistically or otherwise, simply by the flaws of Ryan's performance, which are so evident. I know it at least made me think. His performance stirs because it is off, not reprehensible like some mailed-in action superstar performance, just off. Maybe this is brilliant.