FILM / Captain Canada's Movie Rodeo / March 2021 / Gabriel Ricard
Image © Letterboxd
I don’t work particularly well with others. That’s not something to be proud of. It also doesn’t get to be a crutch for being rude, although I fight general crankiness on what is damn near a moment-to-moment basis.
While I’m always working on it, I’m also constantly aware of it. The pandemic has been serving as its own reminder of that, as well. I’m tolerant of other ideas, but I get frustrated with a room quickly. Social media groups on Facebook, or gently linked by hashtags on Twitter, are still never going to be a great fit for me.
I’ve been reminded of this because I’ve been making an effort to be part of more of them, as it becomes clear that responsibly handling the issues of COVID-19 means that even my occasional need to go out and be among others isn’t going to happen anytime soon. I’m fairly introverted, but I still get lonely sometimes.
So, I’ve been joining more groups related to movies. Trying to. I’ve found that between the language a lot of people use (why are things “based” now? When did I get old and decided this kind of thing was really going to bug me), and the fact that so, so many people are STILL TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING MARTIN SCORSESE SAID IN WHAT WAS ESSENTIALLY PASSING IN 2019.
I’m not telling you to stop talking about that, or to constantly continue to rail against people who like things you don’t like (well . . . ). I’m just saying that these conversations have a tendency to bore and frustrate me quickly. This kind of annoyance with people seems to follow me to a lot of other places I might go. It also occasionally makes any one of my jobs frustrating. Working with people should not be this difficult for someone who certainly doesn’t believe they have all the answers.
It becomes easier to just retreat, keep strict limits on the number of people I actually have the spoons for serious discussion, and assume that 30-80% of all of this is my fault. I also don’t really understand Letterboxd. Rather, I don’t really understand how it works as a social tool. It seems utterly terrifying, and just another way to weaponize weird opinions against people. Says the man with two monthly movie columns. Anyway . . .
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021): A+
Image © Warner Bros. Pictures
On the movie side of things, I’m already in a pretty good mood with some of the new films I’ve been able to watch.
Part of the ongoing HBO Max/Warner Bros. effort to more or less survive the pandemic, Judas and the Black Messiah is quite possibly the first time this year I’ve said to myself, “Goddammit, I wish I could see this in theaters.”
The movie is focused and deeply invested in its story and people. Yet it also a spectacular, electrifying piece of filmmaking, as it depicts the brutal assassination of Fred Hampton, who acted as the chairman of the Chicago branch of the Black Panther Party. Hampton, played with career-defining distinction by Daniel Kaluuya, was murdered as part of an ongoing campaign of terror by the FBI and other groups. Judas and the Black Messiah will make you reckon with this reality, whether you want to or not.
This movie is rich in equal measures of style and substance. It has a remarkable power to its pace, editing, dialog, and other qualities. It is also a nuanced character study, forcing uncomfortable realities and facts to the surface of a film that is also about a relationship between Hampton, and the FBI informant who betrayed him.
William O’Neal, played here and quite beautifully and painfully by LaKeith Stanfield, did not have a happy life in any form or fashion that I can discern. He was a man struck constantly and cruelly by forces as specific as the FBI, and as vague and suffocating as white supremacy in the United States.
The film does not necessarily apologize for him, but director/co-writer Shaka King does not subscribe to the lazy notion that he is a straightforward villain. The film finds time for the depths of Hampton, O’Neal, and the other faces and names that make up one of the strongest biopics to come out in recent memory.
There are better and deeper reviews of this movie out there. All I can do is tell you that this is one I will try to watch again this year. I’m not great at re-watching movies anymore, but Judas and the Black Messiah makes it abundantly clear to me that it deserves repeat viewings.
Zappa (2020): A+
Image © Magnolia Pictures
I like Frank Zappa. How can you not? He was a fearless inventor as a musician, possessed a heartwarming sense of the absurd, and rarely held back on his feelings about politics, life, music, or whatever the conversation called for.
At the same time, I’m woefully ignorant of all things related to this decidedly unique, fascinating human being. It’s hard to get a grasp a career that released sixty-two albums over a 30+ year career (another 52 albums have been released since his death). Where do you even begin? How do you make sense of such a beautiful specimen of inventiveness and chaos?
Alex Winter (Bill & Ted, The Lost Boys) has made one of the best documents for the uninitiated I think anyone will ever put out. Of course, there are other documentaries about Frank Zappa. Of course, Winter’s towering achievement in providing a deepish overview of the man is not going to be a movie that covers absolutely everything.
However, when you finish Zappa, which tells its story with energy, sincerity, and a lot of great visual and auditory touches, you’re going to have a clear idea of what Zappa tried to do during his relatively short lifespan. I love Zappa for that. I love that this movie confirms that yeah, he really was an incredibly interesting human.
Zappa is also a good reminder that Alex Winter has been an exceptional filmmaker for a while now.
Body Melt (1993): B-
Image © 21st Century Film Corporation | Umbrella Entertainment
It’s true that Body Melt lacks even a single likable character. It is also true that the movie’s satirical look at the fitness obsession of the 80s and 90s (and beyond) is seemingly less important to everyone involved than creating some of the sweatiest and most disgusting practical gore effects ever put to film.
Neither of those facts will interfere your ability to enjoy Body Melt, which is a feverish assault on the senses that is strange even by the standards of the many, many weird horror movies that have been made in Australia.
To put it another way, if you can make it through the first ten minutes of this story of a vitamin company’s product turning people into human Nacho platters, I think you’re in for one of the most visually memorable horror films you can watch this year.
Body Melt is over the top of your concept of over the top. It is also an extremely funny approach to cartoon levels of genuinely unsettling violence and insanity.
Waking Ned Devine (1998): A+
Image © Overseas Filmgroup | Fox Searchlight Pictures
At some point in your week, if you’ve never seen Waking Ned Devine, one of the most consistently likable feel-good movies made in my lifetime, a film which continues to deliver on that concept whenever I happen to watch it, I think you should.
Waking Ned Devine at its core is an ensemble comedy about a very small Irish town that learns someone has won the lottery. The characters spiral from there, overcome by simple greed, exhausted dreams, or simply the fact that things tend to be a little slow in the hamlet of Tullymore.
Watching Ian Bannen, David Kelly, and the others in this wonderful, appealingly-but-not-overbearingly eccentric cast of characters interact over this potential fortune is more than enough to sustain a movie that is simply fun in a way most of generally don’t get with movies. At the same time, it is also sweet in a way that never gets to the point of annoying.
It is straightforward, well-written, well-acted, and charming. The good mood it will almost certainly put you in will even stick around for more than ten minutes after the credits roll.
Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator (1989): F-
Image © Troma Entertainment
Some low-budget horror comedies, in fact a lot of them, get by on personality and the desperate inventiveness that can come out of being forced to do a lot with almost nothing. Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator, which at least offers a title you will probably remember, is not one of these movies.
Rich people playing horrible games, built on cruelty and boredom that becomes psychosis? That’s a solid enough premise to carry a movie. Unfortunately, poor editing, entirely too much padding, and characters who manage to be fiercely unlikable and overwhelmingly boring sink a movie that does sometimes suggests potential.
I wouldn’t suggest going through this deservedly forgotten Troma release to find that potential, but maybe you’ll bring a better eye to this than I did. Even this movie has an audience somewhere.
Gabriel Ricard writes, edits, and occasionally acts. His books Love and Quarters and Bondage Night are available through Moran Press, in addition to A Ludicrous Split (Alien Buddha Press) and Clouds of Hungry Dogs (Kleft Jaw Press). He is also a writer, performer, and producer with Belligerent Prom Queen Productions. He lives on a horrible place called Long Island.