The Movie Jibber-Jabber, Vol. 2: 'The Walking Dead,' Kevin Smith, 'The Lobster,'
Movie Jibber-Jabber is The Film Yap’s new digest column – your one-stop week-in-review of film news and commentary, as well as a preview of what we have to look forward to over the next few weeks.
Let's Jabber.
The Walking Dead Filmed 11 Death Scenes for the Season 7 Premiere
http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-walking-dead-has-reportedly-filmed-death-scenes-for-1782172267
I'm pretty vocal about my love for Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead" comic series. I have been reading it monthly for about 10 years. It is a highlight of my month. Look at my geek credibility. Bask in the glow.
I've always felt AMC's television version of "The Walking Dead" doesn't live up to the raw excellence Kirkman puts to page each month, for a variety of reasons. Season 6 came closest, introducing the Saviors as an antagonist the survivors could actually fight; as everyone who cares knows by now, the final episode introduced Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the verbose leader of the devious group. Of course, the big moment — the scene where he bashes a main character's face with a baseball bat — was left for this fall's Season 7 premiere. Well, the crew has apparently decided to prevent spoilers by filming 11 separate death sequences.
At first I felt ripped off by the twist at the end of Season 6, but as time has passed I've grown rather fond of it. "The Walking Dead" has seen six seasons of consistently high ratings, with minimal dropoff; that alone is unprecedented for a drama of its scale. Keeping the interest alive is important at this stage, particularly as they launch into the show's most ambitious story to date. Using the specter of death — rather than concluding the season with it as punctuation — was a clever and fair cliffhanger. The mystery heightens my curiosity for next season.
Plus, these will be fun DVD extras to watch on YouTube someday.
Kevin Smith Will Be in Indianapolis on Saturday
http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/kevin-smiths-teen-dreams-come-true/Content?oid=4058113
“Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Clerks 2,” “Chasing Amy." Viewpoints of life from the perspective of suburban young adulthood and Generation X. Kevin Smith led the vanguard of counter-culture geekdom at one time; comics, cartoons, obsessive-compulsive arguments about minutiae, scrappy self-funded filmmaking. In the past 20 years, what was counter-culture is now mass consumer culture, and Smith has found a new role as a speaker / personality for a particular subset of 'geek.' All this is to say: Head over to Nuvo Newsweekly to read Sam Watermeier's excellent interview with Kevin Smith, released on the eve of his appearance tomorrow, June 18, at Indiana PopCon. He'll be screening his newest movie "Yoga Hosers" at 8:15p.m. (tickets $15), followed by a live Q&A with himself and his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, one of the film's stars. The last decade hasn't been Smith's finest as a filmmaker, but with “Red State” and “Tusk” he has been slowly finding himself a new niche in the industry as a fiercely independent creative voice. “Yoga Hosers” looks ... interesting. I'm looking forward to it.
Review: "The Lobster"
David (Colin Farrell) is lonely, having been dumped by his wife for a different man. In the world of “The Lobster,” to be single is to be no better than a lowly animal — literally. Single people are sent to a “hotel” where, if you do not find a mate, you are eventually 'transformed' into an animal. It is a “humane” intervention: First, they peel off your skin. Then they poke out your eyes. The rest of you is given to science, with your mind supposedly left in the body of an animal. David decides he would like to be a lobster. It lives for hundreds of years, don't you know? Why David would want to live for hundreds of years is, well, it is kind of the question of “The Lobster" because he is miserable. He is anxious, unable to find a woman (or, at one point suggested, man) to suit his needs, and he is unable to settle down just for the sake of settling. David is peculiar. David does not fit in. David wants to love in a society where it is secondary, and he has no idea what it is.
“The Lobster” is a blunt statement on what it is to find love both individually and within the broader context of society. Within David, the film explores individual love; what it is to love, to be loved, and how important it is to feel worthy of being loved. David was dumped for, he believes, a specific reason, and so he seeks out a woman who can balance that. He tries his best to mold himself to that. He has no self-worth. He is a loser. His society, in turn, explores the social construct that is love, and how that informs what we expect from it. With its authoritarian-monogamy hotels and extremist bachelor terrorist cells, this world fundamentally clashes with David's individual eccentricities. His friends choose various paths through the wilderness as David clings to something different, an idea of some perfect companionship. It is a movie I spent the evening thinking about. It left me disquieted.
But “The Lobster” is also aloof to the point of dispassion. At times it feels a bit like a perverted version of a Wes Anderson movie, but lacking the humor and style found even in Anderson's worst entries. I never really felt connected to David; I never felt for his plight. I did not enjoy watching “The Lobster,” but not because of its distressing absurdities; I thought it was visually dull, sprawling despite itself, and self-obsessed to a fault.
In the end, I think I've enjoyed thinking about “The Lobster” much more than I enjoyed watching “The Lobster.” I would suggest only seeing it if you're in the mood for a movie that requires you to put a lot more into it than it provides you. I was not its perfect match.
What Local Critics are Saying:
Christopher Lloyd discusses whether "Finding Dory" lives up to expectations.
Sam Watermeier reviews "The Conjuring 2" over at NUVO
Indianapolis Film-Happenings June 17-19
Midnight Madness: ‘Akira”
Landmark Keystone Art Cinema
June 18 | Midnight
https://www.landmarktheatres.com/Midnights/Keystone_mid_2016_0603_0723_Web.pdf