elixir
07-04-2012, 04:03 AM
Guy has like no discussion on here, at least from a cursory search (some mentioned by me, and a few about Hamlet). I owe getting into the guy to people at another board, but he could use more discussion and viewing here, and though he's very much niche and idiosyncratic, there's got to be at least one person here who would like him...
Here's some shitty things I've written so far (re-posted from other sites mainly):
Twister | Michael Almereyda | 1989 | [6.5]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/twister.png
Wow, this film is really fucking odd, shifting tones about one million times, not always in successful ways, though its idiosyncratic approach does make it worth watching in the end. If only for some super Crispin Glover weirdness, though the whole film feels self-consciously weird ("fucking weirdo," "madhouse," "why does your mind work in twisted ways?") and has really offbeat humor ("Actually, I think Violet did kill the gerbil"). Okay, it was a bit hard for me to get on its wavelength, though I did unexpectedly love the shit out of the scene pictured above, even if there's not much behind it...I don't know, this film is crazy-odd, rough and formative, but I suppose it's pretty alright, haha.
Another Girl Another Planet | Michael Almereyda | 1992 | [9.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/favfilmspics/vlcsnap-2012-03-21-00h34m04s3-1.png
Proto-mumblecore, 90s hipster masterpiece! (Still want to see it?) Uber-pixelated cinematography that is uber-expressive, this features a kind of cinematic poetry I've never quite seen and find hard to describe, somehow knowing and naive, disquieting and jarring, all at the same time. I don't know, I find this really difficult to discuss, even moments after finishing, an overall mood and blurs remains with me far more than some kind of stark thoughts about it...its succinct as hell, and Elina Lowensohn is still beautiful in lo-fi glory, her character hinting at depths that really few other actresses could pull off. I feel a little silly saying it captures a certain perspective on relationships/romance/love considering my lack of experience, but it really did ring true for me. But, yeah, it's in Almereyda's direction that this idiosyncratic film forms as something special in my eyes; I'm scared some people who see it call it "artsy-fartsy" or some shit, but it's so deeply felt and wonderfully, uh, expressive that this notion saddens me...if you're still with me, lol, it's really great!
Nadja | Michael Almereyda | 1994 | [7.5]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/nadja/nadja2.png
Hip, deadpan, yet still filled with a strange tension (or rather, it's because of these previous two things? Probably, actually), Almereyda's take on a vampire story runs out of steam with 20 or so minutes left but remains compelling throughout nonetheless. I adore Martin Donovan and Elina Lowensohn, which helps a lot, and I do really like the use of Pixelvision (which I've now come to see this guy really loves!), which is perhaps slightly overused (in this film, that is) but still quite effective. Funky stuff. I'm not really sure what it's about, but its modern-gothic mix and ability to imbue the titular character with more "human" desires and flaws is good stuff.
At Sundance | Michael Almereyda | 1995 | [6.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/vlcsnap-2012-06-28-00h21m33s201-1-1.jpg
Definitely the least of Almereyda's works, it is essential a sequence of interviews with various filmmakers at Sundance. I do wish there were more pillow shots and stylistic signatures as in his fictional features, but admittedly I do find it interesting enough to watch Haynes, Araki, etc. discuss film for a quick-going hour, shot with Almereyda's beloved Pixelvision (PixelVision? Pixel Vision?). It's ultimately pretty slight (though not unenjoyable, for me) and only of interest if you want to hear these independent filmmakers talk about the future of cinema and such, and it's easily his least essential film.
The Rocking Horse Winner | Michael Almereyda | 1998 | [7.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/vlcsnap-2012-07-01-21h16m37s82-1.jpg
Okay, so this is also pretty slight. It's based on the D.H. Lawrence short story (and I think there was a feature film made of it in 1950), but it contains such a weird and inexplicably poetry to it that much of Almereyda possesses that I find its power hard to deny, overcoming any simple morality tale this could have been alone and instead making into something more. So, yeah, it's a nice little short film really.
Trance | Michael Almereyda | 1998 | [8.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance11.png
Like with Nadja, this is also a modern gothic of sorts, a tale that mixes the old and new as it does deadpan humor and unshakable pain, and again it allows the "evil" presence in the film to be sympathized with in a manner, complicated feelings towards the protagonists. The protagonists themselves are perhaps most notable for their alcoholism, made clear throughout and perhaps never more so when the father (played by Jared Harris) justifies their drinking to the son by saying: "In much the same way the spider is not an insect but an animal, Guinness is not strictly speaking alcohol. It's food!" (I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be funny, haha, which it is). Anyways, my favorite parts are definitely the flashbacks/vision, which finds Almereyda's playing around with film formats and more montage-driven editing, rendering the past mistakes, regrets, and losses of the mother at once palpable and enigmatic, and realizing the necessity for confrontation. It contains some great sequences, such as a slow-motion, drunken roller coaster ride, the aforementioned flashback sequences, and the final scenes set to a night-blue color scheme. It's pretty wacky and certainly "flawed," I suppose, but as a mess it's more than evocative and gorgeous enough for me to easily overcome these misgivings.
spoilered pics
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance2.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance3.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance5.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance10.png
Hamlet | Michael Almereyda | 2000 | [8.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet8.png
Um, glorious. Video/film formats and the process of editing, photographs, newscasters, and more make a mostly seamless, and though not cutesy very much self-conscious, transposing of the original text into the information age, as Almereyda's fascination with dualities of old and new, high and low art, melodrama and humor and more come together into a film that works way more than it seem it should at first. It somehow fits together. The music in all of his films is awesome, but this might be the best, it's somehow almost overblown yet not in an emotional cue way, but in a propulsive and aggressively tense state--it seems like it should be falsifying drama but it doesn't seem to, it's strangely of a piece with the film. I'm not sure what I'm saying. Anyways, the way the characters mediate much of their issues through technology is Egoyan-esque, but the melodrama and self-reflexity on hand is still in vein with Almereyda's works, as cultural references and meta-commentary pop up consistently throughout the narrative. Julia Stiles is an awful actress. I don't know, this film was unexpectedly pretty awesome.
postmodern (spoilered pics)
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet7.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet9.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet10.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet12.png
Happy Here and Now | Michael Almereyda | 2002 | [9.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan1.png
"If there was a point, there wouldn't be a story."
"Now...now...now."
Defying easy categorization at every step of the way, a purposefully vague and threadbare mystery plot in which a girl returns to New Orleans--a city whose unique flavoring is mined for much of the film's atmosphere and humor--disguises the film's beguiling and enigmatic meditations on isolation, escapism, and the desire to be understood and comforted (among a host of other things). If the characters in the film seem inexplicably off-kilter and lost, their grief and alienation palpable but hardly easy to pinpoint, it's nonetheless Almereyda's humanism and optimism that still shines through in the end, with a killer montage that is simply one of the best sequences I've seen in a long time. Far from merely tying up the interlocking narrative (given the internet's large role in the film [and indeed, fascination with technology plays an even larger role here than in Hamlet) I'm almost tempted to call it a "hyperlink" narrative in the way its stories associated with one another, but I'm not sure that makes total sense), narrative, with all its various strands that seem "unresolved," it offers thoughts on thought and experience itself, the nowness and presence of the everyday and the simple reality of others suggestive as a balm for the incomprehensibility some of the central figures in the film share. This whole thing is actually really understated (and quite haunting, ultimately), making it hard to make me think on these terms of thematic justification, but they're hardly needed when Almereyda's direction glides so fluidly from Pixelvision to computer and television screens to film, wading in and out of inner lives and ancillary plotlines (though the runtime is concise at under 90 minutes), his vision a dive into a near-future that seems to be contemporary even as its recognized as ahead of us (if only by a bit). Philosophical discussions on Pascal and Tesla not only are comical, but add another facet to the paradoxical ways in which the characters both reach out and isolate themselves, masking their identities even as they wish to expose them.
spoilered pics http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan2.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan3.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan4.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan5.png
Here's some shitty things I've written so far (re-posted from other sites mainly):
Twister | Michael Almereyda | 1989 | [6.5]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/twister.png
Wow, this film is really fucking odd, shifting tones about one million times, not always in successful ways, though its idiosyncratic approach does make it worth watching in the end. If only for some super Crispin Glover weirdness, though the whole film feels self-consciously weird ("fucking weirdo," "madhouse," "why does your mind work in twisted ways?") and has really offbeat humor ("Actually, I think Violet did kill the gerbil"). Okay, it was a bit hard for me to get on its wavelength, though I did unexpectedly love the shit out of the scene pictured above, even if there's not much behind it...I don't know, this film is crazy-odd, rough and formative, but I suppose it's pretty alright, haha.
Another Girl Another Planet | Michael Almereyda | 1992 | [9.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/favfilmspics/vlcsnap-2012-03-21-00h34m04s3-1.png
Proto-mumblecore, 90s hipster masterpiece! (Still want to see it?) Uber-pixelated cinematography that is uber-expressive, this features a kind of cinematic poetry I've never quite seen and find hard to describe, somehow knowing and naive, disquieting and jarring, all at the same time. I don't know, I find this really difficult to discuss, even moments after finishing, an overall mood and blurs remains with me far more than some kind of stark thoughts about it...its succinct as hell, and Elina Lowensohn is still beautiful in lo-fi glory, her character hinting at depths that really few other actresses could pull off. I feel a little silly saying it captures a certain perspective on relationships/romance/love considering my lack of experience, but it really did ring true for me. But, yeah, it's in Almereyda's direction that this idiosyncratic film forms as something special in my eyes; I'm scared some people who see it call it "artsy-fartsy" or some shit, but it's so deeply felt and wonderfully, uh, expressive that this notion saddens me...if you're still with me, lol, it's really great!
Nadja | Michael Almereyda | 1994 | [7.5]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/nadja/nadja2.png
Hip, deadpan, yet still filled with a strange tension (or rather, it's because of these previous two things? Probably, actually), Almereyda's take on a vampire story runs out of steam with 20 or so minutes left but remains compelling throughout nonetheless. I adore Martin Donovan and Elina Lowensohn, which helps a lot, and I do really like the use of Pixelvision (which I've now come to see this guy really loves!), which is perhaps slightly overused (in this film, that is) but still quite effective. Funky stuff. I'm not really sure what it's about, but its modern-gothic mix and ability to imbue the titular character with more "human" desires and flaws is good stuff.
At Sundance | Michael Almereyda | 1995 | [6.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/vlcsnap-2012-06-28-00h21m33s201-1-1.jpg
Definitely the least of Almereyda's works, it is essential a sequence of interviews with various filmmakers at Sundance. I do wish there were more pillow shots and stylistic signatures as in his fictional features, but admittedly I do find it interesting enough to watch Haynes, Araki, etc. discuss film for a quick-going hour, shot with Almereyda's beloved Pixelvision (PixelVision? Pixel Vision?). It's ultimately pretty slight (though not unenjoyable, for me) and only of interest if you want to hear these independent filmmakers talk about the future of cinema and such, and it's easily his least essential film.
The Rocking Horse Winner | Michael Almereyda | 1998 | [7.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/vlcsnap-2012-07-01-21h16m37s82-1.jpg
Okay, so this is also pretty slight. It's based on the D.H. Lawrence short story (and I think there was a feature film made of it in 1950), but it contains such a weird and inexplicably poetry to it that much of Almereyda possesses that I find its power hard to deny, overcoming any simple morality tale this could have been alone and instead making into something more. So, yeah, it's a nice little short film really.
Trance | Michael Almereyda | 1998 | [8.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance11.png
Like with Nadja, this is also a modern gothic of sorts, a tale that mixes the old and new as it does deadpan humor and unshakable pain, and again it allows the "evil" presence in the film to be sympathized with in a manner, complicated feelings towards the protagonists. The protagonists themselves are perhaps most notable for their alcoholism, made clear throughout and perhaps never more so when the father (played by Jared Harris) justifies their drinking to the son by saying: "In much the same way the spider is not an insect but an animal, Guinness is not strictly speaking alcohol. It's food!" (I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be funny, haha, which it is). Anyways, my favorite parts are definitely the flashbacks/vision, which finds Almereyda's playing around with film formats and more montage-driven editing, rendering the past mistakes, regrets, and losses of the mother at once palpable and enigmatic, and realizing the necessity for confrontation. It contains some great sequences, such as a slow-motion, drunken roller coaster ride, the aforementioned flashback sequences, and the final scenes set to a night-blue color scheme. It's pretty wacky and certainly "flawed," I suppose, but as a mess it's more than evocative and gorgeous enough for me to easily overcome these misgivings.
spoilered pics
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance2.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance3.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance5.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/trance%2098/trance10.png
Hamlet | Michael Almereyda | 2000 | [8.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet8.png
Um, glorious. Video/film formats and the process of editing, photographs, newscasters, and more make a mostly seamless, and though not cutesy very much self-conscious, transposing of the original text into the information age, as Almereyda's fascination with dualities of old and new, high and low art, melodrama and humor and more come together into a film that works way more than it seem it should at first. It somehow fits together. The music in all of his films is awesome, but this might be the best, it's somehow almost overblown yet not in an emotional cue way, but in a propulsive and aggressively tense state--it seems like it should be falsifying drama but it doesn't seem to, it's strangely of a piece with the film. I'm not sure what I'm saying. Anyways, the way the characters mediate much of their issues through technology is Egoyan-esque, but the melodrama and self-reflexity on hand is still in vein with Almereyda's works, as cultural references and meta-commentary pop up consistently throughout the narrative. Julia Stiles is an awful actress. I don't know, this film was unexpectedly pretty awesome.
postmodern (spoilered pics)
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet7.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet9.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet10.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/Screencaps/hamlet2000/hamlet12.png
Happy Here and Now | Michael Almereyda | 2002 | [9.0]
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan1.png
"If there was a point, there wouldn't be a story."
"Now...now...now."
Defying easy categorization at every step of the way, a purposefully vague and threadbare mystery plot in which a girl returns to New Orleans--a city whose unique flavoring is mined for much of the film's atmosphere and humor--disguises the film's beguiling and enigmatic meditations on isolation, escapism, and the desire to be understood and comforted (among a host of other things). If the characters in the film seem inexplicably off-kilter and lost, their grief and alienation palpable but hardly easy to pinpoint, it's nonetheless Almereyda's humanism and optimism that still shines through in the end, with a killer montage that is simply one of the best sequences I've seen in a long time. Far from merely tying up the interlocking narrative (given the internet's large role in the film [and indeed, fascination with technology plays an even larger role here than in Hamlet) I'm almost tempted to call it a "hyperlink" narrative in the way its stories associated with one another, but I'm not sure that makes total sense), narrative, with all its various strands that seem "unresolved," it offers thoughts on thought and experience itself, the nowness and presence of the everyday and the simple reality of others suggestive as a balm for the incomprehensibility some of the central figures in the film share. This whole thing is actually really understated (and quite haunting, ultimately), making it hard to make me think on these terms of thematic justification, but they're hardly needed when Almereyda's direction glides so fluidly from Pixelvision to computer and television screens to film, wading in and out of inner lives and ancillary plotlines (though the runtime is concise at under 90 minutes), his vision a dive into a near-future that seems to be contemporary even as its recognized as ahead of us (if only by a bit). Philosophical discussions on Pascal and Tesla not only are comical, but add another facet to the paradoxical ways in which the characters both reach out and isolate themselves, masking their identities even as they wish to expose them.
spoilered pics http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan2.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan3.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan4.png http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb187/ears550/happy%20here%20and%20now/hhan5.png