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Reviews
Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain (1983)
zedd's best
Nick Zedd is largely a hack, but its hard not to enjoy Geek Maggot Bingo. The amateurness and lack of focus alone is appealing in a strange way, coupled with a seemingly unending barrage of terrible horror movie cliches. There are lots of in-jokes for horror fans (ZACHERLEY is the host!) and a very strange take on the punk DIY aesthetic. The acting is horrible, and everything else on the dvd is worthless, but I was charmed by this absurd film.
Lilja 4-ever (2002)
EXPLOITATIVE, UNDERDEVELOPED, PRETENTIOUS FUN!
Wow. What was that? A main character who is so tragic that the director never even feels that it is necessary to MAKE her a character. There's no development! She's hardly even a person! She's just a victim. Maybe that was the director's intention, to show us, the uneducated viewers, that the world can be a sad and dangerous place, where women and children are often brutalized, but this film is so pretentious, I almost have to RESPECT how little the director cares about being heavy handed! The political commentary is sophomoric at best, the little kid with angel wings is a joke (which is a shame, because the character of the little boy was the only one the director ever effectively made me feel an affinity for) the dialogue is such a mess, that I can only hope that bad subtitles are to blame, and the scenes of rape and sexual degradation are handled in such a sloppy and predictable way, that they appear to us as a miserable crescendo of indifference and deviance, rather than a descent into the personal hell of an innocent girl who is the casualty of an uncaring world full of male aggressors and predators (which I believe was the director's acual intention). This is not an original film. This is hardly even a worthwhile film, other than the fact that its serious subject matter is so poorly mismanaged, that it might prompt bursts of inappropriate laughter. Its just another martyr film, much like those Lars Von trier has been making, but von Trier's films have interesting characters, characters who have some sense of humanity and imperfecion that the audience is made to identify with. Lilja 4-Ever is a first-year film student's wet dream. For the sole purpose of enjoyable melodrama, however, this film does function on a base level. In spite of these issues, I would definately see this film again, because the young man who played Lilja's friend (I believe his character's name was Volodvyk) gave a poignant, heartbreaking performance. If only it werent warped by Moodyson's retarded and profoundly false vision of a hopeless existence.
Ken Park (2002)
SUPPORT THIS DARING NEW FILM!
What a film. Should be required viewing. This is what daring and exciting filmmaking is all about. And Korine has written one hell of a script, based on Larry Clark's stories. This film needs support. It has already been raided twice in the philly suburbs by the cops (according to City Paper)and banned in Australia. The United States isn't the most closed-minded country when it comes to film, but we still have a long way to go before artists can make films as uninhibited as Clark's Ken Park without fear of losing all their money and ruining their careers. See this film, give it your support, and go to Larry Clark's website, if you are interested in actively offering your support. I think there's a list you can join.