Time Isn't Holding Up
Well it’s our first week into Lockdown Two and somehow the unimaginable
ethereal forces from above have come back to constantly destroy my perception
of time. The first lockdown felt like a never-ending March that somehow ended
and turned into August, repetition and routine can sure make the days fly by
but feel pointless. The lack of 'events' is something that I didn’t realise
would have as much impact as it did, penning in something happening in a week
like a gig, a trip out or a party meant there was always something around the
corner to look forward to. In Covidland the event to look forward to is when
the next lockdown ends and we get to go to pubs again before cases inevitably
spike again, hope and certainty are rare these days and there's no denying it
is hard. I'm not sure I agree with this idea of a routine to help you get
through these times. I find a routine usually results in monotony and
inevitable frustrations at how repetitive life is becoming, I've certainly
settled into a routine of studying and exercising but it just makes the days go
by feeling purposeless. Maybe because studying is at the 'core' of my day to
day and I'm finding it to be slowly getting more and more frustrating, the
structure to my days is starting to feel a bit pointless.
I have a quite specific brand of film that I adore, I’ve repeatedly wrote
about it here and talked to death about it, but I love this concept of the
'Happy/Sad' film. A film that uses a lighter tone and comedy to still have a
strong sense of character, emotion and drawing on antithesis to build audience
response. I bring this up because of a growing frustration with what films we
are given to study week in and week out, there is an undeniable focus on
dreary, depressing and realist films. I think I find these films to be frustratingly
safe, it's so easy to construct a film in the Realism tradition and seep out a
depressing perspective on the world. Shooting bad things happening to people
with a shaky handheld camera and naturalistic sound design seems to magically
grant a film as ‘art’ and to be more worthy of study than a film that uses a
bit of style and inventive comedy to evoke the same feeling. I always find
myself drawn to films that are playful and inventive, an interesting stylistic decision
or structure will easily bring me in and if you can make me feel something
through inventive and intriguing filmmaking you are bound to make me fall in
love. I think I’m just drained from films that are given more merit because
they portray something taboo and disturbing in real life and use that as a
crutch for the entire drive behind the film. Have some fun! Be creative and
exciting, the world is miserable and everybody sees the terrible things
happening every day if you want me to care about these issues in a fictional
piece, don't just show the terrible thing, talk about it and experiment with
it, make a new perspective and argument through your voice.
Wendy and Lucy
For one of our modules I was actually really excited to watch the film that
had been chosen. An independent film directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring
Michelle Williams that is about a woman and her dog, it sounded right up my
street. This is why I did that whole spiel about the 'Realism' genre, this film
is so ridiculously bleak to the point where I came out feeling absolutely
nothing, I knew I was supposed to be sobbing and sympathetic by the end, but
the depressive onslaught throughout just made me numb. The film follows Wendy,
a woman living in her car and doing everything she can to look after her dog as
we follow her through misfortune after misfortune. It is a well-made film;
Williams is always a delightfully talented performer but I just felt drained
and almost repelled from the film's perspective as it went on. There is a clear
point about the poverty issue in America being made, but it isn’t anything
above 'this is bad and needs changing' and the way it makes this point is by
just showing bad things happening repeatedly. I came out of it not feeling
sympathetic, but just crushingly defeated, the almost absurdist level of
misfortune makes it an inaccessible and unnecessary viewing.
Osuofia In London
To take a step away from soul-crushingly depressing, we visited Nollywood
for one of our modules and boy was it uncomfortable to study. Nollywood is the
second biggest film industry in the world, producing a ridiculous amount of
direct to DVD low budget comedies which are refreshingly fun. Of course, they
are to be taken with a pinch of salt, the films are playfully ridiculous, often
genuinely funny and with this tongue in cheek stupidness that I love. My main
issue was how everyone talked about the industry in lectures and seminars, I
found it to be incredibly patronising and often a bit of a nightmare. There was
a very specific tone to the discourse around Nollywood, one that acknowledges
how the industry is 'The best they could do', often citing it as a subpar
imitation of Western cinema, but they 'tried their best'. Attributing our
privileged perspective of Western cinema to Nollywood isn’t necessary, let
Nollywood create films the way they want to. It isn’t always true that they
were trying to imitate our cinema, it’s a messy discourse and it drew away from
my enjoyment of this topic a lot.
The Truman Show
For no relevance really to my studying, I watched 'The Truman Show' because it’s
just a wonderful film that I don’t revisit often enough. This is such a daring concept
and is thought out to a wonderful extent, a surprisingly human approach to a
really cold and disturbing idea. A lesser filmmaker wouldn’t open up a discussion
with this idea, they wouldn’t open up an interesting human and emotional story
in the same way that Weir does here. I just really love everything going on
throughout this film, I think the way this nightmare world is constructed is
seamless and more than just believable, Weir pays attention to how this show
was constructed and became so popular. I keep thinking how easy it would be to
go really dystopian with this idea and construct a corporate villain, but
instead it is more morally ambiguous and the subtext works so much better when
thinking about the artistic construction of The Truman Show. Jim Carrey is, as
he usually is, a delight and this is an extraordinary performance for this
point in his career, he branched out and deserved the recognition. A treat to
rewatch.
Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun
From obscenely depressing to uncompromisingly ridiculous. I've been aware of
the work of the Aunty Donna boys for a while and was more than excited for
their Netflix show when it was announced. The Australian Sketch Comedy group
have been around and stupid for a while, blending over-the-top performance with
incredibly witty writing. If you are a fan of comedy that isn’t afraid to get
stupid, for surreal and absurdist concepts and a slow burn subversive structure
than this sketch show is well worth a shot. Zach, Mark and Broden are just
brilliant at what they do, constructing madness seamlessly and never wasting a
moment for a joke. There are so many little jokes fired at you from a
performance level, to a post-production level, every element just seems to
work, even in the misses the cast gives it their absolute all and goes for it.
The loose structuring, fantastic call-backs and brilliant fourth wall breaking
makes this a must watch for comedy fans.
And that just about does it! A weird week to be sure, I found myself
consistently trying to strive for positivity and fun as the world keeps turning
into madness. Thanks for reading!