cult movies
Nov. 29th, 2010 03:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkI'm not a particular cult movie buff, but I've seen my share. These two were re-watches, and made an interesting comparison.
Some of you may know I did Rocky Horror for about seven years in my (earlier) youth. For this reason I have seen Shock Treatment many times. As I recall, most Rocky people liked Shocky, though there were a few wet blankets who hated it. In any case, it was always a popular feature at conventions, where it was given the full live-cast treatment (technically rather more difficult than Rocky, because Rocky was a play first and only has 9-10 speaking parts). I have fond memories of this, partly because OMG IT'S A DIFFERENT MOVIE!
Anyway, I watched it with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_hannelore. I was very curious to see how it would hold up on a first watch without the convention context. Turns out, not too bad. There are some non sequiturs and things that don't make sense, but the plot more or less holds together. I think the surrealism is mostly intentional (we Rocky fans were probably uncharitable in assuming it was not), leaving you with a pretty clear satire of TV culture and -- well, I want to say reality TV, but did that quite exist yet in 1981? Perhaps the movie seemed dystopian then, but it's not too far off reality now.
The songs are still great. Some of them are a little questionable in their relationship to the storyline, but then Jessica Harper starts to sing and any objections one may have had instantly dissolve.
(I love, love, love the costumes in that movie too. Such a delicious blend of 70s and 80s.)
Of course, when you think of Jessica Harper in cult movies, you think of Phantom of the Paradise. I watched this one too. I hadn't seen it in a very long time, and on a rewatch it disappointed me. What I remembered was mostly the songs, which are all still amazing. What I'd forgotten was that even judging it by the standards of a cult movie, it's unsatisfying.
I really had a problem with Phoenix's character. She starts out angrily rejecting the "casting couch" culture of the music industry (in the universe of this movie), but later abruptly accepts it with no explanation. Who is she, besides a Dulcinea for Winslow? The movie seems to have no idea. This made for a particularly bad comparison against Shock Treatment, where the main character is a woman who has actual thoughts and feelings and an arc that makes sense. (Shock Treatment even passes the Bechdel test...)
I was a little puzzled trying to figure out Beef. He is positioned to be a bad guy, and his gayness is being mocked, yet he is the only character who ever actually stands up for anything good, anything besides their own self-interest. "Nobody cares what anything means," sneers Philbin, and in a surprising moment that I had forgotten, Beef turns on him and icily denies it. (I also finally realized why the suicidal Q on Voyager looked familiar. Same actor!)
The whole second half of the movie feels very thin outside of the musical set pieces. Once the Phantom is the Phantom, the story unfolds like clockwork, without the characters making any important choices that change the outcome or even change their view of the outcome. I realize with a Hamlet ending it's hard for the characters to learn anything, but the viewer doesn't learn anything either. At the end I was thinking "so what?" which is never a good thing.
(Also, nitpick? The film of Swan signing his contract is supposed to age in his place. It doesn't.)
But of course, there are the songs. How to pick one that's representative? They are all great, without exception.
Some of you may know I did Rocky Horror for about seven years in my (earlier) youth. For this reason I have seen Shock Treatment many times. As I recall, most Rocky people liked Shocky, though there were a few wet blankets who hated it. In any case, it was always a popular feature at conventions, where it was given the full live-cast treatment (technically rather more difficult than Rocky, because Rocky was a play first and only has 9-10 speaking parts). I have fond memories of this, partly because OMG IT'S A DIFFERENT MOVIE!
Anyway, I watched it with
_hannelore. I was very curious to see how it would hold up on a first watch without the convention context. Turns out, not too bad. There are some non sequiturs and things that don't make sense, but the plot more or less holds together. I think the surrealism is mostly intentional (we Rocky fans were probably uncharitable in assuming it was not), leaving you with a pretty clear satire of TV culture and -- well, I want to say reality TV, but did that quite exist yet in 1981? Perhaps the movie seemed dystopian then, but it's not too far off reality now.The songs are still great. Some of them are a little questionable in their relationship to the storyline, but then Jessica Harper starts to sing and any objections one may have had instantly dissolve.
(I love, love, love the costumes in that movie too. Such a delicious blend of 70s and 80s.)
Of course, when you think of Jessica Harper in cult movies, you think of Phantom of the Paradise. I watched this one too. I hadn't seen it in a very long time, and on a rewatch it disappointed me. What I remembered was mostly the songs, which are all still amazing. What I'd forgotten was that even judging it by the standards of a cult movie, it's unsatisfying.
I really had a problem with Phoenix's character. She starts out angrily rejecting the "casting couch" culture of the music industry (in the universe of this movie), but later abruptly accepts it with no explanation. Who is she, besides a Dulcinea for Winslow? The movie seems to have no idea. This made for a particularly bad comparison against Shock Treatment, where the main character is a woman who has actual thoughts and feelings and an arc that makes sense. (Shock Treatment even passes the Bechdel test...)
I was a little puzzled trying to figure out Beef. He is positioned to be a bad guy, and his gayness is being mocked, yet he is the only character who ever actually stands up for anything good, anything besides their own self-interest. "Nobody cares what anything means," sneers Philbin, and in a surprising moment that I had forgotten, Beef turns on him and icily denies it. (I also finally realized why the suicidal Q on Voyager looked familiar. Same actor!)
The whole second half of the movie feels very thin outside of the musical set pieces. Once the Phantom is the Phantom, the story unfolds like clockwork, without the characters making any important choices that change the outcome or even change their view of the outcome. I realize with a Hamlet ending it's hard for the characters to learn anything, but the viewer doesn't learn anything either. At the end I was thinking "so what?" which is never a good thing.
(Also, nitpick? The film of Swan signing his contract is supposed to age in his place. It doesn't.)
But of course, there are the songs. How to pick one that's representative? They are all great, without exception.
